Lecture Two Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales; Popular Ballads

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Lecture Two Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury
TalesPopular Ballads
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Part one Geoffrey Chaucer

• ?. Life
• 1.Geoffrey Chaucer, the founder of English
  poetry, was born, about 1340 in London.
• 2. he went to France at 19.
• 3. he married Philippa, a maid of honour to the
  queen and relative of John of Gaunt, the Duke of
  Lancaster, who became his patron.
• 4. he was sent to the Continent on diplomatic
  missions, two of which took him to Italy.

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• Chaucer's political background can be seen from
  his relation with John of Gaunt, his patron. John
  of Gaunt was a friend of John Wycliffe (c.
  1320-84) the radical reformer who founded a sect
  of poor preachers called the "Lollards. These
  Lollards preached a teaching against the Catholic
  Church, and thus helped in preparing the Rising
  of 1381. Under these influences, Chaucer adopted
  an attitude of opposition against Catholicism and
  attacked the corruption of the contemporary
  church government, in his poems

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?. Chaucer's Literary Career

• his literary career can be divided into three
  periods corresponding with the stages of his
  life.
• 1. The first period consists of works
  translated from French, as "The Romaunt of the
  Rose.
• 2. The second consists of works adapted from
  the Italian, as "Troilus and Criseyde".
• 3. The third includes " The Canterbury Tales",
  which is purely English.

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III. "The Canterbury Tales" (1387-1400)

• "The Canterbury Tales" is Chaucer's masterpiece
  and one of the monumental works in English
  literature.
• 3.1. Outline of the Story
• On a spring evening, the poet, moved by the
  passion for wandering drops himself at the Tabard
  Inn in Southwark at the south end of London
  Bridge. Here he meets nine and twenty other
  pilgrims ready for a journey of 60 miles on
  horseback to Canterbury. Chaucer joins this
  company. At the suggestion of the host of the
  inn, they agree to beguile the journey by
  story-telling. Each is to tell two stories going
  and two returning. The best story-teller shall be
  treated with a fine supper at the general expense
  at the end. The host is to be the judge of the
  contest. This is a good idea, and a gigantic
  plan, too. For it should be an immense work of
  124 stories. Only 24 were written.

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3. 2. Strengths of Canterbury Tales

• these tales cover practically all the major types
  of medieval literature courtly romance, folk
  tale, beast fable, story of travel and adventure,
  saint's life, allegorical tale, account, and
  others. ALL these tales but two are written in
  Verse.

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• 3. 3. Allegory
• 1.It is a fictional literary narrative or
  artistic expression that conveys a symbolic
  meaning parallel to but distinct from the literal
  meaning.
• 2. Allegory has also been defined as an
  extended metaphor. The symbolic meaning is
  usually expressed through personifications and
  other symbols.
• 3. Related forms are the fable and the
  parable, which are didactic, comparatively short
  and simple allegories.
• 4. The art of allegory reached its height
  during the Middle Ages, especially in the works
  of the Italian poet Dante and the English poet
  Geoffrey Chaucer, and during the Renaissance. Two
  early examples of allegory are Le Roman de la
  Rose and Piers the Plowman.

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• 3. 4. the poet succeeded in linking the stories
  together through two ways.
• A. The personality of the host affords a clear
  string of connection from the first to the last
  tale he gives a unity to the whole work,
  inviting, criticizing, admiring, denouncing, but
  always keeping himself in evidence.
• B. There is an intimate connection between the
  tales and the Prologue, both of which complement
  each other.

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• 3.5.1.The Prologue
• The Prologue provides a framework for the tales.
• It contains a group of vivid sketches of typical
  medieval figures. They range from the knight and
  squire and prioress, through the landed
  proprietor and wealthy tradesman, to the drunken
  cook and humble plowman. There are also a doctor
  and a lawyer, monks of different orders and nuns
  and priests, and a summoner, a sailor, a miller,
  a carpenter, a yeoman, and an Oxford scholar.
  Finally, in the centre of the group is the Wife
  of Bath, the owner of a large cloth-factory.
  Every figure is drawn with the accuracy of a
  portrait.
• It is no exaggeration to say that the Prologue
  supplies a miniature of the English society of
  Chaucer's time. That is why Chaucer has been
  called "the founder of English realism.

