The Canterbury tales
Geoffrey Chaucer 双线纽扣结Contributions
Father of English poetry
Chaucer, for the first time in English literature， prented 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 ver.
Chaucer ud for the first time in English the rhymed couplet of iambic pentameter which is to be called later as the heroic couplet 。
Chaucer greatly incread 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 ver 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 veral 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， becau 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 t 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 pro and the others are written in ver。
苏州山塘街攻略
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 t out together with the “jolly innkeep
er,” Harry Baily， who becomes their “governor” and propos 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.
秋天的图片The 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 himlf.
Theme
Influenced by the early Italian Renaissance, Chaucer affirmed man’s right to pursue earthly happiness and oppod asceticism, praid man's energy, intellect， and love of life. Meanwhile， he also expod and satirized the social evils， esp. the religious abus。
Style
芦浦镇lively and vivid Middle—Age English 右文
15英寸>东汉开国 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 n of lf—importance of the trades and towns people， reflectin
g 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 suppod to determine the best hence winning tale。 As mentioned before, The Canterbury Tales was never finished。印加
