Readership of Canterbury Tales

Who read Chaucer's work during the Middle Ages?

Some scholars believe that intended audience of The Canterbury Tales is difficult to determine, however through a glimpse of history, we can begin to identify who it was intended for, or who would have been able to read the manuscript. Chaucer wrote in Middle English, his work is a translation of languages from Middle English to Modern English language. The book would have been written for people who could speak the language--an English person.

Based on the language and literary technique, Chaucer's story was written for the middle class, but the characters were regular people in regular everyday occupations, which suggests that the story was written about everyday people. Thus, the story was written for middle class, about everyday people. It has been stated that Chaucer made the work readable for everyday people to understand. Another assumption is in Chaucer's characters. If Chaucer is writing stories about monks, nuns, knights, squires, then maybe the book is intended for these types of people in those specific occupations. Chaucer was a courtier, appointed to different positions within the court, by King Richard II, so it is possible that he was a court poet, writing exclusively for nobility.

Could women read and write during the Middle Ages?

Women were not educated in the Middle Ages, because they were always taken care of by men in their family. There was no employment for women, and the only alternative to marriage was a convent life (nuns in a church). In Leila Avrin’s Scribes, Script, and Books, women were banned from books and reading: “In medieval times, it was believed generally that women should not concern themselves with reading and writing, even in nunneries” (p. 226). Therefore, literacy for women would naturally be low, and this is a great hardship, because women had to depend on men to take care of them forever. If women could not read and write, their entire livelihood depended on men. What if the men were killed in battle? Women could not support themselves during this period because they could not read. However, there are several tales, like the Monk’s tale, that include many women who are looked upon as sexual objects. The context of the story is an accurate display of history. However, rich women in court could afford to purchase a manuscript, might have been able to read. Avrin suggests that there could be evidence on female literacy, by looking at nunneries: “throughout the medieval period, women were involved in the production of books, both inside and outside nunneries...there were at times nuns who were authors and scribes” (p. 226).  Female nuns had access to books, and it appears that religion was one way for women to access knowledge and learning. Another idea is that young women could be taught how to read by the males in their family: father, son, brother, or husband—if they allowed them to read. There are several female pilgrims in the Canterbury Tales: including a prioress, a widow, and two nuns. The fact that Chaucer includes women on the trip to Canterbury suggests that there will be satirical commentary on the treatment of women.  

Context: Era

Era: The Middle Ages, or Medieval Era

Era: The Middle Ages, or Medieval Era

The Middle Ages, also known as the Medieval Era, describes the period in European history from 400s through the 1400s. In this time many Europeans converted to Christianity because the Christian Church had become the official church of the Roman Empire. Two church institutions (cathedral and monastery) became centers of learning in the early Middle Ages. Cathedrals, like the Canterbury Cathedral, were the churches of bishops. Monasteries were communities of men and women who gave up all their worldly possessions to serve God through prayer and work.

Church

The church was very powerful during the Middle Ages, it served many purposes:

Baptismal

Marriage

Burial

People

• Lords owned most of the land, and they were known to fight as warriors.
• Knights worked for the lords, and they wore heavy armor, rode on war horses and fought with swards or wooden lances. The fighting among men can be defined as "chivalrous" behavior: "Chivalry required that a man earn knighthood through long and difficult training. A knight would be courageous in battle, fight according to rules, keep his promise, and defend the church. Chivalry also included rules for gentlemanly conduct toward women" (Middle, p. 526).
• Women were trained to be domestic, to sew, spin, and weave and could never enter knighthood or battle. Women could not even choose her own marriage partner; it would be determined by a male in her family.
• Peasants were at the mercy of their lords, but they worked the land to farm the fields for their lord, but they had to pay taxes and rent.

Monks and clergy
They helped continue the reading and writing of Latin, preserved ancient manuscripts and dedicated their life to the church.

