MEDIEVAL ENGLAND 1100-1500

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MEDIEVAL ENGLAND1100-1500

• Chaucer The Canterbury Tales

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MIDDLE ENGLISH

• Transitional Language
• Overlap from Anglo-Saxon to full English
• Included
• French - language of courts
• Latin - legal and church
• English - common folk
• Literature
• Drama/Morality Plays,
• Prose (CTs and Gawain), Romance,
• Lyric poetry (sung),
• Ballads (folk songs of stories)

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GENERAL EVENTS

• 1337 100 Year war Edward III (England) vs.
  Phillip VI (France) over who owned what land and
  where
• England wins most but loses French possession
• 1348 Black Death 50 of population die
• 1361 Bible Translated to English!
• 1381 Peasant Revolt for better wages and class
  rights, Church power rising
• Richard II (14 yrs.) promises to fix feudal
  system, but lied

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• Feudal System
• Set classes
• Class tells about your life and actions
• Very hard to move classes

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GEOFFREY CHAUCER (1343-1400)

• Father of English poetry
• Exposure to all classes lives
• Born in London into a merchant class but with new
  found wealth worked as a page to the Countess of
  Ulster
• Also worked for King Richard II and King Henry IV
• Hundred Years War a soldier and diplomat since
  he spoke Latin, French, Italian as well
• Promoted to a Government Official who worked with
  cloth importers
• Moved to Kent from London to be Justice of the
  Peace
• Influenced by Italian and French writing (Dante,
  Petrarch, Boccaccio)
• wrote a lot of love tales
• His vision to write accessibly to all Middle
  English

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CANTERBURY TALES (1387)

• Group of 30 pilgrims traveling to see the shrine
  of St. Thomas Becket in Canterbury
• Story Frame each pilgrim tells 4 tales 2 on
  the way, 2 back 120, (only 24 written)
• Archbishop Thomas Becket was the most powerful of
  King Henry IIs subjects. They were great
  friends, but unfortunately the power went to his
  head and he began doing things without permission
  from the king. There was a lot of strain because
  of the rise in the churchs power verses the
  kings. He was fined and dismissed, so he fled
  to France. He begged Henry to come back and once
  he was allowed, he didnt abide by any of the
  stipulations. So, four knights hacked up Becket.
  People thought so highly of him, they took blood
  from the streets and performed miracles. Henry
  later showed pentance at his tomb.

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• (DIR) followed chivalry, truth, honor,
  generousness, and courtesy
• (IND) He was not gaily dressed. He wore a
  frustian tunic, stained and dark with smudges
  where his armor had left mark

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1. Merchant Oxford Cleric
2. Sergeant Franklin
3. Guildsmen (pg.98) Skipper
4. Cook Doctor
5. Parson Plowman

6. Wife and Prioress 7. Miller Manciple 8.
Summoner Pardoner 9. Reeve Friar
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On the back of your DGP, write a short response
to the following quote

• Greed is a fat demon with a small mouth and
  whatever you feed it is never enough.
• - Janwillem Van De Wetering

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Talking to the Text!
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With your group

• Read The Pardoners Tale out loud.
• Talk to the Text/Take notes on the story
• When you are finished, come up with a story map
  for the tale including rising action and falling
  action in detail

Climax
Rising Action
Falling Action
Exposition (characters/setting)
Denouement
Conflict
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Pardoners Literary Poster
You will have 20 minutes ONLY to create a poster
including AT LEAST the following

• Title
• Short Summary (plot points and characters)
• Theme (general message/moral)
• What is the irony of this tale?
• The old man bears a curious doom. What must he
  find in order to die, and why cant he find it?

BE ORIGINAL! The more creative the better!