Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer, an English poet, was born in 1342. Historians are uncertain about his exact date of birth. Geoffrey's well-to-do parents, John Chaucer and Agnes Copton, possessed several buildings in the vintage quarter in London. Not much is known about Geoffrey's school career. He must have had some education in Latin and Greek. Out of school he went on as a page in the household of the Countess of Ulster. Chaucer rose in royal employment and became a knight of the shire for Kent. As a member of the king's household, Chaucer was sent on diplomatic errands throughout Europe. From all these activities, he gained the knowledge of society that made it possible to write The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer died in October 1400 and was buried in Westminster Abbey in London. He was the first of those that are gathered in what we now know as the Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey.

Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales, a collection of stories in a frame story, between 1387 and 1400. It is the story of a group of thirty people who travel as pilgrims to Canterbury (England). The pilgrims, who come from all layers of society, tell stories to each other to kill time while they travel to Canterbury.
If we trust the General Prologue, Chaucer intended that each pilgrim should tell two tales on the way to Canterbury and two tales on the way back. He never finished his enormous project and even the completed tales were not finally revised. Scholars are uncertain about the order of the tales. As the printing press had yet to be invented when Chaucer wrote his works, The Canterbury Tales has been passed down in several handwritten manuscripts.

Medieval Period

Medieval Period

In England, the Medieval Period also called the Middle Ages, began in a year that has become famous-1066. In that year the Normans, who had settled in what is now western France, defeated the Anglo-Saxons at the Battle of Hastings and earned for their leader the title  William the Conqueror.                      

Norman kings ruled England for less than a hundred years, but during that time the Normans brought England closer to the mainstream of European society. William introduced in England the European social, economic and political system called feudalism, an economic system based on the exchange of power and land for loyalty. Kings owned all the land, but gave out large estates to those noble warriors who pledged their loyalty and their armies to the king. The nobles in turn offered protection to the common people who worked the land and served as soldiers.

This system resulted in the formation of three distinct classes. On top was the aristocracy who had land and power; the clergy, or church-men who were well schooled and continued the scholarly preservation of literature, often writing in Latin, and the third and largest class consisted of serfs, poor people with little power who farmed and fought for the nobles.

During the Medieval Period, different classes enjoyed different literary developments. For the aristocracy, romances became a popular literary form. Romances are tales of adventure about the brave deeds of noble knights who followed a code of chivalry, a set of rules for gentlemanly behaviour. The tradition of courtly love, in which womanhood was highly honoured, was another element common in medieval romances.

Literature developed by the clergy focused on drama- a form that was used effectively to entertain the non-reading public while presenting religious teachings. Mystery plays were based on Bible stories; miracle plays told about the lives of saints; and morality plays taught moral and ethical values.

The common people who could not read or write took please in listening to ballads. Ballads were narrative songs about the adventures of ordinary people as well as legendary heroes. Popular ballad themes include love, envy, bravery, loyalty, and revenge. The tales of Robin Hood were first told in ballad form.

The most famous writer of the period was Geoffrey Chaucer. His “Canterbury Tales,” written in Middle English, is a collection of stories in verse about all social classes. His tales illustrated the growing complexity and new ways of life of late Medieval Period.          

Old English Period(449-1066)

English Literature

The division of a nation’s literary history into periods offers a convenient method for studying authors and movements. Hence, most literary histories and anthologies are arranged by periods. However, it has been an everlasting debate on how to classify the English literature into periods. Some scientists classify by the dates of the historical events of the time and give the names of the most important people involved (Victorian Age, Augustan Age, etc.). Others claim that if we deal with the literature, we should classify by the names of the dominating literary movements or to name a period for its greatest or most representative author like Romantic Period, Realistic Period or Age of Shakespeare, Age of Dickens, etc. Logically, some single principle should be adhered in classification, but such consistency is seldom found. In most histories and anthologies, authors follow “mixed” principle, using all the three above mentioned approaches. So we will take the classifications most commonly used in the literary world.

English Literature in Periods

1.  Old English Period (449-1066)

2.  Medieval Period (1066-1485)

3.  Renaissance Period (1485-1660)

1485-1558 Tudor Age

1558-1603 Elizabethan Age

1603-1660 Commonwealth Interregnum

4.  Neoclassic Period (1660-1798)

1660-1700 Age of Restoration

1700-1750 Augustan Age

1750-1798 Age of Johnson

5.  Romantic Period (171798-1870)

1798-1832 Age of Romantic Movements

1832-1870 Early Victorian Age

6.  Realistic Period (1870-1914)

7.  Modernist and Contemporary Periods (1914-present)

Old English Period(449-1066)

The Old English Period starts in 449 when Germanic tribes (Jutes, Angles, Saxons) crossed the North Sea to England and Anglo-Saxon rule began. For this reason this period is sometimes referred as the Anglo-Saxon Period.

Many hundred years ago (about 4^th century A.D) the country we now call England was known as Britain and the people who lived there were the Britons. They belonged to Celtic race and the language they spoke was Celtic. In the 1^st century A.D. Britain was conquered by the powerful Romans under the command of Julius Caesar who later wrote an interesting account of Britain. Towards the end of the 4^th century the invasion of all of Europe by barbaric peoples compelled the Romans to leave Britain. As soon as the Britons were left to themselves, some Germanic tribes called Angles, Saxons and Jutes invaded Britain. Saxon monarchies were established in Sussex, Wessex and Essex in the fifth and sixth centuries; Anglian monarchies were in Northumbria, East Anglia and Mercia in the sixth and seventh centuries.

Romans as well as pagan Germanic tribes influenced both in the English language and culture: the names of the gods worshiped by Anglo-Saxons and Romans became the names of the days (Tuesco-God of Darkness, Woden-god of War, Thor- the Thunderer, and Freia- goddess of Prosperity, and the Romans’ god of time Saturn).

English literature began as oral, not written, literature with songs and poems celebrating heroes. These poems were passed on by minstrels, or scops, who composed many poems and songs through which the major battles and the feats of the tribe’s heroes and kings were recited and remembered.

The beautiful epic “Beowulf”, composed about 700 by an unknown minstrel, may be called the foundation-stone of all British poetry. Beowulf is a young knight of the Geats, or Jutes. His adventures form two parts of this heroic epic. Beowulf fights not for his own glory, but for the benefit of his people. He is ready to sacrifice his life for them.

Written literature did not exist in the British Isles unil about the year 700. It first comes to our attention in the work of the most famous of the Anglo-Saxon monks, the Venerable Bede, the author of “Ecclesiastical History of the English History” in Latin. He was brought up in the monasteries of Northumbria where he received the best education of the time. He wrote mostly in Latin. His famous book, “The History of the English Church,” and other books on natural history and astronomy were well known in France and Italy. The first notable written literature actually composed in Old English came almost two centuries later when the remarkable Anglo-Saxon King Alfred wrote his “Anglo-Saxon Chronicles,” also a history, in the 892. Besides being a skilful politician, Alfred was a Latin scholar; he had traveled on the continent and visited France. He is famous not only for having built the first navy, but for trying to enlighten his people. He drew up a code of laws. He translated the Church history of Bede from Latin into Anglo-Saxon, the native language of his people, and a portion of the Bible as well. To him the English owe the famous “Anglo-Saxon Chronicle” which may be called the first history of England, the first prose in English literature. Alfred remains the only English ruler to be styled “The Great.”