Talking Animals in Chaucers Literary Realm

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Talking Animals in Chaucers Literary Realm
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Where did Chaucers animals come from?

• Chaucers use of animals is faithful to
  tradition.
• Chaucer seems to hold the Boethian view of
  animals animals almost exclusively represented
  the most reprehensible traits of mankind.
  (Rowland)
• Animals are types illustrative of humanity.
• Most of Chaucers animals
  derived from textual sources,
  not first-hand
  experience.

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Would Chaucer have enjoyed camping?

• Some critics have accused Chaucer of being
  ignorant about (and having little compassion for)
  the natural world .
• primary concern mans psychological state in
  environment, secondary concern
  the environment itself
• The book of nature could
  reveal eternal truths for
  those who could read the
  religious-allegorical code.
  (Honegger)

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Would anyone be surprised by animal talk?

• Chaucers source for talking animals the
  apocryphal Book of Jubilees
• There are 2 examples of talking animals in the
  Bible the serpent and Balaams ass.
• Robert Grosseteste wrote in one of his Dicta that
  all created things are mirrors which reflect the
  Creator.
• The medieval world was understood
  to be physically ordered, all of a
  piece, its cosmology coherent and
  consonant with its theology
  (Coldewey 93)

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Where could I find animal references?

• In the Physiologus, which described the
  properties (natura) and allegorical meanings
  (significatio) of animals.
• In practical textbooks
  scientific classifications.
• In expanded (more secular)
  version of the Physiologus
  the bestiary.
• In the beast fable.
• In the beast epic, which
  focused more on narrative,
  less on didacticism.

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Could animals shape society?

• Appearing in preachers handbooks and sermons
  exempla beast fables (starting in the 12th
  century).
• Peasants were often linked to animals for 2 (very
  different) reasons to convey amused contempt,
  and to denounce the injustices they suffered.
  (Freedman)
• Peasants were depicted both as wild and as
  domesticated animals.
• 1348 (Black Death)-1525
  (German Peasants War)
  the
  bestial vocabulary
  intensifies and polarizes.

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How did society shape the world of animals?

• Throughout the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer
  mentions bear-baiting, hunting, the maltreatment
  of cats, plagues of rats mice, rabbits (which
  were scarce), and certain exotic animals.
• Critics have contrasted the poverty of the widow
  with the roialsetting of
  Chauntecleers pasture.
• The Tale includes mention
  of Jakke Straw, a
  leader in the
  English Peasants Revolt
  of 1381.

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What do we call The Nuns Priests Tale?

• This is the source of much critical debate.
• Suggested sources Roman de Renart, a previous
  version (now lost), oral tradition or numerous
  illustrations of poultry-stealing foxes.
  (Rowland)
• To appreciate Chaucers achievement, we must
  examine his use of elements from the traditions
  of the Physiologus, and the bestiary, the beast
  epic, and the beast fable, we must
  contrast it with the interpretive
  patterns and literary qualities of
  each of these traditions
  (Honegger 227).

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Who is Chauntecleer?
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Who is Pertelote?
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Who is Russelle?