Unit Three   Middle English and Chaucer

Warming-up 常识预习
1. How much do you know about Middle English? What are the major characteristics of Middle English?
2. Whose writings are considered to be the “birth” of modern English?
3. Who is sometimes called the father of English literature? How much do you know about this person?
4. Have you ever read The Canterbury Tales or ever seen the movie based on this book?
5. Have you ever read Ten Days' Work by an Italian writer? Do you know the Chinese name of that book?
6. Have you heard of these two people, Virgil and St. Augustine?
 
Lecturette 专题讲座

                                  Middle English and Chaucer
The English language which developed from this Anglo-Saxon-Norse-French-Latin mixture proved to be a hardy and adaptable language. Rather than it being superseded by the French of the ruling class the opposite did in fact happen. In the course of the fourteenth century, English slowly regained its old status. Speaking English rather than French became a matter of patriotic pride, even among the nobility. No longer a language for just “common men”, it became again the language for all men. It is reported, albeit to illustrate how low the seat of learning had fallen, that even at Oxford, English was spoken at High Table. In 1356 it was ordered that court proceedings in London should be conducted in English, and when King Richard II spoke to the peasants during the 1381 Revolt, he spoke in English. As English regained its position as the standard mode of oral communication it also became more popular to use it for writing. There is especially one man who has had a lot of influence on the written form of the language. He was born in 1340, and his name is Geoffrey Chaucer. He was the leading poet of the time, and to illustrate the English of the fourteenth century, Middle English as it is called, we quote from his most famous work, The Canterbury Tales.

The Reves Tale (Chaucer’s original version)
At Trumpington, nat fer fro Cantebrigge,
Ther goth a brook and over that a brigge,
Up-on the whiche brook ther stant a melle;
And this is verray soth that I yow telle.
And this is verray soth that I yow telle.
A Miller was ther dweling many a day;
As eny pecok he was proud and gay.
Pypen he coude and fisshe, and nettes bete,
And turne coppes, and wel wrastle and shete;
And by his belt he baar a long panade,
And of a swerd ful trenchant was the blade.
A joly popper baar he in his pouche;
Ther was no man for peril dorste him touche.
A Sheffeld thwitel baar he in his hose;
Round was his face, and camuse was his nose.
As piled as an ape was his skulle.
He was a market-beter ate fulle.
Ther dorste no wight hand up-on him legge,
That he ne swoor he sholde anon abegge.
A theef he was for soothe of corn and mele,
And that a sly, and usaunt for to stele.

The Reeve’s Tale (the modern translation)
At Trumpington, which isn’t far from Cambridge,
There runs a brook, and over it a bridge;
And there’s a mill that stands upon this brook;
And what I tell you is the honest truth.
For many years a miller lived in it:
He was as proud and gay as any peacock,
Could play the bagpipes, fish, and mend a net,
Turn cups upon a lathe, wrestle and shoot;
And ever at his belt hung a large knife
With a long blade, and sword of keenest edge.
And in his pocket he’d a nifty dirk;
Whoever touched him put his life at stake.
He packed a Sheffield carver in his hose.
Round was his face, and flattened was his nose;
He had a skull as hairless as an ape’s.
He was a market braggart, out and out.
And nobody dared lay a finger on him
Without his swearing that he’d do for them.
Fact is, he was a thief of corn and meal,
And sly: he never missed a chance to steal.

The writings of Geoffrey Chaucer are by many considered to be the “birth” of modern English. Geoffrey Chaucer was an English author, poet, philosopher, bureaucrat, courtier and diplomat. Although he wrote many works, he is best remembered for his unfinished frame narrative The Canterbury Tales. Sometimes called the father of English literature, Chaucer is credited by some scholars as the first author to demonstrate the artistic legitimacy of the vernacular English language, rather than French or Latin. As you will see, if you compare the original version with the modern translation, English has changed considerably since Chaucer’s time. However, this is not due to external influences. The changes which have taken place have come about as a result of the developing needs of the people who have used the language: poets and statesmen, priests and scholars, farmers and traders.
The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of the 14th century. The tales are told as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together on a journey from Southwark to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. In a long list of works, including "Troilus and Criseyde", "House of Fame", "Parliament of Fowls", the Canterbury Tales is Chaucer's magnum opus, and a towering achievement of Western culture. By casting a bumbling, credulous version of himself as tour guide, Chaucer created literature's first unreliable narrator. Structurally, the poem bears the influence of The Decameron, which Chaucer is said to have come across during his first diplomatic mission to Italy in 1372. However, Chaucer peoples his tales with 'sondry folk' rather than Boccaccio's fleeing nobles.
The question of whether The Canterbury Tales is finished has not been answered. The combined elements of Chaucer's quadri-lingual expertise in law, philosophy, and other subjects, the uncertainty of medieval English historical records, issues of manuscript transmission, and Chaucer's method of telling his stories through a multi-perspectival prism of subjectivity make the "Tales" extremely difficult to interpret. There are 83 known manuscripts of the work from the late medieval and early Renaissance period, more than any other vernacular literary text with the exception of The Prick of Conscience. This is taken as evidence of the tales' popularity during the century after Chaucer's death. Fifty-five of these manuscripts are thought to have been complete at one time, while 28 are so fragmentary that it is difficult to ascertain whether they were copied individually or as part of a set. The Tales vary in both minor and major ways from manuscript to manuscript; many of the minor variations are due to copyists' errors, while others suggest that Chaucer added to and revised his work as it was being copied and (possibly) distributed. No official, unarguably complete version of the Tales exists and no consensus has been reached regarding the order in which Chaucer intended the stories to be placed.
Textual and manuscript clues have been adduced to support the two most popular methods of ordering the tales. The standard scholarly edition divides the Tales into ten "fragments." The tales that comprise a fragment are closely related and contain internal indications of their order of presentation, usually with one character speaking to and then stepping aside for another character. Between fragments, however, the connection is less obvious. Consequently, there are several possible tales orders, the most popular of which are as follows:

