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Е. В. Воевода английский язык великобритания: история и культура Great Britain: Culture across History Учебное пособие

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Geoffrey Chaucer
The Canterbury Tales
William Caxton
The development of literacy and the English language
Music, theatre and art
Assignments (1)
2. Get ready to speak on the following topics
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Geoffrey Chaucer


The greatest writer of the 14th century was Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400). Whereas his predecessor, Langland, expressed the thoughts of the peasants and Wycliff – the protest against the church, Chaucer was the writer of the new class, the bourgeoisie. He was not, however, the preacher of bourgeois ideology but just a writer of the world: he wrote about the things he saw, and described the people he met. Chaucer was the first to break away from medieval forms and paved the way to realism in literature.

Geoffrey Chaucer was supposedly born in 1340 in London, shortly after the Hundred Years War broke out. John Chaucer, his father, was a London vintner (a wine merchant). Very little is known about Chaucer’s early years. We do know, however, that his parents always lived in rented houses and gave their son some education. He is said to have gone to St. Paul’s school. Although some researchers claim that he must have been educated at Oxford or Cambridge, no data can prove that. Most probably he had no university education.

His father, who had some connections with the court, hoped for a courtier’s career for his son. At the age of 16 or 17 Geoffrey was page to a lady at the court of Edward III. From an old account book we learn that Geoffrey Chaucer received several articles of clothing ‘of his lady’s gift’ and that now and then he was paid small sums of money ‘for necessaries’. Those facts indicate that he was a favourite with the royal family.

During the Hundred Years War, when he was about 20, Chaucer was in France serving as an esquire (an arms-bearer) to a knight. He was then taken prisoner by the French. When his friends raised money to ransom him, even Edward III contributed 16 pounds towards his ransom.

On his return to England, Chaucer passed into attendance on John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, the fourth son of the king. It was there that he met a young lady named Phillipa who became his wife in 1366. At about the same time Chaucer started writing his first poems. It is peculiar that he never wrote a single line of poetry to his young wife: probably, the marriage was not a romantic one.

At different periods of his life Chaucer was a student, a courtier, a soldier, a diplomat, a customs official and a Member of Parliament for Kent. He mixed freely with all sorts of people and in his works gave a true and vivid picture of contemporary England.

Chaucer’s earliest poems were written in imitation of French romances. He translated from French the famous allegorical poem of the 13th century, “The Romance of the Rose”. These years are usually described as the first, or the French period of Chaucer’s writings.

The second period is known as Italian. In the early 1370s Chaucer travelled much and lived a busy life. He made three trips to Italy where he acquainted himself with Italian literature. Italy made a deep impression on him. Italian literature opened to Chaucer a new world of art and taught him to appreciate the value of national literature. It was then that he wrote The Parliament of Birds, an allegorical poem satirizing Parliament, Troilus and Cressid, the first psychological novel in English, and The Legend of Good Women, a dream poem which describes nine famous women of twenty. The poem forms a bridge between the Italian period and the next, English period.

When Chaucer came back to England, he received the post of the Controller of the Customs for wool and hides in the port of London. He held this position for ten years and apparently had little time to write. Much of his work remained unfinished. But Chaucer’s fame as a poet was spreading although his writings were copied by hand and were very expensive. The court admired his graceful way of writing and his ability of being satirical without being unkind.

In the late 1370s Chaucer was appointed Knight for the shire of Kent, that is became a Member of Parliament representing Kent. Chaucer often had to travel from London to Kent and back and could observe the pilgrimage to the tomb of Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. Travelling was dangerous at the time, and several times Chaucer was robbed of all the money that was in his possession. Later he described his experiences in The Canterbury Tales, the greatest work that brought him world fame.

However, his duties grew very tedious to the poet and several times he petitioned the king for permission to give up his post. Finally, the king granted him a pension. But when his patron John of Gaunt went to Spain, Chaucer lost his pension and became so poor that he even had to borrow money for food. When the new king, Henry IV, came to the throne in 1399, the poet addressed him with the poem The Complaints of Chaucer to His Empty Purse. As a result, his old pension was given back to him and a new one granted. Chaucer died in 1400 and was buried in Westminster Abbey in London.

