GEOFFREY CHAUCER

The Canterbury Tales

 EARLY LIFE
 1342-1400
 Born to a middle class family
 His father was a wine merchant who believed
his child should have a formal education
 Odd jobs = page, courtier, diplomat, civil
servant, scrap metal collector
 Travelled all over Europe
 LATER LIFE
 Fluent in English, Italian, Latin, and French
 Worked as a government official under three
different kings = high social status
 Was captured as a POW during the Hundred
Year’s War  King paid his ransom
 Died of unknown causes – murder suspected

 Chaucer was one of the first writers to be buried

in the Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey.
 WRITING STYLES
 Often called the father of English poetry
 Most scholars still wrote in Latin
 Felt English lacked sophistication and had a limited vocabulary
 Only local stories and ballads written in English
 He wrote in the vernacular or language of the commoners Now
known as Middle English
 Allegory:
 A story in which the character, settings, and events stand for abstract or
moral concepts.
 It has a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning.
 Popular in the Middle Ages.
 Satire: a way of criticizing something such as a group of people or a
system, in which the writer deliberately make them seem funny so
that people will see their faults.
 Rhythmic pattern: he introduced the iambic pentameter.
 Lack of alliteration
 Best known for writing The Canterbury Tales, but also produced
several other works
 CHAUCER’S MAIN WORKS
 During the French period he wrote poems modelled on French
romance styles and subjects like:
 The Romaunt of the Rose (before 1373), which introduces the reader into
medieval court behaviour in relation to courtly love;
 The Boke of the Duchesse (ca. 1369), a personal elegy in which the knight
in black tells of his grief for the loss of his wife and this grief is then made
the universal grief of all men for the death of all young, good wives.
 During the Italian period he wrote
 The Parliament of Foules (ca. 1380) which introduces the reader into one
of the most popular genres of medieval literature, the Bird and the
Beast Fable.
 The House of Fame (ca. 1383), a masterpiece of comic fantasy dealing
with the contemplation of the vanity of human wishes.
 The Legende of Good Women (ca. 1385) which is about the unhappy fate
of women who suffered in the cause of love.
 Troylus and Criseyde (ca. 1380-5), a long poem adapted from Boccaccio
which reveals a subtle psychological insight into the development of
characters.
 THE CANTERBURY TALES

 Although the work was never completed, The Canterbury Tales is

considered one of the greatest works in the English language
 The narrator meets 29 pilgrims at the Tabard Inn in London and
travels with them to the shrine of St.Thomas Becket in
Canterbury. The host of the inn suggests that each pilgrim should
tell two stories while going to Canterbury and two on the way
back: whoever can tell the best tale wins a dinner at the inn when
they get back, courtesy of the other travelers.
o While the genre of the Canterbury Tales as a whole is a "frame
narrative," the General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales is an
example of "Estates Satire," a genre which satirizes the abuses
that occur within the three traditional Estates (in particular, the
Clergy). 
 THE CANTERBURY TALES
 Feudal society was traditionally divided into three "estates"
(roughly equivalent to social classes).
 The "First Estate" was the Church (clergy = those who
prayed).
 The "Second Estate" was the Nobility (those who fought =
knights). It was common for aristocrats to enter the Church
and thus shift from the second to the first estate.
 The "Third Estate" was the Peasantry (everyone else, at
least under feudalism: those who produced the food which
supported those who prayed and those who fought, the
members of the First and Second Estates). 
 Begun: 1386
 Planned: 120 tales
 Completed: 22 and 2 fragments
 CHARACTERS
 Narrator (“Chaucer”)
 Host = L’Oste
 Knight = Il Cavaliere
 Squire = Lo Scudiero
 Yeoman = Il piccolo proprietario
terriero
 Prioress = La Madre Priora
 Second Nun = La seconda suora
 Three Priests = Tre preti
 Monk = il Monaco
 Friar = il Frate
 Merchant = il Mercante
 Clerk = il Chierico
 Man of Law = L’uomo di legge
 Franklin = L’Allodoliere
 Guildsmen = Gli uomini della Gilda
 Cook = Il Cuoco
 Shipman = Il Marinaio
 Physician = Il Medico
 Wife of Bath = La signora di Bath
 Parson = Il Parroco
 Plowman = L’Aratore
 Manciple = L’Economo
 Reeve = Il Fattore
 Miller = Il Mugnaio
 Summoner = L’ Apparitore o cursore
 Pardoner = L’Indulgenziere