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3.5.2. Excerpt of The Prologue

• Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote
• The droghte of March hath perced to the roote
• And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
• Of which vertu engendred is the flour
• 5 Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
• Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
• The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
• Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne,
• And smale foweles maken melodye,
• 10 That slepen al the nyght with open eye-
• (So priketh hem Nature in hir corages)
• Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages
• And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes
• To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes
• 15 And specially from every shires ende
• Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende,
• The hooly blisful martir for to seke
• That hem hath holpen, whan that they were
  seeke.
• Bifil that in that seson, on a day,

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• 20 In Southwerk at the Tabard as I lay
• Redy to wenden on my pilgrymage
• To Caunterbury with ful devout corage,
• At nyght was come into that hostelrye
• Wel nyne and twenty in a compaignye
• 25 Of sondry folk, by aventure yfalle
• In felaweshipe, and pilgrimes were they
  alle,
• That toward Caunterbury wolden ryde.
• The chambres and the stables weren wyde,
• And wel we weren esed atte beste
• 30 And shortly, whan the sonne was to reste,
• So hadde I spoken with hem everichon
• That I was of hir felaweshipe anon,
• And made forward erly for to ryse
• To take our wey, ther as I yow devyse.

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• But nathelees, whil I have tyme and space,
• Er that I ferther in this tale pace,
• Me thynketh it acordaunt to resoun
• To telle yow al the condicioun
• Of ech of hem, so as it semed me,
• 40 And whiche they weren, and of what degree,
• And eek in what array that they were inne
• And at a knyght than wol I first bigynne.
• A KNYGHT ther was, and that a worthy man,
• That fro the tyme that he first bigan
• 45 To riden out, he loved chivalrie,
• Trouthe and honour, fredom and curteisie.
• Ful worthy was he in his lordes werre,
• And therto hadde he riden, no man ferre,
• As wel in cristendom as in hethenesse,
• 50 And evere honoured for his worthynesse.

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• At Alisaundre he was, whan it was wonne.
• Ful ofte tyme he hadde the bord bigonne
• Aboven alle nacions in Pruce
• In Lettow hadde he reysed, and in Ruce,
• 55 No Cristen man so ofte of his degree.
• In Gernade at the seege eek hadde he be
• Of Algezir, and riden in Belmarye.
• At Lyeys was he and at Satalye,
• Whan they were wonne and in the Grete See
• 60 At many a noble armee hadde he be.
• At mortal batailles hadde he been fiftene,
• And foughten for oure feith at Tramyssene
• In lystes thries, and ay slayn his foo.
• This ilke worthy knyght hadde been also
• 65 Somtyme with the lord of Palatye
• Agayn another hethen in Turkye.
• And everemoore he hadde a sovereyn prys
• And though that he were worthy, he was wys,
• And of his port as meeke as is a mayde.

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• 3.6. Characteristics of Chaucer's language
• 1. now called Middle English, is vivid and exact.
  
• 2. He is a master of word-pictures.
• 3. His verse is among the smoothest in English.
• 4. hardly a single Word will offer difficulties
  to a man of tolerable reading in modern English.

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• 3.7. Chaucers attribution to English Literature
• 1.Chaucer is the first great poet who wrote in
  the English language.
• 2. establishing English as the literary language
  of the country.
• 3. Chaucer did much in making the dialect of
  London the standard for the modern English speech.

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Part Two Popular Ballads

• Ballad
• 1.1.The most important department of English folk
  literature is the ballad. A ballad, is a story
  told in song, usually in 4-1ine stanzas, with the
  second and fourth lines rhymed. When it was
  chanted by ballad-singers, the audience joined in
  a refrain which usually followed each stanza.
• 1.2. The subjects of ballads are various in kind,
  as the struggle of young lovers against their
  feudal-minded families, the conflict between love
  and wealth, the cruelty of jealousy, the
  criticism of the civil war, and the matters of
  class struggle. Of paramount importance are the
  ballads of Robin Hood.