Chaucer’s greatest work, The Canterbury Tales, is a series of stories told by a number of pilgrims on their way to Canterbury. In the Prologue Chaucer makes a rapid portrait of 30 men and women from all walks of life. Nearly all of them are described with such particularity that suggests the idea that Chaucer was drawing his portraits from individuals in real life.

In The Canterbury Tales Chaucer sums up all types of stories that existed at the time: the Knight tells a romance, the Nun – a story of a saint, the Miller – a fabliau, the Priest tells a fable and so on. The Canterbury Tales is as popular in England as Decameron is on the Continent.

Chaucer did not only overshadow all his contemporary writers. He is rightly considered to be the greatest English writer before the age of Shakespeare.

In many modern manuals on the history of the English language and English literature, Chaucer is described as the founder of the English literary language. He wrote in a dialect which in the main coincided with that used in documents produced in London shortly before his time and for a long time after. Although he did not actually ‘create’ the literary language, as a poet of outstanding talent, he made better use of it than his contemporaries. He set up a pattern of literary language to be followed in the 14th and 15th centuries. Chaucer’s literary language based on the mixed dialect of London is known as classical Middle English. Chaucer’s poems were copied so many times that over 60 manuscripts of The Canterbury Tales have survived up to this day. His books were among the first to be printed in England, a hundred years after their composition. A hundred years later, William Caxton, the first English printer, called him ‘The wonderful father of our language.’

  • William Caxton


The 15th century saw an event of outstanding cultural significance in Europe. In 1438 Johannes Gutenberg printed in Germany the first European book known as The Gutenberg Bible. The idea of printing quickly spread all over Europe. The first English printer was William Caxton.

Caxton was a farmer’s son born in Kent in 1422. At the age of 16 he went to London where he became an apprentice to a company of London merchants who traded in silk and woollen cloth. When his master left for Flanders, William followed him and spent over three decades of his life in Bruges. The boy quickly learned several European languages: French, Italian and German. He read a lot for pleasure and translated books from French into English. When his master died, he left most of his money to Caxton, who had become his partner by the time.

During a visit to Cologne, William saw a printing press and learned the method of printing. In 1473 he bought a printing press of his own and in 1476 printed the first English book. It was Caxton’s own translation of the ancient story of Troy. A few years later Caxton moved to London and set his printing press at Westminster. Later, he bought another printing press which was set up at Oxford. During the next 15 years Caxton printed 65 books, both in the original and in translation. One of the first books to be printed was Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. In 1484 William Caxton printed Thomas Malory’s Morte D’Athur, the fullest record of the adventures of the knights of the Round Table.

Caxton made a great contribution to standardizing the English language. The concept of the norm had not existed before, it only appeared and was accepted as printed books spread all over England. The development of the printing technique promoted the spread of literacy and the literary norm.

  • The development of literacy and the English language

Late medieval literacy was not confined to the noble, clerical or government classes. Some artisans, merchants, tailors, mariners could also read and write. Already in the 1470s, the rules and regulations of some craft guilds insisted on a recognized standard of literacy for their apprentices. The fact that wealthy laymen owned small libraries of poems, prophecies, chronicles and even recipes reflects their reading habits. Books were carefully listed in their wills.

The spread of literacy and the increased use of the English language were twin developments of the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. They reflected the feelings of patriotism and nationhood. The causes of this quiet linguistic revolution were complex, but among them was patriotism generated by the long French war, the popularity of Lollardy, the lead given by the Crown and the nobility and the greater participation of the English speaking men in the affairs of Parliament. A further factor was the emergence in the 14th century of London as the settled capital of the kingdom, with York as another important administrative centre and Bristol as the second commercial centre. The regional dialect that was spoken in each of the three centres inevitably had to become comprehensible to the others. The dialect of London prevailed although it was greatly influenced by the Midlands dialect.

  • Music, theatre and art

The 15th century witnessed a new wave of Robin Hood ballads. It was also the time of minstrels as English poetry was meant to be chanted and sung. The nobles were taught to play musical instruments, sing and dance. Even at a barber’s, an English lord or a knight might see a lute and take a few cords. Sometimes barbers invited musicians to attract more clients. Folk songs took the form of carols, or polyphonic songs. Polyphony greatly influenced the prominent English composer of the 15th century John Dunstable. The popularity and importance of music was so great that in the 16th century Oxford and Cambridge universities introduced the degrees of Doctor and Bachelor of Music.

