THE AGE OF CHAUCER (1340-1400)

General Characteristics of the Age
The Age of Chaucer is the fast significant period in the literary history of England. It marks the beginning of a new era, and new language and literature. It initiates a noticeable departure from medievalism and the birth of an era of rational inquiry and critical understanding. The following characteristics distinguish this period:
1. An Era of Transition: Chaucer was born in a turbulent period of social, religious and political change. He was born in the reign of Edward III, lived through that of Richard II, and died the year after Henry IV ascended the throne. Edward's reign was conspicuous for the highest development of medieval civilization in England. The English chivalry was at the climax. The spirit of romantic idealism prevailed in Edward's court. It is expressed in Chaucer's Knighte's Tale. The change from the medieval to the modern is slow. Rickett remarks: "In some respects Chaucer's England is still characteristically medieval, and nowhere is the conservative feeling more strongly marked than in the persistence of chivalry. The strange amalgam of love, war, and religion being so far from exhibiting any signs of decay, reached perhaps its fullest development at this time. More than two centuries were to elapse before it was finally killed by the satirical pen of Cervantes." Nevertheless, it was "a period of glaring social contrasts and rapid political change." Trevelyan remarks: "In Chaucer's England we see for the first time the modern mingling with the medieval, and England herself beginning to emerge as a distinct nation, no longer a mere oversea extension of Franco-Latin Europe." What distinguishes this period is "an impatient, progressive spirit, alien to the medieval mind." The age of Chaucer witnessed a gradual decline in the power and influence of three medieval institutions — feudalism, chivalry and knight-errantry and Chaucer.
2. Growth of National Sentiment: In this age we come across an ardent upsurge of nationalism. The fusion of Normans and Saxons had completely taken place even before the birth of Chaucer. Normans who invaded England in 1066 were foreigners not by blood but through environment. Long before Chaucer they were conscious of it and could say: "Saxon, Norman and Dane are we." There was an awareness of the unity of customs and temperament, and of language also in some degree.
The consciousness of national unity was strengthened during "The Hundred Years' War" with France, and the battles of Crecy and Poitiers. The victories of Edward and the Black Prince on French soil during 'The Hundred Years' War gave a feeling of national pride and self-respect to the people of England. Hitherto the aristocracy had won successes on the battlefield by the lance of the knight but in this war the humble bowmen played a prominent role. Thus the barrier of military inequality between the upper and the middle classes was broken down.
The English nation for the first time felt the existence of a common language and literature. The East Midland speech had become the language of the capital city and of the universities. French and English had amalgamated to form the standard English tongue, which attains its first finest expression in the poetry of Chaucer. In 1362 a statute ordained that English would be the language of law courts.
In England, legislation was working to nurture the growth of national consciousness. The Papal interference in the temporal affairs of England was strongly resented. The temporal overlordship of the Pope was definitely repudiated. By measures of the Parliament of Edward HI and his successors began the process of separation from Rome which the work of Henry VIII completed.
William J. Long writes about the spirit of national consciousness in the age of Chaucer: "In the rush of this great national movement, separating England from the political ties of France and, to a less degree, from ecclesiastical bondage to Rome, the mutual distrust and jealousy which had divided nobles and commons were momentarily swept aside by a wave of patriotic enthusiasm. The French language lost its official prestige, and English became the speech not only of the common people but of courts and Parliament as well."
3. Black Death, Famine and Social Unrest: It was an epoch of natural calamities which increased the sufferings of the common people. In A.D. 1348-49 came the terrible Black Death which carried off no less than one-third of the population. It reappeared in 1362, 1367, and 1370. Famine followed plague. Vagrants and thieves multiplied. The result of the large-scale mortality was that the labour became scarce. The wages of labour went up. Efforts were made to keep the wages under control with the help of legislation. The gay, debonair and prosperous life of the King and his nobility made bad matters worse. With the expansion of trade wealth increased among the commercial classes and the common masses were deprived even of their due share. The French wars, which nurtured the feeling of national consciousness, were very expensive. Heavy taxation was imposed to meet their enormous cost. The glaring contrast between the rich and the poor, who were suffering under the burden of unjust laws and heavy taxation, was the immediate cause of a general rising of the common people under Wat Tyler, Jack Straw and John Ball. John Ball, the Kentish priest, preached the dignity of labour and asked the nobles:
When Adam delved and Eve span
Who was then the gentleman.
