英国文学第一课第二讲坎特伯雷故事-乔叟.ppt

1、Unit 1 Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400),Geoffrey Chaucer, the “father of English poetry” and one of the greatest narrative poets of England, was born in London in or about the year 1340. The poet died on the 25th of October in 1400, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.,Chaucers Life,His father was a pro

2、sperous wine merchant. He is said to have studied at Oxford and Cambridge. He led a busy official life. In 1357 he was a page in the household of Prince Lionel, later duke of Clarence, whom he served for many years. Thus he came to rub elbows with the court and nobility. In 135960 he was with the ar

3、my of Edward III in France, where he was captured by the French but ransomed. By 1366 he had married Philippa Roet, who was a lady-in-waiting to Edward IIIs queen. During the years 1370 to 1378, Chaucer was frequently employed on diplomatic missions to the Continent, visiting Italy in 137273 and in

4、1378. From 1374 on he held a number of official positions, among them comptroller of customs for the port of London (137486) and clerk of the kings works (138991), and the new king Henry IV granted him a pension . The official date of Chaucers death is Oct. 25, 1400. He was buried in Westminster Abb

5、ey.,Chaucers Literary Career,The period of French influence(1359-1372): The Book of the Duchess, The Romance of the Rose The Period of Italian influence(1372-1386):The House of Fame, Troilus and Criseyde, The Legend of Good Women The Period of his maturity(1386-1400): The Canterbury Tales,Contributi

6、ons,Father of English poetry Chaucer, for the first time in English literature, presented to us a comprehensive realistic picture of the English society of his time and created a whole gallery of vivid characters from all walks of life in his masterpiece The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer develops charac

7、terization to a higher artistic level, i.e. characters who are morally and socially typical but exquisitely individual and realistic in detail. Chaucer introduced from France the rhymed stanzas of various types to English poetry to replace the Old English alliterative verse. Chaucer used for the fir

8、st time in English the rhymed couplet of iambic pentameter which is to be called later as the heroic couplet . Chaucer greatly increased the prestige of English as a literary language and extended the range of its poetic vocabulary and meters. He is considered as a great master of the English langua

9、ge.,Chaucers contributions to English language,Chaucers language, now called Middle English, is vivid and exact. His verse is smooth. He introduced from France the rhymed stanzas of various types, especially the rhymed couplet of iambic pentameter which was later called the “heroic couplet” to Engli

10、sh poetry. Though drawing influence from French, Italian and Latin models, he is the first great poet who wrote in the English language. His production of so much excellent poetry was an important factor in establishing English as the literary language of the country. The spoken English of the time

11、consisted of several dialects, and Chaucer did much in making the dialect of London the standard for the modern English speech.,The Canterbury Tales,The Canterbury Tales is one of the landmarks of English literature, perhaps the greatest work produced in Middle English. It was the last of Chaucers w

12、orks, written during his final years of life. He structured the tales so that each pilgrim would tell four tales, leading to a total of over one hundred tales.,The Canterbury Tales,The Canterbury Tales is a book of stories. This is an important book, because it is one of the first to be written in t

13、he English language. The book is about a group of travelers who are going from London to Canterbury. As they travel along, each person tells a tale (a story). This is why the book is called The Canterbury Tales. The Canterbury Tales, begun in about 1386, consists of stories told by some of the thirt

14、y pilgrims who set off from the Tabard Inn in Southwark, London, to visit the shrine of St. Thomas a Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury murdered in his own cathedral in 1170. The aim was to tell four stories each: two on the way, two on the way back. The teller of the best story would be given a f

15、ree dinner by the cheerful host of the Tabard. In fact, the collection is incomplete and only 24 stories are told. Two of the stories are written in prose and the others are written in verse.,Structure,3 parts: 1. The General Prologue 2. 24 tales 3. Separate prologues to each tale with links, commen

16、ts, quarrels, etc. in between,The Canterbury Tales,It is Chaucers masterpiece and one of the most famous works in all literature. The plan of the work is magnificent: to represent the wide sweep of English life by gathering a motley company together and letting each class of society tell its own fav

17、orite stories. Though the great work was never finished, Chaucer succeeded in his purpose so well that in The Canterbury Tales he has given us a picture of contemporary English life, its work and play, its deeds and dreams, its fun and sympathy and hearty joy of living such as no other single work o

