Ruslan Bahromov (019-22)

Ruslan Bahromov (019-22)

1. 
   Was Chaucer so active in public affairs that we may reasonably wonder how he found time to write so prolifically and as well as he did?
   

He was so active in public affaires that we may reasonably wonder how he found time to write as prolifically and as well as he did. Chaucer had the good fortune to serve as a page in the royal household while in his early teens. Later he married one of the queen’s ladies-in-waiting, was sent as the king’s emissary to France and Italy, and held various positions in the home government: controller of customs, justice of the peace, clerk of the king’s works, and deputy forester for a royal forest.

2. 
   What do the following sentences mean?
   

“The son of a wealthy London wine merchant, Chaucer had the good fortune to serve as a page in the royal household while in his early teens. Later, he married one of the king’s emissaries to France and Italy. He held various positions in the home government: controller of customs, justice of peace, Member of Parliament, clerk of the king’s works, and such responsibilities placed on him, Chaucer somehow found time to produce an astonishing body of prose and poetry.”
Geoffrey Chaucer contributed importantly in the second half of the 14 th centery to the management of public affairs as courtier, diplomat, and civil servant. In that career Chaucer was trusted and aided by three successive kings Edward III, Richard II, and Henry IV.

3. 
   What are Chaucer’s merits in the field of developing the English language?
   

One of the reasons he is so important is that Chaucer made the decision to write in English and not French. In the centuries following the Norman invasion, French was the language spoken by those in power. The Canterbury Tales was one of the first major works in literature written in English. He began the tales in 1387 and continued until his death. No text in his own hand still exists, but a surprising number of copies survive from the 1500s - more than 80. This suggests the tales were enormously popular in medieval England.

4. 
   What can you say about Chaucer’s long narrative poem “Troilus and Criseyde” based on Boccaccio’s retelling of a classical love story set during the legendary Trojan War?
   

His poem is a retelling of the story of Troilo and Criseida, told by Boccaccio in Il Filostrato in the late 1330s. Boccaccio's source was the story of Briseida, recorded in the twelfth century French Roman de Troie of Benoit de Sainte-Maure, and in a thirteenth century Latin prose translation by Guido delle Colonne; Chaucer's poem also consults Benoit directly at times. Benoit's narrative in turn derives from early medieval Latin accounts of the Trojan War by Dictys and Dares. In the versions before Boccaccio, the story is one episode in a much larger chronicle. The full-length plot and the development of the principal characters are Boccaccio's, and the particular complexities of Troilus and Criseyde, and of their friend Pandarus, are Chaucer's.

5. 
   Write summary to Thomas More’s work “Utopia” : when and where it was published? How many chapters does it consist? Write definition to each chapter.
   

The book begins with a short six-line poem, followed by a four-line poem and a letter of greetings from Thomas More, the author, to his friend Peter Giles. The two poems, written by Utopians, describe Utopia as an ideal state.
Utopia includes front matter: fictional images, maps, letters, and other writings purported to be from Utopia. The work itself contains two books. Book One consists of a long and philosophical discussion between the author (Thomas More), a mutual friend, and the fictional Raphael Hythloday.
Book Two consists of Hythloday's in-depth description of the land of Utopia. The book includes eight chapters that describe, in great detail, Utopia's geography, culture, religion, laws, and commerce.

Ruslan Bahromov (019-22)