Canterbury tales

4. D. CHAUCERA AND THE CANTERBURY TALES: A CONTEMPORARY VIEW ON THE SOCIETY OF ENGLAND OF THE XIV CENTURY
In this article we will turn to the problem of literary texts as one of the types of historical sources. At the same time, the question of their relevance, one way or another, concerns the problem of the author, and on closer examination, how origin, education and social experience affect the nature of the text and the ways in which it reflects the surrounding reality. Let us analyze D. Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales from the aforementioned positions.
Geoffrey Chaucer ( 1340? - 1400) is considered the father of English poetry, the creator of literary English, the first English realist poet, a pre-Renaissance humanist. The main work of the poet, the result of his creative path, is The Canterbury Tales, where the author's interest in the political, economic, ethical, religious phenomena of England in the 14th century was fully expressed, and most importantly, in his contemporaries - people of various classes and states.
Chaucer's biography is an excellent example of the existence of an individual in various social fields. At different periods of his life, the poet communicated with representatives of almost all classes, which allowed him to know all aspects of the life of English society. And if we take into account that Chaucer was successful not only as a poet and various kinds of employee, but also as a husband and family man, his personality in a good sense becomes amazing.
D. Chaucer was born into a London merchant family of Norman origin, his father was a wealthy wine merchant, had a large enterprise importing Spanish and Italian wines to England. Apparently he was the supplier of the royal court, which made it possible for Chaucer, even in his youth, to get into the circle of courtiers, into the English aristocratic society, where the future poet learns the life and customs of the upper feudal class. In 1357, he already holds the position of a page in the retinue of the wife of Edward's son, the Duke of Lionel Clarence , and two years later becomes a squire and takes part in the military campaign of King Edward in France. There, Geoffrey is captured near the city of Reims, but the generous king ransoms him for only 16 livres. Chaucer experienced ups and downs in his court career, treated differently by successive English kings, but the poet himself was always loyal to his patrons, such as Edward III's son the Duke of Lancaster, John of Gaunt.
At court, Chaucer witnessed one of the most important events of the 14th century: the last surge of chivalrous culture in the history of England under Edward III. The king was a passionate lover of tournaments, embodied all knightly ideals and tried to revive the cult of chivalry. Chaucer shared similar sentiments. In addition, the poet lived in the era of the Hundred Years War, and moreover, he was a participant in it. Military operations, coupled with the predilection of Edward himself, allowed Chaucer to feel the lifestyle of the knighthood : reading the story of the knight from the Canterbury Tales, we see that Chaucer was quite well versed in knightly duels and tournaments, we meet their detailed description.
From 1370 a new streak began in Chaucer's life. He began, on behalf of the king, to accompany diplomatic missions to Europe: he visited Italy twice - in 1373 and 1378. It is suggested that there the poet personally met with the founders of Italian humanism Petrarch and Boccaccio, although there is no reliable data on these meetings. One thing is clear, this period in the life of Chaucer is one of the most important. He gave the poet the opportunity to observe the highly developed urban early humanistic culture, master the Italian language, and expand social and cultural experience. Moreover, the influence of early Renaissance Italian literature is clearly felt in the same Canterbury Tales.
From 1374 to 1386 Chaucer served as Customs Comptroller for wool, leather and furs at the Port of London. This position was not easy. The poet had to spend the whole day in the port, write all the reports and accounts with his own hand, inspect the goods, collect fines and duties. There was no time left for creativity, and only at night Chaucer worked on his works. Then he read books and educated himself.
The poet's passion for reading is obvious. His writings testify to the knowledge of ancient and medieval literature, the works of Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio (which is not typical for England), Holy Scripture, the works of the "Church Fathers", an interest in philosophy, music, astronomy, alchemy. References to books are constant in all of Chaucer's major writings. And tradition ascribes to the poet the possession of a library of 60 volumes, which was a lot for that time. The answer to the question of what education the poet received is still not clear, but many researchers suggest that it was legal. Based on what knowledge Chaucer must have had, holding various government positions, and in what educational institutions people of his circle and wealth studied, Gardner comes to the conclusion that the poet could have studied sciences in the Inner Temple - a guild of lawyers created from the Temple Church in London.
Surprisingly, "customs" is the most productive period of the poet's work. Now Chaucer saw the true life of London in the 14th century, got acquainted with urban England. Merchants and officials, artisans and small merchants, yeomen and villans, monks and priests passed by him. Thus, the service brought him into contact with the business world of London, and the social types he saw later appeared in his stories.
In addition to service and writing, Chaucer also realizes himself in his personal life: since 1366, the poet was married to Philippa Roet , the maid of honor of the second Duchess of Lancaster, and had three children. In addition, despite his strong employment, Chaucer was also engaged in social activities - he was a justice of the peace in Kent (1385), a deputy in parliament from the same county (1386). While in Kent, he got acquainted with rural England, communicated "with people from the earth": landowners, tenants, managers, villans, cotters . This environment greatly enriched his observations.