This uprising of the masses, known as the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, was suppressed by the courage and good judgement of Richard H but it was a dear sign of widespread social tension and unrest.
Richard's rule was unwise and despotic. Political unrest and tensions grew during his reign. The constitutional conflicts between the king and his subjects resulted in endless discord and confusion.
4. The Corruption of the Church and the Reformation: The church, which was the seat of power and prestige, was infected with corruption, moral turpitude and superstition. Politically, intellectually and spiritually its influence had diminished. The ecclesiastics were corrupt and demoralised. They rolled in wealth and luxury, and indulged in all sorts of vices. They lived in a Godless and worldly way. Chaucer's ecclesiastical characters in the Prologue realistically depict the corruption of the church. He was alive to the shocking state of things which existed in the religious world of his time.
John Wycliff (1320-84), "the morning star of the Reformation", was one of the first Englishmen to challenge the authority of the Catholic Church. He did his best to revive spiritual Christianity in England. He condemned and exposed the clerical pretensions that had raised a barrier between man and God. Spiritual life required free access to the Bible. This view of religion well illustrates the critical attitude which was by and by coming into existence. The Lollard Movement was the first important opposition to Catholicism in England. Wycliff successfully carried out his mission of exposing the corruption of the church. He wrote religious pamphlets, sent his itinerant preachers far and wide with the message of the Gospel. Wycliff produced a complete English version of the Bible with the help of his disciples.
Pilgrimages to shrines of saints were common during medieval England. Religious reformers opposed them on grounds of idleness and laxity, but their popularity remained undiminished.
In spite of religious reforms and Wyciff's efforts "church still continued to be the first and foremost spiritual body".
5. The Dawn of New Learning: In the age of Chaucer the medieval habits and traditions still continued to influence the masses. Church still continued to influence the masses. Church still controlled scholarship, theology moulded men's thoughts and feelings, ecclesiastical ideas swayed the feelings of common people, but their sway was to some extent weakened by the spirit of new learning. Italy was the cradle of the new spirit which was revived by the study of the literature of classical antiquity, and a renewed interest not only for the art, but also for the moral ideas of ancient Greece and Rome. Man's intellectual horizon expanded and he began to make efforts to liberate himself from the shackles of theological slavery. Two Italian writers, Petrarch (1304-74) and Boccaccio (1313-75) were the pioneers of this great revival. It was mainly through their work that the influence of humanism passed into England. The spirit of humanism, which was one of the formative influences of the age of Chaucer, engendered "the quickened sense of beauty, the delight in life, and the free secular spirit" which began to appear, though dimly, both in life and literature. Root says: "The movement of Renaissance first assumed definite form, and our modern world began."
Chaucer shows the interest of the revival of learning in the Prologue. The Clerk of Oxford is a classical scholar:
For hym was levere have at his beddes heed
Twenty bookes, clad in black or reed,
Of Aristotle and his philosophie
Than robes riche or fithele or gay sauntrie.
Rickett remarks: "Chaucer's world is medieval, but beneath the medievalism the heaven of Renascence is already at work."
6. Conclusion: Summing up the characteristics of Chaucer's age, Edward Albert remarks: "A curious modern note begins to be apparent at this period. There is a sharper spirit of criticism, a more searching interest in man's affairs, and a less childlike Whin, and a less complacent acceptance, of the established order. Thevogue of the romance, though it has by no means gone, is passing, and in Chaucer it is derided. The freshness of the romantic ideal is being superseded by the more acute spirit of drama, which even at this early time is faintly foreshadowed. Another more modern feature that at once strikes the observer is that the age of anonymity is passing away. Though many of the texts still lack named authors, the greater number of books can be definitely ascribed. Moreover, we have for the first time a figure of outstanding literary importance, who gives to the age the form and pressure of his genius."
