BARD OF THE MIDDLE AGES : THE WORKS OF GEOFFREY CHAUCER COURSE GUIDE Professor Michael D.C. Drout WHEATON COLLEGE Bard of the Middle Ages: The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer Professor Michael D.C. Drout Wheaton College Recorded Books ™ is a trademark of Recorded Books, LLC. All rights reserved. Bard of the Middle Ages: The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer Professor Michael D.C. Drout Executive Producer John J. Alexander Executive Editor Donna F. Carnahan RECORDING Producer - David Markowitz Director - Matthew Cavnar COURSE GUIDE Editor - James Gallagher Design - Edward White Lecture content ©2005 by Michael D.C. Drout Course guide ©2005 by Recorded Books, LLC 72005 by Recorded Books, LLC Cover image: Chaucer and a medieval illustration from The Canterbury Tales © Clipart.c #UT059 ISBN: 978-1-4193-3015-5 All beliefs and opinions expressed in this audio/video program and accompanying course study guide are those of the author and not of Recorded Books, LLC or its employees. Course Syllabus Bard of the Middle Ages: The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer About Your Professor ...................................................................................................... 4 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 5 Lecture 1 Chaucer’s Life, Times, and Importance .................................................... 6 Lecture 2 Language, Style, and Literary Background .............................................. 9 Lecture 3 The Book of the Duchess , The Romance of the Rose, and the Minor Poems .............................................................................. 12 Lecture 4 The House of Fame , Anelida and Arcite, The Parliament of Fowls , and Boethius .................................................. 15 Lecture 5 Troilus and Criseyde , Books I-II .............................................................. 18 Lecture 6 Troilus and Criseyde , Books III-V ............................................................ 21 Lecture 7 The Legend of Good Women .................................................................. 24 Lecture 8 The Canterbury Tales : “General Prologue” ............................................ 27 Lecture 9 The Canterbury Tales : “The Knight’s Tale,” “The Miller’s Tale,” “The Reeve’s Tale,” and “The Cook’s Tale” ............................................................................ 30 Lecture 10 The Canterbury Tales : “The Man of Law’s Tale,” “The Wife of Bath’s Tale,” “The Friar’s Tale,” and “The Summoner’s Tale” .................................................................... 34 Lecture 11 The Canterbury Tales : “The Clerk’s Tale,” “The Merchant’s Tale,” “The Squire’s Tale,” and “The Franklin’s Tale” ........................................................................ 37 Lecture 12 The Canterbury Tales : “The Physician’s Tale,” “The Pardoner’s Tale,” “The Shipman’s Tale,” and “The Prioress’s Tale” ........................................................................ 40 Lecture 13 The Canterbury Tales : “Sir Thopas,” “The Tale of Melibee,” “The Monk’s Tale,” “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale,” and “The Second Nun’s Tale” .................................................................. 43 Lecture 14 The Canterbury Tales : “The Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale,” “The Manciple’s Tale,” “The Retraction,” and Our Conclusions .............................................................................. 46 Middle English Words .................................................................................................... 49 A Brief Chaucer Timeline .............................................................................................. 50 Course Materials ............................................................................................................ 51 3 m o c . s e g a m I C C B , r e i l l o About Your Professor C n i m a j n e B © Michael D.C. Drout Michael D.C. Drout is an associate professor of English at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts, where he teaches courses in Old and Middle English, medieval literature, Chaucer, fantasy, and science fiction. Professor Drout received his Ph.D. in medieval literature from Loyola University in 1997. He also holds M.A. degrees from Stanford (journalism) and the University of Missouri-Columbia (English literature) and a B.A. from Carnegie Mellon. Professor Drout was awarded the Faculty Appreciation Award for teaching by the Wheaton College class of 2002. He is the editor of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Beowulf and the Critics, which won the Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Inklings Studies for 2003. His most recent book, How Tradition Works: A Meme-Based Poetics of the Anglo-Saxon Tenth Century, will be published by