§ 6. Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400)

Geoffrey Chaucer was the greatest writer of the 14^th century. He was born in London in the family of wine merchant. From the age of 18 he was connected with the Court of the King of England. During his life he visited France and Italy several times. In Italy he got acquainted with the works of Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio. What they wrote was full of new, optimistic ideas and love of life and had a great influence on his future works, the most important of which was The Canterbury Tales, which is considered to be the masterpiece of the English medieval poetry. The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories in verse told by people of different social standing. Chaucer had planned 120 stories but wrote only 24, because death broke off his a work. The stories are preceded by a Prologue, in which the characters that will tell the stories are described. Short prologues to each story connect then into one work.

The Canterbury Tales was the first great work in verse in English literature. Chaucer painted a vivid picture of English society, as it was in his day: each of his characters was given as an individual, typical of his country and his time. Among the pilgrims there was a doctor, a merchant, a student from Oxford, a carpenter, a miller, a lawyer, a sailor, a cook. There were also some women, some monks and a pardoner among the company. The pilgrims tell their stories according to their rank of standing. Thus, the knight tells romance, the miller – a fabliau, the pardoner – a moralizing tale.

The great poet contributed to the formation of the English literary language. His works were written in the London dialect which, at the time, was becoming the spoken language of the majority of the people.

Chaucer also worked out a new form of versification, which replaced alliteration. This was called metrical form. It was based on rhythmical arrangement of the accents, of the length of the verse of stanzas.

Geoffrey Chaucer showed life as it was: as a great artist and humanist he gave an equally masterly description of Good and Evil. The great writer believed in Man and was optimisti­cally full of hope for the future.

The 15^th century is known in English literature as the century of folklore. Many songs, called ballads, were composed then by the common people of the country. The ballads were songs in verses of four lines, called quatrains: the second and fourth lines of the verse rhymed. Among them there were historical and legendary ballads. Some were humorous and others were lyrical.

A favourite legendary hero of the English people is Robin Hood. Many ballads have been composed about him and his friends. Some historians say that there really was such as a person Robin Hood, but that is not certain.

Popular ballads show Robin Hood as a tireless enemy of the Norman oppressors, of the Church and the tradesman. They sing about his courage, his readiness to help the poor end the needy. They tell about the love of the poor people for their legendary hero, and their deep gratitude to him.

These melodious ballads were sung from generation to ge­neration. In the 18^th century they were collected and printed for the first time. Thus they became part of the wealth of English literature.

1. Topical vocabulary:

merchant, n – купец	verse, n – стих, строфа
to get acquainted – познакомится	contribute, v – содействовать
collection, n – собрание	majority, n – большинство
vivid, adj – яркий	versification, n – стихосложение
society, n – общество	metrical form, n – метрическая форма
pilgrim, n – пилигрим	arrangement, n – организация
carpenter, n – плотник	stanza, n – строфа, станс
monk, n – монах	description, n – описание
miller, n – мельник	oppressor, n – угнетатель
pardoner, n – продавец индульгенций	quatrain, n – четверостишие
knight, n – рыцарь	generation, n – поколение
print, v – печатать	collect, v – собирать