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II. The Robin Hood Ballads

• 2.1. Brief Account
• Robin Hood, a legendary popular hero, is
  depicted in the ballads as a valiant outlaw,
  famous in archery, living under the greenwood
  tree with his merry men, taking from the rich and
  giving to the poor, waging war against bishops
  and archbishops, and constantly hunted by the
  sheriffs, whom he constantly outwits.

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• 2.2. Comments
• The character of Robin Hood is many-sided.
  Strong, brave and clever, he is at the same
  time tender-hearted and affectionate.
• He is a man with a twinkle in his eye, a man
  fond of a merry joke and a hearty laugh. But the
  dominant key in his character is his hatred for
  the cruel oppressors and his love for the poor
  and downtrodden. His particular enemies are the
  upper ranks of the nobility-earls, barons,
  archbishops, bishops and abbots. And the king's
  officials are the object of his most intense
  animosity, as typified in the ballads by the
  Sheriff of Nottingham, a man noted for rapacity
  and treachery, who meets his death at the hands
  of Robin Hood and his merry men of the greenwood.

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2.4. Answer the following questions.

• 1. What is the influence of the Prologue of the
  Canterbury Tales?
• 2. What is Chaucers contribution to English
  language?
• 3. What is the social significance of the
  Canterbury Tales?
• 4. What is a ballad? The characteristics?

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2.5. Keys to the questions

1. There is an intimate connection between the tales
   and the Prologue, both complementing each other.
   The Prologue provides a framework for the tales
   in the Canterbury Tales.
2. Chaucers language is vivid and exact. His verse
   is smooth. His words are easy to understand. He
   introduced from the rhymed stanzas of various
   types, especially the rhymed couplet. He is the
   first important poet to write in the current
   English language, making the dialect of London
   the foundation of modern English.

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• 3.Chaucer gives us a true-to-life picture of the
  society of his time. He affirms man and opposes
  the dogma of asceticism preached by the church.
  As a forerunner of humanism, he praises mans
  energy, intellect, wit and love of life. His
  tales expose and satirize the evils of his time.
• 4.A ballad, is a story told in song, usually in
  4-1ine stanzas, with the second and fourth lines
  rhymed. The subjects of ballads are various in
  kind, as the struggle of young lovers against
  their feudal-minded families, the conflict
  between love and wealth, the cruelty of jealousy,
  the criticism of the civil war, and the matters
  of class struggle.

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• IIl. More about The Robin Hood Ballads
• The various ballads of Robin Hood are
  gathered into a collection called The Geste of
  Robin Hood," in which the whole life of the hero
  is portrayed.

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3.1. The Origin of the Robin Hood Ballads

• Clearly the historical origin of Robin Hood and
  his band of outlaws is to be found in the
  perpetual struggles of the peasants against the
  landlords, against the local officials and
  against the king's judges. Robin Hood is a partly
  historical and partly legendary character.
  According to some historians, Robin Hood was a
  Saxon by birth, an outlaw, but he robbed only the
  rich and never molested the poor and needy. He
  waged a guerrilla war, say the chronicles, on the
  Norman invaders long after the Norman Conquest,
  and his archers were invincible, and the king's
  and baron's soldiers could do nothing to them.

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3.2.The Character of Robin Hood

• The character of Robin Hood is many-sided.
• Strong, brave and clever, he is at the same
  time tender-hearted and affectionate.
• Robin Hood appears to be devout and orthodox in
  religion, though orthodoxy does not prevent him
  from despoiling the rich clergymen, especially
  the abbots.
• Another feature of Robin's view is his reverence
  for the King. This reverence is found in the
  ballads side by side with the most outspoken
  attacks on the lay and ecclesiastical nobility.

