Wykład 2 – 08.10.11
G. Chaucer 1340 'The father of English literature' was a son of a wine merchant, he was buried in Westminster Abbey. He got peerage (szlachectwo) and became Sir Geoffrey Chaucer.
He remained favourite of Edward the third, Richard the 2nd, Henry the 4th
He must have been a good diplomat.
He became a sinecure (a job that does not require any work and responsibility).
He was in charge of the Royal Forest
He was in charge of sewage system
in charge of the royal tracts
of rebuilding The Tower of London
in charge of the Customs house (izba celna) in the royal port
He got a beautiful house in Greenwich, and flat in London
He was a page to Edward's the third's wife
He was a knight, and when was enslaved by a foreign country and Edward paid ransom for him.
Man of many interests philology, maths, (the first who was interested in astronomy), he wrote an essay 'Astrolabe', dedicated to his son Matthew, and then we never hear about Matthew again, essay is not finished, Matthew must have died.
He had more children
Fat, obese man, probably died of cholesterol
He became interested in plants when he got a house in Greenwich
Canterbury tales His last and greatest work, unfinished
Chaucer transferred romance to England and created 'Roman de la rose' (romans dla róży). ← find where the name comes from. From a certain book, check which, what tittle and authors and what it was about
Roman de la rose
form of a dream vision
Dreamer who falls asleep, has a dream, he finds himself in a rose garden, there he finds famous lovers from mythology, literature etc. and they tell him about love, tell him their story
He wrote 4 romances de la rose, but he played with the convention
He read his romances to aristocracy.
John of Gaunt – one of the most powerful ppl, Chaucer's friend. When John's wife Blanche died he refused to take part in politics. Chaucer wrote a poem to commemorate Blanche, he titled it 'The book of the duchess' – it was read out loud during the ceremony, it took him 45 minutes. 1369 – it's the only work of him which date we know
'Blanche'
Dreamer falls asleep, but finds himself in his own bed and sees pattern of roses on the painting. He hears hunting noises. He wants to join them, he hurries and finds himself in a forest, very dark and quiet. In front of him he sees a figure in a black hooded coat. The man starts talking about a woman he loves, that she's outstanding, virtue and so on. After the poet has been listening to him, he realises the woman was dad.
Roses – roses on the painting
Rose garden – dark forest
famous couple – one man, not famous
He uses the word 'Blanche' to desribe castle where he is ← allusion to king's wife
House of fame 1370s
The dreamer falls asleep
he finds himself on a hill/mountain of ice/snow
on the ice there are written (engraved) names of famous poets
But ice is melting
Poet thinks 'I hope that my name will not be blurred'
He wants to be a famous poet so he decides to travel to the House of Fame (fame – goddess)
And ask her what can he do to be famous
He gets there in the eagle's dziób, Eagle says 'I wish you weren't that fat'
They arrive at the house of fame, place if very noisy, a lot of poets asking questions, goddess has to answer questions
In the throne hall there are sculptress of famous lovers
In the door there appears a figure of a man, he seem educated, he opens his mouth as to speak
That's where the poem stops.
It is an allegorical (extended metaphor) romance de la rose
There's no one way to fame, everyone has to find his own
flight – inspirations
Parliament of fowls – parlament ptaków 1370s
satire of courtly love
There was a a tradition of writing poems for 14th February (Valentines)
Satirical romance
Falls asleep
Wakes up in the rose garden
in the middle of it there's the temple of Venus
He enters the temple but his disguised (there was a lot of sins, immorality)
Nearby there is a meadow, on the hill there are birds holding a conference, they have their own goddess – nature.
14th February – birds starts mating (looking for a partner)
The conference should find their mates (topic of the conference).
Birds who arrived immediately know their partners but have to wait (first are noble birds)
There's eaglet (orlica) and she cannot decide.
One can sing beautifully
Second has beautiful wings
The goddess arrives and says eagles won't have children this season, she has to make up. Then all other birds mate without problems
Henry 2nd – husband of Eleanor of Aquitain (eleonora akwitańska). Earlier she travelled to the east, when she came to England she thought she had arrived to barbarian country. Knights had no manners. She decided to educate Englishman, to teach them good manners
Eleanor + Henry III
Richard The lion-hart
John the landless (jan bez ziemi)
Geoffrey
Eleanor asked the monk Andreas Capellanus to write a book (manual) of good manners (how to lead a polite conversion, table manners, how to write about love – a knight was to expected to be able to write a poem)
Capellanus instructions how to write a romance:
it cannot be happy love, because happy love is not interesting
it has to a secret love
it cannot be about married ppl, there's no place for love in marriage
it cannot be about peasants – they have sth else to do, they cannot get into their silly heads that they can be lovers
The love has not to be fulfilled sexually
Chaucer's satire (Parliament of fowls)
Has to be sexual
it not secret – it's parliamental
Eaglet – she doesn't listen to her instinct, she's looking for problems, unhappy love
temple of Venus – he leaves in disguised
Answer:
How would you introduce in 3 points the figure of Geoffrey Chaucer to today's readers. Most interesting points from his biography
Jobless and had lot of money
Was obese and could make fun of it
got peerage
He made romance de la rose more interesting by breaking the convention
He wasn't decapitated even though there were kings who were confronted and he had good relations with all
Roman de la rose – define the convention
Dreamer falls asleep
Finds himself in a rose-garden
Meets famous cuople who tells him their story
How does he play with the convention of roman de la rose in Book of the duchess, house of fame, parliament of fowls
Different setting
Not about famous lovers but ordinary ppl
^ These questions will be on the exam