Geoffery Chaucer (1340-1400)
Background:
1. During this period there was struggle between
·
The House of
Commons and the Despotism of Kings.
·
Hundred Years of
War with France and Englishmen (Celts, Danes, Saxons, Normans- had come together
to fight against France and were called as Englishmen)
2. Suffering of the Common people resulted in Peasant
Revolt/ Rebellion/ Revolution in 1381.
3. War of Roses (1455-1485): They were a series of
dynastic civil wars fought between the supporters of the two rival branches of
the Royal House of Plantagent (i.e., The
House of Commons and the Despotism of Kings)
4. There were strikes and assaults on Flemish Weavers
who were brought in by Edward III [King
of England (1327-1377). His claim on the French Throne provoked 100 years of
War]
5. Imperialism was rampant in Edward’s claim to France
or in John of Gaunt’s [Duke of Lancaster (1340-1399) Son of Edward III and an
effective ruler] attempt to annex Castile (Region in Central Spain, an
independent Spanish Kingdom)
6. Feminism was in air and its merits are debated by ’s
Wife of Bath and his Clerk of Oxenford.
7. Black Death 1349 (1348-1376): the great epidemic of
bubonic plague that killed a large proportion of population of Europe in the
mid-14th Century.
8. This age produced two great poets: Langland and ;
who were very realistic in the portrayal of life and gave picture of the
English Society.
9. Langland wrote PIERS PLOWMAN in Anglo Saxon
style and gave a picture of the Common
people, degraded language, desperately in need of Justice and Education, to
bring in reforms in Church and State.
10. On the other hand, we have who wrote Canterbury Tales which was shaped
after the French and Italian models and portrayed the Holiday side of Middle
and Upper class people, showed a gay company of pilgrims riding through the
prosperous country which he called ‘Merrie England’.
Geoffery Chaucer (1340- October 25,1400)
Life:
·
Chaucer’s
Boyhood was spent in London near Westminister.
·
Near the Court
of Edward
·
Near Thames
where the World’s commerce was springing up.
His
Father:
·
Vinter/ Wine
Merchant
·
Had influence in
the court
·
Obtained a place
in the court of Princess Elizabeth for his son.
Married
a maid named Philippa Roet in the court of John of Gaunt.
There
is a suspected affair of Chaucer with Cecily Chaumpaigne (as recorded by legal
documents of 1380) He may have committed adultery or abducted her son.
Chaucer’s
Patron: John of Gaunt
Carrier:
At the age of 30, he passed the rank of Merchant to an official and
aristocratic circle.
Dryden
called Chaucer- THE FATHER OF ENGLISH POETRY.
George
Puttenham a poetry critic called Chaucer THE FATHER OF ENGLISH LITERARY CANON.
Chaucer’s Works: Can be divided in
three periods
Period of French influence
(Ranging from 1360-70)
|
Period of Italian Influence
(Ranging from 1370-85)
|
English Period
(Around 1386-95)
|
French poems of Love and Chivalry
were in great demand and had a great
store and write to entertain kings. English had replaced French. So Kind Edward
and Queen Philippa encouraged to write
in English. made translation of
favorite poems into English and wrote others in the imitation of French
models.
|
Went abroad on a series of diplomatic
missions. In Italy he might have met Petrarch (as inferred in the Prologue to
the Clerk’s Tale) and became aware of Dante and Boccaccio’s Works. We can see
the Italian influence in his works for 15 years.
Two poems of this period which
contain autobiographical material are: Legend of Good Women (1384-85) and The
House of Fame (1383-84).
|
Canterbury Tales
|
WORKS OF CHAUCER:
FRENCH
INFLUENCE
1. Chaucer translated Roman De la Rose into English
titled Romance of the Rose- a dreary allegorical poem.
2. The Book of Dutchess- an elegy written on the Death
of Blanche, wife of Chaucer’s patron.
3. Compleynte into Pitee – dainty love song.
4. To Rosemunde
5. Truth
6. Ballad of Good Counsel
7. Legend of St. Cicilia
8. Parliament of Fowls
9. Translation of Boethicus’ Consolation of Philosopy
10. Treatise on the Astrolabe (for Little Lewis) – Prose
Work
ITALIAN
INFLUENCE
11. House of Fame (1383-84)
12. Legend of Good Women (1384-85) introduced Heroic
couplet. (9 stories: Cleopatra, Thisbe, Dido, Hypsipyle and Medea, Lucrece,
Ariadne, Philomela, Phyllis,
Hypermnestra)
Troilus and Criseyde- remarkable Narrative poem,
Based on Boccaccio’s FILOSTRATO
Scene in Troy with Trojan war in the background.
Hero: Troilus (Son of Priam) : Falls in love with
Cressida, a young widow (Daughter of Calchus)
Hector (Son of Priam) interested in War-like deeds
Pandarus (Comic Character): Friend of Troilus and
Uncle of Cressida. He brings the lovers together.
Calchus offers the exchange of his daughter for
Trojan warriors
Diomede (handsome young man) wins Cressida.
Troilus is killed in the battle by Achilles.
It is a story about female fecklessness and is
borrowed from Boccaccio.
ENGLISH PERIOD: The Canterbury Tales
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