Introduction to

Classical and Neo-

Classical Poetry
 Middle Ages
the term Middle The term Middle Ages was
deliberately negative. This
Ages was applied period was viewed by many
by later Renaissance thinkers as a
Renaissance writers time of relatively little
achievement (with some
and historians to exceptions here and there),
refer to the period a time of ignorance, an
absence of the invaluable
falling very roughly classical inheritance,
between the fall of feudal oppression, and the
the Roman Empire widespread power of the
church. With deliberate
in 410 AD (when contempt, some writers
Alaric sacked applied the term The Dark
Ages to the earlier part of
Rome) and the this period (up to about the
customs, and power which fuelled the
Renaissance. eleventh century).
In fact, the Middle Ages was a time
of extraordinary vitality. In the first
five hundred years of this period,
Christianity established itself
throughout Europe, developed a
complex institutionalized religion
capable of governing society at all
levels. There were many fierce (and
often bloody) disputes about
Christian doctrine, about the relative
distribution of power between
Church and State, and about the
relationship between the Church's
immense economic power and its
ministry to the poor. Nevertheless,
for much of the Middle Ages, life
was calm, orderly, stable, and
relatively prosperous. This period
established the basis from which
were to develop the institutions,
amazing expansion of Europe in the
Renaissance and afterwards.
 England in the fourteenth century had a population of about 2,500,000. London was the capital
city which a contemporary writer described as "clean, white, and small," encompassing an area
of about one square mile. Reading homework: Chaucer’s life, Black Plague, Medieval England.
 Chaucer moved in a high society and among the learned members of the Court. His audience,
therefore, would have been a highly educated, sophisticated, and worldly audience. Chaucer
probably read his tales aloud to this audience. Thus, his hearers would have had a knowledge of
French, Latin, and English. They would also be familiar with the many types of stories, tales,
and fables that Chaucer imitated. Therefore, Chaucer could easily utilize various types of
classical allusions, subtle satire, and irony, all of which would have been fully understood by
his audience.
Language

The language of OLD ENGLISH Beowulf, the most Lo! We the spear- MIDDLE ENGLISH Of mortal battles MODERN
1100 to 1500
Chaucer is (or Anglo-Saxon) famous literary Danes in the days he had fought ENGLISH 1500
Middle English, 597 to 1100 work of the of yore--Modern fifteen--Modern to the present
which, roughly period, is an epic English (Notice Chaucer (1340- English (Notice
1400) At mortal Shakespeare,
speaking, extends poem in the Germanic the French Milton, Swift,
from about 1100 alliterative verse. quality of the Old batailles hadde he influence on
been fiftene-- Wordsworth,
to 1500. The author is English.) 787-- Middle English; Dickens, Shaw.
unknown, but the Danish influence Middle English also, notice how
manuscript on Old English much closer,
(Cotton Vitellius linguistically,
A xv) dates from
1000.
Prologue to the Canterbury Tales
→ The basic structure of the work, as established in the General Prologue, is simple enough
and relatively conventional. A group of travelers are thrown together and, to pass the
time, they determine to tell each other stories (in a manner common to all sorts of
narratives like the Thousand and One Nights. Chaucer chooses one of the oldest narrative
devices, a journey, in this case a pilgrimage which includes a wide variety of social types.
On this familiar narrative framework, he then hangs a series of tales in which he can
display a number of different literary forms (fairy stories, prose sermons, romance
narratives, bawdy tales, animal fables, and so on). In this way, he has a ready-made recipe
for a wide variety of personalities and stories. And one of the greatest achievements of The
Canterbury Tales is the richness of it characters and its literary styles.
 Two Narrators
Linking the gallery of characters and their stories is the engaging presence of the narrator, a major presence
in the poem. Chaucer presents the narrator as one of the pilgrims, a fellow Christian traveling to
Canterbury and meeting the various characters and hearing their stories. This gives his descriptions the
immediacy of a personal narration based upon intimate conversations and direct witnessing of the dramatic
events which take place upon the way (like the different quarrels among some of the pilgrims).

At the same time, however, it is quite clear that many of the details we learn (especially in the General
Prologue) are obviously based upon a perspective that cannot be simply derived from a personal encounter.
The details we learn about all the Knight's achievements, for example, or the details of the Wife of Bath's
behaviour back home in her own church, these are not things that a pilgrim narrator could learn in such
vivid detail.

Hence, we are dealing with, in effect, two narrators. The shifts between them are unannounced. The dual
point of view has the great advantage of giving the poem the immediacy of a personal narrative and the
wealth of background detail of the sort available only to an omniscient narrator where this is a useful
supplement to a portrait or a narrative.