POETRY IN CHAUCER'S AGE
Poetry presents a strange amalgam of love, religion and chivalry, the cardinal characteristics of medievalism on the one hand, and of humanism and secular spirit on the other. The greater part of poetry is medieval but there are clear signs of breaking away from the past. Old English alliterative verse was revived about the middle of the fourteenth century, but under French influence rhymed verse had gained supremacy. Modernisation in language and style was clearly perceptible.
Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400)
Chaucer, the greatest literary figure of the age, was scholar, traveller, businessman, courtier and an active sharer in the stirring life of his times. He reflected his age in literature as no other but Shakespeare has ever done.
His Life. Chaucer was born about 1340. He was the son of John Chaucer, a vintner, of Thames Street, London. At the age of sixteen he became page to the wife of Lionel, Duke of Clarence. In 1359 he went with the King's army to France where he was captured, but ransomed before the treaty of Bretigny, in 1360. On his return to England, Chaucer became an esquire of the King's Bed-chamber. He spent the next ten years at Edward's court.
Between 1368 and 1387 he made several official journeys to Flanders, France and Italy. He was a successful diplomat. These journeys provided Chaucer an opportunity to meet and observe varied types of men, manners and fashions. His keen observation of men and manners highly influenced his literary creations. His journey to Italy markedly affected his poetic talent.
Chaucer received many distinguished royal favours during this period. In 1386 he lost court favour and his fortunes began to decline with the banishment of John of Gaunt, his special patron. His life closed with a revival of his prosperity. The accession of Henry IV, the son of John of Gaunt, was a boon to Chaucer. The grant of a royal pension placed him beyond want and anxiety. Chaucer passed away in 1400 and was buried in what is now known as the Poet's Corner.
Chaucer's Character and His Poetry. Chaucer's character, his foreign journeys, his keen observation of men and manners, his intimate knowledge of London and the English court influenced his entire poetic output.
Chaucer was one of the finest gentlemen of his time. He was tender, generous, genial and jovial by temperament. He was humorous and full of human sympathy. He was endowed with a charitable and kind disposition. He never sneered at human follies and foibles. We can good-humouredly smile in his pages at the foibles and forgive the sins of men. Stopford A. Brooke comments: "His first and great delight was in human nature, and he makes us love the noble characters in his poems, and feel with kindliness towards the baser and ruder sorts." Rickett also remarks about Chaucer's humanity: "Frank, virile, and tolerant, he is amused rather than angry with the little kinks in human nature, and in his intellectual vision he has a wider sweep than most of our writers."
Chaucer lived in urban and aristocratic society. He filled many parts of the world and of business in his life, and observed a large variety of men, women and manners. The living characters he created in the Prologue really belong to real life which he saw around him. Despite his active and observant life, he was very quiet and kept much to himself. ."Free from the press and dwell with steadfastness" is the first line of his dast ballad. It embodies the serious part of his life. The Host in the Canterbury Tales makes fun of him for his lonely, abstracted air:
Thou lookest as thou wouldest find a hare,
And ever on the ground I see thee stare.
Chaucer was a good scholar and a keen observer of nature. He loved streams, green grass, trees, flowers and ordered gardens. He had a quiet and true religion "much like that we conceive Shakespeare to have had; nor was he without a high philosophic strain."
Summing up Chaucer's character and experiences, W. H. Hudson remarks: "Like Shakespeare and Milton, he was, on the contrary, a man of the world and of affairs. He had travelled much; he had seen life; his business at home and abroad brought him into intimate relations with people of all sorts; and with his quick insight into character and his keen eye for everything dramatic and picturesque and humorous, he was precisely the kind of poet to profit by such varied experiences. There is much that is purely bookish in his writings; but in the best of them we are always aware that he is not merely drawing upon what he has read, but that his genius is being fed by his wide and deep knowledge of life itself."
