What Chaucer did for the English language.
LECTURE 3
THE MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD 1066-1500
The overthrow of Anglo-Saxon rule in England by William the Conqueror in 1066 was an event of vast importance to English literature. The productions of English authors during the four centuries after the Norman Conquest are of both philological and literary interest. We can’t but pay attention to the principal changes in the language because the relation between literature and its medium of expression is especially intimate.
Modern English literature didn’t suddenly make its appearance like the magical roses which sprang full-blown wherever the feet of Venus touched the soil. The language in which Chaucer and Shakespeare wrote was formed in a conflict in which no quarter was given or asked. For three hundred years after the Norman Conquest three languages were widely used in England. The Normans introduced French, which was the language of the court and the aristocracy. William the Conqueror brought over many Norman priests, who used Latin almost exclusively in their service. In addition to French and Latin there was, thirdly, the Anglo-Saxon, to which the middle and the lower classes of the English stubbornly held fast. Educated men of these times were trilingual /tral 
gwl/.
In the Middle Ages, the English language developed its modern nature and structure. Two very important linguistic developments characterize Middle English:in grammar and in vocabulary.
Literature in English suffered a severe downfall in 1066. The Norman Conquest reduced the Saxon language almost to the peasants’ dialect and kept it for more than two centuries in that position. Classical Old English verse died out. When the new writing appeared, it was in an English which had become very different from that of the 11th century. The reasons for this include the lack of any written standard to discourage dialectal variety; scribal practice; linguistic change; and a new literary consciousness.
When English had attained full literary equality in status with French in the second half of the 14th century, there was no standard literary English: the great writers of that time wrote different forms of English: a London English, a Yorkshire English, a Kentish English, a Norfolk English and other varieties of English. Middle English dialects differed in vocabulary and grammar. The absence of standard spelling made Middle English dialectal variation seem even greater.
In the 15th century, London’s changing English became the national standard. Printing, introduced in 1476, helped to spread this literary standard. Spelling was fully standardized only by the end of the 18th century after Dr Johnson’s Dictionary of 1755.
Literature too found modern forms in the medieval period: prose in the 15th century, verse in the 14th century, and drama as early as the 12th century.
In studying Chaucer’s work it is important to remember that his education as a poet was two-fold. Part of it came from literature; but part of it came from life. He had travelled much; he had seen life; his business at home and abroad brought him into close relations with people of all sorts; and with his quick insight into character and his keen eye for everything dramatic and picturesque and humorous he was precisely the kind of poet to profit by such varied experiences. His genius was fed by his wide and deep knowledge of life itself.
It is usual and convenient to divide Chaucer’s literary career into three periods, which are called his French, his Italian and his English period, respectively.
In 1170 Thomas a Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, was murdered at the altar in Canterbury Cathedral.
He was considered both a martyr and a saint, and his body was placed in a splendid shrine at the Cathedral. /the tomb of a saint or other holy person - pака, ковчег з мощами святих/
It was said that miracles were worked at his tomb, that the sick were cured, and that the earthly business of those who knelt at this holy place prospered. It became the fashion to go on pilgrimages /pl gr md/ to his tomb. They were often undertaken in companies, partly for the sake of society by the way, and partly because of the dangers of the roads. The journeys came to be looked on as a holiday which relieved the monotony of everyday life, but, it must be admitted, that their predominant purpose was strictly spiritual.
About 1385 Chaucer probably went on such a pilgrimage. For the sake of entertainment, as the pilgrims moved along, some of them might have told stories. The idea occurred to Chaucer to write a collection of such tales. The result was the Canterbury Tales.
All that Chaucer needed was some scheme into which he could fit the stories that occurred to him, and make them something more than ordinary isolated tales, which might soon be forgotten. The Canterbury Tales are a frame story, that is to say, a collection of stories fitted into a general framework which serves to hold them together.
The inner story is like a painting on a canvas; the outer story is like the frame of the painting. In The Canterbury Tales, the inner stories told by the pilgrims form the images on the canvas; the outer story told by Chaucer forms the frame.