18、f literature has ever equaled.,The Tales Include: The General Prologue The Knights Tale The Millers Prologue and Tale The Reeves Prologue and Tale The Cooks Prologue and Tale The Man of Laws Prologue and Tale The Wife of Baths Prologue and Tale The Friars Prologue and Tale The Summoners Prologue and

19、 Tale The Clerks Prologue and TaleThe Merchants Prologue and Tale The Squires Prologue and Tale,The Franklins Prologue and Tale The Physicians Tale The Pardoners Prologue and Tale The Shipmans Tale The Prioress Prologue and Tale Chaucers Tale of Sir Topas The Tale of Melibee The Monks Prologue and T

20、ale The Nuns Priests Prologue and Tale The Second Nuns Prologue and Tale The Canons Yeomans Prologue and Tale The Manciples Prologue and Tale The Parsons Prologue and Tale Chaucers Retraction,Theme,Influenced by the early Italian Renaissance, Chaucer affirmed mans right to pursue earthly happiness a

21、nd opposed asceticism, praised mans energy, intellect, and love of life. Meanwhile, he also exposed and satirized the social evils, esp. the religious abuses.,Style,lively and vivid Middle-Age English satiric and humorous heroic couplet of unequal merits,Characterization,- vivid portrayal of individ

22、ualized characters of the society and of all professions and social strata except the highest and the lowest shows respect for the two landed gentry, the plowman and the parson; satirized all the religious people except the parson; shows a growing sense of self-importance of the trades and towns peo

23、ple, reflecting the changing social status, esp. in towns and cities.,The Canterbury Tales,It opens with a general prologue where we are told of a company of pilgrims that gathered at Tabard Inn in Southwark, a suburb of London. They are on their way to the shrine of St. Thomas Becket at Canterbury.

24、 They set out together with the “jolly innkeeper,” Harry Baily, who becomes their “governor” and proposes that each pilgrim should tell two tales on the way to Canterbury and two more on the way back. The pilgrims being 31 in all the total number of tales, according to Chaucers plan, was to exceed t

25、hat of Baccaccios Decameron.,The Canterbury Tales,These pilgrims include a Knight, his son the Squire, the Knights Yeoman, a Prioress, a Second Nun, a Monk, a Friar, a Merchant, a Clerk, a Man of Law, a Franklin, a Weaver, a Dyer, a Carpenter, a Tapestry-Maker, a Haberdasher, a Cook, a Shipman, a Ph

26、ysician, a Parson, a Miller, a Manciple, a Reeve, a Summoner, a Pardoner, the Wife of Bath, and Chaucer himself.,The Canterbury Tales,General Prologue:,The General Prologue is the key to The Canterbury tales that narrates about the gathering of a group of people in an inn that intend to go on a pilg

27、rimage to Canterbury (England) next morning. In the General Prologue, the narrator of The Canterbury Tales, who is one of the intended pilgrims, provides more or less accurate depictions of the members of the group and describes why and how The Canterbury Tales is told. If we trust the General Prolo

28、gue, Chaucer determined that each pilgrim should tell two tales on the way to Canterbury and two tales on the way back. The host of the inn offers to be and is appointed as judge of the tales as they are told and is supposed to determine the best hence winning tale. As mentioned before, The Canterbu

29、ry Tales was never finished.,The Prologue provides a framework for the tales. It contains a group of vivid sketches of typical medieval figures. All classes of the English feudal society, except the royalty and the poorest peasant, are represented by these thirty pilgrims. Every figure is drawn with

30、 the accuracy of a portrait. It is no exaggeration to say that the Prologue supplies a miniature of the English society of Chaucers time. Looking at his word-pictures, we know at once how people lived in that era. That is why Chaucer has been called “the founder of English realism.”,Summary of The G

31、eneral Prologue,On April 17th toward the end of the fourteenth century nine and twenty pilgrims gather in the Tabard Inn in Southwark, just across the river from London, at the beginning of the road to Canterbury. Geoffrey Chaucer talks to each one and joins their company for a pilgrimage to Canterb

32、ury to seek the blissful martyr, Thomas Becket. Harry Bailey, the host of the Tabard, decides to join them and act as their leader; each pilgrim will tell four stories - two each on the way there, two each on the way back. The pilgrim who tells the best tale - with the best sentence and most solaas

33、will have a dinner at the others cost when the company returns to the Tabard. The pilgrims agree and the next morning they set out, stopping at the Watering of St. Thomas, just out of town, where they reconfirm their decision and, at Harrys direction, draw straws to see who will tell the first tale.

