Michalski 3 – 03.11.11
Canterbury Tales
Geffrey Choicer 1345-1400
Father of English poetry
He travelled a lot, he went to Italy, he imitated trends from Italian literature
Spoke English and French
1066 – the battle of Hestings
3 languages were spoken:
French – ruling class
English – ordinary ppl
Latin – priests
Choicer decides to write in English, it's first great, sophisticated opus in English,
The ambition of Choicer was for each pilgrim to tell 2 stories to Canterbury and 2 back. There are only 24 tales, it wasn't finished
Choicer is narrator, one of the pilgrims, he wrote it after some time, All characters are individuals, he doesn't judge these ppl, he only says what they look like, how they behave. There's a link between characters and stories they tell.
General Prologue
The very highest and lowest class don't attend pilgrimage
Estates which take part in it:
the military (nobility)
The clergy
the laity
They set off in April
There's no snow, they can walk easily
The spring is the beginning of everything
Choicer feels more inspired by it, everything blooms
Why they go to a pilgrimage
To atone for their bad deeds
as a holiday
to socialise with other ppl
Knight's tale
Courtly love
It's a romance
Knight uses a high register
Love is irresistible, unattainable, at first sight, it's idealised,
Emily is very passive character
Main theme
the wheel of fortune once you're up and then you're down, wheel keeps on turning. God is in the centre of this wheel, we can escape this wheel by praying
Knight is a crusader, he's a man of action
Miller's Tale
Miller's tale is a fabliau – story about low class characters using very low, filthy (bawdy - sprośny) humour, scatology (connected with body an it's functions)
Alison vs Emily
Alison is very active, she's sexually attractive but she's not a goddess, she's a real woman.
We should put those two stories together to have a picture of ideal love
Find Canterbury Tales in Middle-English on youtube and listen to it
Read Sonnets can watch film