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• The King appears in the ballads as an
  intermediary between the outlaws and his
  officials and judges, as the humorous and
  understanding guest in the greenwood, feasting on
  his own-stolen deer. This conception of the
  King's position as one above the contending
  classes of society was. of course, an illusion.
• In fact, the medieval king was the representative
  of the feudal nobility. But it was the peasants'
  traditional illusion for the King that disarmed
  the peasants in 1381, deluded as they were by the
  King's false promises of freedom.

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3.3.Excerpt to General Prologue to CT

• As soon as April pierces to the root /
• The drought of March, and bathes each bud and
  shoot /
• Through every vein of sap with gentle showers /
• From whose engendering liquor spring the flowers
  /
• When zephyrs have breathed softly all about /
• Inspiring every wood and field to sprout, /
• And in the zodiac the youthful sun /
• His journey halfway through the Ram has run /
• When little birds are busy with their song /
• Who sleep with open eyes the whole night long /
• Life stirs their hearts and tingles in them so, /
  
• Then off as pilgrims people long to go, /
• And palmers to set out for distant strands /
• And foreign shrines renowned in many lands. /

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• And specially in England people ride /
• To Canterbury from every countryside /
• To visit there the blessed martyred saint /
• Who gave them strength when they were sick and
  faint.
• And so then, with a knight I will begin. /
• A knight was with us, and an excellent man, /
• Who from the earliest moment he began /
• To follow his career loved chivalry. /
• Truth, openhandedness, and courtesy.

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IV. Get Up and Bar the Door

• 1. It fell about the Martinmas time,
• And a gay time it was then,
• When our goodwife got puddings to make,
• And she s boild them in the pan.
• 2.
• The wind sae cauld blew south and north,
• And blew into the floor
• Quoth our goodman to our goodwife,
• Gae out and bar the door.

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• 3. My hand is in my hussyfskap,
• Goodman, as ye may see
• An it shoud nae be barrd this hundred
  year,
• It s no be barrd for me.
• 4.
• They made a paction tween them twa,
• They made it firm and sure,
• That the first word whaeer shoud speak,
• Shoud rise and bar the door.
• 5.
• Then by there came two gentlemen,
• At twelve o clock at night,
• And they could neither see house nor
  hall,
• Nor coal nor candle-light.

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• 6. Now whether is this a rich mans house,
• Or whether is it a poor?
• But neer a word wad ane o them speak,
• For barring of the door.
• 7.
• And first they ate the white puddings,
• And then they ate the black
• Tho muckle thought the goodwife to hersel,
• Yet neer a word she spake.
• 8.
• Then said the one unto the other,
• Here, man, tak ye my knife
• Do ye tak aff the auld mans beard,
• And I ll kiss the goodwife.

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• 9. But there s nae water in the house,
• And what shall we do than?
• What ails thee at the pudding-broo,
• That boils into the pan?
• 10.
• O,up then started our goodman,
• An angry man was he
• Will ye kiss my wife before my een,
• And scad me wi pudding-bree?
• 11.
• Then up and started our goodwife,
• Gied three skips on the floor
• Goodman, youve spoken the foremost
  word,
• Get up and bar the door.

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• Appreciation
• The song begins with the wife busy in her cooking
  and other chores. As the wind picks up, the
  husband tells her to close and bar the door, but
  she insists that he do it himself. They make a
  pact that the next person who speaks must bar the
  door, and the door remains open. At midnight two
  thieves enter the house and eat the pudding that
  the wife has just made. The husband and wife
  watch them, but still neither speaks out of
  stubborn pride. Amazed, one of the thieves
  proposes to cut the husband's throat and molest
  the wife. Finally the husband shouts "Yeve eaten
  my bread, ye hae druken my ale, and yell mak my
  auld wife a whore!" The wife responds "Ye hae
  spoke the first word. Get up and bar the door."