Literary Technique

The manuscript was written in a time where religious beliefs, monks, knightly gentleman and fair maidens were prominent. Therefore, the manuscript, which is written as a satire, is Chaucer's tool to make fun of his own era. Why would Chaucer spoof his own era? In a way, he is pointing out that there are many contradictions in the religious behavior of monks, friars, nuns, squires, knights and more. People are not always what they appear to be, regardless of what they say, or how they dress. Chaucer transforms the concept of knighthood in "The Wife of Bath's Tale" and makes the knight a villain. Instead of a knight rescuing a maiden, he rapes her. This tale is told by the wife of bath, which is her own interpretation of how men can appear to be gentlemen, but they can also be a villain. The wife's tale is told from the perspective of a woman who has married several different men, because she became a widow many times. Chaucer seems to play with different concepts of behavior, including marriage rules of his era. Women during the Middle Ages had few rights, and what happened to women when they were widowed would be determined by men. It was not proper for women to marry repeatedly. So, the idea that Chaucer's manuscript allows a woman to marry several times, is playing with the themes of his era. In addition, Chaucer is also freeing women from their roles as domestic women--if a woman has her own money, then she does not have to obey. The definition of satire is to use irony, sarcasm, ridicule to expose or denounce someone or something (Wiki).  Chaucer scrutinizes his own society (The Middle Ages) through this literary technique.

Introduction

Introduction

The Ellesmere Chaucer manuscript is extremely valuable to the Chaucer canon and the Medieval era. Chaucer was the most prominent author in the history of English Literature, before William Shakespeare was established as a writer. The Canterbury Tales is considered to be the best work written by Chaucer and it is the best work that represents the Medieval period. The Canterbury Tales is placed among the world greatest literacy achievements for this reason.

There are two manuscripts of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales that have survived since the 1400s.The Ellesmere manuscript of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is known as Ellesmere 26.C.9, and it is housed inside the beautiful Huntington Library in San Marino, CA. Copied after Chaucer's death, the Ellesmere is one of the earliest and most authoritative of extant manuscripts, produced by the same scribe as the Hengwrt manuscript: "Slightly earlier than the Ellesmere, the Hengwrt has a much less acceptable ordering of the parts, although individual words and spellings are often more authoritative than those in the Ellesmere" (Fisher, p. 1).

Ellesmere Chaucer

Ellesmere Chaucer

Although, the Hengwrt was written earlier, most scholars prefer the order of the tales in the Ellesmere and this is interesting because it has been discovered that the Hengwrt was written by the same scribe as the Ellesmere. The same scribe used two different language formats for each of the manuscripts. This also shows that the order of the tales was manipulated by the scribe. The scribe had the creative authority to place the tales in a different order, which could disrupt the meaning of the work as a whole. Chaucer died before he finished writing the tales, so it is not certain how he would have placed the tales. Chaucer did provide a General Prologue, which was meant to be an outline of how the tales would be told. However, Chaucer never finished writing all of the tales. In the General Prologue, thirty pilgrims are described, which also introduces the work's structure, that each pilgrim is expected to narrate two stories on their way to Canterbury and another two on their return journey. The best storyteller would be rewarded with a free supper (Hengwrt). Since the outline provides some guidance from Chaucer, as to the structure of tales, it should be clear to the scribe what order the tales should be placed. It is not clear why the scribe chose to change the language and the order of the tales. However, the Ellesmere is the best arrangement of all the manuscripts.

In addition, there may not have been an Ellesmere Chaucer manuscript if he had finished the work. There would only be one story told, in this way the unfinished work allows readers to read the tales in different orders to read different perspectives of how a work can be read. There is on one correct way to read a story.

Hengwrt Chaucer

The Hengwrt manuscript of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is housed inside he National Library of Wales, in Aberystwyth, where it is known as MS Peniarth 392D. Hengwrt Chaucer is the earliest and most authoritative manuscript of the Canterbury Tales (Fisher, 1). The main difference between the two manuscripts is the arrangement of tales. The tales are not placed in the same order in the two manuscripts.

The Ellesmere and the Hengwrt are the only two, among 50 manuscripts of the Canterbury Tales to survive before the printing press by William Caxton in 1476-77 (Fisher, 2). The interesting part about the manuscripts is the idea that so many were written and none of the versions were exactly the same. In each manuscript there is a reconstructed, or edited version of the tales. This idea of having multiple interpretations of the text allows readers to be their own editors, and make meaning out of an uncompleted text.

