I. 1:
Intro
A. 2:30-2:35 Chaucer the Author
3.
Biography: 1343-1400
a)
Middle
class to nobility through education and talent—customs officer
4.
Portraits:
5.
Historical frame
a)
To
Italy twice
b)
Renaissance
in full swing; Petrarch, Boccaccio—Italy center of the new culture;
Renaissance; rebirth of Rome and Greece—Roman Empire had included England
up to Scotland—borders still defended by Arthur
6.
French and English—Middle English
a)
French/Anglo
Norman for upper classes; who were descended from the Conquerors-Marie de
France
(1)
The Prioresse
b)
Middle
English combined French and Old English—less Germanic, more Latinate,
becoming more widespread; ChaucerÕs decision to write in it was a cultural
nationalist statement
c)
How
to pronounce
(1)
precedes the great vowel shift
(2)
the vowel in the English word date was in Middle English
pronounced [aː] (similar to modern non-rhotic
dart); the vowel in feet was [eː] (similar to modern fate); the
vowel in wipe was [iː] (similar to modern weep); the
vowel in boot was [oː] (similar to modern boat); and the
vowel in house was [uː] (similar to modern whose).
B. 2:35-2:45 The Canterbury Tales
1.
ÒUntil Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales he was known
primarily as a maker of poems of loveÓ—Troilus and KnightÕs TaleÓ
[Harvard page]
2.
Earthiness and comprehensiveness came at end of his life
3.
Texts
a)
80
surviving mss. With variants;
b)
order
of fragments of groups of tales varies
(1)
collection of previously written tales as well as new ones
(2)
Hosts plan: 120 stories—only 22 completedÉending
written; a large fragment
(1)
Digital Scriptorium
(2)
Written most likely in the first or second decade of the
fifteenth century,
(3)
Huntington purchased the Bridgewater library privately in
1917 through SothebyÕs.
(4)
The manuscript is written on fine vellum and is approximately
400mm by 284mm in size; there are 240 leaves,
(5)
whoever edited the manuscript probably made substantial
revisions, tried to regularise spelling, and put the individual Tales into a
smoothly running order.
d)
Caxton
prints it in 1476—first printer;
(2)
The first edition of the Canterbury Tales is not dated but it has been convincingly argued, on the basis of an
analysis of the type and the paper, that it was from 1476.
(3)
The Tales
were already established as a well-loved classic, and it seems a shrewd choice
for Caxton to make this work the first big project for his English
book-production. He could expect it to sell well.
4.
Encyclopedic work—medieval Summae —Divine
Comedy—DanteÕs pilgrimage;
a)
Medieval
estates and orders—these are stereotypes—sociological and literary
b)
Breadth
and detail of geography and literary references
c)
Line
717: now have I told you the estaat, thÕarray, the nombre, and the cause
5.
Genre—Framed narrative.
a)
Decameron:
one hundred stories in a frame
b)
Idea
of Pilgrimage; the way to Canterbury; the secular and sacred drives—push
and pull
c)
fictions
within fiction
d)
mediated
by both narrator and the Hooste
e)
General
Prologue and tale; teller and tale; links;
f)
Characters
and tales in juxtaposition—e.g. Knight--Squire,
Prioresse—Monk--Friar,
g)
links
by plot, character, theme
6.
Engagement of reader in the action and judgment
a)
Anybody
could be there
b)
Responses
to portraits and tales are ours; in a social situation where new people are
met; we get to know about them gradually—start with appearance and social
station; then what they say and do; then moral judgments
7.
[Un]Reliability of the narrator
a)
HeÕs
enthusiastic in praise—delivering the response that people want to hear
b)
Naivete
and amiability
c)
Apology
for including bad language 717-745
(1)
ÒHe is not really Chaucer the poet norÉ that Geoffrey
Chaucer frequently mentioned in contemporary historical records as a
distinguished civil servant,
(2)
the reporter is, usually, acutely unaware of the
significance of what he sees, no matter how sharply he sees it. He is, to be
sure, permitted his lucid intervals, but in general he is the victim of the
poet 's pervasive-not merely sporadic-irony.
(3)
Chaucer the pilgrim may not be said merely to have liked the
Prioress very much-he thought she was utterly charmingÉ. It is just what one
might expect of a bourgeois exposed to the splendors of high society, whose
values, such as they are, he eagerly accepts. And that is precisely what
Chaucer the pilgrim is, and what he does.
