This is a summary for the first half of "Philology 1: Introduction to Middle English Language and Literature". This is a summary that I made for the MIDTERM
Index 1
Geoffrey Chaucer 3
Chaucer’s life 3
General acknowledgements 3
Chaucer’s Literary work 4
Reasons why Chaucer became so famous 4
Medieval society and the fourteenth century 5
Medieval society: three estates 5
Nobility/Aristocracy 5
Clergy 5
Peasantry 6
The calamitous fourteenth century 6
Political unrest: Warfare 6
Religious upheaval: The Great Schism 6
Religious dissent: Lollardy 6
The Black Death (1348-1352) 6
Social upheaval: Peasants revolt (1381) 7
Chaucer on his times 7
The Canterbury Tales 7
Structure 8
An anthology of medieval literature: 8
Why it's a rich work 8
Medieval manuscripts 8
Canterbury tales 9
Reason for the ‘pilgrimage’ 9
Style of the Canterbury tales 9
❗
Estates satire 9
Examples 9
‘Non-moral’ Chaucer 10
Voices and Audiences in the Canterbury Tales 10
Chivalry and Courtly Love 11
Romance: genre 11
Romance: general characteristics 11
Medieval Romance: background 11
Chivalry 12
Medieval Romance: origin and form 12
Chaucer and ME Romances: 12
1
, Chaucer and antifeminism: 13
What is Courtly Love 13
History 13
Love conventions 14
Stages of Courtly Love 15
Medieval Soul 15
Plato’s tripartite soul (4th c BC): 15
Medieval Soul (13th c AD) 15
Sensible soul and chivalry 16
The Middle English Language 17
The English Language 17
Middle English 17
Why is Chaucer worth studying according to Horobin? 17
1100-1400: trilingual England 17
French loanwords in ME 18
English vs. French (Anglo-Norman) 18
Changes in ME: Semantic 18
Word meaning? 18
Changes in ME: Grammar 19
Synthetic to analytic 19
Determiners 19
Nouns 19
Plural nouns 20
Pronouns 20
Chaucer’s 3rd plural pronouns 21
Thou ~ ye: formal vs. informal 21
Adjectives 21
Strong and weak verbs 22
Open vs Closed vowels 22
Summaries of the Tales 23
The General Prologue 23
Chaucer’s apology 24
Prologue to the Franklin’s Tale 24
The Franklin’s Tale 25
The Wife Of Bath’s Tale 26
2
,Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer was seen as the father of literature and “the European poet”. he
had a part in popularising Middle English as a written (not a spoken) language when
he wrote the Canterbury tales.
Chaucer’s life
- c.1340 → Born in London into a family of wine merchants.
- 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 the royal court of Kings Edward III (reign 1327-1377), Richard II
(reign 1377- 1399) and Henry IV (1399-1413);
- Close to John of Gaunt (1340–1399), son of Edward III
- Civil servant
- Controller of the customs
- Member of Parliament for Kent
- Clerk of the Works
- Deputy forester
- 1360 → Captured during a military campaign in France
- 1374 → Chaucer is granted a gallon pitcher of wine daily for life.
- 1380 → Chaucer is acquitted of raptus (=rape) of Cecily Chaumpaigne
- charges were dropped
- 1390-1391 → Robbed three times
- 1400 → died Murdered?
- How he died is speculation, and it is believed that he was murdered.
There is a book written about Chaucer by Terry Jones "who murdered
Chaucer?".
General acknowledgements
- Due to his travelling, he was familiar with many languages, authors, and
works. He was influenced a lot by Europeans. This makes him more of a
European poet
- He got into contact with a great variety of people, from wool merchants to
kings. Grew up middle class. His wealth of social experience is found in his
works.
- He could not have had this impressive career if he was not intelligent and
charismatic. He knew a lot about science, cultures and language. He put all
his incredible knowledge into his works.
- He was really good at writing poetry and earned fame for it. A fellow John
Gower called him a venus. He wrote many works, all of them in Riverside
Chaucer.
3
, Chaucer’s Literary work
- Romaunt of the Rose → first work to fame, a translation out of french.
- 1369: second work → The book of the Duchess. About a knight who is
heartbroken abt his loss of love
- Ca. 1380 → The Parliament of Fowls. A work about birds finding love on
Valentine's day. The feast about celebrating love comes from this
- 1382-1385 → Troilus and Criseyde
- 1385-1386 → The Legend of Good Women
- 1387-1400 → The Canterbury Tales → never finished it
Reasons why Chaucer became so famous
1. Chaucer wrote in English. Language for Literary fame was French/Latin at the
time. He shows that you can use English to write beautiful poetry. This
decision made him remarkable for the 14th century
2. His works are about love. His fame as "writer of Venus". That's how The
Canterbury Tales start, but not what they actually are.
3. First lines of Canterbury tales, most famous works ever. Canterbury tales are
about him and 29 others going on a pilgrimage from The Tabard Inn, London
to Canterbury.
4
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