The Canterbury Tales

Vivien

— In Love, if Love be Love, if Love be ours,
Faith and unfaith can ne'er be equal powers:
Unfaith in aught is want of faith in all.

— It is the little rift within the lute,
That by and by will make the music mute,
And ever widening slowly silence all.

— The little rift within the lover's lute
Or little pitted speck in garner'd fruit,
That rotting inward slowly moulders all.

— It is not worth the keeping: let it go;
But shall it? answer, darling, answer, no.
And trust me not at all or all in all.

The Lady Vivien lived with the Lady of the Lake and knew all her magic. Afterwards she decided to go to Camelot where Merlin lived. There, in the castle where the magician worked, Vivien learned Merlin's magic power. Moreover, she decided to become the greatest 24

ill all magicians. So Vivien led Merlin to a magic cave. The mouth of the cave was open and Merlin went into il. Vivien made the mouth of the cave shut with the help of the magic spell. Thus Merlin could not go out of that cave. In 1998 a successful film "Merlin" was produced. Not only was that film made, but a thrilling screen version about King Arthur, "Excalibur", ap­peared in 1960s. Earlier, in 1960s the stage and musical film "Camelot" came into being. The legends of King Arthur, his knights and Merlin became famous all over the world for many centuries.

Wars and tragedies shook Britain in the Middle Ages. In the first half of the 14th century Edward III, King of England, wanted to be the King of France as well. There was still to be the Hundred Years War between France and England (1337-1453) as well as the Wars of the Roses between the royal houses of Lancaster and York for the throne of England. More than that, England suffered from three epidemics of the plague which brought illness and death to millions of people in England.

Then there were social problems with the peasants and townspeople. Nothing made the people so angry as the rich foreign bishops of the Catholic Church who paid no attention to the sufferings of the common people. Even poor priests protested against ignorant bishops and churchmen who didn't pay any attention to them and didn't teach the people anything. As a result, eve­rything found an echo in English literature. What's more, a good deal of Middle English literature was religious. John Wycliffe, a priest, translated part of the Bible from Latin into English to educate people who wanted to read the Bible but didn't know Latin. There

were several translations of the book, but the second, made in 1388, was the best one.

The last poet of the Middle Ages and the first Eng­lish poet who opened the way to English realistic liter­ature, free of the influence of the Church, was Geoffrey Chaucer.

Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400)

The king sent Chaucer to other countries to speak for the court ■

Geoffrey Chaucer was born in London in 1340 into the family of a wine merchant John Chaucer. He was not of high birth, his parents were not rich. Being a wine mer­chant his father was close to the court. He wanted a courtier career for his son Geoffrey. When Geof­frey was nineteen he was taken by Edward III to France where he was put into prison by the French. But Edward III paid the ransom to free Chaucer.

At court Geoffrey met travellers and many educated men, who taught him about the world more than all the churchmen at universities of the Middle Ages did when the printing of books had not yet been invented. (Wil­liam Caxton set up the first English printing press in 1476-1477.)

Chaucer visited Italy in 1373 where he was greatly interested in Italian poets and writers and got acquaint­ed with Boccaccio's "Decameron". Geoffrey Chaucer was influenced by many kinds of writing, he used many 26

I..... pean models, but his aim was to create purely

I M.'lr.li tradition in literature of the Middle Ages. ' h.nicer was a highly educated courtier, that is why he a useful servant of the king. For instance, the king ■•'•Ш him to other countries to speak for the court.

In 1366 Chaucer met a young lady at court named I'liilippa, and they got married.

In 1387 he planned his "Canterbury Tales", and in I.W8 he himself made a pilgrimage to Canterbury to \rit the Cathedral where Thomas a Becket, the Arch-In.hop of Canterbury, was murdered in 1170 by the knights of Henry II. The Cathedral was founded as a и и mastery by St Augustine in 597 and was enlarged in the 11 th— 14th centuries.

Chaucer didn't manage to finish his book, because he died in 1400. He was buried in Westminster Abbey in the "Poet's Corner." Geoffrey Chaucer is called the Father of English poetry and the last poet of the Middle Ages.

