3 chapter I. Geoffrey Chaucer was great English poet

2.3.The Canterbury Tales - New World Encyclopedia


The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written by Geoffrey Chaucer in the fourteenth century (two of them in prose, the rest in verse). The tales, some original and others not, are contained inside a frame tale and told by a collection of pilgrims on a pilgrimage from Southwark to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. The Canterbury Tales are written in Middle English. Although the tales are considered to be his magnum opus, some believe the structure of the tales is indebted to the works of The Decameron, which Chaucer is said to have read on an earlier visit to Italy.Chaucer is generally considered not only the father of English literature, but also, often of the English language itself. His works, especially The Canterbury Tales validated English as a language capable of poetic greatness, and in the process instituted many of the traditions of English poesy that have continued to this day. These works remain arguably the high point of literature written in Middle English, and demonstrate Chaucer's skill at realism, nuance, and characterization, which make them not only important historical documents, but timeless works of literature that can still be enjoyed today.
On an April day, a group of medieval pilgrims set out on a pilgrimage from London to Canterbury to pay their respects to the tomb of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral.[1] The group is described in detail, with characters from all classes, upper and lower, represented. Religious characters, including the monk and a pardoner, travel alongside a sailor, miller, carpenter, and a knight, among others. When the group stops for the night, the host of the pilgrimage proposes that they all tell stories to each other along the way. The pilgrims agree to tell four stories each, two on the way to Canterbury, and two on the way back. The person who tells the best story, as determined by the host, will have his way paid by the rest of the group. The tale-telling begins with the knight and proceeds as the pilgrims near Canterbury, each person telling a story that reflects their social position, and some telling stories which are intended to make fun of others in the group. No winner is chosen by the host in the end, and only a few of the pilgrims have told their tales by the time the story ends because Chaucer died before he could finish it. He originally intended to write 124 tales but only completed 24 before he died. Chaucer begins the work with an apology for anything in the stories which may be deemed inappropriate.
The date of the conception and writing of The Canterbury Tales as a collection of stories has proved difficult to ascertain. The Tales were begun after some of Chaucer's other works, such as Legend of Good Women, which fails to mention them in a list of other works by the author. However, it was probably written after his Troilus and Criseyde, since Legend is written in part as an apology for the portrayal of women in the Criseyde character. Troilus is dated to sometime between 1382 and 1388, with Legend coming soon after, possibly in 1386-1387. Work on The Canterbury Tales as a whole probably began in the late 1380s and continued as Chaucer neared his death in the year 1400.[2][3]


Two of the tales, The Knight's Tale and The Second Nun's Tale, were probably written before the compilation of stories was ever conceived.[3] Both of these tales are mentioned in the Prologue to the aforementioned Legend of Good Women.[4] Other tales, such as the Clerk's and the Man of Law's, are also believed to have been written earlier and later added into the Canterbury Tales framework, but there is less scholarly consensus about this. [5] The Monk's Tale is one of the few tales which describe an event which provides a clear date. It describes the death of Barnabo Visconti, which occurred on December 19, 1385, although some scholars believe the lines about him were added after the main tale had already been written.[6] The Shipman's Tale is believed to have been written before The Wife of Bath's Tale; in parts of the tale the Shipman speaks as if he were a woman, leading scholars to believe that the Shipman's Tale was originally intended for the Wife of Bath, before she became a more prominent character. References to her in Envoy to Bukton (1396) seem to indicate that her character was quite famous in London by that time.[7]


Chaucer's use of sources also provide chronological clues. The Pardoner's Tale, the Wife of Bath's Prologue, and the Franklin's Tale all draw frequent reference to Saint Jerome's Epistola adversus Jovinianum. Jerome's work is also an addition to Chaucer's Prologue to a revised Legend of Good Women dated to 1394, suggesting that these three tales were written sometime in the mid-1390s. Scholars have also used Chaucer's references to astronomy to find the dates specific tales were written. From the data Chaucer provides in the prologue, for example, the pilgrimage in which the tales are told takes place in 1387.[3] However, this assumes that the astronomical evidence is reliable and Chaucer did not alter them for artistic effect.[8]A total of 83 medieval manuscripts of The Canterbury Tales are known to exist, more than any other vernacular medieval literary work except The Prick of Conscience. This provides some evidence for the tales' popularity during the fifteenth century.[9] Fifty-five of these manuscripts are thought to have once been complete, while 28 more are so fragmentary that it is difficult to tell whether they were copied individually or were part of a larger set.[10] The Tales vary in both minor and major ways from manuscript to manuscript, with many of the minor variations obviously coming from copyists' errors. However, other variations suggest that Chaucer himself was constantly adding to and revising his work as it was copied and distributed. No official, complete version of the Tales exists and it is impossible with the information available to determine Chaucer's preferred order or even, in some cases, whether he even had any particular order in mind.[11][12]