.......The Canterbury Tales has one overall narrator, Chaucer himself in the persona /prso n/ of the first pilgrim, who presents his account in first-person point of view. In the general prologue /pro lg/, he establishes the time of the year, April, then begins telling the story about the pilgrimage to Canterbury.
After describing the pilgrims gathering at their point of departure—the Tabard /tæb rd/ Inn, across the Thames River from central London—he reports a proposal by their host, Harry Bailly, the proprietor of the Tabard, that to pass the time of the journey pleasantly each member of the party shall tell two tales on the way to Canterbury and two on the way back; that he himself will be the judge; and that the one who tells the best tale shall be treated by all the rest to a supper on their return to the Tabard Inn. The pilgrims enthusiastically approve his proposal.
...... All this is explained in the Prologue, after which Chaucer proceeds to introduce his fellow-pilgrims. All in all there are thirty two characters. They represent all ranks of English life.
Chaucer then allows the pilgrims to narrate their tales. They tell them in third-person point of view. Between their stories, Chaucer resumes his narration, reporting the discourse of the pilgrims and the words of Harry Bailly when he introduces the next storyteller. Bailly plays a crucial role in The Canterbury Tales. With his questions and comments, he stimulates conversation that helps to reveal the personalities and attitudes of the pilgrims.
In his descriptions of the most prominent of these people Chaucer’s powers are shown at their very highest. The largeness of his view on human nature is remarkable. The pictures of the highest and the lowest, the honest and the falsehearted are painted with equal fidelity to life. All the characters are individualized, yet their thoroughly typical quality gives unique value to Chaucer’s picture of men and manners in the England of this time.
As according to programme each of the pilgrims was to have told four stories, the poet’s plan was a very large one. Chaucer lived to complete a small portion only – 24 tales. They differ in character as widely as do those by whom they are told.
The majority of the world has always been more interested in stories than in any other form of literature. Chaucer probably did not realize that he had such positive genius for telling tales in verse that the next five hundred years would fail to produce his superior in that branch of English literature, but he knew that he enjoyed telling such tales. His mastery of the art of narration has led many to consider Chaucer the father of the English novel. His Prologue to the Canterbury tales is called “the prologue to modern fiction”.
Chaucer is the voice of his age. He discards the convention of dream and fantasy and realistically, without any exaggeration, mirrors the social, economic and religious conditions of the times. Unlike other contemporary poets, he expresses his age not in fragments but as a whole. Chaucer’s chronicle of his age is complete, wide-ranging and all inclusive. It is no exaggeration, but a sound and informing critical and historical observation, to say that The Canterbury Tales supply a miniature /mnt/ or even microcosm /ma krkz m/, not only of English poetry up to their date, but of medieval literature in general.
Chaucer is the first true humorist in English literature. His humor is rich and varied. In this respect, he is second only to Shakespeare.
What Chaucer did for the English language.
The range and variety of Chaucer’s English did much to establish English as a national language. “He found English a dialect and left it a language”. It was only a man of genius that could transform the existing English dialects into the literary language of England, the language of great flexibility and power. He modernized the grammar, vocabulary and syntax of his tongue. He coined many new words, and imported many others.
Chaucer is the creator of modern English versification /vsfken/ віршування. He imported the heroic couplet героїчний двовірш form France and used it with great ease and fluency. He experimented with a number of meters and stanzas строфа. He invented the Rhyme Royal or the Chaucerian stanza.
Thus, Chaucer left English poetry fully equipped. For this reason Chaucer deserves to be called the first modern English poet.
It is true that with Chaucer English literature made a brilliant beginning. But it was only a beginning. After his death we enter upon a long barren period in its history. On one hand, the 15th century was a period of social disorder and confusion. The barons and the king were first busy fighting the French, and then in fighting each other. Such lawless times do not contribute to the growth of literature for literature is an art of peace. On the other hand, prolonged French wars had resulted in isolation and break of contacts with the European countries, which had always been a source of inspiration to writers in England. Isolation resulted in stagnation (decline). The fact is that during that period no writer of genius was born. The Chaucerian tradition was followed but it was lifeless and empty. The poets, conscious of Chaucer’s greatness, only imitated or recreated the outworn themes, which killed the very spirit of poetry.
