Chaucer’s biographical details:
• was the first great poet to write in English.
• Was born between 1340 and 1345, and was the son of a prosperous wine
merchant.
• Little is known about his education.
• He was captured by the French during the Brittany expedition of 1359, but was
ransomed by the king.
• Edward III sent him on diplomatic missions to France, Genoa and Florence.
• These travels exposed him to the work of authors such as Dante, Boccaccio and
Froissart.
• 1366 - Chaucer married Philippa Roet, a lady-in-waiting in the queen’s household.
• They are thought to have had three of four children.
• In 1374, Chaucer was appointed comptroller of the lucrative London customs.
• 1386 - elected member of parliament for Kent and also served as a justice of the
peace.
• Chaucer’s first major work was ‘The Book of the Duchess’, an elegy for the first
wife of his patron John of Gaunt.
• In 1387 he began his most famous work, ‘The Canterbury Tales’ - a diverse group
of people recount stories to pass the time on a pilgrimage to Canterbury.
• Chaucer disappeared from the historical record in 1400, and is thought to have
died soon after.
• He was buried in Westminster Abbey.
The Origins of the Wife of Bath’s tale:
• The tale that the Wife of Bath tells about the transformation of the old hag into
the beautiful young maid was one that was well known in poetry and for legend.
• Chaucer’s contemporary John Gower, a poet, wrote a version of the same tale
that was popular in this time.
• The moral of the folk tale of the loathsome hag is that true beauty lies within,
however the Wife of Bath only reaches that conclusion incidentally.
• The Wife of Bath’s tale is a “loathly lady” story.
• The story originally followed this storyline:
“A knight rapes a woman. This shocking crime is punishable by death, but
Queen Guinevere gives the knight a chance to live if he can
discover the secret of what women most desire. He meets an ugly
old hag who tells him that she knows the answer, but he has to grant
her a wish if she tells him. He agrees, and back at court, Guinevere accepts
that his reply—'Wommen desiren to have sovereynetee' over their
lovers and husbands— is correct and his life is saved. At that moment, the
old hag comes forward and demands her price: to marry the knight. On
their wedding night, she offers him a choice. She can either be
ugly and old, but faithful and true to him; or young and fair, but wayward. The
knight by now has learned his lesson. He gives her the power to
decide, and by doing so he paves the way for her to be both young,
beautiful and faithful.”
Kitteridge's 'marriage tales’:
, • Professor Kitteridge commented at length upon Chaucer’s discussion of marriage
in the Canterbury Tales.
• The Wife of Bath sets forward her convictions in regard to marriage and the
experiences by which these convictions are fortified.
• The text which she defends in her Prologue and Tale is :
“Wommen desires to have sovereyntee
As wel over hir housbound as hir love,
And for to been in maistrie him above.”
• Wives, then, should rule their husbands, the mastery should be in the hands of
women.
• This heresy is rebutted after the “comic interlude”furnished by the Summoner
and the Friar in the eloquence of the Clerk of Oxford, who drives home his point
with particular energy in his envoy - “yes ladies, rule your husbands, and make
them thoroughly miserable!”.
• The merchant then follows with a bitter attack upon women, and upon the
wedded state in general, in a story known for its sustained and savage irony.
• Finally, after the squire’s tale has been told ( which is “pure romance”
unconnected with the burning topic under discussion), the Franklin shows that
“the difficulty about mastery vanishes when mutual love and forbearance are
made the guiding principles of the relation between husband and wife”.
• With this tale, the Marriage group ends.
• Professor Kitteridge says that “The Wife of Bath’s prologue begins a Group in the
Canterbury Tales or, as one may say, a new act in the drama. It is not connected
with anything that precedes”.
TIMELINE OF EVENTS IN THE 1300S
1301 Edward I of England invests his baby son Edward as Prince of Wales
Guillaume de Nogaret, emissary of Philip IV of France, kidnaps Pope Boniface VIII and beats
him. The pope is rescued by Italians from Anagni, but dies shortly thereafter in Rome, probably as
1303
a result of his injuries. His death ends the struggle between Philip IV of France and the pope over
papal powers in France.
1304 Francis Petrarch (Franceswco Petrarca), Italian poet born.
Pope Clement V (Bertrand de Got, Archbishop of Bordeaux) claims the Papal See. The
"Babylonian Captivity" begins as the Papal See removed from Rome to Avignon, defying
1305
medieval custom.
The English capture and execute Scottish rebel William Wallace.
Philip IV expels the Jews from France.
1306 New Scottish rebellion against English rule led by Robert the Bruce. Robert is crowned King of
Scotalnd at Scone, rules until 1329. This ends the ten-year interregnum in Scotland.
King Edward dies while on campaign against Robert the Bruce.
1307 Edward II, King of England, rules until 1327.
Dante's Divine Comedy written about 1307-1321
1308 Albert I, Holy Roman Emperor, dies. His replacement: Henry VII, Holy Roman Emperor to 1313.
English barons appoint appoint 21 peers--the Lords Ordainers--to manage Edward II's household
1310
and control the country until the king reaches his maturity.
1312 Birth of Geoffrey Chaucer's father, John Chaucer.
