The Age of Chaucer

Deaths of Edward IIl and of the Black Prince

The last fifteen years of the reign of Edward Ill were a "lame and important conclusion after his earlier activity and success". The King became enfeebled in body and in mind and allowed himselif to be ruled by Alice Perrers, a woman of wit and beauty, but of bad character. There were dissensions in the government. The French regained much of their teritory and the only parts of France left in English hands were the districts just round Calais and Bordeaux. In 1376, the Black Prince died, a bitterly disappointed man. In 1377, Edward III followed him to the grave, and Richard Il became the King at the age of eleven.

(Sacerdotal theory claims excessive authority for the priesthood. For instance, in ascribes sacrificial functions and supernatural powers to the priests.

doctrine of transubstantiation—the doctrine that the priest, at the sacrament of the Mass, miraculously changes the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. Lollards: so called because they used to "loll" or sing psalm-tunes.)

The Peasants' Revolt

In the fourth year of Richard II's reign there occurred a great revolt among the peasantry, the immediate cause of which was the poll-tax. The leaders of the revolt were Wat Tyler and Jack Straw. The claims of the lower orders were encouraged by the preaching of John Ball, a priest who spread the doctrine that all men were born equal and had equal rights. He took as his text:

"When Adam delved and Eve span,

Who was then the gentleman?"

However, the young King showed great nerve and presence of mind when faced with an angry mob, and the rebellion came to an end. even though hundreds were subsequently hanged for treason. Alter several years of excellent government, however, the King became swollen-headed and arbitrary and ultimately had to abdicate in 1399.

The Influence of the New Learning

Social unrest and the commencement of a new religious movement were thus two of the chief active forces in the England of the later fourteenth century. A third influence, which did much to change the current of intellectual interests and thus aflected literature directly, came from the new learning. The sway of ecclesiastical ideas and the medieval habit of mind were to some extent broken by the influx of a fresh and very different spirit which had arisen in Italy, chiefly from a renewed study of the ancient classical literature (of Greece and Rome). Writes Hudson: "An enormous impetus was thus given to intellectual expansion and to men's efiorts to liberate themselves from theological trammels. The leaders of this great revival were the two celebrated Italian writers, Petrarch (1304-74) and Boccaccio (1313-75), and it was through their work in the main that the influence of humanism (as the new culture came to be called) passed into England, where its effect was soon shown in a quickened sense of beauty, a delight in life, and a free secular spirit which began to appear in English literature. It is here that we mark the rise of the vast and complex movement, which was presently to culminate in the Renaissance. But, though of little power as yet, humanism has to be included among the formative influences of the literature of Chaucer's age."

Birth of the English Language; and the literary Writers

The last half of the fourteenth century saw the birth of the English language. Ever since the Norman Conquest (1066). French had dominated the social and political life of the upper classes. But now various circumstances combined to establish the supremacy of English. The English mind awoke from the lethargy of bondage, and modern English literature had its birth. English prose and English poetry alike sprang to life. Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales; about the same time appeared the works of John Wycliffe who, as Chaucer is called the father of English verse, may justly be styled "the father of English prose". Wycliffe's Bible is an example of "vigorous artless English" and his controversial pamphlets illustrated the capabilities of the English language at a time when Iatin was normally employed as a medium of theological discussion. Wycliffe's Bible is an important landmark, in the religious, social, and literary history of England. Wycliffe made in prose a new contribution to the national language and literature. The translation is "one of the first great prose monuments in English, and its wide popularity, in spite of the occasional stiff and unidiomatic 'translation-English', rendered it influential in gaining for the vernacular a position of dignity and honor". But the great prose work of this period is a book known as The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, a translation from French. Even though a translation, this book takes its place as the first English prose classic (not taking into account Wycliffe's translation of the Bible), and its simple and elfortless style had a happy elfect on the development of English prose literature. According to Saintsbury, the prose of this work shows an advance in ease and resource on Wycliffe. Saintsbury gives high praise to this work when he says: "To see the marvel of the rising of literary prose style in English there is no better way than to read Mandeville". Says another commentator: "On its literary side the book is remarkable, though a translation, as being the first prose work in modern English having a distinctly literary style and flavour. Otherwise it is a most interesting commentary on the general culture and credulity of the fourteenth century." Among the poets, the noteworthy names, besides Chaucer, are those of Johni Gower who wrote Confessio Amantis, and William Langland, the author of Piers the Plowman. Langland attacks the social and ecclesiastical abuses of the day, while Gower dwells upon the evils wrought by the seven deadly sins.

John Gower (1330-1408)

Gower's Confessio Amantis (written in English, though having a Latin title) is a remarkable contribution to the beginning of truly English poetry. Gower used his knowledge of Greek, Roman, Hebrew, Italian, and French chronicles and stories to provide the subject-matter of the poem-tales of love and lovers adventures and trials. The unvarying octosyllabic lines of the poem make it often tedious, but the author showed how stories from classical and early medieval mythology could be used effectively as subject-matter for fresh and vigorous presentation in English verse forms.

William Langland (1330-1400)

William Langland's Piers Plowman is written in unrhymed, alliterative verse and is an allegorical poem. The visions it describes are a protest against the evils of the day. Its moral and religious purpose becomes clearer and stronger as it moves to the climax. The poem was very popular in Langland's day. Langland appears here at one and the same time to be a visionary-an advocate for the Christian way of life—and an outspoken, satirical critic of the corrupt practices he illustrates in his allegory. Langland is the ancestor of Bunyan to whom, among English allegorists, he makes a splendid second.

Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400)

Geofirey Chaucer was the first great master of English song. Called the "father of English poetry", he wrote a number of poems, Troilus and Criseyde, The Parliament of Fowls, The House of Fame, The Legend of Good Women, The Canterbury Tales, but it is in the last-named work that he is Incomparably at his greatest and best. In the first place, the device which hei employed as the framework of his stories in The Canterbury Tales is superior to every earlier device and has never been surpassed. Secondly, the character delineation of the immortal Prologue is a marvel. Of all the character-writers in English literature from Ben Jonson to Wordsworth, none is so great as Chaucer. Chaucer is the greatest English story-teller in verse. At the same time he rendered a great service to English versification. The easy flow and wondrous melody of his verse can be duly appreciated only by comparison with the work of his predecessors. Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde has been called the first English novel, even though it is in verse. Chaucer's poetry is remarkable for its variety, its story-interest, and its wonderful melody.

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The Age of Chaucer -Introduction