This learning packet should review:
-Biography of Geoffrey Chaucer
-The importance to literature and culture of Geoffrey Chaucer
-Insights into Middle English--the time period in which Chaucer was written--and tips for memorization of Middle English language
-Information about the historical context of Chaucer's work
-Information about The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer's most well-known work, including the format of the stories and other key facts
-Exposure to Chaucer's language and style
Students often are required to memorize a portion of The Canterbury Tales as an exposure to Middle English. This is often a challenge! Watch this rap version of The Prologue to The Canterbury Tales--it will aid in quick memorization of the piece.
Source: YouTube
This is an animated introduction to The Canterbury Tales. See the description listed by the film's creator on YouTube:
"This was made for a Motion Graphics class at Brown University. I appropriated illuminated manuscripts from around the internet to create an opening sequence for an imagined film of the Canterbury Tales."
Interesting, entertaining, and relevant to any student of Chaucer.
Source: YouTube
Geoffrey Chaucer led a busy official life, as an esquire of the royal court, as the comptroller of the customs for the port of London, as a participant in important diplomatic missions, and in a variety of other official duties. All this is richly recorded in literally hundreds of documents. But such documents tell us little about Chaucer the man and poet.
Nor does Chaucer himself tell us all that much. He is a lively presence in his works, and every reader comes to feel that he knows Chaucer very well. Perhaps we do. There is a certain consistency in the character of Chaucer as he appears in his works, and occasional biographical passages, such as this from The House of Fame, seem to ring true:
"Wherfore, as I seyde, ywys,
Jupiter considereth this,
And also, beau sir, other thynges:
That is, that thou hast no tydynges
Of Loves folk yf they be glade,
Ne of noght elles that God made;
And noght oonly fro fer contree
That ther no tydynge cometh to thee,
But of thy verray neyghebores,
That duellen almost at thy dores,
Thou herist neyther that ne this;
For when thy labour doon al ys,
And hast mad alle thy rekenynges,
In stede of reste and newe thynges
Thou goost hom to thy hous anoon,
And, also domb as any stoon,
Thou sittest at another book
Tyl fully daswed ys thy look;
And lyvest thus as an heremyte,
Although thyn abstynence ys lyte."
(House of Fame, 641-60)
This has the ring of truth, and yet we can never be sure how much is true and how much a role that Chaucer adopts for his poetic self. The only non-fictionalized scrap of autobiography that we have from Chaucer is the record of his deposition in the Scrope-Grosvener Trial. It reveals Chaucer as a curious and sociable character, rather like the man who scurried about meeting and talking to all the nine and twenty pilgrims that gathered at the Tabard.
By the 1380's Chaucer had earned wide admiration for his work, and a number of contemporaries mention Chaucer and his poetry. Naturally enough, they describe Chaucer's works rather than Chaucer the man.
A biography of Chaucer therefore depends on some extrapolation and the exercise of good judgement, not always apparent in works of this genre. For a good brief life of Chaucer see that by Martin Crow and Virginia Leland in The Riverside Chaucer, pp. xv-xxvi, and, slightly altered, in The Canterbury Tales Complete pp. xiii-xxv. For an excellent full treatment see Derek A. Pearsall, The Life of Geoffrey Chaucer: A critical biography, Oxford, 1992.
I love this crazy world....three guys rapping in Middle English! What a fun way to get us all to review this passage again and again!
This is an interesting and fast way to digest Chaucer and TCT. But bulleting has to be accurate because it explains so little.. Example: Slide 5: Romance of the Rose was not a Chaucer original. It was written in Old French some 150 years earlier by Guillaume de Lorris, and finished by Jean de Meun. (I had to look them up. I couldn't recall the original authors.) Chaucer translated it into ME, and even then, only parts of it.
Slide 8: if this is for high schoolers, make sure they know you are speaking of a royal "Court," not a legal one. Also, I would put an = sign before "stereotyping," rather than a dash.
Finally, I'm curious why you chose The Pardoner's Tale as your sample, since The Knight's Tale is first?
Thanks for the feedback. I made some changes to clarify. I chose The Pardoner's Tale simply because it is the one that is traditionally taught most in-depth in the high school where I teach, so I am most familiar/comfortable discussing it.
Excellent. What Dewbre leaves out, and what was the turning point for my being able to read and speak ME, is that it is similar to German. Once I realized that, I just flew through it, and do to this day.
Not ". . . an animated version of The Canterbury Tales." It's an animated introduction to TCT. That said, I love it, especially because the artwork is similar to that of the Middle Ages.
I like this one. Brings back memories of the good ol' college Middle English Literature class.
"good introduction to this literature and author"
"Great introduction to Chaucer. Another favorite of mine to teach."