(4)
He is as impressed with the Monk as the Monk is, and accepts
him on his own terms and at face value, never sensing that those terms imply
complete condemnation of Monk qua Monk.
(5)
Wholehearted approval for the values that important persons
sub-scribe to is seen again in the portrait of the Friar.
(6)
his interest and admiration for the bourgeois pilgrims is
centered mainly in their material prosperity and their ability to increase it.
He starts, properly enough, with the out-and-out money-grubber, the Merchant,
(7)
Miller, Manciple, Reeve, Summoner, and Pardoner are all
acknowledged to be rascals. But rascality generally has, after all, the
laudable object of making money, which gives it a kind of validity, if not
dignity.
(8)
the fact that he often admires superlatives devoid of-or
opposed to-genuine virtue does not inhibit his equal admiration for virtue
incarnate.Ó
e)
satire/social
criticism—ironies of idealism vs. reality—types vs. violation of
types—the knight and the parson as ideal—in particular the vices of
the clergy—Lollardy;
Wyclif and Hus
C. 2:45--3:05 The opening of the General Prologue 1-18
1.
one of the half dozen most famous short passages in English
a)
memorized
as sophomore
(1)
tried to find excellent audio online unsuccessfully
b)
Read
it
2.
The beginning reverdie
a)
Regreening—poems
and songs; essence of pastoral of youth—Bible, etc.
b)
Celebration
of fertility—Passover and Easter—the present holy week; week of
regreening; renewal
c)
Cosmos
participates—zodiac—doctrine of correspondences and
analogies—archetypes and maps and authoritative texts rather than
experience define the world—intrusion of the empirical into the Platonic
forms
3.
The end: holy blissful martyr Canterbury—Thomas a
Becket
a)
He is
venerated as a saint and martyr by both the Catholic Church and the
Anglican Communion.
He engaged in conflict with Henry II of England
over the rights and privileges of the Church and was murdered by followers of
the king in Canterbury
Cathedral. Soon after his death, he was canonized by Pope Alexander III.
b)
On 12
July 1174, in the midst of the Revolt of
1173–1174, Henry humbled himself with public penance at Becket's tomb as
well as at the church of St. Dunstan's,
which became one of the most popular pilgrimage sites in England.
c)
As
the scion of the leading mercantile dynasty of later centuries, Mercers, Becket was very much
regarded as a Londoner by the citizens and was adopted as the London's
co-patron saint with St Paul
[Wikipedia]
4.
Both natural cycle and one way trip with beginning and
end—two forms of time;
5.
Pilgrimage—road trip and voyage; life as pilgrimage
6.
Desire and gratitude
a)
Òthe
upthrust and burgeoning of life as a seasonal and universal event to a
particular outpouring of people, pilgrims, gathered briefly at the Tabard Inn
in Southwark, drifting, impelled, bound, called to the shrine of Thomas a
Becket at Canterbury. The pilgrimage is set down in the calendar of seasons as
well as in the calendar of piety; nature impels and supernature draws. "
Go, go, go," says the bird; " Come," says the saint.
b)
In
the opening lines of the Prologue springtime is characterized in terms of
procreation, and a pilgrimage of people to Canterbury is just one of the many
manifestations of the life thereby produced. The phallicism of the opening
lines presents the impregnating of a female March by a male April, and a
marriage of water and earth. The marriage is repeated and varied immediately as
a fructifying of " holt and heeth" by Zephirus, a marriage of air and
earth.
c)
the
Prologue comes to pilgrimage and treats pilgrimage first as an event in the
calendar of nature, one aspect of the general springtime surge of human energy
and longing. There are the attendant suggestions of the renewal of human
mobility after the rigor and confinement of winter, the revival of wayfaring
now that the ways are open. The horizon extends to distant shrines and foreign
lands, and the attraction of the strange and faraway is included before the
vision narrows and focusses upon its English specifications and the pilgrimage
to the shrine at Canterbury with the vows and gratitude that send pilgrims
there.
d)
in
the calendar of pietyÉ from nature to something that includes and oversees
nature? Does not the passage move from an activity naturally generated and
impelled to a governed activity, from force to telos? Does not the passage move
from Aphrodite and amor in their secular operation to the sacred embrace of
" the hooly blisful martir" and of amor dei?
e)
The
transition from nature to supernature is emphasized by the contrast between the
healthful physical vigor of the opening lines and the reference to sickness
that appears in line 18.
f)
The
physical vitality of the opening is presented as restorative of the dry earth;
the power of the saint is presented as restorative of the sick. The seasonal
restoration of nature parallels a supernatural kind of restoration that knows
no seasonÓ
II. 2:
Chaucer: GP
A. 3:10—3:12 Meeting at Tavern
1.