Three Periods in Chaucer's Poetic Career Or
Literary Influences on Chaucer's Poetry
It is convenient to divide Chaucer's literary output into three stages, which show three distinct influences on the development of his poetry:
1. The French Period: Chaucer's early poetry was directly influenced by contemporary French poetry. He composed in his wild youthful days a number of love poems, none of which have survived, but which gave him some fame as a poet. It is supposed that A B C a prayer to the Virgin, is the first of his extant poems. He translated some portions of the famous French work Roman de la Rose, an elaborate love allegory. Its translation helped Chaucer to fashion his style. He cultivated an allegorical style. He learnt from French poetry the charm of fluent simplicity, complete correspondence of words and thoughts, constant restraint in the expression of emotion and satire. Chaucer wrote in 1369 The Book of Duchessee on the death of Blanche, John of Gaunt's wife. It is an allegory in the manner of reigning French school, but Chaucer gave his elegy freshness and seeming sincerity.
2. The Italian Period (1372-1384): Chaucer's Italian period is characterised by variety and new technical innovations in his poetry. During his visits to Italy Chaucer saw a new world of art and literature which had reached an astonishing excellence. He read Dante's Divine Comedia, Petrarch's Sonnets and Boccaccio's Decameron. In Italy he saw the dawn of Renaissance, which, to some extent, influenced his poetry which is secular and humanistic in spirit. Moody and Lovett remark: "The unquenchable curiosity of the men of Renaissance was his, more than a century before the Renaissance really began to affect England. He, too, shared their thirst for expression. The great books he had come to know in Italy gave hi_n no peace until he should equal or surpass them." The important works which he produced in emulation of the Italian masters are the House of Fame, The Parliament of Fowls, Troylus and Cryseyde and The Legend of Good Women.
The House of Fame (1382) is a dream allegory, which shows Dante's influence. It is remarkable for the rare combination of lofty thought and simple, homely language, and the presentation of genuine Chaucerian humour. The Legend of Good Women (1385), the unfinished work, was originally planned to contain nineteen tales of virtuous women of antiquity. But in the extant volume it consists of eight accomplished tales and the ninth only begun. It is conspicuous for its masterly narrative, particularly in the portion dealing with Cleopatra, and the skilful handling of the heroic couplet in English for the first time. Troylus and Cryseydc is founded on Boccaccio's Filostrato. It marks a significant development in Chaucer's poetic career. He uses his material very freely and with great artistic ability. In it he "reflects the ideals of his own age and society, and so gives to the whole story a dramatic force and beauty which it had never known before." The characters of Cryseyde and Pandarus reveal a new subtlety of psychological development, and reveal Chaucer's growing insight into human motives. Troylus and Cryseyde is considered as Chaucer's best narrative work. The rhyme royal stanza is used with much deftness and beauty. Chaucer also wrote the Story of Griselda (The Clerk's Tale) and The Story of Constance during this period.
3. The English Period (1384-1390): In this period Chaucer "becomes independent, relying upon himself entirely even for the use t which he puts his own borrowed themes." A few smaller poems which belong to this period are Former Age, Fortune, Truth, Gentilesse and The Lak of Stedfastnesse, but the crowning and monumental work of this period is The Canterbury Tales.
The Plan of 'The Canterbury Tales': The plan of the Tales was probably adopted soon after 1386, in which year Chaucer composed the Prologue to the Legend of Good Women. They are not, and cannot be looked on as a whole. Many were written independently, and they fitted into the framework of the Prologue. Many which he intended to write were never written. The whole existing body of the Tales was completed before the close of 1390. The composition of the General Prologue to the tales is commonly associated with 1387.
The manner in which Chaucer knitted the tales together was very simple, and likely to please the English people. The Canterbury Tales is a collection of twenty-four tales in verse and prose, some incomplete, told as entertainment by a group of pilgrims riding from London to the shrine of Thomas A. Beckett at Canterbury. Chaucer had probably made the pilgrimage to Canterbury in the spring of 1385 or 1387, and was led by this experience to the framework in which he set his pictures of life. For the general idea of the tales Chaucer was indebted to Boccaccio, but "in nearly every important feature the work is essentially English". To realise his purpose Chaucer grouped around the jovial host of the Tabard Inn twenty-nine pilgrims, including himself, of every class of society in England. He sat them on horseback to ride to Canterbury and home again, intending to make each of them tell tales. But the company never reaches Canterbury, and only twenty-three pilgrims get their turn. Some tales are left unfinished. There are two prose tales, Chaucer's own Tale of Melibeus and The Parson's Tale. The rest of the tales are composed in the decasyllabic or heroic couplet.
