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England and Englishness in Canterbury Tales

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England and Englishness in Canterbury Tales Masaryk University Brno FACULTY OF EDUCATION Department of English Language and Literature Tomáš Juránek English and Englishness in Canterbury Tales Bachelor Thesis Brno 2015 Supervisor: Mgr. Jaroslav Izavčuk Declaration Hereby I declare that I have worked on my thesis independently and that I have used only the sources listed in the Bibliography 2 Declaration I would like to thank Mgr. Jaroslav Izavčuk and express my gratitude for his patience and supervision of my thesis 3 Annotation This bachelor thesis discusses the reflection of Englishness in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales in medieval England and culture in 14th century. Its main aims are to analyse the characters from the English point of view and study the idea of Englishness. It describes the three estates in medieval England and their portrayal in The Canterbury Tales. Key Words England, Englishness, Canterbury Tales, Chaucer Anotace Tato bakalářská práce zkoumá odraz angličnosti v Chaucerových Canterburských Povídkách odehrávajících se ve středověké Anglii 14.století. Její hlavní cíle jsou analyzovat postavy z Anglického pohledu a studovat teorii angličnosti. Práce popisuje tři statky ve středověké Anglii a jejich popis v Canterburských Povídkách Klíčová slova Anglie, Angličnost, Canterburské Povídky, Chaucer 4 Table of Contents 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 6 2 Geoffrey Chaucer – Politician, Poet, Englishman ....................................................................... 8 3 English nationalism and Englishness in the Middle Ages ......................................................... 10 3.1 The Church of England ...................................................................................................... 11 3.2 The Nobility ....................................................................................................................... 12 3.3 The Commoners ................................................................................................................ 14 4 England and Englishness in The Canterbury Tales ................................................................... 17 4.1 Clergymen ......................................................................................................................... 17 4.1.1 The Parson’s penitence .............................................................................................. 17 4.1.2 The hypocritical Friar.................................................................................................. 18 4.1.3 The corrupt Summoner .............................................................................................. 19 4.1.4 The crooked Pardoner ................................................................................................ 20 4.1.5 The gluttonous Monk ................................................................................................. 21 4.2 Members of the court ....................................................................................................... 22 4.2.1 The adventurer – the Knight ...................................................................................... 22 4.2.2 The Knight’s son, the Squire ....................................................................................... 24 4.2.3 The Man of Law’s Tale................................................................................................ 24 4.3 The Commoners of Canterbury Tales ............................................................................... 26 4.3.1 The working class stereotype? The Miller.................................................................. 26 4.3.2 The Reeve’s tale ......................................................................................................... 27 4.3.3 The Shipman ............................................................................................................... 28 4.3.4 The Wife of Bath’s Tale .............................................................................................. 28 5 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 31 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................ 32 5 1 Introduction Every country has its national treasure, a symbol of their identity, something to be proud of. To identify such artefact, one needs to search in history and study a nation’s background, influences, and events that shaped each country. England and especially Great Britain is rich in its history and significant episodes that influenced the whole world. The idea of Englishness is different for every citizen of the British Isles as they are from dissimilar countries; Irish and Scots have different point of view on England than English patriots. The question is: What is Englishness for Brits? Is it their language? Kings and Queens? Colonization of distant lands? Shakespeare? This thesis is going to focus on fourteenth century and search for evidence of Englishness in The Canterbury Tales written by the father of English poetry, Geoffrey Chaucer, and compare them with the idea of Englishness in popular culture. It is vital to travel into the past in order to discover the present English anxiety about themselves and recognize the thing that created ideal Englishman and Englishwoman who carried the flag across the world. (Paxman, viii) To understand Englishness, it is important to look at the environment and values in Chaucer’s era and see which of these persisted until today’s England as well as changes that happened in feudal England – the Black Death which wiped out over third of the population, wars that lead to tax increase and peasant revolts, and finally reformation of the Church. In the third chapter, the thesis describes medieval England and its people. It analyses social ranks along with their culture and nationalism. Some say that English thought they possessed some unique gift from God. As Ogden Nash wrote: “Let us pause to consider the English, who when they pause to consider themselves they get all reticently thrilled and tinglish, because every Englishman is convinced of one thing, viz; That to be an Englishman is to belong to the most exclusive club there is.” The fourth chapter applies all the facts on the characters from The Canterbury Tales. It is based on findings from literary sources by various authors with different points of view on English people. It is divided into three parts – The Clergy, The 6 Members of the Court, and the Working class. The thesis focuses on reflections of Englishness in characters’ behaviour and motivations. 7 2 Geoffrey Chaucer – Politician, Poet, Englishman He was born in London around 1343 to a wine merchant from Ipswich. Although his father was wealthy, he was ‘only’ a merchant. Therefore, Chaucer moved to higher social circles and by the age of 17 public records saw him as a pajettus1 for the Countess of Ulster. Then he joined the army and fought in the Hundred Years War in France and was captured during the Siege of Rheims and eventually released after a ransom of sixteen pounds was paid. It is said that by Edward III himself. Then he moved steadily from court to greater court until, by the age of 27, he became an esquire2 in the court of the king himself. Since Chaucer was born near the end of a period of vast French influence he would have learnt French and spoken to his parents in both English and French. At this time English was the language of the poor and common folk. Only aristocrats spoke French and Chaucer would not be able to move in ranks without knowing the languages. Chaucer travelled often to France and Italy to fulfil tasks given to him by the King. During these trips, he studied French and Italian poetry. He was especially impressed by the works of Boccaccio. Back in England, poems were either English translations of French poems (Roman de la Rose3) or plain copies based on French style. At this point, Chaucer started inventing his own style. It is known that Chaucer did not write at all until he was more stable in his career which was in his thirties. In 1347 he was offered a job as the Port of London Controller of Customs where he was supposed to keep accurate records of the various payments of the export duty on wool, one of England’s most important tax revenues. (CT, 3) And it was not only wool he got in contact. Trading with various luxury fabrics coming to and from London made him well acquainted with clothes and this fact reflected in The Canterbury Tales as he described every character’s clothing in a very detailed manner. However, this is not his first work and he had plenty of time to practice his writing and style. His first poem was Anelida and Arcite and it was based on Italian epic 1 A page 2 Rank just below a Knight 3 French medieval poem, translated into Middle English as „The Romaunt of the Rose“. The translation is thought to be Chaucer‘s 8 by Boccaccio – Teseida. Also the Knight’s tale in The Canterbury Tales is based on Teseida. This poem tales the tale of Armenian queen Anelida and her experience at the court of the Grecian Arcite. Lots of Chaucer’s poems written after that, were dream visions. In this genre the narrator is dreaming and relates everything he has apprehended. Such poems are for example The House of Fame, a 2000-line dream vision from 1380, or Parlement of Foules where the
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