(1387-1400)

Originally founded by St Augustine in 597, Canter­bury Cathedral is the Mother Church of the Anglican Communion that receives visitors from all over the world. Among its many notable features are an out­standing Norman Crypt, the great early Gothic Quire, and the soaring perpendicular nave and central tower. It contains the sites of Thomas Becket's martyrdom and shrine, and its treasures include the tomb of the Black Prince and a superb collection of medieval stained glass. "The Canterbury Tales" was the first great work in English literature, written in "heroic couplets", ten

syllable lines that
rhyme in pairs re­
placed alliteration.
There were seven­
teen thousand lines
in the book where
Chaucer painted a
vivid picture of Eng­
lish society as it
Canterbury Cathedral _was j_n his days.

Chaucer didn't write in French or Latin. In those times there were still several different forms of English. His "Canterbury Tales" helped to make the dialect that was spoken in and around his native London the main written version, enriched by many French and Latin words. "The Canterbury Tales" is a series of linked stories told by a group of people. The idea of linked stories was not new. In Boccaccio's "Decam­eron" ten people escaping from the plague told stories to pass the time, and Chaucer borrowed that idea from Boccaccio. He had planned one hundred and twenty stories, but he wrote only twenty-four.

The stories are told by a group of people, pilgrims, on their way from an inn in London to the Canterbury Cathedral of Saint Thomas a Becket. A pilgrim is a person making a journey for religious reasons to a holy place to please God.

The owner of the inn is a fat jolly man whose name is Harry Bailey. He suggests that each pilgrim should tell two stories on the way to Canterbury and two more on the way back. They should decide whose story is the best, and a dinner would be given to the winner.

Chaucer introduces his pilgrims in the Prologue. Each of them is a real person. There are thirty of them in the 28

I... k, men and women. They are of different social

i rxcept the lowest and the highest. Most of them

IP 11 ic representatives of the middle class: a student,

iwyer, a clerk, a doctor, a sailor, a merchant and

ii a knight. They tell different stories: religious and

i i Lilar, classical and modern.

In April, when the nature came to life again, the pilgrims started on their journey. When they stopped to i:ive water to their horses, the leader of the group, the inn-keeper, asked the knight to start telling the first ■Jiny, because he had just come back from the war unhurt and was going to Canterbury to give thanks to

<io<l.

The Knight's story was a beautiful love story. Two knights, Sir Palamon and Sir Arcite, fell in love with a beautiful lady Emily. Each of them wanted to become her husband. They fought with each other for the right to win her heart. At the very end of the story Sir Arcite [ell down from his horse and hurt himself badly. Sir Palamon appeared to be a lucky one. He managed to win Emily's heart and became her husband.

The next pilgrim who had to tell his tale was a clerk who was learning to be a priest. The Clerk was very poor, he had no money to buy clothes and food. His tale was about a patient wife whose name was Griselda and who loved her husband Marquis Walter faithfully. Wal­ter was unkind to her, but she loved him and suffered a lot. Finally, when Walter understood that Griselda loved him, he cried that he would never hurt her again or bring sadness to her. The end of the Clerk's story was a happy one. Walter and Griselda lived happily for many years, their son became marquis, and their daughter became the wife of a very rich and very good

i И i lull n i""¹ I» know that at the end of the

hi..... ч ,-iskod all the husbands not to try the

I •. i! i >..... o| their wives. Thus the Clerk's tale was a

moral one.

One of the most enjoyable characters was the Wife of Bath. She was large, her face was red. She was rich, and her horse was fat. She had already travelled a lot and was a woman of strong opinions who was sure that husbands must be young and generous. She had had five husbands who were kind and loving, but all of them died. Her story was about the time of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. She tried to prove the idea that men should do what their wives want them to do.

Besides, men should not be too careful with their money, because the love for money caused all the bad things that happened to men.

The Pardoner's story proved that.

