GEOFFREY CHAUCER - FATHER OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

Chaucer wrote in Middle English, best known for his “Canterbury Tales”Facts and Opinions: born in c.1343, died in 25 Nov., 1400 first poet buried at Poet’s Corner his trips to Italy familiarized him with Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarch and their works: Divine Comedy, Decameron, Petrarchan sonnet wrote in Middle English when French and Latin was dominant his decasyllabic couplets – heroic couplets iambic pentameter his use of continental accentual syllabic meter to replace alliterative Anglo-Saxon meter rhyme royal – seven line stanza in iambic pentameter

RHYME ROYALRhyme scheme: a-b-a-b-b-c-c Variations: 1). a tercet and two couplets (a-b-a, b-b, c-c) 2). a quatrain and a tercet (a-b-a-b, b-c-c) Examples: from "TROILUS AND CRISEYDE"

The double sorwe of Troilus to tellen, The double sorrow of Troilus to tellThat was the king Priamus sone of Troye, That was the son of King Priam of TroyIn lovinge, how his aventures fellen In loving, how his adventures fellFro wo to wele, and after out of Ioye, From woe to well, and after out of love My purpos is, er that I parte fro ye. My purpose is, before that I part from youThesiphone, thou help me for tendyte Thesiphone, you help me for nowThise woful vers, that wepen as I wryte! These woeful verses, that weep as I write

THE KNIGHT’S TALE - FROM “CANTERBURY TALES”

Characters:Palamon and Arcite – the Knights - cousins and sworn brothers Emelye – Theseus’s sister-in-lawTheseus - son of Aegeus, founder-king of Athens / AtticaThree deities:

① Venus, the goddess of love;

② Mars, the god of war;

③ Diana, the goddess of chastitySaturn – Cronus, father of Zeus, son of Uranus and Gaia

Rhea – wife of Saturn

THE KNIGHT’S TALE - FROM “CANTERBURY TALES”

Questions:

THE KNIGHT’S TALE - FROM “CANTERBURY TALES”

Questions:

THE KNIGHT’S TALE - FROM “CANTERBURY TALES”

Questions:

THE KNIGHT’S TALE - FROM “CANTERBURY TALES”

Questions:

THE KNIGHT’S TALE - FROM “CANTERBURY TALES”

Questions: