GEOFFREY CHAUCER,

THE FATHER OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

• CA. 1345-1400

• BUSINESSMAN, COURTIER, SCHOLAR, SCIENTIST, SOLDIER, POET

• And maybe a spy

LIFE OF CHAUCER

• Son to John Chaucer, a vintner, wine importer, and tavern keeper (perhaps deputy to the king’s butler)

• Page to the Duchess of Clarence• Page in King Edward III’s household• Served in the King’s campaign against

France• Captured, held for ransom• The King paid his ransom

LIFE OF CHAUCER, cont.

• Granted a pension by the King; described as “our beloved yeoman”

• Traveled abroad for the king: Germany, Italy, France & Spain

• Fluent in English, Latin, French, Italian; spoke German and Spanish well

• First poet to be buried in Westminster Abbey, in a chapel that came to be known as Poet’s Corner

Westminster Abbey

Poet’s Corner & Chaucer’s Tomb

Chaucer's tomb, in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey, was built around 1556 to provide a more honorable tomb for the Father of English Poetry. His remains were transferred from their initial resting place in St. Benedict's Chapel to their current location. Chaucer’s date of death on this tomb is October 25, 1400.

CHAUCER’S WORKS

• The Book of the Duchess

• The Parliament of Fowls

• The House of Fame

• Troilus and Cressida

• The Legend of Good Women

• The Canterbury Tales

• Numerous scientific tracts

FATHER OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

• Chaucer is called “The Father of English Literature” because

• He was the first poet to produce literature in recognizable English

CHAUCER’S WORLD

• Chaucer lived in a complex and changing time

• There were several outbreaks of Black Plague

• Northern Europe was experiencing a mini-Ice Age

• The Baltic Sea froze over

• Crops were lost and many people starved

CHAUCER’S WORLD

• There was also political turmoil

• The Magna Carta had been signed in 1215

• But there were still many disagreements among the nobles, the monarch, and the Church

• Not to mention wars with France

• The Hundred Years War (1337-1453)

A MULTILINGUAL SOCIETY

• LATIN: the Church, Courts of Law, and scholarship

• FRENCH: the Royal Court, upper classes, and literature

• ENGLISH: commoners

THE TEXT

• Chaucer is ambiguous

• He expects you to know the Bible and the Classics

• He expects you to be an active reader; to read again and again

• (Shakespeare said that he learned his craft from Chaucer)

THE IMPORTANCE OF CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL

• Begins with the relationship between King Henry II of England (r. 1154-1189)

• And Sir Thomas à Becket (b. ca.1118; martyred December 29, 1170; canonized 1173)

THOMAS À BECKET

• University educated (meant he qualified to be a priest)

• Friends with Henry II• Appointed Chancellor of

England, 1155 (is Archdeacon of Canterbury)

• Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, 1162

BECKET• Becket turns from a courtier to an ascetic

and a champion of the poor

• Many quarrels between Becket and Henry over Church/State supremacy

• Becket has to seek refuge in France for 6 years

• The Pope must intervene

HENRY & BECKET

• Supposedly Henry and Becket are reconciled

• Becket returns to Canterbury

• “Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?”

HENRY II

THE MARTYRDOM

• 1170: Four knights (Hugh de Merville, William de Tracy, Reginald Fitzurse, and Richard le Breton) travel to Canterbury

• Becket has been warned but he does not flee

• December 29, they burst into the Church

• They confront him; he walks away

THE MARTYRDOM

• They catch him in a side chapel

• All four attack him• One strikes with such force

that Becket’s tonsure is cut off• The sword clangs against the

stone floor and the tip is broken off

• Becket lies dying on the floor

THE MARTYRDOM

• The knights flee

• People in the Church rush to Becket’s side

• Many dip their handkerchiefs in his blood, pluck hairs, tear little pieces of cloth from his clothing to keep as relics

THE SHRINE

• Becket’s tomb becomes a shrine

• Pilgrims go there to pray, ask for certain favors like cures for illnesses

• Going on pilgrimage becomes a vocation for some, a vacation for others

• There are even professional palmers, those who go on pilgrimage for others

PUBLIC PENANCE

• The outcry is so great that Henry fears an uprising

• Becket is canonized in 1173• In 1174, Henry does public penance • He walks a mile, barefoot, to the Cathedral,

in January, wearing only a hairshirt. He ascends the steps on his knees and prays by Becket’s tomb, asking for forgiveness.

