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2021年1月25日发(作者：某时某刻)
The Canterbury tales
Geoffrey Chaucer
Contributions

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 characterization 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 first 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
language.

Chaucer’s
contributions to English language


Chaucer’
s 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 English 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 consisted of several
dialects,
and
Chaucer
did
much
in
making
the
dialect
of
London
the
standard
for
the
modern
English speech.
The Canterbury Tales
介绍


The Canterbury Tales is a book of stories. This is an important book, because it is one of the
first to be written in the 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
thirty
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 free 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.



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 à

Becket at Canterbury. 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
Chaucer’s plan, was to exceed that of Baccaccio’s Decameron.

These pilgrims include a Knight, his son the Squire, the Knight's 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 Physician, a Parson, a Miller, a
Manciple, a Reeve, a Summoner, a Pardoner, the Wife of Bath, and Chaucer himself.
Theme
Influenced
by
the
early
Italian
Renaissance,
Chaucer
affirmed
man's
right
to
pursue
earthly
happiness and opposed asceticism, praised man's 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
individualized
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
people,
reflecting
the
changing social status, esp. in towns and cities.

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 pilgrimage 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
Prologue,
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
Canterbury
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 the
accuracy
of
a portrait.
It
is
no
exaggeration
to
say
that
the
Prologue
supplies
a
miniature
of
the
English
society
of
Chaucer’s
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 General 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
Canterbury to seek
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
and most solaas
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 Harry's direction, draw straws to see who