But it should be emphasized that the age is deficient only in so far as Chaucerian or official court poetry is concerned. As we shall soon see, it is quite rich in popular or “folk” poetry, and drama. The best of medieval ballads belong to this age.
Robin Hoodis a legendary outlaw hero of a series of English ballads, some of which date from at least as early as the late 13th century. Robin Hood was a rebel /rb l/ бунтівник, and many of the most striking episodes in the tales about him show him and his companions robbing and killing representatives of authority and giving the gains to the poor. The early ballads, especially, reveal the cruelty that was an inescapable part of medieval life.
The authentic Robin Hood ballads were the poetic expression of popular hopes in the north of England during a turbulent era of baronial rebellions and agrarian discontent /ds kntnt/, which culminated in the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. Themes that were found in the actions of the rebels are common to the ballads. Robin Hood’s most frequent enemy was the Sheriff of Nottingham, a local agent of the central government, who is shown as weak and dishonorable. Other enemies included wealthy members of the clergy. These characters are greedy, possessing luxurious goods and unwilling to show charity. The king is presented as a good ruler. Robin treats women, the poor, and people of humble status with courtesy /kts/.
/krtik/ /nobl ti/ /gæl tr i n/
The theme of the free but persecuted outlaw, enjoying the forbidden hunting in the Sherwood Forest and outwitting or killing the forces of law and order, naturally appealed to the common people.
Numerous attempts have been made to prove that there was a historical Robin Hood, though references to the legend by medieval writers make it clear that the ballads themselves were the only evidence for his existence available to them. None of the various claims identifying Robin Hood with a particular historical figure has gained much support, and the outlaw’s existence may never have been anything but legendary.
Although many of the best-known Robin Hood ballads are postmedieval, there is a core that can be confidently attributed to the medieval period. These are Robin Hood and the Monk, Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne, Robin Hood and the Potter, and the Lytyll Geste of Robin Hode. During the 16th century and later, the essential character of the legend was distorted by a suggestion that Robin was a fallen nobleman, and playwrights, eagerly adopting this new element, increased the romantic appeal of the stories but deprived them of their social bite. Postmedieval ballads (which gave Robin a companion, Maid Marian) also lost most of their vitality and poetic value, doubtless as a result of losing the original social impulse that brought them into existence.
/fklrist/
THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH DRAMA
The history of the English drama takes us back to the century succeeding the coming of the Normans. These early plays were, broadly, of two types: The Mysteries, based upon the subjects taken from the Bible, and The Miracles dealing with the lives of saints. The best of them belong to the 15th century.
To begin with, the church had this early drama under complete control. It was written by the clergy, and acted by the clergy within the church; and its language was the Latin of the church service. But as its popularity increased, the larger and larger crowds were attracted to the church, the place of performance was first shifted to the church porch and then to some village field. Laymen now began to take part in the performances and write the plays, while the Latin language was replaced by English, the native tongue was generally used. The increase in the number of fairs, the increase in wealth, prestige and power of the merchant guilds did much for the development of the drama.
When the drama was freed from the hold of the clergy it was staged in the forms of pageants. Pageants were originally platforms on which plays were staged. Sometimes the performances continued for several days.
The growth of drama was hampered as there were no professional actors and playhouses. The authors had no freedom of invention. They could introduce only brief comic episodes here and there. They had to follow closely their source. As the story was known, the effect depended entirely on spectacle. The list of plays commonly included: The Fall of Lucifer; the Creation of the World and the Fall of Adam; Noah and the Flood; Abraham and Isaac and the promise of Christ's coming; a Procession of the Prophets, also foretelling Christ; the main events of the Gospel story, with some additions from Christian tradition; and the Day of Judgment. These early plays were, of course crude and poor in literary quality, but they lasted well on into the 16th century.
The Morality plays mark the next stage in the growth of the drama in England.
All sorts of vices and virtues were personified, such as The Seven Deadly Sins (wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony). In the Moralities the majority of the characters are of this sort—though not to the exclusion of supernatural persons such as God and the Devil, the last providing the humorous element. For the control of the hero the two definitely opposing groups of Virtues and Vices compete; the commonest type of Morality presents in brief glimpses the entire story of the hero's life, that is of the life of every man. It shows how he yields to temptation and lives for the most part in sin, but at last in spite of all his frivolity and foolishness is saved by Perseverance and Repentance, pardoned through God's mercy, and assured of salvation.
