Canterbury Tales: The Knight's Tale

The Knight's Tale:

The Knight rides at the front of the procession described in the General Prologue,and his story is the first in the sequence. 

The Host admires the Knight,as the narrator. Chaucer seems to remember:

Four main qualities of the Knight:

• The first is the Knight's love of ideals: Like prowees,fidelity,reputation or generosity.
• The second is the Knight's impressive military career: He has fought in the Crusades, wars in which Europeans traveled by sea to non-Christian lands and attempted to convert whole cultures by the force of their swords. The Knight has battled the Muslims in Egypt and the Russian Orthodox in Russia. He also fought in formal duels.
• The third quality is his meek,gentle, manner.
• The fourth is his "array" or dress: The Knight wears a tunic made of coarse cloth, and his coat of mail is rust-stained, because he has recently returned from an expedition.

In the Prologue he calls out to hear something more lighthearted,saying that it deeply upsets him to hear stories about tragic falls. He wold rather hear about " joye", about men who start off in poverty climbing in fortune and attaining wealth.

The Host agrees with him, which is not surprising, since the Host has mentioned that whoever tells the tale of " best sentence and moost solaas" will win the storytelling contest. And, at the end of the Pardoner's Tale, the Knight breaks in to stop the squabbling between the Host and the Pardoner,ordering them to kiss and make up. Ironically, though a soldier, the romantic,idealistic Knight clearly has an aversion to conflict or unhappiness of any sort.

"The Nun's Tales"

The Nun's Tales:

There is a detailed description about the nun Prioress in the General Prologue. Chaucer makes the reader see 2 types of people. On one hand, the nun who gives much importance to minor things. On the other hand, the Knight who gives much importance to things that really matter.

In the desciprion of the nun Prioress, everything that Chaucer says about her means the opposite.

She is called Madame Egantine. Chaucer describes the nun with all the characteristics that a nun should not have. She was: 

• Modest, well educated and with good manners.
• Tender feelings and a strong love for God and his creations.
• She spoke French.
• Superb

All of these characteristics show how the nun was focused on things that should not be important for a nun.

The nun's actions in the tale are cautious and splendid. Her manners are unique and praticed with perfection.

The description of her beauty reflects how she was from her inside. ( Her nose well-shaped, her eyes bright as glass, she had a fine forehead".

The author talks about her fne forehead with sarcasm because he is telling us how this small characteristic, were reflected so well in the nun. Perfection meaning the opposite.

She had tender feelings for example for a mouse or dogs. " She had a few small dogs that she fed with roast meat, milk or fine bread". This illustrates how soft she was, and also that she gave great importance to little things rather than great importance to big ones.

The Knight gaves importance to great things, which fought for bif reasons.

The Knight would never give better food to some dogs rather that to the people who needed it. On the other hand the nun gave great importance and attention to her dog, or a mouse that was bleeding, rather than to people.

"Chaucer- Boccaccio"

Chaucer and Boccaccio:

Geoffrey Chaucer, who, by 1387, had already composed his works undergoing the French and Italian influence. His intention was to give the English people a collection of tales which would offer them a " true mirror" of real England.

The Chaucer's scheme was probably inspired by Boccaccio's Decameron, and that he had really met Boccaccio, but there is no clear evidence of this fact.

The pilgrims of Chaucer's stories deeply different from Boccaccio's young people ( 7 women and 3 men), all belonging to the refined bourgeoisie, who decide to leave Florence, stricken by terrible plague of 1348, to retire to a rich countryside villa. They stay here 14 days; every day a " King" or a "Queen" is chosen, and the member elected will decide how they will spend the day in leisurey walks, conversations. The title Decameron ( deca= 10 and emerai = days) refers to the ten days devoted to storytelling, one story a day for each member of the gay company, for a total of 100 stories.

In the Canterbury Tales the pilgrims represent almost all the social classes of the time: ( Nobles, clergy, peasants) and a rising merchant class as the Wife of Bath or the Doctor.

Each pilgrim was to tell 2 stories for a total of 120. But only 24 tales were completed. Chaucer did not live long enough to complete his project. In the Canterbury Tales the storytellers are the target of the poet's comic satire.

In the Boccaccio's Decameron there is no individual detailed. Boccaccio exalts the virtue of man, his possibility to guide his existence and to accept the consequences of his actions. Boccaccio was a humanist and he gives an example of the vernacular literatures of the 15 (th) century nd this was also the spirit that informed Chaucer.

CHAUCER/BOCCACCIO:

(Difference)

• Pilgimage - The Black Death ( plague)
• Strongly individualized pilgrims - refined bourgeoisie
•  3o people including Chaucer- 10 people ( 7 women and  boys)
• 3 different orders- same social class ( bougeoisie)
• 120 tales - 100 tales
• 24 complete- 100 complete
• Chaucer descries the pilgrims with extreme vividness, giving him/her an individual personality- no individual description.
• Incomplete- Complete.