In the famous Prologue Chaucer makes us acquainted with the various characters of his drama. The twenty-nine characters are carefully chosen types, who represent various segments of contemporary society. Endowed with creative imagination Chaucer individualised his characters. All of them are fully realized figures with an importance of their own. F. N. Robinson remarks about Chaucer's characters: "Chaucer's pilgrims are far more vivid and personal than either the Theophrastian characters or the medieval figures with which they have been compared." William J. Long also remarks: "Chaucer is the first English writer to bring the atmosphere of romantic interest about the men and women and the daily work of one's own world, — which is the aim of nearly all modern literature.
Chaucer assigned to a pilgrim a tale suited to his character and vocation. The tales are of astonishing variety and give us a true and faithful picture of differing aspects of medieval life in England. Stopford A. Brooke remarks: "The Tales themselves take in the whole range of the poetry and the life of the middle ages; the legend of the saint, the romance of the knight, the wonderful fables of the traveller, the coarse tale of common life, the love story, the allegory, the animal-fable and the satirical lay."
Chaucer emerges as the first great story-teller in verse in The Canterbury Tales. All the best tales are told easily, gracefully and sincerely. The tales are remarkable for the dramatic quality. F. N. Robinson says: "In fact...... the pilgrimage is a continuous and lively drama, in which the stories contribute to the action. Because of this sustained dramatic interest and the vivid reality of characters, as well as for the inclusive representation of English society, The Canterbury Tales has been called a Human comedy. The implied comparison with Balzac's great series of stories of the life of modern France is not inappropriate."
In The Canterbury Tales Chaucer made English into a true means of poetry and literature. He developed the resources of English language for literary use, and set an example which was followed by a long line of poets.
In Tales Chaucer appears as a great humorist who has a consummate knowledge of human life. His humour is rich, tolerant, profound and sane, devoid of spite and cynicism. He also had a keen sense of pathos in human life. He can bring tears into our eyes, and he can make us smile or be sad as he pleases.
The Canterbury Tales is the first finest poetic testament of England. James Winny says that it has "coherence and imaginative drive of a great work of literature, and presents a firmly realized view of life. Of all medieval poems, The Canterbury Tales gives a modern reader the strongest sense of contact with the life and manners of fourteenth-century England."
Chaucer's Realism or Chaucer as a Representative Poet of the Fourteenth Century
Rickett writes: "Chaucer symbolises, as no other writer does, the Middle Ages. He stands in much the same relation to the life of his time as Pope does to the earlier phases of the eighteenth century, and Tennyson to the Victorian era; and his place in English literature is even more important than theirs, for he is the first great English writer — the first man to use "naked words" in English; the first to make our composite language a thing compact and vital." Indeed, Chaucer is the true representative of his age. He portrayed a comprehensive picture of contemporary life. He realistically epitomises the social, economic and religious conditions of his age. Chaucer was a keen observer of men and manners, and was endowed with the talent of imaginatively presenting contemporary society upon a great scale. His magnum opus, The Canterbury Tales "gives a modern reader the strongest sense of contact with the life and manners of fourteenth-century England". He for the first time made poetry the medium for the expression of social reality.
Various aspects of Chaucer's realism are elaborated below:
1. The Old and the New: Chaucer's age was transitional. It was medieval but beneath the medievalism—the desire for change was already at work. He saw the early rays of Renaissance. Hudson remarks: "Ecclesiastical ideas and the medieval habits of mind were still the controlling elements in Chaucer's period, but their sway was now to some extent broken by the influx of a fresh and very different spirit." The Knight in the Prologue reflects the fading chivalry of the middle ages. The old Knight was a brave warrior and was a true symbol of the fast vanishing old world of knighthood. The Knight's Tale is a typical medieval romance which contains tournament, the principles of knightly ethics and the chivalrous conception of love. In short, it is a fine expression of the medieval spirit.
