Literature 5: The Canterbury Tales (Masterlanguage)

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• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 5

Literature 5: 
The Canterbury Tales

1. Take a guess: The travellers in The Canterbury Tales travel to Canterbury, but where do they come from?

1. Sheffield
2. Glasgow
3. Leicester
4. London

2. Take a guess: The Canterbury Tales was written in what language?

1. Old English
2. Middle English
3. Old French
4. Middle French

3. Take a guess: How many stories are there in The Canterbury Tales?

1. 10
2. 14
3. 21
4. 24

4. Take a guess: The Canterbury Tales is one big story that connects to series of other stories. What is this called?

1. Frame narrative
2. Web narrative
3. Box narrative
4. Casing narrative

5. Take a guess: True or False "Geoffrey Chaucer never finished The Canterbury Tales because he died."

1. True
2. False

Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400)

- first poet writing in English

- The Canterbury Tales

- first record: 1357 as a page (serves a knight)

- 1359-1360 in France (Hundred Years' War)

- 1366 diplomatic mission to Spain

- marries wife Philippa

- 1368 from page to squire

Last part of his life

- 1386 Chaucer moves to Kent

- Member of the Parliament

- 1389 Clerkship of the Royal Works

- 1391 Resigns

- Becomes a forester (boswachter)

- Dies around 1400

The Canterbury Tales

- One of the few well preserved works in Middle English
- Group of pilgrims from London to Canterbury
- Innkeeper: each pilgrim tells 2 stories to pass the time
- Best story: free supper 
- Chaucer as a narrator introduces each pilgrim
- Various types: rude, moral, humorous, etc. 

Importance

1. Written in English instead of French
            - French was the language of those in power
            - English meant a larger audience
2. The work says a lot about the English medieval society
            - Description of the pilgrims
            - Customs and practices at the time 

Creation of The Canterbury Tales

- Started in 1387 until his death in 1400
- Original work doesn't exist anymore
- More than 80 copies survive
- Must have been very popular
- For many other texts only a couple of texts survive
- Story wasn't complete: only one group of pilgrims
- 29 travellers and tales

Marriage

Dutiful wife and subserviant wife

 A wife that knows her own mind and owns property

Challenging or maintaining stereotypes

 

Friar Quote

He hadde maad ful many a mariage

Of yonge wommen at his owene cost.

Positive Yes or no?

What is a Friar?

Wife of Bath

Experience, though noon auctoritee

Were in this world, is right ynough for me

To speke of wo that is in mariage;

For, lordynges, sith I twelve yeer was of age,

Thonked be God that is eterne on lyve,

Housbondes at chirche dore I have had fyve.

Hierarchy

Functional system (categorising people into their uses)

Moral righteousness (worthy or not)

Rank based on birth (King, Servant, Knight, Clergymen)

Prologue (about the Nun)

And Frenssh she spak ful faire and fetisly, 

After the scole of Stratford atte Bowe, 

For Frenssh of Parys was to hire unknowe.

Positive Yes or no?

The miller

The Miller, that for dronken was al pale, 

So that unnethe upon his hors he sat, 

He nolde avalen neither hood ne hat, 

Ne abyde no man for his curteisie, 

But in Pilates voys he gan to crie, 

And swoor, ‘By armes, and by blood and bones, I can a noble tale for the nones, With which I wol now quite the Knyghtes tale.’

Storytelling

Human comedy (daily life for the times)

The stories are connected through commentaries on each other's tales

6. True or False: "Chaucer is both the author as well as a character in The Canterbury Tales."

1. True
2. False

7. What does the pilgrim with the best story get?

1. A new sword
2. A valuable book
3. A free supper
4. A loaf of bread

8. Which of the following is not a reason for why the Canterbury Tales is so important?

1. It was written in English instead of French
2. It was written during the Hundred Years' War
3. The work says a lot about medieval society

9. The Canterbury Tales contains stories about how many travellers?

1. 24
2. 29
3. 32
4. 36

10. How many copies of the Canterbury Tales have survived?

1. 50
2. 70
3. 80
4. 100

11. The finished version of The Canterbury Tales has stories from how many groups of pilgrims?

1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4

12. True or False: "Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales very early on in his life."

1. True
2. False

13. True or False: "Geoffrey Chaucer was the first poet writing in English."

1. True
2. False

Check the reader:

Literature 6: The Canterbury Tales
- Read the background information
- Answer the questions (using the internet)
- Check your answers (see Its Learning)