Powerful and Powerless

Three estates

o nobility—small hereditary aristocracy; born to rule and defend (bellatores)

o church—spiritual welfare of the body politic (oratores)

o everyone else—the great mass of people (laboratores)

1) Born into the growing middle class, son of a wine merchant (c. 1340).

2) Served in the royal household (page to 2nd son of Edward III) and later held a series of administrative posts under Edward and Richard II.

3) Visited France and Italy on behalf of the crown during the 1360's and 1370's, exposing him to the literature of Europe, particularly the French Roman de la Rose and Boccaccio's Decameron.

4) Chaucer's career illustrates the economic, political, and social ferment of late 14th century England (landed wealth versus moneyed wealth).

5) Literary Chronology: Troilus and Criseyde (c. 1385) and The Canterbury Tales (c. 1386-1400)

Important Dates

o Born into prosperous middle-class household (son of a wine merchant)

o Not apprenticed to family business

o Secured a position (as a teen) as a page in the household of Prince Lionel (second son of Edward III)

o Acquires manners and skills necessary for a life at court

o Captured and ransomed during Hundred Years War (1359)

o Member of Edward III’s personal household (1367)

o Part of several diplomatic missions to Spain, France and Italy

o Controller of customs for the port of London (1374-1385)—an important administrative post in government

o Served as justice of the peace and knight of the shire (essentially a member of Parliament) for the county of Kent (1385-1386)

o Clerk of the King’s works (1389-1391)—administered royal residences, parks, and other holdings (his duties included supervising the construction of the nave of Westminster Abbey)

His Powerful Friends

o Served in the household of Prince Lionel, younger brother of John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster and arguably the most powerful noble during Chaucer’s lifetime

o His wife served in the households of Edward’s queen and of John of Gaunt’s second wife, Constance, daughter of the King of Castile

o Thomas Chaucer, probably Chaucer’s son, was an eminent man; his daughter Alice married successively the earl of Salisbury and the duke of Suffolk

o The gap between commoners and aristocracy was bridged by Chaucer’s family in three generations

Literary Activities

o As a page in Lionel’s household (and from prior experience) he would have been exposed to Latin, French, and native dialects of Middle English

o His experience with poetry would have been almost completely in French, the fashionable language and literature of the aristocracy

o Might have done some early imitations of Romance of the Rose type narratives (dream allegories)

o Journey to Italy (1372) key because it familiarized him with Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio—the last two still alive at the time of his visit

o Produces many works:

§ Parliament of Fowls (dream vision—birds meet on St. Valentine’s Day to choose their mates and to discuss the ways in which different classes of human society talk and think about love)

§ The House of Fame (dream vision—journeys in the talons of an eagle to the palace of the goddess Fame; gentle parody of Dante)

§ The Legend of Good Women (dream vision—the narrator forced to tell stories about good women as penance for antifeminism)

§ Translations of The Consolation of Philosophy and other texts.

§ Troilus and Criseyde (story of how Trojan Prince Troilus loved and finally lost Criseyde to the Greek warrior Diomede; adapted from Boccaccio’s Il Filostrato (the love-stricken)

§ The Canterbury Tales

1) Literary Structure

a) Originally planned for 120 stories (2 stories each way on pilgrimage from London to Canterbury for 30 pilgrims), but only 22 completed, with 2 fragmentary tales.

b) Chaucer left the manuscript(s) unfinished, so we don't know the final ordering of the tales, but:

i) We know there are 10 "fragment" or groups of tales that retain the same order within the fragment.

ii) We know that Fragment 1 (The General Prologue, the Knight's Tale, the Miller's Tale, the Reeve's Tale, and the Cook's Tale) begins and Fragment 10 (Parson's Tale and the Retraction) bound the others.

iii) We think that the two best early manuscripts of the Canterbury Tales (El & Hg) represent early editors' attempts to put the tales into a "Chaucerian" order.

iv) We always need to keep this manuscript context in mind and to remember that all modern editions of the Canterbury Tales are, in a sense, "fictions" in themselves.

c) Framing Device

i) Found in other texts of the time—most famously Boccaccio’s Decameron

ii) Chaucer not particularly carefully about details always

(1) pilgrims all ride horses (which would have been unusual)

(2) these particular characters probably would not be found together

(3) no stops along the way (at night or for some of the shrines)

(4) no devotional activity, which would have been common; not even stops for mass

iii) Walter William Skeat, Chaucer’s famous 19^th century editor, dates the beginning of the pilgrimage (the Knight’s Tale) as April 17, 1387

iv) Chaucer’s choice of characters wide-ranging in terms of class, etc.

v) Chaucer’s choice of narratives wide-ranging and set up interesting juxtapositions between teller and tale

d) Generic Complexity of the Canterbury Tales

i) different genres give different views of the world, different vocabularies, different images for truth.

(1) Romance (Knight's Tale) deals with human emotions and relationships.

(2) Fabliau (Miller's Tale) deals with the basic human needs of food, sex, or money.

(3) Saint's Life (Second Nun's Tale, Prioress's Tale) deals with the operations of God in a holy person's life.