The writing in the plays is often uneven, the characterization is crude and the psychology naive. Nevertheless, in their simplicity, a number of them have a certain strong and impressive power. The better ones show an increasingly sophisticated analysis of character, and point the way to that examination of human nature and morality in depth which makes the best Tudor and Jacobean drama so remarkable.
As compared with the usual type of Mystery plays the Moralities had for the writers this advantage, that they allowed some independence in the invention of the story. In these cases the whole plays became vivid studies in contemporary low life, largely human and interesting.
The Interludes mark the next stage in the development of the English drama.
The name Interlude denotes literally 'a play between,' but the meaning intended (between whom or what) is uncertain.
Interludes are the forerunners of the artistic comedy which was soon to appear. They are brief comic dialogues without any action or development. In the Moralities and Interludes first appears The Vice, a rogue who sums up in himself all the Vices of the older Moralities and serves as the buffoon. Transformed by time, the Vice appears in the Elizabethan drama, and thereafter, as the Shakespearian clown.
He was killed at the age of 29. His dramatic career lasted only six years. Christopher Marlowehas left behind him four powerful tragedies:
His historical play Edward II is said to have paved the way for Shakespeare's' Richard II.
Marlowe’s tragedies are all one-man tragedies in which the tragic hero is consumed by the lust for power, beauty or knowledge. He dominates over the rest of the characters. Marlowe made significant advances in the field of tragedy and modified the conception of classical tragedy.
He first, and he alone, guided Shakespeare into the right way of work; his poetic music, in which there is no echo of any man's before him, found its own echo in the more prolonged but hardly more exalted harmony of Milton's. He is the greatest discoverer, the most daring and inspired pioneer, in all English poetic literature. Before him there was neither genuine blank verse nor a genuine tragedy in English language. After his arrival the way was prepared, the paths were made straight, for Shakespeare.
As with other writers of the period, little is known about Marlowe. What little evidence there is can be found in legal records and other official documents. This has not stopped writers of both fiction and non-fiction from speculating about his activities and character. Marlowe has often been described as a spy, a troublemaker, a heretic and a homosexual, as well as a "magician", "duellist", "tobacco-user", "counterfeiter" and "rakehell" (immoral – розпусний)
Given the murky inconsistencies concerning the account of Marlowe's death, a theory has arisen centred on the notion that Marlowe may have faked his death and then continued to write under the assumed name of William Shakespeare. However, orthodox academic consensus rejects alternative candidates for authorship, including Marlowe.
Chivalric romance
The change in literary sensibility after the 12th century is often characterized as a change from heroic epic to chivalric romance.
The emphasis on heterosexual love and courtly manners distinguishes chivalric romance from epic, in which masculine military heroism predominates. Although romance took popular forms, it began as a courtly genre, a leisure time activity - like feasting, hunting, reading, playing chess, or love itself. The warrior gave way to the knight, and when the knight got off his horse he wooed courted (упадати) the lady. In literature the pursuit /psjut/ search of love grew ever more refined вишуканий.
The romantic concepts of chivalry and heroic quest, in the age of religious purity and secular glory, provided a perfect platform for the flowering of the Arthurian romances recounting the adventures of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.
Britain’s most powerful legend has sprung from the so-called Dark Ages. It is deeply rooted in Celtic legends and myths. The name Arthur itself appears to derive from the Celtic word Art, meaning "bear". Arthur and his knights, although believed by most medieval people to be historical, are almost entirely products of legend and literature, made up by many authors writing in different genres, beginning not long after the fifth and early sixth centuries, the time when he supposedly /spo zd li/ lived, and culminating with Sir Thomas Malory's Morte D’Arthur /l mrt dr r/ in the latter part of the fifteenth century. The very absence of historical fact to underpin the legends about Arthur left writers of history and romance free to exploit those stories in the service of personal, political, and social purposes.