Scholars usually divide the tales into ten fragments. The tales that make up a fragment are directly connected and make clear distinctions about what order they go in, usually with one character speaking to and then stepping aside for another character. Between fragments, however, there is less of a connection. This means that there are several possible permutations for the order of the fragments and consequently the tales themselves. Below is list of the most popular ordering of the fragments:[11]
An alternative to this order is the placing of Fragment VIII(G) before VI(C). In other cases, the above order follows that set by early manuscripts. Fragments I and II almost always follow each other, as do VI and VII, IX and X in the oldest manuscripts. Fragments IV and V, by contrast are located in varying locations from manuscript to manuscript. Victorians would frequently move Fragment VII(B2) to follow Fragment II(B1), but this trend is no longer followed and has no justification.[11] Even the earliest surviving manuscripts are not Chaucer's originals; the oldest is MS Peniarth 392 D (called "Hengwrt"), compiled by a scribe shortly after Chaucer's death. The scribe uses the order shown above, though he does not seem to have had a full collection of Chaucer's tales, so part are missing. The most beautiful of the manuscripts is the Ellesmere manuscript, and many editors have followed the order of the Ellesmere over the centuries, even down to the present day.[13][14] The latest of the manuscripts is William Caxton's 1478 print edition, the first version of the tales to be published in print. Since this version was created from a now-lost manuscript, it is counted as among the 83 manuscripts.[15]
CONCLUSION
The Canterbury Tales is one of the most important works of the Western literary canon. It is read by virtually all students of English literature and often imitated and adapted, making it accessible to a wider range of audiences.The title of the work has become an everyday phrase and been variously adapted and adopted; for example Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, among many others.


Many literary works (both fiction and non-fiction alike) have used a similar frame narrative to the Canterbury Tales in homage to Geoffrey Chaucer's work. Science Fiction writer Dan Simmons wrote his Hugo Award winning novel Hyperion based around an extra-planetary group of pilgrims. Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins used The Canterbury Tales as a structure for his 2004 non-fiction book about evolution–The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution. His animal pilgrims are on their way to find the common ancestor, each telling a tale about evolution. The Yeoman is also known as "Pogue… I'm a G!!"
Henry Dudeney (1857–1930) was an English mathematician whose book The Canterbury Puzzles contains a part which is supposedly lost text from The Canterbury Tales.
Historical mystery novelist P.C. Doherty wrote a series of novels based on The Canterbury Tales, making use of the story frame and of Chaucer's characters.
CONCLUSION
Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales is a frame narrative, a tale in which a larger story contains, or frames, many other stories. In frame narratives, the frame story functions primarily to create a reason for someone to tell the other stories; the frame story doesn't usually have much plot of its ownEach character tells one or more tales, each falling into their own genre. Told in Middle English,--the common language at the time in England--Chaucer lays out a sprawling fiction told in prose and poetry within the romance, dream vision, and satire genres.
Each character tells one or more tales, each falling into their own genre. Told in Middle English,--the common language at the time in England--Chaucer lays out a sprawling fiction told in prose and poetry within the romance, dream vision, and satire genres.Most of the tales, except the Tale of Melibee and the Parson's Tale, are written in verse form. The tales are written in Middle English.Social satire is the major theme of The Canterbury Tales. The medieval society was set on three foundations: the nobility, the church, and the peasantry. Chaucer's satire targets all segments of the medieval social issues, human immorality, and depraved heart.
Metafiction is not restricted to modern literature. Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales," written in the 15th century, and "Don Quixote," by Miguel de Cervantes, written a century later, are both considered classics of the genreThough the majority of the writing in The Canterbury Tales is in verse and is usually categorized as poetry, there are two tales that are written in prose, or non-poetic writing with no rhythm, rhyme, or other poetic structures.
Though the majority of the writing in The Canterbury Tales is in verse and is usually categorized as poetry, there are two tales that are written in prose, or non-poetic writing with no rhythm, rhyme, or other poetic structuresThe Canterbury Tales is a satire, which is a genre of literature that uses humor—sometimes gentle, sometimes vicious—to ridicule foolish or corrupt people or parts of society.Satire is the use of humor or irony to reveal a person 's stupidity. Considering Chaucer 's stories are legendary, he never fails to through some satire into his writing. With that being said, using it while writing a story is one of the most effective ways of writing.