(4) Moral Tales (Pardoner's Tale, Melibee) deal with orthodox morality.

(5) Sermons and Ethical Treatises (Parson's Tale) deal with spiritual matters.

2) The General Prologue

a) Opening of the General Prologue (l. 1-42): when...then

i) Contraries held in tension

(1) From the heavenly to the earthly

(2) theological to the biological/fleshly

(3) supernatural to the natural

(4) From winter to spring

(5) sickness to health

(6) death to life

b) Pilgrimage as a contemporary practice and spiritual ideal: the "holy blisful martyr" and the Parson

3) Genre of General Prologue

a) Estates Satire: an analysis of society in terms of its hierarchy. Each class or profession is described to show how it fails the ideal, implying a moral judgment.

b) Traditional division of medieval society: begins at top of the social ladder and then moves downward through the social spectrum.

c) Traditional three-fold division of medieval life & ideal figures in the General Prologue

i) Those who fight (Knight) (bellatores)

ii) Those who pray (Parson) (oratores)

iii) Those who labor (Plowman) (laboratores)

iv) This structure is breaking down at the time of Chaucer. Specifically, the three estates, or orders, is based on an essentially rural economy

v) Missing (or inaccurately lumped in with laboratores) are the townsmen (the crafts, merchants, etc.)

4) Organization of portraits in the GProl (ll. 745-48): Narrator apologizes that "Al have I nat set folk in hir degree."

a) Individuals, not groups described, but individuals are representatives of different recognizable groups

b) Key Idea:  the interplay of the social relations and individual identity in the tales and the Frame Tale

i) 29 pilgrims (27 men, 1 woman, Host)

c) Not an ordered hierarchy, because many will not stay in their respective places!

5) Class Structure

a) Aristocracy

i) Knight and his entourage :     highest ranking layman; ideal

ii) Squire:     romance hero

iii) Yeoman:     hardworking, in tune with the earth

iv) Prioress:     coy; unconsciously pretentious

v) Second Nun and entourage:     remain undeveloped

vi) Monk:     highest cleric

vii) Friar :     "lik a maister or a pope" (l. 263)

b) Middle Class

i) Merchant

ii) Clerk Ideal?

iii) Sergeant of Law

iv) Franklin

v) Guildsmen Belong to common craft guild

vi) Cook

vii) Shipman

viii) Physician

ix) Wife of Bath

c) Lower Class and Ruffians

i) Parson:     Humble origins; ideal

ii) Plowman:     Ideal

iii) Miller:     Scoundrels all

iv) Manciple

v) Reeve

vi) Summoner & Pardoner:     Clerical figures, but depraved

vii) Narrator:  Chaucerian persona

viii) Host/Harry Bailey: Owns Tabard, governing force

6) Portraits in the General Prologue

a) First Strata: Aristocracy (6)

i) Knight: one of three (and perhaps four) ideal portraits

(1) warrior, crusader; embodies courtly values

(2) has fought in every theatre, at the edges of Christendom

(3) comes right from the front; chain mail still rusty

(4) key lines: ll. 45-46 and 68-72

ii) Squire: knight's son; embodies the qualities of the typical romance hero

(1) courtly and military arts

(2) key lines: ll. 88-92

iii) Yeoman: knight's servant; well armed; a forester

(1) description focuses entirely on external attributes: longbow, gamecraft

iv) Prioress: head of a convent; younger daughters of wealth

(1) romance heroine disguised as a nun

(2) pretender to courtly life: table manners, bad French, lap dogs

(3) jewelry thinly disguised as devotional objects: "Amor Vincit Omnia" versus "Caritas Vincit Omnia"

(4) key lines: ll. 150-53; narrator stricken

(5) accompanied by another nun (who is later given the Second Nun's Tale) and three priests

v) Monk: hunter; country gentleman on pilgrimage

(1) parallels Prioress: courtly values in the cloister

(2) "a manly man" (167) and "fish out of water" (180)

(3) narrator likes him: "I seyde his opinion was good" (183)

(4) antimonastic satire: he breaks all four monastic vows:

(a) Poverty

(b) Obedience to the Rule ("Regula")

(c) Stability: he doesn't remain cloistered

(d) Chastity: priketh, venerie, love knot

vi) Friar: utter violation of his vows, but a great guy to be with

(1) supposed to be poor and chaste, but is "wanton and merry" (208)

(2) associates with local women and taverners

(3) monetary religion for profit

(4) key lines: 249-50, 269-70 (spiritually dead)

b) Middle Strata: Middle Class and Other Social Climbers (9)

i) Merchant: perfectly anonymous, ambiguous portrait

(1) import-export trader in wool; sharp businessman

(2) presents himself as wealthy and successful, but seems also to be in debt (281-82)

(3) ultimately mysterious: "I noot how men hym calle" (286)

ii) Clerk: another ideal portrait; contrasts with the Merchant

(1) perfect student; bookish, pious; large library

(2) prays for those who enable his study

(3) key lines: 306-10 (moral virtue)

iii) Sergeant of Law: great concern for appearances; "seemed"