From general natural and human event to this specific: I,
time, and place--story
2.
Fortunate meeting; sharing pilgrimage [of life?] adequate
accommodations—prosperity; creation of community through acquaintance
3.
Mapping of estates and appearances—the recreation of
society
4.
At the same time, itÕs a totally revolutionary community
that brings classes and estates together
on an equal and intimate basis, unlikely
5.
Address to reader or listener whoÕs also a participant as
listener to tales
B. The Portraits
1.
3:12—3:20
General
a)
Unified
group: Wel nyne and twenty in a compaignye, Of sondry folk, by aventure yfalle
In felaweshipe, and pilgrimes were they alle,
b)
Comparable
characteristics, first in terms of HoffmanÕs classification of desire and
telos, or secular/sacred/ profane as motives
(1)
Òdouble view of the Canterbury pilgrimageÉ enhanced and
extended by the portraits where it appears, in one aspect, as a range of
motivationÉ. from the sacred to the secular and on to the profane- "
profane " in the sense of motivations actually subversive of the sacredÓ
(2)
Chaucer has also adopted the method of including ideal or
nearly ideal portraits among the pilgrims. There are, for example, the Knight
and the Plowman, figures at either end of the secular range, and among the
clerical figures there is the Parson.
(3)
Making him actually the brother of the Plowman brilliantly
insists that what super- nature calls for is performed by the Parson and, more
than that, comes by nature to him.
(4)
within some of the portraits, É a gulf yawns between
ostensible and actual motivation,
(5)
between the portraits, Éthe motivation of the Knight and the
Parson is near one end of the spectrum, and the motivation of the Summoner and
the Pardoner near the other end.
(6)
There is such an impure but blameless mixture as the
motivation of the Prioress; there is the secular pilgrimage of the Wife of
Bath, impelled so powerfully and frankly by Saint Venus rather than drawn by
Saint Thomas, and goaded by a Martian desire to acquire and dominate another
husband; in the case of the Prioress, an inescapable doubt as to the quality of
amor hesitates between the sacred and secular, and in the case of the
thoroughly secular Wife of Bath, doubt hesitates between the secular and the
profaneÓ
c)
Other
groupings and classifications
(1)
Òthe estate, the array and the nombre and eek the causeÓ
(2)
gender and age
(3)
all the characteristics of ÒcharacterÓ
2.
3:20-3:25
First Estate: Military—Aristocracy:
a)
*The
Knight
(1)
Chivalry—the horse: honor, freedom, courtesy
(2)
Fought in the wars—aristocracy and
military—Beowulf
(3)
First come religious wars—crusades; then political
ones
(4)
Resume: battlefields and diplomacy and foreign
policy—primacy of war for honor [cf. Utopia]—but also as mercenary
for one pagan against another—the last unobtrusive one in the list
[Chaucerian irony—socratic question; draw them in]
(5)
Also humble and meek—perfect, gentle knight
(a) NarratorÕs praise
(6)
Not gay but solemn—pilgrimage is sacred—holy
duty and a bold warrior—Christian soldier
b)
*Squire—contrast
of Y and A, also push and pull
(1)
Youthful and lovely—physicality; agile and sweet and a
lover; and a promising fighter
(2)
Colorful clothing; springtime imagery; musician and poet, up
all night—sexy
(3)
Still dutiful to the ancientry—carves before him
3.
