1. The Age of Chaucer (1340-1400)
Edward III, Richard II & Henry IV
War of 100 years (1338-1453)
Unity of two races
Standardization of English
Reformation, New learning, Social awareness
Black Death
Corrupt Church, high taxation, poverty and
Revolt of 1381 or Revolt of peasants or Revolt of Wat Taylor
2. Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400)
He was born in London.
he entered in the household of the wife of the Duke (1357), and saw
military service in France, where he was captured.
Next he entered the royal household, for he is frequently mentioned as
the recipient of royal pensions and bounties.
When Richard II succeeded to the crown (1377) Chaucer was
confirmed in his offices and pensions.
In 1378, he was sent to Italy on one of his several diplomatic missions.
He was the first poet to be buried in what is now known as Poets'
Corner in Westminster Abbey.
3. WORKS
French group
modelled upon French originals, and the style is clumsy and immature.
The Romaunt of the Rose, a lengthy allegorical poem, written in
octosyllabic couplets and based upon Le Romaunt de la Rose of
Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meung.
The Book of the Duchesse; an elegy written in 1369 on the death of
John of Gaunt's wife.
The Parliament of Fowls: Nature called a grand parliament on
Valentine day for all birds choosing their mates. The poem an allegory
written in Royal Rhyme (ababbcc).
4. Italian Group
The House of Fame, a poem in octosyllabic couplets, is of the dream-
allegory type. In his dream Chaucer is carried by an eagle to the House
of Fame and watches candidates for fame approach the throne, some
being granted their requests and others refused
Troilus and Criseyde is a long poem adapted from Boccaccio’s
Filostrato, but in its emphasis on character it is original, and indicative
of the line of Chaucer's development.
The Legend of Good Women,, written with the intention of telling
nineteen affecting tales of virtuous women of antiquity, finishes with
eight accomplished and the ninth only begun. The poem is the first
known attempt in English to use the heroic couplet, which is, none the
less, handled with great skill and freedom.
5. English Group
The Canterbury Tales, For the general idea of the tales Chaucer may be
indebted to Boccaccio, but in nearly every important feature the work is
essentially English.
For the purposes of his poem Chaucer draws together thirty pilgrims,
including himself. They meet at the Tabard Inn, in Southwark in order to go on
a pilgrimage to the tomb of Thomas Becket at Canterbury. The twenty-nine
are carefully chosen types, of both sexes, and of all ranks, from a knight to a
humble ploughman; their occupations and personal peculiarities are many and
diverse; and, as they are depicted in the masterly Prologue to the main work,
they are interesting, alive, and thoroughly human.
At the suggestion of the host of the Tabard, and to relieve the tedium of the
journey, each of the pilgrims is to tell two tales on the outward journey, and
two on the return. In its entirety the scheme would have resulted in an
immense collection of over a hundred twenty tales. But as it happens Chaucer
finished only twenty, and left four partly complete.
6. Conti……
Knight’s Tale – Longest Tale
Cook’s Tale – Shortest Tale
Serious Tales – 20
Humorous Tales - 4
Prose tales – 2 : Chaucer's own Tale of Melibeus and The Parson's Tale.
All the others are composed in decasyllabic or heroic couplet.
Practical experiences, Satire, Irony, Humour, Pathos, Realism,
Narrative Style, Descriptive Power, Characterization.
Modernity, Language, Versification.
Court poet not poet of people.
7. William Langland, or Langley (1330-1400)
From poor family
Poet of People
The Vision of William concerning Piers the Plowman, a poem of 15,000 lines.
The last Anglo-Saxon poem.
Allegorical poem on the search of God, of good life of salvation.
The poem itself tells of the poet's vision.
The underlying motive of the work is to expose the sloth and vice of the
Church, and to set on record the struggles and virtues of common folks.
The form of the poem is curious. It is a revival of the Old English rhymeless
measure, having alliteration as the basis of the line.
8. John Gower (1332-1408)
Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde is dedicated to him as moral Gower.
most industrious and well meaning poet.
took a fairly active part in the politics and literary activity of the time.
was buried in London.
His first poem, Speculum Meditantis, is written in French and wrote 50 ballads in French.
The second, Vox Clamantis, is composed in Latin. It discusses Wat Taylor’s Rebellion.
The third, Confessio Amantis, is written in English, at the King's command according to
Gower himself. In this last poem we have the conventional allegorical setting, with a
disquisition on the seven deadly sins, illustrated by many anecdotes. These anecdotes reveal
Gower's capacity as a story-teller. He has a diffuse and watery style of narrative, but
occasionally he is brisk and competent. The metre is the octosyllabic couplet, of great
smoothness and fluency.
9. John Barbour (1316-1395)
The first of the Scottish poets to claim our attention.
The father of Scottish Poetry.
He was born in Aberdeenshire, and studied both at Oxford and Paris.
His great work is his Bruce (1375), a lengthy poem of twenty books of thirteen
thousand lines.
The work is really a history of Scotland's struggle for freedom from the year
1286 till the death of Bruce and the burial of his heart (1332). The heroic
theme is the rise of Bruce, and the central incident of the poem is the battle
of Bannockburn.
10. PROSE
Sir John Mandeville’s Travells; a French book of travels between 1357 and
1371.
The English version has a preface, in which it is stated that the author was a
Sir John Mandeville, a knight, bom at St Albans, who crossed the sea in 1322
and travelled in many strange regions. Much of the personal narrative is
invention; nowadays the very existence of Sir John is denied. The real author
of the book is said to be Jehan de Bourgogne, who died at Liege in 1372.
Chaucer’s Tale of Melibeus and The Parson's Tale.
The other prose works of Chaucer are an early translation of Boethius, and a
treatise on the Astrolabe, , composed for the instruction of his little son
Lewis.
John Wyclif’s (1320-1384) translation of the bible from Latin into English.