The following years were not very successful in Chaucer's life. The era of Richard II was full of intrigues and political conflicts: the Duke of Gloucester and the patron of the poet D. Gaunt and the Duke of Lancaster fought for influence on the young Richard II. After Gloucester's victory, Chaucer lost his place in the customs. His financial situation worsened, and in 1387 his wife died. Chaucer was morally depressed, a "black streak" came in his life. Only in 1389, when the matured Richard II took power into his own hands, Chaucer received the post of superintendent of the royal estates and overseer of the repair of royal buildings, but did not last long. In 1391 he was deposed, and for the last years of his life he lived on occasional handouts and commissions. On October 25, 1400, Chaucer died, and his grave became the first in "Poets' Corner" in Westminster Abbey.
Surprisingly, in - in the most difficult years in his life (political intrigues, removal from office, financial problems, death of his wife), Chaucer creates the most vivid, cheerful book, full of humor and irony - The Canterbury Tales. The stories can be called "an encyclopedia of the literary genres of the Middle Ages ". Here is a chivalric romance, and a pious legend, and a historical story, and a fablio, and a sermon, and a short story. By the way, the frame structure of Chaucer's book itself was innovative for that time, it was well known in the east, but in Europe it was found only by a few authors (for example, Boccaccio ).
On an imaginary April morning, 29 heterogeneous pilgrims from various parts of England set off from Southwark to Canterbury to the tomb of St. Thomas Becket and, to amuse themselves on the road, tell each other stories - that, it would seem, is the whole plot of the Canterbury Tales. However, in it Chaucer was able to express the realities of medieval England. Becket , Archbishop of Canterbury, who died a violent death in 1170, was famous for the fact that many were healed of her diseases. Such a pilgrimage was very popular in England, it is believed that the poet himself made it in 1385 .
In the general prologue, the narrator, whom Chaucer endowed with his name, appearance, and even calling as a poet, introduces and describes the pilgrims in turn. Pilgrims can be divided into several groups: people whose life takes place in military campaigns, rural residents, townspeople, clerics, representatives of the urban intelligentsia. We see that the pilgrims belong to different strata of society, only the highest court (dukes, princes) and church (bishops, archbishops) aristocracy are not represented. This is due to the fact that by the mid-1380s. Chaucer's connection with the royal court was greatly weakened, and he intended the stories for a society of townspeople who usually did not clash with the upper classes.
So, in The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer speaks from the position of the author-storyteller. At the same time, he not only characterizes modern English society and shows the realities of England in the 14th century, but also expresses the views of a representative of a new social type that began to take shape in the cities of that time - a secular official, an educated layman. Although there are several semantic levels and the views of Chaucer himself can not always be distinguished, the researchers note that the characteristics of the pilgrims given by the poet are objective, and express the trends of the time.
In the prologue, Chaucer describes three characters whose life is connected with war: a knight, a squire-squire, and a yeoman. In this trio, the main character is a knight. More than a third of all the stories are devoted to the theme of chivalry, apparently the “chivalrous” youth of Chaucer himself had an effect here. Two trends can be distinguished in them in the depiction of chivalry: one develops the image of a valiant and noble warrior outlined by the prologue (the story of a doctor, the knight himself), the other shows the emerging tradition of ridiculing a knight (the story of a weaver from Bath and a merchant). The latest tradition of depicting a knight not only goes back to fablio and urban literature, but also expresses a general European trend - the decline of the knighthood, which was also observed in England.
Chaucer draws in the stories a large number of representatives of the clergy (abbess, Benedictine monk, Carmelite monk, priest, bailiff of the church court, seller of indulgences). In characterizing these characters, he notes such trends of his time as secularism and formal piety, forgetfulness of the vow of poverty and money-grubbing, and deception of the population. At the same time, contrasts play an important role: the negative qualities of most of the clergy are set off by the image of the parish priest idealized by the author. This is the only type of clergy for which the poet apparently felt respect and sympathy: “I didn’t know a better priest,” he says . D. Chaucer not only abstractly criticizes the clergy, he reflects in the stories the realities of England in the 14th century. - the decomposition of the clergy, an increase in the number of mendicant monks-money-mongers, the defrauding of money from the people by the practice of papal indulgences, the arbitrariness of church bailiffs and the spread of Wycliffe's ideas . Apparently, Chaucer was quite familiar with the ideas of the Lollards, because his contemporary, the reformer of the English church D. Wycliffe, was assisted by D. Gaunt, a friend and patron of the poet. It is important to note that in Chaucer, who was a Catholic all his life, the ironic image of the clergy does not turn into a sharply accusatory one, concerning the institution of the Catholic Church as a whole. Obviously, this is not a criticism of faith, but of its bearers.