(1) only 20 or so of his rank in the country; all judges drawn from this group

(2) superlatives: highly self-conscious presentation

(3) ability with language (drafting documents)

(4) key lines: 323-25

iv) Franklin: in company of Man of Law (landholder w/ land speculator)

(1) member of landed gentry; acquired land

(2) Santa Claus figure

(3) gastronomic vocabulary: his farm is set up so that he can eat well

(4) key lines: 338-42

v) Guildsmen: four clothworkers and a carpenter

(1) members of parish guilds, "livery"

(2) seeking social and economic advancement; wives' motives revealed

(3) key lines: 365-66

vi) Cook: accompanies guildsmen

(1) cooks usually not included in Estates Satire

(2) defined by his professional skill

(3) later called Roger (Hodge) of Ware

(4) key lines: 385-89

vii) Shipman: "a good felawe," applies also to Summoner and his partners in crime

(1) expert seaman; knows all the harbors, ports, tides, and currents of the entire Mediterranean basin

(2) thievery, piracy, mass murder

(3) key line: 400

viii) Physician: socially, we would expect him to be grouped with the Sgt. of Law and Merchant, but astronomical references tie him to Shipman

(1) knows the cause of every ailment (421-24; theory of humors) but knows the Bible but little (438)

(2) profit minded; healing not an end but a means

(3) in cahoots with the apothecaries (427-30)

(4) key lines: 414-15

ix) Wife of Bath, larger than life: scarlet stockings, red face

(1) homiletically fits the 7 Deadly Sins; but 3 pilgrimages to Jerusalem

(2) skills in clothmaking, middle man between weavers and exporters

(3) but husbands are her specialty (5 husbands) and "the old dance"

(4) key lines: 476-78

c) Lower Classes, Rascals and Ruffians, and Other Depraved Persons (7)

i) Parson: reformist, idealized figure

(1) devout, simple, pious; ref. to John 4 (?)

(2) double portrait: by looking at what he does we can see the negative image, the "shiten shepherd" (506)

(a) Excommunicate for nonpayment of tithes

(b) Expect wealth

(c) Neglect pastoral duties

(d) Rent out their positions and take a chantry

(e) Flatter their superiors

(3) key lines: 481-84

ii) Plowman: Parson's brother

(1) physically and spiritually an ideal portrait

(2) contrast: clean shepherd and dung smeared farmer

(3) portrays life of a good Christian: "worthy" not used of him--"true"

(4) never pretends to be more than he is

(5) key lines: 534-37

iii) Miller: undeniable physical presence

(1) stout, thick-necked, wrestler

(2) mouth like a furnace, red hair, large nostrils, tufted wart, head- banger

(3) thief (gold thumb)

(4) key lines: 561-65

iv) Manciple: called "gentle," somewhat ironically

(1) manages the accounts at the Inns of Court

(2) parallels Reeve, who manages accounts at a larger manor

(3) very closed portrait: nothing of his appearance, only his legal and financial skills

(4) tells a story against ever opening one's mouth

(5) key lines: 575-77

v) Reeve: lean and clean-shaven (sign of evil)

(1) rides apart from the group

(2) key lines: 605-07

vi) Summoner:  officer of the ecclesiastical court

(1) rides with Pardoner

(2) hideous appearance and corrosive treatments match his unashamed abuses of his position

(3) debased morality: uses his office for profit and sexual exploitation

(4) key lines: 626-30 (children afraid)

vii) Pardoner: strange hair and appearance

(1) unashamedly sells indulgences and relics; performance artist

(2) ambiguous sexuality: "I trowe he were a geldyng or a mare" (693)

(3) strange relationship to the Summoner (675)

(4) key lines: 710-16

d) Frame Characters (2)

i) Narrator: compassionate, bemused, ironic, questioning, easily impressed, observant.

(1) "My wit is short" (748); self-depreciating

(2) introduces the problem of storytelling, the problem of language (727-38)

(3) "Wordes moot be cosyn to the deed" (744): different tellers use different languages, with different aims

ii) Host: named by Cook later, "Harry Bailey"

(1) narrator impressed: "seemly man" (753); marshall in a hall

(2) ordering force; proposes the tale-telling contest (774 ff.)

(3) key lines: sentence and solas (800)

(4) rigs the drawing (846-47)

7) The Frame Tale: introduces pilgrims and tales

a) Refers to the tale-telling contest proposed by the Host, Harry Bailley, outlined in the General Prologue (ll. 771 ff.) and furthered in the "links" or transitional passages between some of the tales (i.e. the prologue to the Miller's Tale). Therefore, the Canterbury Tales function as tales within a broader tale of rivalry, conflict, appeasement, and domination and submission

b) "Roadside Drama": a view of the CT that compares the portrait of the pilgrim in the GProl with that pilgrim's story—focuses on the frame (especially the material linking the stories)

c) Therefore, there are multiple frames of reference operating within the CT, and these multiple modes of meaning make the CT an interesting, attractive text for modern readers.

i) Chaucer the "real" writer

ii) Chaucer the pilgrim

iii) The Host

iv) Individual pilgrims

v) Characters within the tale