Almost the only historical source of the exciting legend of Arthur dates back to the fleeting references in a Latin History of the Britons of around 800 attributed to a Welsh scholar called Nennius written two or three centuries after Arthur was supposed to have existed. There we read of a brave warrior who is said to have fought and won no less than twelve battles against the Saxons. And of that historical Arthur we know little more.
The man who inspired the Arthurian legend would have been a Briton, a leader of the Celtic people who had been part of the Roman Empire and had converted to Christianity after it became the official religion of Rome. At the time, the Britons were making a temporarily successful stand against the Anglo-Saxon invaders who had already occupied the southeastern corner of Britain. The Roman Empire was breaking down before the attacks of Germanic tribes, and by the late fifth century the Britons were cut off from Rome and forced to rely for protection on their own strength instead of on the Roman legions. Arthur was never a "king"; he may well have been commander-in-chief of British resistance to the Anglo-Saxons. Arthur was seen as a powerful metaphor for struggle against the invading Saxon hordes.
As later chroniclers /krn kl/ looked back, they pieced together scraps of memory and folklore. England’s greatest legend was generations in the making.
Arthur was flourishing in Welsh tales as a fairy-tale king for ages. Not until the twelfth century, though, did Arthur achieve a semi-historical existence as the greatest of British kings in the works of the French literature and came to embody the rise, and eventual decline, of a court exemplifying an aristocratic ideal of chivalry. The new genre of romance focused not only on the heroic acts of knights fighting in wars and tournaments or battling against monstrous enemies but also on the trials and fortunes of love, and romances addressed mixed audiences of men and women.
In the French court - the most powerful in Europe at the time - King Arthur's popularity was intense, and the French felt a sympathy for Arthur perhaps because, even though a Briton, he was regarded as a fellow Celt. In Britain, King Arthur's development from his mystic origins into a patriotic symbol grew stronger, especially after the publication of the (English) poet Layamon's /le mn/ translation of (the French poet) Wace's /wes/ version of Arthur as a historical figure, which itself was based on Geoffrey of Monmouth's /mn m/"The History of the Kings of Britain" (c.1135).
So the Arthurian Legend continued to grow, stimulated by popular sentiment and imagination on both sides of the Channel.
By the beginning of the 13th century, it was adapted into propaganda for the preservation of Christianity, and King Arthur along with the Knights of the Round Table was transformed from Celtic warlord воєначальник into a true Christian hero. It was at the time of Crusades that the legend of the Holy Grail and the quest for it were incorporated into the Arthurian legend.
According to medieval myth, the Holy Grail was the vessel from which Jesus Christ drank at the Last Supper, his final meal with his followers. Many works of literature describe the search for the Grail, which was believed to have sacred and mysterious powers. However, this quest, or search, did not always involve a physical object. For some, the Holy Grail represented a religious state of grace or union with God. In some accounts, the Grail held blood from Christ's wounds and was known as the Sangreal /sæ gri l/, meaning "royal blood."
One of the best-known versions of the Grail's history is connected with King Arthur. This account says that the Grail lay somewhere in a wild and desolate part of Britain in the castle of the Fisher King, a wounded monarch who stayed between life and death.
Only if the purest of knights found his way to the castle and caught a glimpse of the Grail would the Fisher King's torment end and life be restored to his wasteland. To find the Holy Grail became the highest and most noble goal of the Knights of the Round Table. They roamed the nation in search of it. Lancelot /lænslt
/ nearly achieved the quest, but the sin of his love for Guinevere /wnvr/, Arthur's queen, kept him from seeing the Grail. A knight named Perceval /pr s vl/ saw the Grail but did not understand what it was. Only Galahad /gæl hæd/, Lancelot's son, was pure enough to see it with full understanding of its meaning. He had to travel to a distant land called Sarras to do so, for the Grail had left Britain at some point. The vision of the Grail brought such profound ecstasy that Galahad died moments later. Together the Grail and the man were lifted up to heaven.
As the Middle Ages progressed, so did Arthurian Legend, and over the centuries, poets and writers added new or comparatively minor characters to Arthurian tales.