Fragment Tales
Fragment I(A) General Prologue, Knight, Miller, Reeve, Cook
Fragment II(B1) Man of Law
Fragment III(D) Wife, Friar, Summoner
Fragment IV(E) Clerk, Merchant
Fragment V(F) Squire, Franklin
Fragment VI(C) Physician, Pardoner
Fragment VII(B2) Shipman, Prioress, Sir Thopas, Melibee, Monk, Nun's Priest
Fragment VIII(G) Second Nun, Canon's Yeoman
Fragment IX(H) Manciple
Fragment X(I) Parson

An alternative ordering places Fragment VIII before VI. However, the order indicated above follows that of some early manuscripts. Fragments I and II almost always follow each other, as do VI and VII, IX and X in the oldest manuscripts. Fragments IV and V, by contrast are located in varying locations from manuscript to manuscript. Victorians would frequently move Fragment VII(B2) to follow Fragment II(B1), but this trend is no longer followed and has no justification. Even the earliest surviving manuscripts are not Chaucer's originals, the oldest being MS Peniarth 392 D (called "Hengwrt"), compiled by a scribe shortly after Chaucer's death. The scribe uses the order shown above, though he does not seem to have had a full collection of Chaucer's tales, so part are missing. The most beautiful of the manuscripts of the tales is the Ellesmere manuscript, and many editors have followed the order of the Ellesmere over the centuries, even down to the present day. The latest of the manuscripts is William Caxton's 1478 print edition, the first version of the tales to be published in print. Since this version was created from a now-lost manuscript, it is counted as among the 83 manuscripts.
The variety of Chaucer's tales shows the breadth of his skill and his familiarity with countless rhetorical forms and linguistic styles. Medieval schools of rhetoric at the time encouraged such diversity, dividing literature (as Virgil suggests) into high, middle, and low styles as measured by the density of rhetorical forms and vocabulary. Another popular method of division came from St. Augustine, who focused more on audience response and less on subject matter (a Virgilian concern). Augustine divided literature into "majestic persuades", "temperate pleases", and "subdued teaches". Writers were encouraged to write in a way that kept in mind the speaker, subject, audience, purpose, manner, and occasion. Chaucer moves freely between all of these styles, showing favoritism to none. He not only considers the readers of his work as an audience, but the other pilgrims within the story as well, creating a multi-layered rhetorical puzzle of ambiguities. Chaucer's work thus far surpasses the ability of any single medieval theory to uncover.
With this Chaucer avoids targeting any specific audience or social class of readers, focusing instead on the characters of the story and writing their tales with a skill proportional to their social status and learning. However, even the lowest characters, such as the Miller, show surprising rhetorical ability, although their subject matter is more lowbrow. Vocabulary also plays an important part, as those of the higher classes refer to a woman as a "lady", while the lower classes use the word "wenche", with no exceptions. At times the same word will mean entirely different things between classes. The word "pitee", for example, is a noble concept to the upper classes, while in the Merchant's Tale it refers to sexual intercourse. Again, however, tales such as the Nun's Priest's Tale show surprising skill with words among the lower classes of the group, while the Knight's Tale is at times extremely simple.
“Experience – and no matter what they say in books – is good enough authority …”

_______________________________________________________________________________
The Decameron: Ten Days’Work, 《十日谈》
sondry folk: （Middle English） various sorts of people
Boccaccio:  Italian poet and writer whose classic work, The Decameron, is a collection of 100 tales set against the melancholic background of the Black Death. 薄伽丘
quadri-lingual: written in four languages or able to speak four languages
Virgil: Roman poet 维吉尔，古罗马诗人
Saint Augustine: 圣奥古斯丁，古罗马基督教思想家、哲学家

Going-over复习反馈
Multiple-choice Questions
1. The English language developed from the _________ mixture.
A. Anglo-Saxon-Norse-French-Latin
B. Anglo-Saxon-Norse-French-German
C. Anglo-Saxon-Norse-French-Greek
2. The most famous work of Geoffrey Chaucer is _________
A. Ten Days' Work     B. The Canterbury Tales     C. Beowulf
3. Who is sometimes called the father of English literature?
A. Virgil       B. Saint Augustine      C. Geoffrey Chaucer
4. The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written in Middle English at the end of the ____ century.
A. 13th       B. 14th         C. 15th
5. The tales are told as part of a story-telling contest by a group of ______ as they travel together on a journey from Southwark to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral.
A. pilgrims       B. soldiers        C. farmers
6. Structurally, the poem bears the influence of ______
A. Beowulf       B. The Decameron      C. The Bible
7. The standard scholarly edition divides the Tales into____ "fragments."
A. eight       B. nine         C. ten
8. The latest of the manuscripts is William Caxton's ____print edition, the first version of the tales to be published in print.
A. 1478        B. 1578        C. 1678
9. By casting a bumbling, credulous version of himself as tour guide, Chaucer created literature's first unreliable ______.
A. heroine       B. narrator        C. editor

Essay Questions
10. Compare The Decameron with The Canterbury Tales.
11. Summarize the contents of The Canterbury Tales.
12. Give a brief introduction to Geoffrey Chaucer.