Huge audiences were attracted by plays and performances of different kinds: mysteries and miracles, or plays about the miraculous things performed by saints. Another type of play was moralite where the characters were abstract ideas, such as Friendship, Death, Power, Kindness, Virtue, etc. These plays were performed in market squares and during town fairs. The performances were arranged and paid for by merchants and artisans. Already in the 15th century actors were professional.

In the 14th and 15th centuries the English art of portrait painting made a leap forward. The portraits acquired individual characters and features. The most famous work of art of the period is the portrait of Richard II painted in the 1390s. It shows a young man in royal attire whose face is not yet spoiled by power and passion. The portrait of Margaret Beaufort belonging to the second half of the 15th century, depicts a grieving young woman concentrated on her prayer.

The 14th and 15th centuries are known as the period of Pre-Renaissance in England.




DO YOU KNOW THAT

  • When Richard I was taken prisoner, over half the price of his ransom was paid in wool.
  • Any book printed before 1501 is called an incunabula.
  • The first English book was printed in Bruges, Flanders.
  • Caxton was the first to introduce the use of the apostrophe as a norm.


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ASSIGNMENTS (1)


1. Review the material of Section 1 and do the following test. Check yourself by the key at the end of the book.


Test 1

1. The Anglo-Saxon tribes were
    1. the Angles; b. the Scots; c. the Britons; d. the Jutes.

2. The Romans lived in
    1. villages; b. towns

3. The Tower of London was built by
    1. the Normans; b. the Celts; c. the Romans.

4. The English “chester” (as in Manchester) comes from the ___ word “castra”.
    1. Latin; b. Saxon; c. Norman.

5. The days of the week take their names from the names of ___ gods.
    1. Germanic; b. Celtic; c. Roman.

6. Christianity was brought to England ___ 1066.
    1. before; b. after.

7. The Venerable Bede wrote
    1. the first Anglo-Saxon history; b. the first code of laws; c. the Bible in English.

8. “Beowulf” is a poem about the adventures of a ___ hero.
    1. Scandinavian; b. Anglo-Saxon; c. Celtic.

9. William the Conqueror won the battle at
    1. Waterloo; b. Hastings; c. Trafalgar.

10. The first registration of the population was held under

a. the Romans; b. the Danes; c. the Normans.

11. The first English printer was _____ .

a. Johannes Gutenberg; b. William Caxton; c. Geoffrey Chaucer

12. The process of evicting peasants and turning farmlands into pastures is known as the policy of _____ .

a. the open field; b. manufactures; c. enclosures

2. Get ready to speak on the following topics:

The first settlers on the British Isles. Stonehenge. The Celts on the British Isles; traces of Celtic culture in present-day Britain.

The Roman conquest of Britain. The impact of the conquest on the development of culture on the British Isles; traces of Roman culture in present-day Britain.

The Anglo-Saxon conquest of Britain. The origin of the English language. The impact of Christianity on the Anglo-Saxon culture. Anglo-Saxon literature (Caedmon, the Venerable Bede, Beowulf).

The Scandinavian invasion of Britain, its impact on the political and cultural life of the country (Danelaw, King Canute). The role of King Alfred the Great in the history of Britain.

Distinctive features of the language in the Old English period. Celtic, Latin and Scandinavian borrowings in the English language. The history of English place-names.

The Norman conquest of Britain, its impact on the political and cultural life of the country. The Domesday Book. The first universities. Magna Carta and the beginning of Parliament. Thomas Becket. English literature of the 11th-13th centuries (Robin Hood, King Arthur). Changes in the language.

The economic development of England in the 14th-15th centuries. The Peasants’ Revolt of 1381; the abolition of slavery. The Hundred Years War. The Wars of the Roses. Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales. Changes in the language in the Middle English period. William Caxton.


III. Topics for presentations:
  • The invasions of early Britain and their impact on the political, economic and cultural development of the country.
  • The Norman Conquest and its impact on various spheres of life in England.
  • England’s economic growth in the 14th-15th centuries.