34、 Strangely, the lot fell to the knight and he tells the first story.,Introduction to the pilgrims,The knight: perfect and genteel man who loved truth, freedom, chivalry and honor. The most socially prominent person on the journey; the battles he fought were all religious wars of some nature.,The Squ

35、ire: a candidate for knighthood; a lover who can sing lusty songs, compose melodies, poetry,Yeoman: dressed in green; an expert woodsman, an excellent shot with the bow/ arrow.,Prioress: Madame Eglantine; a gentle lady; well-educated though her French wasnt accepted Parisian French. Coy and delicate

36、; table manner; More a woman than a nun! Without vocation but with the dogs and jewelry that satirical literature always condemns nuns for. Associates of the Prioress: 3 priests and another nun,Pilgrims Image Gallery,Four main qualities of the Knight.,The first is the Knights love of ideals“chivalri

37、e” (prowess), “trouthe” (fidelity), “honour” (reputation), “fredom” (generosity), and “curteisie” (refinement) (General Prologue, 4546). The second is the Knights impressive military career. The Knight has fought in the Crusades, wars in which Europeans traveled by sea to non-Christian lands and att

38、empted to convert whole cultures by the force of their swords. The third quality the narrator remembers about the Knight is his meek, gentle, manner. And the fourth is his “array,” or dress. The Knight wears a tunic made of coarse cloth, and his coat of mail is rust-stained, because he has recently

39、returned from an expedition.,Significance,The Canterbury Tales is Chaucers Masterpiece and one of the monumental works in English literature. It is one of the landmarks of English literature, perhaps the greatest work produced in Middle English give us a true to life picture of his time. The work st

40、ands as a historical and sociological introduction to the life and times of the late Middle Ages taking from the stand of rising bourgeoisie, he affirms men and opposes the dogma of asceticism preached by the Church. As a forerunner of humanism, he praises mans energy, intellect, quick wit and love

41、of life. His tales expose and satirize the evils of his time, attack degeneration of the noble, the heartless of the judge, the corruption of the Church and so on.,Living in a transitional period, Chaucer is not entirely devoid of medieval prejudices. He is religious himself. There is nothing revolu

42、tionary in his writing, though he lived in a period of peasant uprisings. While praising mans right to earthly happiness, he sometimes likes to crack a rough joke and paint naturalistic pictures of sexual life. Chaucer has his weak points. But these are, however, of secondary importance compared wit

43、h his achievement as a great poet and a story-teller.,literary terms,heroic couplet: Iambic pentameter lines rhymed in pairs. It is called heroic because in England, esp. in the 18th century, it was much used for heroic (epic) poems. The heroic couplet became so important and fixed a form for variou

44、s purposes that its influence dominated English verse for decades, until the romanticists dispelled the tradition in their demand for a new freedom.,Poetics, the heroic couplet couplet: two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme an iambic pentameter: a poetic line consisting of five verse feet with

45、each foot an iamb, that is a metrical foot consisting of one stressed syllable and one unstressed syllable as in dah-DUM, dah-DUM dah-DUM dah-DUM dah-DUM. an iambic pentameter couplet, e.g. At night there came into that hostelry i Some nine and twenty in a company i,iamb: a poetic foot consisting of

46、 an unaccented syllable followed by an accented one. (e.g: alone; My heart is like a singing bird) pentameter: a line of verse containing five feet. Meter: any regular pattern of rhythm or pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. Foot: a unit of meter. Rhyme: the repetition of sounds at the end

47、s of words is called rhyme. When words rhyme at the end of lines of poetry it is called end rhyme.,The General Prologue (An Excerpt),When in April the sweet showers fallAnd pierce the drought of March to the root, and allThe veins are bathed in liquor of such powerAs brings about the engendering of the flower,When also Zephyrus with his sweet breathExhales an air in every grove and heathUpon the tender shoots , and the young sunHis half-course in the sign of the Ram has run,The General Prologue (An Excerpt),And the small fowl are making melo