The Squire, the Knight's son, represents the new conception of chivalry. He has the more luxurious and less idealistic temper of the age of the French wars. Like his father he does not dream of chivalry and war. He takes delight in the pleasures of life:
Well could he sit a horse and ride,
Make songs, joust and dance, draw and write.
The Clerk of Oxford represents the interest that people had started showing in classical learning. Chaucer was influenced by Boccaccio, Petrarch and Dante, the pioneers of Renaissance in Italy. He imbibed from them humanism which is clearly reflected in The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer was pioneer of Renaissance humanism in English literature. Commenting on Chaucer as a transitional figure Stopford A. Brooke remarks: "Finally, his position in the history of English poetry and towards his own time resembles that of Dante, whom he loved so well, in the history and poetry of Italy. Dante embodied all the past elements of the Middle Ages in his work, and he began the literature, the thoughts, and the power of a new age. He was the Evening Star of the medieval day and the Morning Star of Renaissance. Chaucer also represented medievalism in a much more incomplete way than Dante, but he had, so far as poetry in England is concerned, more of the Renaissance spirit than Dante. He is more humanistic than even Spenser."
2. Social Condition: Chaucer for the first time made poetry a powerful medium for the expression of contemporary social conditions and life. In this respect he strikes a truly modern note: "He is as truly the social chronicler of the late fourteenth century as Froissart is the political and military chronicler of the same period." Chaucer found poetry remote from nature. Its mode of expression was allegorical. He began as an allegorist but in due course of time he made himself the painter of life around him. As Chaucer grew older, he was more and more inclined toward the imaginative presentation of real life. Moody and Lovett write: "He had a wide experience of men of many ranks and conditions, and he had been storing up for years, with his keenly observant, quiet eyes, the materials for a literary presentation of contemporary society upon a great scale."
Chaucer exposes the corruption in village life in The Prologue. The village was a self-sufficient economic and social unit. The reeve was mainly responsible for the organisation of village life. He used to be the elected representative of villagers. Some of the reeves were corrupt and exploited the people. The Reeve in The Prologue took advantage of all his opportunities for squeezing the villeins at the same time as cheating the lord of manor. The Reeve's Tale exposes the dishonesty of the miller. The miller on the pilgrimage is not an honest man as he might be:
Wel could he stolen corn and toll-n thries.
Chaucer was aware of the rise of the new class of gentlemen farmers. The Franklin who is quite well off represents this new class.
3. The Church and Religious Life: Chaucer realistically depicts the growing corruption of the church through his ecclesiastical characters. The vivid portraits he draws of the fat, pleasure-loving monk, the merry and wanton friar, the clever-rogue pardoner who wanders about selling indulgences and relics, clearly show that he was alive to the shocking corruption that prevailed in the church of his times. The ecclesiastics are hangers on and caterpillars of the church. The Friar is intimate with hospitable franklins, inn-keepers and worthy women, and despises beggars and lazars. The Summoner is a repulsive man. W. H. Hudson comments: "The greater prelates heaped up wealth, and lived in godless and worldly way; the rank and file of the clergy were ignorant and careless; the mendicant friars were notorious for their greed and profligacy." Chaucer's Parson is the type of the true shepherds of the church. He is poor in this world's goods, but "rich in holy thought and work". The Parson's brother, a Plowman, travels with him. He is a "true swinker and a good man" who helps his poor neighbours without hire and loves them as himself.
Chaucer does not attack like Wycliff or Lollard any principle or dogma of the Catholic church, but he is content to expose the growing corruption, love of luxury and materialism, and laxity of discipline through his ecclesiastical figures.
4. Realistic Presentation of the Cross-Sections of Society: Chaucer realistically presented the varied sections of contemporary society. His men and women represent social realism. James Winny writes, "Such a collection of men and women could exist only in the imagination of a poet who saw life with a heightened awareness of its material reality, and created a poetic image of this private experience." Chaucer's merchant represents the new class of traders and merchants. The merchant is conscious of his importance. He delights in pomp and show:
A merchant was there with a forked beard,
In mottallee, and high on horse he sat.