"The three orders of medieval society"

The 3 orders of medieval society:

The society was divided into three divinely ordained orders:

1. The Nobles, those who fought.
2. The Clergy, those who prayed.
3. The Peasants, those who worked.

None of them should attempt to fill the offices of the other.

At the top of this social were the bobles, and this included those who held hereditary titles: From kings, to dukes and earls, and down to knights. A vassal was a man who had sworn homage and loyalty to a lord. In exchange for the lord's protection the vassal swore to fight on the lord's behalf and grant him a certain number of days of service a year.

Below the nobles were the clergy, or those who prayed. 

The clergy very often came from the noble classes.

Some historians estimate that the nobility and clergy made up between 5 -10 % of the population, while the peasants comprised 95 % of the people living in the medieval world.

If you were a peasants, you were most likely born on the manor of a lord and were bound to him as a serf. In exchange for a place to live and the means to grow your own food, as well as protection in times of difficulty, you would provide the lord with a percentage of your harvest.

Getting married would be subject to your lord's approval.

Starting in the 14 (th) century, when the plague killed up to a half of the population, we start to see some real upward mobility in the 3 order. Urban and merchant life became vital. 

A great example of this new upward mobility can be found in the work of Geoffrey Chaucer, the father of English poetry.

"Canterbury Tales: The wife of Bath"

The wife

of Bath

PLOT:

The Wife of Bath is one of the two women storytellers (the other is the Prioress): has traveled the world on pilgrimage (was in Jerusalem, Boulogne, Rome, St. James in Galicia and Cologne), and the pilgrimage to Canterbury then looks like a game than previous trips. She then argues that not only saw many lands, but also brought five different husbands in church (which means that all his previous husbands are dead) and to have had other lovers in his youth. It is therefore a worldly woman in every sense: he made his own experiences with people from all over the world, love or sex that is.


It is a wealthy woman, resourceful and very expert embroiderer, his clothes skim extravagance. His face is red, stockings of a scarlet color (which was very expensive, since the dye was made from a particular red beetle that is found only in some parts of the world) and the skin of his shoes is soft, radiant and new, all to show how much she had become wealthy. He had many of the physical canons of a sensual woman for the time: "gap-toothed was she," or had a space between the front teeth; "Large hips", wide hips; "Bold was her face," had a cheeky face; "Handsome", beautiful (usually "handsome" is used for a male beauty and "beautiful" for a female, this choice of adjective could be traced to his size); "Red in hue", had red cheeks.


Geoffrey Chaucer makes us understand that the "wife of Bath" undertook these pilgrimages more to meet new men for a purely religious order, which outlines a profile of woman life, enterprising and worldly; in addition to this, the author makes known his character conceited and self-centered, describing in detail the clothes she wore extravagant to say the least to get noticed and claim to always be the first, to church, to make an offer (the point be very angry if someone dared overtake walking towards the altar).

TRADUZIONE:

La donna di Bath è una delle due donne cantastorie (l'altra è la Prioressa): ha viaggiato per il mondo in pellegrinaggio (è stata a Gerusalemme, Boulogne, Roma, San Giacomo in Galizia e a Colonia), e il pellegrinaggio a Canterbury dunque appare come un gioco rispetto ai precedenti viaggi. La donna poi sostiene che non solo ha visto molte terre, ma ha anche portato cinque diversi mariti in chiesa (il che significa che tutti i suoi precedenti mariti sono morti) e di aver avuto molti altri amanti in gioventù. Si configura quindi come una donna mondana in tutti i sensi: ha fatto le proprie esperienze con uomini da tutto il mondo, amore o sesso che sia.


È una donna benestante, intraprendente ed espertissima ricamatrice, i suoi vestiti sfiorano la stravaganza. Il suo viso è rosso, le calze di un colore scarlatto (il che era molto costoso, poiché la tintura era ricavata da un particolare maggiolino rosso che si trova solo in alcune parti del mondo) e la pelle delle sue scarpe è morbida, raggiante e nuova, tutto per dimostrare quanto benestante fosse diventata. Aveva molti dei canoni fisici di una donna sensuale per l'epoca: "gap-toothed was she", ovvero aveva uno spazio tra i denti anteriori; "large hips", fianchi larghi; "bold was her face", aveva un viso impertinente; "handsome", bella (di solito "handsome" viene usato per una bellezza maschile e "beautiful" per una femminile, questa scelta di aggettivo potrebbe essere ricondotta alla sua stazza); "red in hue", aveva guance rosse.


Geoffrey Chaucer ci fa intendere che la "wife of Bath" intraprendeva questi pellegrinaggi più per conoscere nuovi uomini che per un fine puramente religioso, il che delinea un profilo di donna vitale, intraprendente e mondana; oltre a questo, l'autore ci rende noto il suo carattere presuntuoso ed egocentrico, descrivendoci dettagliatamente i vestiti a dir poco stravaganti che indossava per farsi notare e la pretesa di essere sempre la prima, in chiesa, a fare un'offerta (al punto da arrabbiarsi molto se qualcuno osava precederla camminando verso l'altare).