There are three distinctive features of the Ellesmere manuscript:

1.) Elaborate boarders, and the 23 paintings depicting the Canterbury Pilgrims

2.) Completeness of the text. Only 14 of the 82 manuscripts are complete and undamaged. By complete, meaning the text is written and most of the pages are intact.

3.) Language of the text: Middle English

Creator: Chaucer

Geffory Chaucer

Accomplishments

Chaucer was the most prominent author in the history of English Literature, even before Shakespeare was established. His writing began in 1360s, and he is known as the father of English poetry. His first example of modern English literature is Troilus and Criseyde, and his masterpiece is known as The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer captures the entire medieval period in his Canterbury Tales. This is why his work is so valuable and appealing: “it can be placed among the world’s greatest literary achievements” (Schulz, p. 6).

Life

In his biography Chaucer, Peter Ackroyd gives a brief sketch on the details of Chaucer’s life. Chaucer was born in London between 1340 and 1343, to a prosperous middle-class family. He was trained as a civil servant, a diplomat, and controller of customs from 1374 to 1386. In 1385, Chaucer was appointed justice of the peace and to Parliament in 1386. Chaucer wrote for people in and around the courts of Edward III and Richard II, and was a frequent traveler on diplomatic missions to Flanders, France, Italy, and Spain. On his adventure he was indicted for rape, sued for debt, and captured in battle (Akroyd).

Death

Chaucer died in 1400, and never finished writing the Canterbury Tales. There are ten parts that are unfinished, and it is unclear on the arrangement and positioning of the tales. Since Chaucer did not entirely finish the work, there is no way of knowing the correct order of the tales. Therefore, there are many variations of the tales. The order in which we read Canterbury Tales is copied from the Ellesmere Manuscript.

Because Chaucer did not finish the work, readers will not know his intentions of what he wanted us to learn from his work. For instance, was there a moral lesson, or ethical dilemma that he wanted readers to take away from reading his work? The fact that many versions are not the same forces readers to make their own assumptions about the work. The author is not telling the readers what to think, instead he is sending a message to the readers, but allowing the readers to think on their own and take away different meaning from the storytellers. The unfinished text forces us to make our own meaning out of Chaucer's words/tales, not Chaucer's meaning. Another interesting point about the unfinished work, is that Chaucer created different personas within each pilgrim character, and this can help camouflage Chaucer's true feelings or thoughts about issues. We, as readers do not know what he is thinking. He could be any character, any pilgrim. Chaucer does not want to instruct, but rather lead by example, in other words: "ars poetica"--teaching by example rather than by precept (Fischer, 2006).

Canterbury- The Location

Canterbury –The Location

Canterbury is a real place, located in the historic county of Kent in southeastern England. Canterbury is a historic English cathedral that has been the primary ecclesiastical center of England since the early 7th century (Britannica). The town, Canterbury, can be found on the countryside near the Thames Estuary. Canterbury is an English name derived from the Old English Cantwareburh. After the Kingdom of Kent's conversion to Christianity in 597, St Augustine founded an episcopal see in the city and became the first Archbishop of Canterbury. The position now heads the Church of England. The Archbishop of Canterbury exists today and they have a website for further interest http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/

Important facts about Canterbury:

o   A Cathedral in London, England

o   Holy Shrine

o   The center for Pilgrimage

After Thomas Becket's murder at Canterbury Cathedral in 1170, the cathedral became a place of pilgrimage for Christians worldwide. This pilgrimage provided the theme for Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. Today, many historical structures remain in the city, including the ruins of St Augustine's Abbey, Norman castle, and perhaps the oldest school in England, The King's School (Britannica).

