Questions tagged [geoffrey-chaucer]
Questions about the works of English poet Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343 – 1400) or his life as a writer. He authored The Canterbury Tales, Troilus and Criseyde, The Legend of Good Women and other works.
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How much French does Madame Eglentyne know?
In the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales, we're introduced to Madame Eglentyne, a prioress (a nun). On lines 124-126, there's a confusing passage where we're told that she speaks elegant French,...
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What translation/version of the Bible would Chaucer have read?
A few lines in Troilus and Criseyde remind me of a Hebrew Bible verse. I want to compare the language of the book to the language of the verse, and I'm assuming he wasn't reading it in the original ...
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Was Hardy's "A Few Crusted Characters" based directly on the Canterbury Tales?
I've just been reading Thomas Hardy's A Few Crusted Characters (full text available online), which is essentially a collection of short stories or vignettes loosely bound together by a framing story.
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Trying to remember Chaucer-like story’s name
There were two main characters and they sought lodging. A farmer and his wife took them in, they had a baby and a daughter. The two men wanted to sleep with the daughter. So they devised a plan that ...
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Why is the Reeve's hair cut like a priest's?
In the general prologue of The Canterbury Tales, we're introduced to the character of the Reeve. The Reeve is described as having his hair cut like a priest's:
His berd was shave as ny as ever he ...
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Scanning "Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote"
How would you scan the first line of The Canterbury Tales:
Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
This blogger says that it's an iambic pentametre line with a headless initial foot and a feminine ...
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Was the Canterbury Tales directly inspired by the Decameron?
Both Boccaccio's Decameron and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales are 14th-century collections of short tales set within a frame story involving a group of people taking turns to tell stories one at a time. ...
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Did anastrophe in English poetry have to do with French influence?
From Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales:
Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
Chaucer wrote in Middle English which, to my knowledge, was influenced by French in many ways. French adjectives are ...
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In A Whiter Shade of Pale, is the miller's tale a reference to the Miller's tale in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales?
Chaucer's "The Miller's Tale" in The Canterbury Tales is a weird story about an older Miller, his young, beautiful wife who sleeps with a young Oxford student, and an admiring young ...
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What is a "Cristopher"?
In the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer describes a character who is a yeoman in service of a knight. It's mentioned on line 115 that the yeoman has a shiny silver "Cristopher":
A ...
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Why is the month of Aprill masculine?
In the first line of the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales, the month of April is given a masculine pronoun:
Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote
Why is this?
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Significance of the Pardoner's hair style
The General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales spends a lot of time talking about the Pardoner's hair:
This Pardoner hadde heer as yelow as wex,
But smothe it heeng as dooth a strike of flex;
By ounces ...
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Common reoccurring themes in The Canterbury Tales?
I'm currently reading The Canterbury Tales for school and I'm struggling to find a common reoccurring theme for the tales. More specifically the Wife of Bath and Prioress tales. I thought about ...
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What are the differences and similarities between the role of female “sovereignty” in Lanval and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”?
I would like to know the specific differences and similarities and some examples for me to better understand the differences and similarities.
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Looking for a poem about the (fictionalized) writing of The Canterbury Tales Prologue
A friend of mine used to quote a poem that told the fictionalized story of Chaucer writing the first lines of the Prologue of The Canterbury Tales:
"Whan that Aprill with his ... ".
When he ...
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Why do translations of the line "Now have I told you soothly in a clause" ignore the word soothly?
I personally prefer to read The Canterbury Tales in the original English, but over the course of asking questions on this site I've come across several modern English translations.
One thing that I'...
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Why does the Reeve ride at the end of the procession?
In Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, we're told that the Reeve always rides at the end of the procession of pilgrims going to Canterbury:
And evere he rood the hyndreste of oure route.
(line 622; ...
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Is this a joke about the length of the General Prologue?
At the end of the descriptions of all the characters in the general prologue of The Canterbury Tales, the text reads:
Now have I told you soothly in a clause
(The word soothly means truly; "in a ...
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