"Canterbury Tales: The Knight"

Knight's Story:

PLOT:

Theseus, king of Athens, imprisons Arcita and Palaemon, two knights from Thebes (ancient Greek city). From their prison, the knights go see the sister of Theseus, Emilia, and they fall in love. Thanks to the intervention of a friend, Arcita is freed (liberato), but banished from Athens.


He decides to return, however, disguise and becomes a page at the court of Emilia: Palaemon meanwhile manages to escape and meets Arcita in a forest; when an argument between the two for the lovely Emilia. Theseus, who was passing near the forest, including the love of the two for Emilia and index a tournament between the two knights in a year would have to recruit 100 riders each, and then use them in a clash between the two. The ultimate prize would be the hand of Emilia. After a year, the two and their armies gather in Athens, ready to fight, each bringing a different banner: Arcita choose the banner of the god Mars, god of war, while Palemone chooses the goddess Venus, goddess of love. Arcita wins, but the goddess Venus, furious of defeat, causing an earthquake that does scare and boosted the horse Arcita, causing him to fall. Arcita, knowing that they must die, called Emilia and Palaemon beside him and asks them to get married and live happily; then dies staring eyes of his beloved. After great ceremonies to honor the death of the young, Palaemon and Emilia marry according to the will of Arcita.

TRADUZIONE:

Teseo, re di Atene, imprigiona Arcita e Palemone, due cavalieri provenienti da Tebe (città dell'antica Grecia). Dalla loro prigione, i cavalieri vedono passare la cognata di Teseo, Emilia, e se ne innamorano. Grazie all'intervento di un amico, Arcita viene liberato, ma bandito da Atene.


Decide però di ritornare, sotto mentite spoglie e diviene paggio presso la corte di Emilia: Palemone intanto riesce a scappare e incontra Arcita in un bosco; tra i due scoppia una lite per la bella Emilia. Teseo, che stava passando nelle vicinanze di quel bosco, comprende l'amore dei due per Emilia e indice un torneo tra i due cavalieri: in un anno avrebbero dovuto arruolare 100 cavalieri ognuno, per poi utilizzarli in uno scontro tra i due. Il premio finale sarebbe stata la mano di Emilia. Dopo un anno, i due con i loro eserciti si ritrovano presso Atene, pronti a combattere, portando ognuno un vessillo diverso: Arcita sceglie il vessillo del dio Marte, dio della guerra, mentre Palemone sceglie quello della dea Venere, dea dell'amore. Arcita vince, ma la dea Venere, furiosa della sconfitta, provoca un terremoto che fa spaventare e impennare il cavallo di Arcita, facendolo cadere. Arcita, sapendo di dover morire, chiama accanto a sé Emilia e Palemone e chiede loro di sposarsi e di vivere felici; dopodiché muore fissando gli occhi dell'amata. Dopo grandi cerimonie per onorare la morte del giovane, Palemone ed Emilia si sposano secondo le volontà di Arcita.

"Canterbury Tales"

"The Canterbury

Tales":

The Canterbury Tales is a collection of over 20 stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of the 14th century. The Canterbury Tales is an unfinished narrative poem used the structure of the three orders of society. The tales are presented as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together on a journey from Southwark to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Tales The prize for this contest is a free meal at the Tabard Inn at Southwark on their return.

PLOT:

In April,withe the beginning of spring,people of varying social classes come from all over England to gather (riunirsi) at the Tabrd Inn in preparation for a pilgrimage to Canterbury to receive the blessings of St. Thomas à Becket,the English martyr. Chaucer himself is one of the pilgrims. That evening, the Host of the Tabard Inn suggests that each member of the group tell tales on the way to and from Canterbury in order to make the time pass more pleasantly (piacevolmente). The person who tells the best story will be awarded ( premiata) an elegant dinner at the end of the trip. The Host decides to accompany the party on its pilgrimage and appoints himself as the judge of the best tale.



Shortly after their departure the day, the pilgrims draw straws ( sorteggiando bastoncini). The Knight, who draws the shortest straw,agrees (accetta) to tell the first story, a noble story about knights,honor and love. When the Knight finishes his story, the Host calls upon the Monk. The drunken Miller, however,insists that it is his turn, and he proceeds to tell a story about a stupid carpenter. At the end of his story, everyone roars with laughter, except the Reeve, who had one been a carpenter. To get back at the Miller, the Reeve tells a lowbrow (grossolana) story about a cheating( imbroglione) miller. At the end of the Reeve's Tale, the Cook, Roger, promises to tell a true story, but he doesn't complete his tale.


By now, the first day is rapidly passing, and the Host hurries the pilgrims to get on with their tales. Using the best legalese that he knows, he calls upon the Man of Law for the next tale. The Man of Law proceeds to tell the tale of Constancy. The Host is very pleased with the tale and asks theParson to relate another one just as good. The Parson declines,however,and rebukes the Host for swearing and ridiculing him ( The Parson), The Shipman braks in and tells a lively story to make up for so much moralizing.