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• Among many things, this folk ballad talks about
  the sense of lasting competition in a
  relationship. The man tries to maintain his power
  but the woman refuses because she does not want
  to be treated like a doormat. The ballad makes
  the point that being stubborn has no benefits, by
  being stubborn they lost pudding and subjected
  their possessions to be stolen.

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Sir Patrick Spens

• The King sits in Dunfermline town,
• Drinking the blood-red wine
• "O where shall I get a skeely skipper
• To sail this ship or mine?"
• Then up and spake an eldern knight,
• Sat at the King's right knee
• "Sir Patrick Spens is the best sailor
• That ever sailed the sea."

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• The King has written a broad letter,
• And sealed it with his hand,
• And sent it to Sir Patrick Spens,
• Was walking on the strand.
• "To Noroway, to Noroway,
• To Noroway o'er the foam
• The King's daughter of Noroway,
• 'Tis thou must fetch her home.
• The first line that Sir Patrick read,
• A loud laugh laughed he
• The next line that Sir Patrick read,
• The tear blinded his ee.

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• "O who is this has done this deed,
• Has told the King of me,
• To send us out at this time of the year,
• To sail upon the sea?
• "Be it wind, be it wet, be it hail, be it sleet,
• Our ship must sail the foam
• The king's daughter of Noroway,
• 'Tis we must fetch her home."
• They hoisted their sails on Monenday morn,
• With all the speed they may
• And they have landed in Noroway
• Upon a Wodensday

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• They had not been a week, a week,
• In Noroway but twae,
• When that the lords of Noroway
• Began aloud to say,
• "Ye Scottishmen spend all our King's gowd,
• And all our Queenis fee."
• "Ye lie, ye lie, ye liars loud!
• So loud I hear ye lie.
• "For I brought as much of the white monie
• As gane my men and me,
• And a half-fou of the good red gowd
• Out o'er the sea with me.

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• "Make ready, make ready, my merry men all,
• Our good ship sails the morn."
• "Now, ever alack, my master dear
• I fear a deadly storm.
• "I saw the new moon late yestreen
• With the old moon in her arm
• And if we go to sea, master,
• I fear we'll come to harm."
• They had not sailed a league, a league,
• A league but barely three,
• When the lift grew dark, and the wind blew loud,
• And gurly grew the sea.

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• The ankers brake and the top-masts lap,
• It was such a deadly storm
• And the waves came o'er the broken ship
• Till all her sides were torn.
• "O where will I get a good sailor
• Will take my helm in hand,
• Till I get up to the tall top-mast
• To see if I can spy land?"
• "O here am I, a sailor good,
• Will take the helm in hand,
• Till you go up to the tall top-mast,
• But I fear you'll ne'er spy land."

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• He had not gone a step, a step,
• A step but barely ane,
• When a bolt flew out of the good ship's side,
• And the salt sea came in.
• "Go fetch a web of the silken cloth,
• Another of the twine,
• And wap them into our good ship's side,
• And let not the sea come in."
• They fetched a web of the silken cloth,
• Another of the twine,
• And they wapp'd them into the good ship's side,
• But still the sea came in.

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• O loth, both, were our good Scots lords
• To wet their cork-heel'd shoon,
• But long ere all the play was play'd
• They wet their hats aboon.
• And many was the feather-bed
• That fluttered on the foam
• And many was the good lord's son
• That never more came home.
• The ladies wrang their fingers white,
• The maidens tore their heair,
• All for the sake of their true loves,
• For them they'll see nae mair.

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• O lang, lang may the maidens sit
• With their gold combs in their hair,
• All waiting for their own dear loves,
• For them they'll see nae mair.
• O forty miles of Aberdeen,
• 'Tis fifty fathoms deep
• And there lies good Sir Patrick Spens,
• With the Scots lords at his feet.

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• Appreciation
• "Sir Patrick Spens" is one of the most popular of
  the Ballads, and is primarily of Scottish
  origin.The events of the ballad are similar to an
  actual event. The name "Patrick Spens" has no
  historical record, and, like many of the heroes
  of such ballads, is probably an invention,
  although some historians believe that he was
  actually Sir Patrick Vans.The opening lines
  however, do refer to the king who is specifically
  located in Dunfermline where historically there
  was a royal residence, Malcolm's Tower.