The Canterbury Tales - The Story

The Canterbury Tales

The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories framed as a tale-telling contest. The contest was developed to pass the time while a group of pilgrims travel to Canterbury. The pilgrimage is meant to be a spiritual movement from life to death, from sin to salvation (Fisher p. 1). By having a competition, the contest becomes realistic, in which the characters can enact true actions and responses to each other's tales. The conversation between the pilgrims represents human life in the Middle Ages, as well as the literary techniques of poetry. Since the tales are spoken by different characters, Chaucer shows readers a range of different verse forms, tones, and themes. The uniqueness of the tales is that Chaucer represents social-political, gender, and marriage issues in Medieval times. The downfall of the work is that it does not represent unity, because it is incomplete. Each tale is its own story, with morals and ethics to be evaluated. However, all the tales, as a collective whole, should suggest an overall meaning in The Canterbury Tales. Since there are many storytellers with unfinished tales, it would be impossible to evaluate the winner of the tale-telling contest. There was to be two tales told by each pilgrim on their journey to Canterbury, and on their return home journey two more tales to be told per pilgrim.   

            The General Prolouge establishes the basic plot of The Canterbury Tales; it introduces the pilgrim-tellers, the Host who conducts the contest, and the narrator who recounts the journey. The setting is Springtime, which focuses on renewal, or cleansing/rejuvenation. Chaucer’s portrays each individual pilgrim as having good and bad qualities. These sketches allow readers to view the historical context as it contributes to our understanding of book history. Readers will have an understanding on the issues for men and women in history, during Middle Ages.

Not New in Chaucer's Time

• Religious Themes
• Frame of a fictional pilgrimage. William Langland's Piers the Plowman is similar in that it uses the idea of religious pilgrimage to tell a story.
• Literary Contest

Walter Ong has observed, the opening pages of The Canterbury Tales...to create a frame and cast the reader in a role, which he cannot avoid no matter what he thinks of pilgrimages and civil wars (Finkelstein, pg. 21). Although Canterbury Tales shares common themes with other literary writers of the period, he was able to make his work unique by writing about everyday life. Chaucer's New Ideas in the Middle Ages

• Focusing on daily life
• Characters representing different occupations
• Characters representing different social ranks

Each tale is an independent poem, such as

"The Knights Tale"

"The Nuns Tale"

"The Wife of Bath's Tale"

Thomas Becket Arch Bishop of Canterbury in 1162

What happened in Canterbury?

The importance of noting the history of Canterbury is that it helps explain why the manuscript was written. Whatever happened in Canterbury must have been a major effect on culture and religion. Chaucer wanted Canterbury to be the place of destination for the pilgrims. In taking a look at the history of the Canterbury religion we can understand the significance of the Ellesmere Chaucer manuscript. Why were Chaucer's pilgrims infatuated by Canterbury? Why did Chaucer choose Canterbury as the place of destination for the pilgrims?

During Chaucer's time in the Middle Ages - Thomas Becket was the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 until his murder in 1170. He was idolized as a saint and Christian martyr in the Catholic Church and the Angelican Communion. Becket wanted to maintain the independence of the church in England, without any royal control. However, Henry II of England wanted full control over the church. Becket and Henry II continued to argue over the rights of the Church. With orders from King Henry II, four knights assassinated Becket inside the Canterbury Cathedral. Therefore, Becket is remembered by all Christians and Catholics for trying to the Catholic church free from royal dominion. The picture, to the left, depicts Thomas in a stained glass window located inside the Canterbury Cathedral. The fact that the knights brutally assassinated Becket inside a holy place, angered the public: "The people were angered by the murder, and Thomas's tomb at Canterbury quickly became a place of pilgrimage. Pope Alexander III declared Thomas a saint in 1173" (Becket, p. 196).  This event--the murder of Becket-- is historical to Chaucer's time, because it happened 200 years earlier, so why does Chaucer write about Canterbury during the Middle Ages?

After Becket's murder, the Canterbury Cathedral was identified as a holy shrine. Being named a saint, during the middle ages, then parts of Becket, including his clothes, were sold as relics. Relics are associated with saints, meaning "remains" as defined in the following passage:

"A relic could be a bone from the saint or it could be a piece of clothing the saint wore. A container

used to hold a relic is called a reliquary. Some people keep relics as a reminder of a saint. Others believe they have miraculous powers, however the Church does not teach that relics hold any special powers." (Jakoblich).

Therefore, Chaucer's use of Canterbury signifies some spiritual revelation or cleansing for the pilgrims. Canterbury is the holiest site in England.