3:25-3:30
Second Estate: Clergy—
a)
*The
Prioresse
(1)
Starts out with her coy smile—sheÕs also sexy
(2)
Madame Eglantine—a flower; sings well
(3)
Spoke French, not the best
(4)
She eats without messing her fingers (!)—detail of
description creates the emphasis
(a) Wipes lip
(b) Manners
(c) Gives of presence of courtliness
(5)
She makes effort to be regarded as dignified
(6)
Her compassion for mice caught in traps and she feeds her
hounds roasted flesh at table
(7)
Conscience and tender heart
(8)
Her appearance cute and well dressed
(9)
Her brooch: Amor vincit omnia—courtly or divine love?
(10)
Hoffman
(a) imperfection; the Prioress is
obligated to a cloistered piety that serves and worships God without going on a
journey to seek a shrine, and prioresses were specifically and repeatedly
enjoined from going on pilgrimage
(b) The portrait occupies forty-five
lines, and more than three- fourths of the lines have to do with such matters
as the Pri- oress 's blue eyes, her red mouth, the shape of her nose and width
of her forehead, her ornaments and dress, her table manners, her particular
brand of French, her pets and what she fed them, and her tenderness about mice.
b)
*Monk
(1)
Outrider: supervises large ecclesiastical properties
(2)
Like the Prioresse, great worldliness
(3)
Horseman; bell on bridle rings like monastic
bell—irony; and hunter—worldly lord
(4)
HeÕs not old fashioned—the rules presented that he
violates—but likes the new
(5)
Full fat, fair prelate; love know; fancy clothing
c)
*Friar—limitour
(1)
Another happy one; licensed travelling beggar; very
sociable; hangs with the rich men and noble ladies; paid for the marriages of
several young women
(2)
Has the power of confession—gives absolution easily in
return for money, rather than true repentance—taking the perspective of
the Friar—for some just have too hard a heart to repent 230
(3)
Another singer and he carries gifts for women
(4)
DoesnÕt deal with beggars and lepers only tavern owners, as
befits his rank
(5)
Dresses well for court.—cleped Huberd
4.
3:30 -3:35 Third estate;
a)
*Merchant
(1)
Looks good, big talker about his deals and profits;
political opinions that sea needs to be kept safe
(2)
Nobody knows that heÕs in debt—[how does speaker
know?]
b)
*The
Clerk
(1)
Every literature teacherÕs darling
(2)
A student for a long time; lean as a rake; threadbare; no
source of income; preferred books of Aristotle to robes
(3)
All the money he got from friends he spent on books [their
expense!]—prayed for them
(4)
DidnÕt talk much—but full of heigh sentence
(5)
Gladly learn and teach
c)
Sergeant
of Law—lawyer
(1)
Justice in circuit court
(2)
Successful land investor
(3)
Seemed busier than he was [how does he
know—inconsistent tone]
(4)
Articulate and erudite
d)
Franklin
(1)
Prosperous, Epicurean, a generous host, lots of food and
wine, envied
(2)
Table always set; great sauces—detail of hospitality
(3)
Knight of the Shire, auditor, gentleman
e)
Haberdasher,
carpenter, weaver, dyer, tapiser
(1)
Livery of their guild
(2)
Prosperous and their wives wanted recognition for that
f)
*Their
cook with spices
(1)
He had an ulcer; next detail is blanc mange
g)
*Shipman
(1)
Steals from merchants and drowns prisoners, but is supreme
in his nautical knowledge and trade
h)
*Doctor
of Physick
(1)
Knows all the causes and cures of illness (ironic) and the
medical authorities listed and diet and he got rich in pestilence and kept gold
as medicine
i)
Wife
of Bath
(1)
Partly deaf
(2)
Excellent cloth maker
(3)
First to the offering—status and generosity;
aggressive
(4)
Red stockings; heavy high quality clothes; lots of red
(5)
Five husbands apart from sex in youth
(6)
Travelled three times to Jerusalem [mobility]
(7)
Big hat; spurs; remedies of love; she could laugh
(8)
Knew remedies of love
5.
