Geoffrey Chaucer 4

1 Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?―1400): The founder of English poetry

Life/ Literary career/Masterpiece/Contribution

I. Life

In 1340, Chaucer was born in a wine-merchant’s family in London. He became a court page from the

early age. He went to France at 19 and joined the Hundred Year’s War. Several times he was sent to

the Continent on diplomatic missions, two of which took him to Italy. Then he was appointed

controller of Customs at London. But with these positions, he was still poor. He died in 1400 and was

buried in Westminster Abbey, thus founding the “Poet’s Corner”.

II. Literary Career

Chaucer’s literary career can be divided into three periods corresponding with the stages of his life.

1. The first period:

the 1360s―about 1372.

He was influenced by the French poetry of the Middle Ages and he translated works from French. The

Romaunt (Romance) of the Rose

2. The second period: 1372―1385-6.He was influenced by the great literary figures of early

Renaissance in Italy, such as Dante. Troilus and Criseyde: the longest complete poem

3. The Third Period:(1386-1400)He produced his works full maturity free from any dominant foreign

influence.The Canterbury Tales: masterpiece

III. The Canterbury Tales

1. Brief Introduction:

On day in April, the poet comes to the Tabard Inn in the southern suburb of London. By nightfall, 29

pilgrims arrive at the inn and they get ready to go to Canterbury. Harry Bailey, the host of the inn,

proposes that each pilgrim should tell two stories on the way and two more on the way back. The best

story-teller is to be given a free supper, at the cost of all the rest. The host offers to go with them as

their judge and guide. According to the plan, there should be 120 stories, but actually 24 tales are

preserved (20 complete stories and 4 fragments).

2. Writing technique:

1) Unlike The Decameron whose stories are loosely connected and there is no relation between the

story and the story teller, in The Canterbury Tales, stories are cleverly woven together by links

between the stories through two ways:

A: “Prologue”: prologue provides a framework for the tales. It creates a gallery of vivid characters

from all walks of life, excepting the very highest (the king and top nobility) and the lowest (the very

poor labouring folk); then assigns to each of them appropriate tales that shed light on the respective

narrator’s distinctive personality.

B: The host: Harry Bailey: He is a hearty and boisterous man. He draws the shy ones out, smoothes

over the differences, and keeps the company generally in good spirits.

2) Chaucer’s humor through gentle satire and mild irony

IV. Contribution:

1. Chaucer greatly contributes to the founding of the English literary language. He is the first great

poet who wrote in the English language. He proved that the English language is a beautiful language

and can be easily handled to express different moods. His language is now called Middle English. He

does much in making the dialect of London the standard for the modern English speech.

2. Chaucer introduces heroic couplet （英雄双韵体） from France to English poetry, instead of

alliterative verse.

3. Chaucer is the forerunner of Humanism. be influenced by the early Italian Renaissance, he affirms

man’s right to pursue earthly happiness and opposes asceticism; praises man’s energy, intellect, and

love of life; exposes and satirizes the social evils, esp. the religious abuses

2 SUPPLEMENT

The wife of Bath: She is the owner of a cloth factory, light-hearted, merry, somewhat vulgar, and

exceedingly talkative. She tells the story about her married life. She has married five husbands and she

expects one or two more. She has tried to master her husband and rule the family. There was but one

husband whom she could not easily master. But she got the better of him by provoking him to beat her

and then pretending to be dead. By this trick she succeeded in getting all the property into her hand.

Metrical Pattern

I.Word stress:

1. A. Words of one syllable

B. Words of two syllables

C. Words of three syllables: main stress; secondary stress

'John is a 'student.

Uni'versities be'came 'famous.

We 'ate the 'meat 'hungrily.

The 'train had 'arrived at the 'station.

Stress of the words does depend on the context.

When stress is organized to form regular rhythms, the term used for it is metre.

II. Metre (格律/韵律)

The analysis of the metre of a poem usually consists of two steps:

A. To examine the type of foot.

B. To see how many feet there are in a line.

What is foot?（音步）

The foot is the unit of stressed and unstressed syllables which is repeated to form a metrical pattern.