The Arthurian Legend which today towers above all others is preserved in Le Morte d'Arthur written by Sir Thomas Malory and completed in 1470.
This epic narrative is based on French prose romances and English poems. Malory is sometimes a translator and sometimes an inventor of stories. He also acts as a commentator from time to time. In Malory's day there was a great interest in chivalry and Britain's past. The adventures of Arthur's knights symbolized the aristocratic values that were being downgraded by the political intrigues of the Wars of the Roses. Loyalty had become an endangered virtue. In his narrative Malory compares the behaviour of its lords and ladies with that of contemporary nobility. He criticises English political dirty dealing.
In his own words, Malory was a 'knight prisoner'. He was one of a number of gang leaders who exploited the breakdown of law and order across England as the houses of York and Lancaster fought for the throne in the Wars of the Roses. He had started his political career and was elected MP, but he turned to a life of crime.
Thomas Malory was, by all accounts, a lawbreaker, as well as a (now) distinguished author. His wild crimes (intent to murder, robbery, extortion, rape, insulting an Abbot, etc) are the reason why he spent significant parts of his life in prison. When he was writing, probably in the Tower of London, the overthrown Lancastrian King, Henry VI, was one of his fellow prisoners. But were it not for the length of his final prison term we may not have Le Morte d'Arthur at all, because it was then, in prison, that he produced its 507 chapters and more than 300,000 words.
Malory originally wrote Le Morte d'Arthur as eight self-contained but linked books, or "tales". His is the first prose close enough to modern English to be read with ease, and the Morte is the first great work of English prose fiction. Thomas Malory writes with the directness and confidence of a skillful storyteller. His straightforward narration may not appeal to the intelligence but its appeal to imagination is profound.
The central figure is King Arthur, a noble hero around whom are gathered the equally noble Knights of the Round Table - the most courageous Knights in history - and the beautiful ladies of Camelot, worthy of the highest acts of chivalry. The Knights variously perform great deeds and go on a number of glorious and romantic "quests", including the supreme 'Quest for the Holy Grail'. King Arthur is a figure of enigma /ng m/ whose life has a mysterious beginning and a mysterious end. His guardian and advisor in the early days of his kingdom is Merlin the wizard, whose predictions continue to influence the course of the story. King Arthur fights many battles but is ultimately betrayed by those close to him: his sisterMorgan le Fay /mrn l fe/, sonMordred /modrd/, wifeGuinevere, and friendSir Lancelot , causing his inevitable downfall at his last great battle.
There were several objects that played an important and symbolic role in the stories and legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. The most obvious was the Round Table which became the place where the Knights gathered and symbolized equality, unity, and brotherhood.
There was also Excalibur /kskæl br/, the beautiful, magical and extremely powerful sword that was given to Arthur by the Lady of the Lake.
Finally, there was the Holy Grail.
Much of Arthurian Tradition focuses on the Quest for the Grail.
From the historical perspective it could be said that Malory, the greatest prose writer of the fifteenth century, was composing a prose elegy to the dying age of aristocratic chivalry. His work was not the expression of nostalgia /nstæl d / for the golden age but an account of the destruction of the ideal.
Le Morte d'Arthur was first published by the 'father of British printing', William Caxton in 1485 and was republished several times down to 1634. It was somewhat forgotten after that but since the revival of interest in the book that started in the 19th century after the publication of Idylls /ad l/ of the King королівські ідилії composed by the English Poet Laureate /lr i t/ Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Le Morte d'Arthur has served as the direct or indirect basis for almost every Arthurian work in any medium: poems, novels, children’s books, science fiction, films, advertisements, cartoons– everything from epics to T- shirts.
Over the centuries the figure of Arthur became a symbol of Britain. One important aspect of Arthurian literature is the notion that he would one day return in the role of a messiah /msa / to save his people. As Malory wrote: “men say that he shall come again”— the once and future king.
The literary influence of the Arthurian legend can not be exaggerated. It is often referred to as “the matter of Britain” британський міф, легендарна історія Британії, Артуріана.
Many critics consider the Arthurian legend - along with the King James Bible and the work of Shakespeare and Milton - one of the four cornerstones наріжний камінь of English literature and culture.