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Philology 1
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Week 1Geoffrey Chaucer: the man, his works, and his medium
Father of English literature
His tomb Poets’ corner, Westminster Abbey
Chaucer’s life
C.1340 – Born in London into a family of wine merchants middle class
Good education (French, Italian, well-read in the classics)
Social climber, encountered various classes
1357 – A page in the household of the Countess of Ulster
1359 – 1378 – Serves in wars with France, travels to France, Italy, and Spain on
diplomatic missions
Member of various royal courts, close to John of Gaunt
Civil servant:
o Controller of the customs; responsible for collecting taxes on wool (brought
him into contact with all sorts of people)
o Member of Parliament for Kent (politically savvy)
o Clerk of the Works
o Deputy forester
1360 – Captured during military campaign in France
1374 – Chaucer is granted a gallon pitcher of wine daily for life (seems he was well-
liked)
1380 – Chaucer is acquitted of raptus of Cecily Chaumpaigne
1390 -1391 – Robbed three times
1400 – Murdered? (Terry Jones -Who murdered Chaucer?)
Due to his education and his wide travelling to Italy and France he knew other
cultures quite well, influencing his works Chaucer is a European poet
Throughout his life he encountered a wide variety of people, from wool merchants to
kings, this wealth of social experiences is reflected in his works.
Chaucer could not have had this impressive career if he was not an intelligent man, he
was well-versed in several topics such as politics, literature etc.
Brief overview of Chaucer’s work
He wrote mainly for a noble audience, in England as well as abroad.
Made a reputation as a love poet.
A selection:
o ? – Romaunt of the Rose
o 1369 – The Book of the Duchess
o Ca. 1380 – The Parliament of Fowls
o 1382 - 1385 – Troilus and Criseyde
o 1385 – 1386 – The legend of Good Women
o 1387 – 1400 – The Canterbury Tales (very different from the rest of his
works)
Chaucer wrote in English, in a time where the popular literary language was French or
Latin. (He was instrumental in making English a literary language).
Most of Chaucer’s early work is about love (Poet of Venus).
Canterbury Tales: pilgrimage to Canterbury; very popular place in those times
Chaucer’s fellow pilgrims: a knight, a squire, a miller etc.
, He paints little portraits of his fellow pilgrims which show society in the Fourteenth
century.
Structure:
General prologue
24 individual tales
In between tales: prologues, interruptions, commentary on tales by the pilgrims
The pilgrimage is the frame narrative (= a collection of storylines within an
overarching storyline).
Anthology of medieval literature (examples of several literary genres in medieval
times).
Very rich work:
o He uses English to its fullest potential, high elevated language as well as rude
lowly language
o Lots of characters with all different personalities
o Touches upon a plethora of subject matters and themes
Medieval manuscripts
Originally produced in a scriptorium (plural: scriptoria) attached to libraries or
cathedrals. A room in medieval European monasteries devoted to writing, copying,
and illuminating of manuscripts by monastic scribers.
Not made of paper but parchment (animal skin)
Making parchment: stripping hairs of the animal’s skin
Forming a quire
Binding of a book
Written by hand; every individual manuscript is unique; people make mistakes so
several manuscripts of the same story may be different.
Manuscripts are very expensive
Very vulnerable; many fell victim to water or fire
Canterbury Tales manuscripts:
o 80+ manuscripts; very popular
o None of them were written by Chaucer himself
o All of them are unique and have a different ordering of the Tales
Illumination: illustrations or decorations in the margins and capital letters, called
miniatures. A red lead dye was always used for capital letters.
Codex: Manuscript codex differs from ‘book’ because a collection of different texts
would be bound together, often very different, even in several languages.
The owner had the pile of sheets or quires bound and numbered the leaves by
inscribing a number at the front of each leaf, often between two top lines.
Once the codex was bound and placed in a library, it was catalogued by a shelf mark,
consisting of bookcase (usually a number), shelf (a letter, counted bottom to top) and
place on the shelf (a number, counted left to right), e.g., Leiden University Library
73E9.
Medieval ‘writers’:
, Sribe (scriptor): someone who writes others’ words, adding nothing and changing
nothing.
Compiler (compilator): someone who writes others’ words, putting together passages
which are not his own.
Commentator: someone who writes both others’ words and his own, but with others’
words in prime place and his own added only for purposes of clarification.
Author (auctor): someone who writes both his own words and others’, but with his
own words in prime place and others’ words added only for purposes of confirmation.
Week 2
Geoffrey Chaucer: medieval society and the 14th century
Medieval society: three estates
The calamitous 14th century
Chaucer on his times
Medieval society: three estates
The nobility: those who fought (bellatores)
o Originally: mounted warriors, received lands from king in return for military
service
o Task: protect the weak and the poor
o Medieval tournaments
o Lifestyle: chivalry, courtly love, learning how to paint or write
o The English nobility had ties with the French nobility; the language of the
court up until the 14th century was also French
The clergy: those who prayed (oratores)
o Regular clergy: monk, friar (they follow a particular set of rules, they take
vows, live within enclosed communities)
Monks: followed rule (of St. Benedict)
Vows: poverty, chastity, obedience, stability of place
Monks, as opposed to friars, lived isolated from society. Typically, on
land given to them by the nobility or the church.
Many felt that the monks had become too rich and complacent and
didn’t follow the rules anymore, as a reaction to that the movement of
friars came.
Friars: mendicant orders: Franciscans, Dominicans, Carmelites,
Augustinians
Vows: poverty, chastity, and obedience
They do not take the vow of stability of place! They would go out to
streets or marketplaces to preach and beg for their money.
They really stressed the vow of personal poverty.
Some of these friars also became corrupt, greedy. Some were
womanizers. As a result of this there began to be a very anti clerical
feeling in society in the 14th century.
o Secular clergy: pope, bishop, parish priest (they go out into the world and
have functions within the church)
The peasantry: those who worked (laboratores)
, o They were tied to the land of the lord they worked on.
Later in the Middle Ages rise of the Middle Class (they questioned traditional
views of the 14th century)
The term clerk could have different meanings; it could refer to a churchman,
clergyman or ecclesiastic, a member of the five ‘minor orders’ as distinct from higher
or ‘holy orders’, a man or woman of book learning, one being able to read and write;
a scholar or a university student or it could refer to the office of writer, scribe,
secretary, keeper of accounts.
The calamitous 14th century
Rising middle class
Warfare:
o Wars of Scottish Independence (1296-1328, 1332-1357).
o Warfare doesn’t just mean a high death toll but also high taxation on the
people.
o Hundred Years’ War (1339-1453): War between England and France
As a result, French isn’t spoken anymore at court in England.
Religious upheaval (The Great Schism):
o The Great schism or Western Schism (1378-1418): One pope in Rome, one in
Avignon
o This creates a breeding ground for religious reform movements (culminates in
the Protestant Reformation).
o John Wycliffe (1320s -1384) and the Lollards argued: Christ taught people in
the language they knew, why shouldn’t we do that now? They then start
translating the bible into middle English.
o This means the people no longer needed the church and clergy to get to the
word of God.
o The church felt so threatened by Wycliffe that they declared him a heretic and
dug up his bones to burn them and throw the ashes into the river Thames.
Social upheaval: The Black Death (1348- ):
o Successive outbreaks from 1348 onwards
o Population of England reduced by 20-50%
o Which means there is a shortage of labour so that peasants who are still alive
can demand more
o Important socioeconomic consequences
o Statute of Labourers 1351: the nobility trying to keep the wages low and keep
peasants from moving
Social upheaval: Peasants Revolt (1381)
o One of the first major uprisings of the lower class in the Western world
o Many causes
o Prominent figures: John Ball, Wat Tyler, Jack Straw
Chaucer on his times
Chaucer and the 3 estates:
o Three pilgrims fulfilling their feudal duties are not criticised or satirised
(Knight, Parson, Ploughman)
o But: Miller interrupts conventional order of tales shows a growing
disregard for traditional society
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