Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer, “the first finder of our language” ("Chaucer, Geoffrey” 1), greatly increased the prestige of English as a literary language and extended the range of its poetic vocabulary and meters. Chaucer’s Legend of Good Women introduced the heroic couplet (two rhyming lines of iambic pentameter) into English verse. In Troilus and Criseyde, Chaucer perfected the seven-line stanza later called rhyme royal. One of the keys to Chaucer’s continued critical success was the scope and diversity of his work, which extended from romance to tragedy, from sermon to dream vision, from devout saints to vulgar sinners. Through his passion for life and love, his deep religious devotion, and a willingness to experiment with a variety of literary approaches, Geoffrey Chaucer retains a central position in the development of English literature and the English language.
Among his themes, the most commonly referred to were religion, virtue, courtly love, and nature. Troilus and Criseyde, a poem of more than 8,000 lines, was one of Chaucer’s major works. In this tragic love story, the Trojan prince Troilus, aided by the schemes of his close friend, her uncle Pandarus, wins Criseyde (Cressida) only to lose her to the Greek warrior Diomede. Chaucer juxtaposes the “human pursuit of earthly ideals” which “pale into insignificance beside the eternal love of God” (Grolier). The poem ends with the narrator’s solemn advice to young people to flee vain loves and turn their hearts to Christ.
The Pardoner in The Pardoner’s Tale gives a chilling demonstration of how his eloquence in the pulpit turns the hope of salvation into a vicious confidence game. Although Chaucer in this way satirized the abuses of the Church, he also included a number of religious tales, concluding with the good Parson’s sermon on penitence; this was followed by a personal confession in which Chaucer “retracts” all his secular writing, including Troilus, and those Canterbury tales that “incline towards sin” (Encarta). Like the ending of Troilus, the retraction reminds the reader that Chaucer’s genius was always subject to orthodox scrutiny.
With many of his stories centered on a religious theme, one might ask: Was Chaucer a Christian? Lounsbury states, “The evidence, so far as it exists, indicates that Chaucer’s mind passed through several phases, but that towards the end doubt and denial became its leading characteristics” (qtd. in Wagenknecht). Lounsbury’s Studies in Chaucer set forth a vigorous argument in favor of the hypothesis of a skeptical Chaucer, which inclines one to believe that he was a “skeptic in religion also” (Wagenknecht 120).
One of
Chaucer’s favorite subjects was love, whether virtuous or not. Chaucer “accepted the universe, and his
universe included sex” (Wagenknecht 120). The vulgarity of the Merchant in the Canterbury
Tales offered insight into Chaucer’s attitudes towards love. Wagenknecht also
did not believe that “innocence in the sense of ignorance ever made much appeal
to him, and squeamishness attracted him even less” (80). Chaucer, however, never took an amoral
standpoint on sex or any other matter.
In fact, many of his works condemned sinful indulgences. The following quote, taken from “The
Pardoner’s Tale”, is an example of Chaucer’s moral conviction: “And, sires, also it heeleth
jalousie; / For though a man be falles
in jalous rage, / Lat maken
with this water his potage, / And nevere shal he
The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer’s best-known work, greatly
influenced the development of English literature. The
Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories within a framing story of a
pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral, the shrine of
His works ranged over a wide variety of styles, subjects, and genres. Another reoccurring device throughout his works was his use of dream visions. The House of Fame, The Parliament of Fowles, and Legend of Good Women, are three dream visions, written from about 1373 to 1385. All three poems contain a mixture of comedy and serious speculation about the puzzling nature of love. Typically, the dream vision occurs in a predictable series of stages: 1) the dreamer falls asleep in the midst of some life crisis or emotional impasse; 2) the dreamer, almost always a male, finds himself in a beautiful natural place, often an enclosed garden filled with beautiful plants, animals; 3) the dreamer encounters a guide figure who instructs the dreamer and/or leads the dreamer to one or more allegorical visions; 4) the dreamer may interrogate the guide figure about the significance of the visions, but often this does not produce satisfactory results; 5) something within the dream causes the dreamer to awaken before the full significance of the dream can be explained. Parliament, Book of the Duchess, and House of Fame are characterized by some additional stylistic quirks: the dreamer complains of a problem but the nature of the dreamer's problem almost always remains a mystery, and the problems of the vision's characters occupies the center of our interest. The vision usually appears to contain both a moral/social allegory and references to contemporary political events. The reason for his use of dream visions is debatable however, it seems that an ideal sanctuary for, and possible birthplace of, those very ideas is in the dream state. This ‘dimension’ presents Chaucer with the opportunity to use more, outlandish characters, and venues.
Chaucer’s use of birds was indicative of his love of nature and spring. In “The Parliament” he writes, “On every bow the bryddes herde I synge, / With voys of aungel in here armonye.” In Troilus and Criseyde a nightingale sings the heroine to sleep:
A nyghtyngale, upon a cedir grene,
Under the chamber wal ther as she ley,
Ful loude song ayein the moone shene,
Peraunter, in his brides wise, a lay
Of love, that made hire herte fresh and gay,
That herkned she so longe in good entente,
Til at the laste the dede slep hire hente. (918-24)
In addition, in “The Book of the Duchess” he personifies the choir of birds that wake him:
Me thoghte thus: that hyt was May,
And in the dawenynge I lay
(Me mette thus) in my bed al naked,
And loked forth, for I was
waked
With smale foules a gret hep
That had affrayed me out of my slep,
Thorgh noyse and swetnesse of her song,
And, as me mette, they sate among
Upon my chamber roof wythoute,
Ujpon the tyles, overall aboute,
And songen, everych in hys wyse,
The moste solempne servise
By note, that ever man, y trowe,
Had herde; for some of hem song lowe,
Som high, and al of oon accord.
To tell shortly, att oo word.
Was never herd so swete a steven,--
But hyt had be a thing of heven.
Chaucer gained much acclaim by skillfully exploring diverse techniques. “As he is the Father of English Poetry, so I hold him in the same Degree of Veneration as the Grecians held Homer, or the Romans Virgil” (Dryden). Chaucer made a lasting impression on English as a language and its literary aspect. Accordingly, each century’s readers have discovered more about themselves through the reading of his works. His methods of instituting his passions and beliefs have insured that he be remembered throughout history. Chaucer’s reputation as a great English writer has been securely established through his willingness to broaden the limits of English literature.
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