The low classes also emerged as power group. They clamoured for better conditions of life. In The Clerk's Tale, Chaucer refers to the "stormy people, their levity, untruthfulness, indiscretion, fickleness and garrulity". Chaucer's carpenter, dyer, plowman etc. represent the new power these commoners were getting in those days. Each of them seemed important and their wives, too, were conscious of their growing importance in the national life. The growing prosperity of the new-rich class manifested itself in the love for display and extravagance. The, Knight, the Squire, the Wife of Bath and many other characters in The Prologue love display of pomp and show.
Chaucer's Doctor of Physic represents the medieval medical profession. He has little time to read Bible. He knows about herbal remedies and he is also well versed with astrology. Chaucer laughs at him for his fee loving propensities:
For gold in physick is a cordial
Therefore he loved gold in special.
The poor Clerk of Oxford represents the passion of learning which was already astir in Europe. The Prioress, the Nun, and the Wife of Bath represent women of his time. "Chaucer's characters," say Moody and Lovett, "represent almost the entire range of English society in the fourteenth century, with the exception of the highest aristocracy and the lowest order of villeins or serfs".
5. The. Incompleteness of Chaucer's Picture: Chaucer's picture of contemporary society, though varied and realistic, is incomplete. He did not reflect on the dark underside of his age. He was not concerned with the vital issues of the day. He makes casual references to the plague, the peasants' uprising and the Lollard Movement. Chaucer was a court poet who wrote "for the court and cultivated classes, to whom the sufferings of the poor were a matter of the utmost indifference." However, Chaucer is a great social realist of his time. He is neither a social refdrmer nor a moralist. He is a poet who recreated contemporary life and society as he saw. Rickett writes: "There is nothing of the dreamer about Chaucer —nothing of the stern moralist and social reformer. Like Shakespeare, he makes it his business, in The Canterbury Tales, to paint life as he sees it, and leaves others to draw the moral."
Chaucer's Characterisation
Chaucer is the first great character delineator in English literature. The twenty-nine characters in The Prologue represent different classes of society in the fourteenth century. His characters are drawn from his observation of men and women he saw around him. Chaucer was a keen observer of men an4 manners. Before Chaucer no creative writer took interest in men and women as they really were, or bothered to describe them as they really existed. He was the first poet who, in the words of W. J. Long, "'Cot only attempted this new realistic task, but accomplished it so well that his characters were instantly recognised as true to life, and they have since become the permanent possession of our literature…… Chaucer is the first English writer to bring the atmosphere of romantic interest about the men and women and the daily work of one’s own world¾which is the aim of nearly all modern literature.”
1. Real Characters: Chaucer's characters are real, full-blooded personalities. We see them laughing, moving, talking, eating and gossiping as we do people in real life. Tenbrink writes: "We receive such an idea of the men he is describing that we can see them bodily before our eyes." Dryden writes: "I see all the pilgrims in The Canterbury Tales their humours, their features, and the very dress as distinctly as I have supped with them at the Tabard in Southwark." Indeed, Chaucer was a man of wonderful comprehensive nature because he has taken into the compass of his Canterbury Tales the very manners and humours of the whole English nation of his age. Not a single character has escaped his notice.
Chaucer's characters are real types who represent the cross-section of the fourteenth century English society. Many of them exhibit types of character or of professional conduct. The mind and manners of courtly society are well expressed by the Knight, who had seen honourable service at home and abroad; by his son, the Squire, the typical courtly lover; again, from a different angle by the Prioress who "feyned hire to countrefete there of court", and by the poet himself, the accomplished courtier and man of the world. The Yeoman is the type of that sturdy English Yeomanry which humbled the pride of France at Crecy and Agincourt. The Monk, the Prioress, the Friar, the Summoner, the Pardoner are the ecclesiastical figures who represent the growing corruption and moral turpitude of the church. The Shipman is the type of those adventurous seamen, half-merchant sailors, half smugglers and pirates, who had made England's name a terror on the seas. The Clerk of Oxford represents the passion for learning. The merchant and a group of guild members represent the mercantile and manufacturing activity which was lifting England rapidly to the rank of a great commercial power. The discreet man of Law, the well-fed country squire, the canny Doctor, the lovable parish priest, the thieving miller and the good-hearted Wife of Bath are described with quiet, gentle humour "which seeks the best in human nature, and which has an ample garment of charity to cover even its faults and failings." Chaucer's Prologue is a picture gallery of vivid portraits. In the words of W. J. Long it is "a moral for all those who would put our human life into writing. The student should read it entire, as an introduction not only to the poet but to all our modern literature." Thus, Chaucer has painted in the Prologue and in the prologues to several characters a great part of the new vigorous society which had grown up since Edward I with astonishing vividness.