THREE MEN LOOKING FOR DEATH

(from "The Canterbury Tales") There were three young men who got money in evil ways. Once they decided to kill Death, because they were told that Death was a quiet thief who killed their friends. They thought that Death was a danger­ous person.

Thus they were looking for Death everywhere. On their way they met an old man who was an unhappy traveller looking for Death too. The old man com­plained that Death didn't want to take him. So he himself decided to meet Death, because he knew where Death was. The man told the three friends that he had seen Death under a tree and showed them the 30

w:iy. He said, however, that they were foolish to think I liar, they could save men from Death.

The three young men came up to the tree, but they tlid not see Death there. Only on the ground they saw I lot of gold. Hardly had they seen the coins when they forgot that were looking for Death. But Death

was near.

Having seen a large sum of money the worst of (hem suggested watching the money until night came. Then the youngest was sent to the town to get food and drink. All the three men were bad and foolish. All the three were greedy and cruel. Thus the two of them decided to kill their young friend as soon as he came from the town. But their young friend was bad too. He also wanted to get rid of them. He wanted to get all the gold for himself.

So he bought a small bottle of poison in the town. Then he bought some food and three bottles of wine. Afterwards he put the poison into two bottles of wine; the third bottle he left for himself.

No sooner had he come back to his friends than they killed him. After that they decided to eat and drink. They drank a lot of wine and died in great pain.

Thus all the three men were dead. Their love for money killed them. They came out to kill Death, but Death himself found and killed them.

Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" is a unique collection of vivid portraits of medieval life written in the London dialect, which was becoming at that time the spoken language. Unfortunately "The Canterbury Tales" re­mained unfinished. Chaucer's death was a great blow to English poetry.

Meinwhile, in Scotland all classes spoke Scottish Idi all purposes. By the 14th century Scottish had become the language of the greatest makars (poets), such as John Barbour (1320-1395) and Robert Henryson (1425-1490).

Barbour is known for his epic poem "The Bruce" (1375). It deals with the Wars of Independence, when in 1296 Edward I of England believed that he could rule the Scots in the same way as he already ruled the Welsh. Sir William Wallace became recognized as the Guardian of Scotland. His brilliant victory at Stirling Bridge (1297) made him the national hero of Scotland. He was later betrayed and executed in London.

In 1314 King Robert Bruce led the Scots to freedom at the Battle of Bannockburn. In 1850s it was decided to build the national Wallace Monument in Stirling which was 220 feet high with 246 steps to the top where in the Hall of Heroes you meet great Scots sculptured in marble, including King Robert Bruce.

Henryson was a schoolmaster and one of the great­est poets of Scotland, whose best-known book was "Morall Fabillis" based on the fables of Aesop. A well-known story about the town mouse and the country mouse is among them.

The 15th century is known in England as the cen­tury of folklore. Many songs, called ballads, were com­posed then by the common people of the country. The ballads were the songs in verses of four lines, the second and the fourth lines of the verse rhymed. The ballads were very popular among the English people. Some of the ballads were humorous, others were lyr­ical. Nobody knew the names of their authors, because 32

the famous ballads passed from generation to genera- tlon. The most interesting of them were historical and legendary, especially the Robin Hood Ballads.

The 15th century is known also as the century of plays. Townspeople acted the first English plays called Miracles on wheeled stages, moving to different parts (И the country. The Miracles were religious stories |n'rformed in or near the churches in Chester, York, Coventry and Wakefield. The subjects of the Miracles were events in the life of Christ, Noah and the Great Flood, Adam and Eve. Though the Miracles were reli­gious, they gave the start to English comedy.

In Moralities there were two kinds of characters: good and bad. They were either virtues (Truth) or bad qualities (Revenge) that talked and moved.

York

There was the third type of plays in England in those times. They were played between the acts of Moralities.

11 plays were short and funny. Nobody knows the origin of their name, but they were called Interludes. They were played in the rich people's houses and gar­dens.

Moreover, towns began to flourish during late me­dieval times. Some of these permanent market places grew up around castles. Some were newly founded. Others evolved from older villages. London, attracting immigrants from a wide area, already dwarfed every other urban centre in the British Isles.

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