U5 L8 Canterbury Tales (Chaucer's Works, Characters, Structure) Flashcards
What age was Chaucer when he became a poet?
twenties
What was the Book of Duchesse written in tribute to?
first wife of John of Gaunt when she died
What was Chaucer’s work influenced by? What idea did it set forth?
- Romance of the Rose of Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun
- courtly love
What was the inspiration for Chaucer’s Hous of Fame?
Dante’s Divine comedy
What was the Italian influence that Chaucer based The Clerk’s Tale on?
Boccaccio’s Decameron
What influenced Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde?
Boccaccio’s poem Filostrata
When did Chaucer begin working on the Canterbury Tales?
1386
Where were the group of pilgrims in the Canterbury Tales going to?
shrine of St. Thomas a Becket at Canterbury
How many tales did Chaucer intend for each traveler to tell?
four
two going to Canterbury, two returning to London
When did Chaucer die?
1400
By the time of Chaucer’s death, how many tales did he complete for the Canterbury Tales, and how many lines?
- 24 tales
- 20,000 lines
How did Chaucer begin and end the ‘Prologue’ to his Canterbury Tales?
- Knight, highest in morals and social scale
- characters at bottom of moral and social scale
What are the 5 SUCCESSIVE groups Chaucer’s characters can be arranged to?
- chivalric
- regular clergy
- middle class
- humble Christians
- rascals
What did the Chivalric/military group include?
- Knight
- Squire
- Yeoman
What did the Regular Clergy include?
- Prioress
- Monk
- Friar
- Second Nun
- Nun’s Priest
What did the Middle Class/bourgeoisie consist of?
- Chaucer
- Merchant
- Clerk
- Sergeant of Law
- Franklin
- five guildsmen
- cook
- Shipman
- Physician
- wife of Bath
What were the Five Guildsmen sometimes called?
Burgesses
What did the Humble Christians include?
- Parson
- Plowman
What is the first link in the Canterbury Tales?
Prologue
-introduces characters and the tale the Knight will tell
What was the framework in the Canterbury Tales designed to provide?
- info about Chaucer and Host
- Chaucer’s feelings about characters
- reveal more about characters
- additional insight to some of tales
- motivation for tales
- device for needed explanations
What is the second link in the Canterbury Tales?
Miller’s Prologue
- Host asks Monk to provide next story
- Miller begins the first fabliau
What is a fabliau?
humorous tale, popular in French literature
What is the third link in the Canterbury Tales?
Sergeant of Law’s Tale
Which relationships demonstrate Chaucer’s sense of humor?
- Reeve and Miller
- Cook and Host
How does Chaucer show humor towards himself in the Canterbury Tales?
- Chaucer is told to use prose
- but tells the tale in verse/rhyme anyways