3:35-3:40 Individuals
a)
*Parson—back
to clergy—a LOLLARD
(1)
Poor, but rich in holy thought and work; learned
(2)
Truly preaches ChristÕs gospel—[sets a standard]
(3)
Benign, diligent, patient
(4)
DoesnÕt threaten excommunication to collect tithes; gives to
his parishioners rather than takes
(5)
Small house and large parish and he visits those in need
(6)
Inveighs against corrupt clergy: a shiten shepherd and a
clene sheep 505
(7)
Merciful to sinners; but doesnÕt kowtow to people in high
places
(8)
He taughte but first he followed it himself
b)
*Plowman
(1)
ParsonÕs brother [cf. Piers Plowman]
(2)
HeÕd carried many a load of dung
(3)
Hard worker, loved God and his neighbor
c)
Miller
(1)
Stout carl
(2)
Champion wrestler; could heave off any door or break it with
his head
(3)
Wart on nose with red bristles; black, wide nostrils
(4)
A Goliard—teller and singer of dirty stories
(5)
He stole corn and cheated clients; leads them out of town
with bagpipe
d)
Manciple—business
agent for group of lawyers
(1)
Excellent food buyer—more prudent economically than
all the lawyers who were entrusted with high finance
e)
Reeve
(1)
Farm manager for a lord, who knows little [like the
manciple] and is financially independent and able to deal with all the cheating
farm laborers
(2)
Has his own lovely house
(3)
Rides hindmost
6.
3:40-3:50 The eschatological representatives
a)
Hoffman
(1)
The hot and lecherous Summoner, the type of sexual
unrestraint, is represented as harmonizing in song with the impotent Pardoner,
the eunuch; the deep rumbling voice and the thin effeminate voice are singing,
" Com hider, love, to me! The song, in this context, becomes both a
promiscuous and perverted invitation and an unconscious symbolic acknowledgment
of the absence of and the need for love,
(2)
The Summoner is, ostensibly, an instrument through whom
divine justice, in a practical wayÉ reminders of noble and awesome aspects of
divine justice his " fyr-reed cherubynnes face" and the voice
described in a significant analogy as like a trumpet
(3)
Many of the pardoners, Éwent so far as to pretend to absolve
both a poena and a culpa, thereby usurping, in the pretended absolution a
culpa, a function which theological doctrine reserved to God and His grace.
(4)
The radical physical distinctness of Summoner and Pardoner
is at this level the definition of two aspects of supernature
(5)
It is the Parson who both visits the sick and tends properly
to the cure of souls; he works harmoniously in both realms, and both realms are
in harmony and fulfilled in him.
(6)
Nevertheless, the Summoner and Pardoner, who conclude the
roll of the company, despite and beyond their appalling personal deficiency,
may suggest the summoning and pardoning, the judgment and grace which in
Christian thought embrace and conclude man's pilgrimage
b)
Somnour—corrupt
accuser
(1)
Fire-red cherubinÕs face—frightening—apocalyptic
judgement
(2)
Hot, ugly, lecherous, frightened children; covered with
pimples that found no cure
(3)
A Drunk who would scream out Latin tags like a jay, but was
ignorant
(4)
Easy to bribe and lecherous—purse is the archdeaconÕs
hell
(5)
Had the power of absolution and excommunication
(6)
Had confession power over all young girls in the parish
c)
*Pardoner—his
partner
(1)
Came straight from Rome
(2)
Sang ÒCome hider love to me.Ó
(3)
Straight yellow hair
(4)
Carried pardons from Rome and Vernicle
(5)
No beard, maybe a eunuch
(6)
Big batch of relics he sold to the poor, tricking them
(7)
Preached for money and sharpened his voice with singing
7.
3:50-3:55 *Host
a)
vitality
and life affirmation and confidence—
b)
great
game; he creates happy bar atmosphere--recreation
(1)
Good food and lots of wine—partying
(2)
Strong and generous and bold
(3)
Draws them together and proposes game for fun
(4)
Asks them to trust him as leader and agree to entertain each
other telling tales; asks for a vote
(5)
They agree
(6)
Rules—each tell two on the way there and back
(7)
The best tales of sentence and solas will get supper paid by
the rest upon return.
(8)
He promises to join them and be their guide—a publican
as leader—festive
(9)
They agree and ask him to be governor and judge—and
they drank more
c)
Sense
of exuberance and fun, with an edge—dirty stories and beautiful
ones—range of discourses
C. Departure
1.
They left early in the morning
2.
Draw straws for the one who begins telling—picks
Knight, Prioresse and Clerk
3.
Knight draws and agrees—
a)
KnightÕs
tale: courtly love; nobility, sacrifice and friendship—high style and
structure; conflicts of loyalty; tragic but amor vincit omnia—none of the
irony of Marie de France