The City Walls of Canterbury

• Medieval walls were built on the foundations constructed by the Romans. Today these still circle much of the central city. On the right is a mound of great antiquity with an obelisk at its summit.

C A N T E R B U R Y C A T H E D R A L

• “Canterbury” from Anglo-Saxon “Kant-We”, meaning Man of Kent/Cent and “bury” from the Latin for “fort”

• “Cathedral” from the Latin and Greek “cathedra” meaning “chair” or “throne.” A cathedral is the home church for the Bishop of the Diocese.

Canterbury Cathedral: different views

Canter-bury by

night

CHRIST CHURCH

GATE

The Christ Church Gate was completed in 1517 in the late Gothic style; it was restored 1931-7.

Canterbury

Cathedral

• West Façade

• Entry for tourists

Canterbury Cathedral

• Main entrance to the

cathedral

Bell Harry Tower

• The Bell Harry Tower over the Crossing was designed by John Wastell and completed at the end of the 15th century

The Cloisters

Cloister Exterior•The present cloister was designed by master mason Stephen Lote and constructed between 1397 and 1420 in the Perpendicular style.

The Cloisters Interior

From inside the Cloisters

• Interior of Canterbury

The Nave

The Nave• The present

nave of the church is not the nave St. Thomas knew.  Built 1377-1405, it was designed by Henry Yevele and consists of eight bays in the Perpendicular style.

Nave Vaults

• Interior of the main ceiling

Interior of the Choir (Quire)

THE GREEN MAN

• A pagan symbol that remained firmly entrenched in the popular imagination. Many such carvings are found in cathedrals.

THE CROSS

VAULTED CEILING

under The Bell Harry Tower

(late 1400s, early 1500s)

• The Pilgrims’ Steps leading to Thomas a Becket’s Shrine

• The truly penitent will walk up the steps on their knees

TRINITY CHAPEL

• Where Becket’s body lay until the Church was nearly despoiled by Henry VIII in 1538.

TRINITY CHAPEL

• Stained Glass window depicting pilgrims praying at Becket’s Shrine

• Stained Glass depicting the Martyr-dom of Becket

The Altar of the Sword’s Point

The Martyrdom is in the north-west transept of the Cathedral.  Here Becket was murdered on December 29, 1170, just after Vespers.  The modern sculpture was added above the Altar of the Sword's Point in 1986.  The white pavement marked off by black marks the spot where, according to Canterbury tradition, Thomas' head struck the floor.  The stone lies to the left of the altar (as you face it), just before the steps up into the Dean's (Our Lady) Chapel.

The Canterbury Tales

by Geoffrey Chaucer

Pages from

The Ellesmere Manuscript

The first page of The Ellesmere Manuscript. The Pilgrim is Chaucer.

A KNIGHT ther was, and that a worthy man…

…a yong SQUYER,/A lovyere, and a lusty bacheler

There was also a Nonne, a PRIORESSE

A good WYF was ther of bisyde BATHE

A COOK they hadde with hem…

More

Illuminated

Manuscripts

The Book of Hours

Book of Hours• Book of Hours

France, Rouen, c. 1470

•The Visitation. The Hours of the Virgin form the core of a Book of Hours, and they are often illustrated with scenes from the Infancy of Christ. One of the first hours of the day is Lauds, illustrated here with a miniature of the Visitation, an event in which the pregnant Virgin Mary and Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, meet.

The Annunciati

on

• From The Book of Hours

Monks in Song

• From The Book of Hours

Psalm 96

• From The Book of Hours , 1460

The Book of

Kells

• Illuminated manuscript of The Gospels

• Compiled about 800, A.D.

• Now housed in Trinity College, Dublin

• This is the opening page for the Gospel of St. Matthew

The Book of

Kells

• The opening of the Gospel according to St. John

The Book of Kells

• The Crucifixion

The Book

of Kells

Mirror of the Blessed Life

of Jesus

• Nicholas Love • 1475

Confessio

Amantis (Confessions of

Love)• John Gower,

1390

Guillame Tardiff, Book of Falconry, 1460

Falconrie,

Venerie et la

Chasse

• 1494

Fall of Princes

• Lydgate

A Bestiary: The Lion

The Crocodile

The Manticore