The Canterbury Tales: Key facts

Focus on History

Answer the following questions:

What does the name “The Black Death” refer to? In what way does it influence the life of Europe at the times of G. Chaucer?

What war is called “a Hundred Years' War”? Why was it called so? Find the time frame of it.

What was the king Henry II famous for?

Who was Thomas Becket? What was the essence of the conflict between him and the king? Why was Thomas Becket murdered?

Canterbury Cathedral

The Canterbury Tales: Key facts

author · Geoffrey Chaucer

genre · a collection of over 20 stories (mostly written in verse, although some are in prose) built around a frame narrative (frame tale)

language · Middle English

time and place written · the end of the 14th century. The first version of The Canterbury Tales to be published in print was William Caxton's 1478 edition

setting (time and place) + narrator: The tales are presented as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together on a journey from Southwark to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. The prize for this contest is a free meal at the Tabard Inn at Southwark on their return.

Sources of influence:

· The Decameron by G. Boccaccio;

· the theme of pilgrimage – by "pilgrim" figures of Dante and Virgil in The Divine Comedy;

· the works of Petrarch;

· poetry by Ovid;

· the Bible

Order: No authorial, complete version of the Tales exists and no consensus has been reached regarding the order in which G. Chaucer intended the stories to be placedare the

There are two most popular modern methods of ordering the tales:

I. 10 "Fragments". The tales that comprise a Fragment are closely related and contain internal indications of their order of presentation, usually with one character speaking to and then stepping aside for another character.

II. The 9 "Groups".