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• The story as told in the ballad has multiple
  versions, but they all follow the same basic
  plot. The King of Scotland has called for the
  greatest sailor in the land to command a ship for
  a royal errand. The name "Sir Patrick Spens" is
  mentioned by a courtier, and the king despatches
  a letter. Sir Patrick, though honoured to receive
  a royal commission, is dismayed at being put to
  sea in the dead of winter, clearly realising this
  voyage could well be his last. A storm sank the
  ship in the initial crossing, thus ending the
  ballad at this point. Nearly all versions,
  whether they have the wreck on the outward voyage
  or the return, relate the bad omen of seeing "the
  new moon late yestreen, with the auld moon in her
  arms", and modern science agrees the tides would
  be at maximum force at that time. The winter
  storms have the best of the great sailor, sending
  him and the Scottish lords to the bottom of the
  sea.

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• Meters for traditional ballads are quite
  sing-song. A common one alternates iambic
  tetrameter and iambic trimeter. (Its a pattern
  absolutely ingrained in the mind of anyone whos
  read The Rime of the Ancient Mariner or heard
  the theme from Gilligans Island.) The Wife of
  Ushers Well (MP, p. 81) follows this meter.
  Sometimes ballads stick to iambic tetrameter for
  all four lines My Boy Willie (MP, p. 82) is
  an example of that. Perfect meter is less of an
  issue than with more formal song forms if an
  extra beat slips in now and then, thats fine.
• The rhyme is tight and regular, usually either
  abab or abcb. Sometimes a ballad has a refrain at
  the end of each stanza, in which case the rhyme
  scheme is abac.
• Repetition is key images, phrases, lines, and
  even stanzas repeat. This aspect of ballads hails
  back to its roots in oral performance
  repetition is a crutch for the memory, and stock
  phrases flesh out a story.

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• Ballads do tell stories this is an important
  difference from the more static song forms weve
  looked at before. They spin yarns about love,
  betrayal, voyages, battles, and, very
  characteristically, the supernatural. Proper
  names, often of lords and ladies, historical
  events, and scraps of dialogue fill the lines.
  But as a narrative form, the ballad is
  intriguingly mysterious. Were often plunged
  right into things with no context and little
  detail. The ballad moves abruptly and sometimes
  mysteriously from event to event.

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• Lets look at Sir Patrick Spens. The first
  thing to notice is that it isnt written by
  anyone its been fashioned by consensus over
  time. The ballad is, traditionally, a communal
  form setting common legend into simple
  language.
• The king sits in Dumferling town,
• Drinking the blude-reid wine
• O whar will I get guid sailor,
• To sail this ship of mine?
• Up and spak an eldern knicht,
• Sat at the kings richt knee
• Sir Patrick Spens is the best sailor
• That sails upon the sea.
• Its verse that can be exact and mysterious all
  at once. The Scottish names, the antiquated
  diction, the positioning of that elder knight
  all vivid details. But were not told why the
  king commissions poor Sir Patrick, and we never
  find out. The poem opens in urgency, and skips to
  sudden doom.

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• Feeding the urgency is that almost overwhelming
  repetition. Not only do the two stanzas put
  quotes and even the words sailor and sail(s)
  in the same position, the second stanza even
  belabors the point that sailors indeed sail upon
  the sea. And look at the alliteration
  Dumferling, Drinking wine, whar will get guid
  sailor sail knicht, knee etc.
• Sir Patrick Spens was published in 1765 in a
  wildly popular collection of ballads called
  Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. It helped
  touch off an enthusiastic revival of the ballad
  form. Readers discovered in these rudely and
  anonymously crafted tales something irresistible
  the imprint of a lively and unselfconscious
  culture. Poets down to our very day are drawn to
  the form for its hypnotic, communal power.