Age of Chaucer Notes / Age of Chaucer Summary / Period of Chaucer (1350-1400)

Age of Chaucer Notes / Age of Chaucer Summary /Period of Chaucer ( 1350-1400)

The Background

1.During this period England saw the reign of three kings.

i)Edward -III (1327-1377)

ii)Richard-II (1377-1399)

iii)Henry-IV (1399-1413)

2.The period also witnessed the Hundred Years War (1337-1453) or protracted conflict between England and France.

3.There was also a remarkable demographic change caused by the plague epidemic known as the Black Death (1348-1349) which probably carried away about one-third of the population of England.

4.The Black Death leads to a terrible shortage of labour and changed relations between labourers and landlords culminating in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381.

5.This period is also famous for the beginning of Scottish Literature.

6.The standardization of English also took place.

The Literature

The Literature of this period may be divided into two groups:

1.Poetry / Poets

2.Prose / Prose writers

Poetry / Poets

The poets of this period are:

1.Geoffrey Chaucer 

2.William Langland / Langley

3.John Gower

4.John Barbour

Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1340-c.1400)

The Chaucerian poems are divided into three stages / periods:

1.French period / 1st stage

2.Ttalian period / 2nd stage

3.English period / 3rd stage

French Period / 1st stage

This period is so called because at this time Chaucer modelled his works on those of French authors.

The important works of this period are:

1.The Book of the Duchess (1369): First book of Chaucer.This is an elegy as well as a eulogy ( to praise someone) written on the death of Blanche, the wife of John of Gaunt.It is also a dream allegory written in octosyllabic couplet.

2.The Complaint unto Pity: Allegorical poem. 

3.The Romaunt of the Rose: The longest poem of this period (8000 lines). Based on Le Roman de  La Rose by Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meung.It's dream allegory ( love allegory).Modern critics suggest that the first part of the book (1700 lines) is written by Chaucer.

4.The Complaint of Mars: Allegorical and astronomical poem.

5.An A.B.C. : Original title- " La prière de Nostre Dame" ( The prayer of our lady). Allegorical poem.

Italian Period / 2nd  stage 

The important works of this period are:

1.The Parlement of Foules / Parlement of Brides / Assemblés of Foules: The poem has 700 lines. This poem is a dream allegory in rhyme royal stanza (seven-line-pentameter) and contains one of the earliest references to the idea that st.Valentine's Day is a special day for lovers.This poem is about birds.

2.Anelida and Arcite: It is a 357-lines poem.The poem uses some elements of the Teseida of Boccaccio, and the Thebaid of the Roman poet statius.

3.Troilus and Criseyde: It is based on Boccaccio's II Filostrato.It is the  tragic story of the lovers Troilus and Criseyde set against a backdrop of war during the Siege of Troy.

4.The House of Fame: It is over 2,005 lines long in three books and takes the form of a dream vision ( dream allegory) composed in Octosyllabic couplets.

5.The Legend of Good Women: Dream allegory in ten-syllabic rhyming heroic couplets. It has a Prologue and the stories of 19 women.But Chaucer has only written nine stories about -Cleopatra,Thisbe,Dido,Hypsipyle and Media,Lucretia,Ariadne,Philomela, Phyllis and Hypermnestra.

English Period / 3rd stage

1.The Canterbury Tales: The greatest achievement of Chaucer. It is a collection of 24 stories that runs to over 17,000 lines.But Chaucer completed only 20 tales and left 4 incomplete.The occasion of the poem in 29 men and women gather at Tabard Inn at Southwark before starting on their pilgrimage to Canterbury.Two of the tales are in prose i.Tale of Melibeus ( Chaucer's own tale) and ii.Person's tale. Structurally, the collection resembles Boccaccio's Decameron.

2.The Lake of Steadfastness: Short  poem

3.Serio- comic poem is Complaint of Chaucer to his Empty Purse

4.The Flower and the Leaf: Dream allegory.

5.The Court of love: Dream allegory.

William Langland / Langley (1332-1400)

1.Piers the Plowman / The Vision of William concerning Piers the Plowman: There are three texts A, B and C containing 2500, 7200 and 7300 lines respectively.It is now believed that only the A text was written by langland.The poem is about the poet's dream on Malvern Hill of a 'fair field full of folke'.It is a dream allegory. It is based on the Christian obligation.Do-well,Do-better and Do-best.The poem has alliteration as the basis of the line.

John Gower ( 1330-1408)

1.Chaucer has submitted his 'Troilus and Criseyde' to 'moral Gower' for his correction.

2.Gower wrote nearly 50 love poems in French.

3.His three Chief works are:

i) Speculum Meditantis in French

ii)Vox Clamantis in Latin

iii) Confessio Amantis in English. Allegory poem, containing a discourse on the seven Deadly Sins in Octosyllabic couplets.

John Barbour ( 1316-1395)

1.He is the first Scottish Poet.

2.Remembered Chiefly for  his work Bruce, a poem containing 20 books and 1300 lines.The poem deals with the heroic struggles of the Scottish people under the leadership of Robert Bruce and his final victory in the Battle of Bannockburn.

Prose / Prose writers

The prose writers of this period are:

1.Sir John Mandeville 

2.John Wyclif / Wycliffe

3.Sir Thomas Malory 

Sir John Mandeville (1300-1399)

1.The Travels of Sir John Mandeville: Written in French. The real author of the book is said to be Jehan de Bourgogne, who died in 1372.

John Wyclif / Wycliffe (1320-1384)

1.His greatest work undoubtedly is the English translation of the Bible which he probably made from the Latin Vulgate.

Sir Thomas Malory (1405-1471)

1.His most famous work is le Morte D'Arthur in 21 books, printed by Caxton in 1485.It has been written in prison.It proved to be a source for future poets and authors like Scott.Coleridge, Morris,Tennyson and Swinburne.