Arizona Medieval and Renaissance Studies in 2005. Drout is one of the founding editors of the journal Tolkien Studies and is editor of The J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia, which will be published by Routledge in 2006. Drout has published extensively on medieval literature, including articles on William Langland’s Piers Plowman, the Anglo-Saxon wills, the Old English translation of the Rule of Chrodegang, the Exeter Book “wisdom poems,” and Anglo-Saxon medical texts. He has also published articles on Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea books and Susan Cooper’s Dark Is Rising series of children’s fantasy novels. Drout has written an Old English grammar book, King Alfred’s Grammar, which is available for free at his website, www.michaeldrout.com. He has given lectures in England, Finland, Italy, Canada, and throughout the United States. Drout lives in Dedham, Massachusetts, with his wife, Raquel D’Oyen, their daughter, Rhys, and their son, Mitchell. You will get the most out of this course if you have the following book: The Riverside Chaucer by Geoffrey Chaucer, edited by Larry D. Benson, et al. 4 m o c . t r a p i l C © Introduction Had Geoffrey Chaucer not written, or not written so well, the last 600 years of English literature would have been decidedly different. His creative style and use of language served as one of the primary foundations on which later writers built. Through his writing, Chaucer’s wit, charm, and eloquence give us a deeper understanding of not only the time in which he lived, but of how human emotion, frailty, and fortitude are the base elements of human existence. Despite social upheaval and the changing fortunes of his patrons and peers, Chaucer remained a favored subject during three distinct and contrasting reigns. His experiences provided Chaucer an appreciation for his good (and bad) for - tune—and that of others—made evident in his writing. Chaucer’s works are today widely studied and serve as models for current liter - ature around the world. Chaucer holds a place of esteem as the earliest and one of the foremost writers in the English language. 5 Lecture 1: Chaucer’s Life, Times, and Importance Before beginning this lecture you may want to . Read The Life of Geoffrey Chaucer by Derek Pearsall. Geoffrey Chaucer was born in the early 1340s and died in 1400. The son of a prosperous London wine merchant, Chaucer was a middle-class commoner who rose to positions of power and influence with three different kings. Social Change England in Chaucer’s day was undergoing rapid social, political, and tech - nological changes. The country was prospering due to the wool trade, and some middle-class merchants were becoming wealthier than members of the nobility; these changes led to social conflict. A variety of religious controver - sies, including the “Great Schism” (in which there were two competing Popes, one in Rome, one in Avignon) and some pre-Protestant reform movements also brought about political and intellectual unrest. England was evolving into a dynamic, trade-based society with considerable individual and intellectual freedom, but the changes did not come easily. Chaucer was caught up in the middle of all of these changes, and they influ - enced his writing immensely. Service to the Court Although his poetry was popular during his life, Chaucer was almost certain - ly more well known for being an efficient and powerful servant of the royal court than he was for being a poet. Chaucer was the consummate insider, working as a messenger for the royal court, as Controller of the Customs for the wool trade (England’s most important export), and as Clerk of the King’s Works—responsible for construction and repairs at all of King Richard II’s residences and holdings. As a young man, Chaucer was a retainer of Elizabeth de Burgh, Countess of Ulster and the wife of Prince Lionel, one of the sons of King Edward III. The Countess’s brother-in-law was John of Gaunt, who became the most powerful man in England and was a patron of Chaucer; John appears to have commis - sioned Chaucer’s poem The Book of the Duchess in honor of his wife, Blanche, who died in 1368. Chaucer served in King Edward’s military forces in France in 1359 and was captured for a short time before being ransomed by the king. His experiences in war influenced some of his poetry, particularly the description of the Temple of Mars in “The Knight’s Tale.” Chaucer carried letters for Prince Lionel during peace negotiations in 1360; this was the first E N of his journeys in continental Europe on behalf of the English crown. He O became a member of King Edward’s household, carrying messages for the E R king to the continent, and he may have studied law while in the king’s ser - U T vice. In 1374, King Edward granted Chaucer a gallon of wine per day for C E life—no one knows why, but scholars