2. Universal Types: Besides, Chaucer's characters are types of the eternal traits of mankind. "They are timeless creations on a time determined stage." The pilgrimage is the pilgrimage of the world and the pilgrims the epitome of mankind. The Knight represents the species of character which in every age stands as the guardian of man against the oppressor. The good Parson, a real messenger of heaven, comes in every age for the illumination of divine light. The merchant stands for the universal class of traders and businessmen who always remain busy in the prosperity of their trade. The Clerk of Oxford is the universal type of studious scholars. Commenting on the Wife of Bath Vaughan Moody and Lovett remark: "There is the Wife of Bath, almost a modern feminist figure, conceived with masterly humour and realism, a permanent human type; she has had "husbands five at church door", and though "somdel de', hopes to live to wed several others ..... ". Her description sums up all the tiresome qualities in women that men have noted since Eve.
3. Types and Individuals: Chaucer's characters, though well defined types of cuinemporary society and of the universal traits of mankind, are also vividly delineated individuals. A. C. Ward remarks: "Chaucer's characters are individuals as well as types, not mere phantom of the brain but real human beings and types true to the likeness of the whole classes of men and women." The characters in the Prologue have strongly individual tastes and contrasting social backgrounds. All of them are fully realized figures with an importance of their own and their stories are to some extent a reflection of personal character. Chaucer endows lifelike individuality to his pilgrims through forms of speech appropriate to their rank and personal temperament. He does indicate the character of the speaker through his idiom. Dress, physical appearance and personal habits provide the most immediate index of individual character. Chaucer also gives an account of the pilgrim's past experience and professional standing for emphasising the individual traits. The Knight, who loves "truth and honour, freedom and courtsey", builds up an impression of a virtuous character which is confirmed by his "bismotered harbergeon". Unlike the other pilgrims, he has not put on fine clothes for a holiday excursion, but travels in his stained tunic which he has worn in his crusading wars, as though for him the pilgrimage is merely a brief interval between campaigns. The Knight has been individualised by his horse, dress and gentle behaviour. The Knight's son, the Squire, is a highly individualised character. The Squire, a youth of twenty, is "a lover and a lusty bachelor" with curly locks as they were laid in press. He divides his attention between military and courtly accomplishments. He proves himself both a courageous soldier and a devoted lover. He is able to dance, to compose, to play music and to write verses. His individuality is vividly portrayed in the following description:
Embroidered was he, as it were a mead
All full of fresh flowers, white and red.
Singing he was, or floytinge, all the day;
He was as fresh as is the month of May.
The Yeoman has no consciously formed code of behaviour. He respects instinctive principles. He is revealed by his loyal service and the fighting trim of his professional equipment. He has an oak like toughness of physique and of spirit, which is suggested by the single comment: "A not heed harolde he, with a brown visage." Characteristic touches of emphasis "bright and kene", "a mighty bowe", "sharp as point of sphere", and the flashes of colour and polished metal about the Yeoman complete an impression of lively vigour and alertness. He remains unaffected by the ambition and greed of urban society.
The Prioress, named "Madame Eglantyne", is a teacher of young ladies. She is individualised by her nasal pronunciation. She speaks French "after the school of Stratford atte Bow" for French of Paris was to her unknown. She is exquisite in table manners and imitates the courtly behaviour of the court. Chaucer good-humouredly portrays her as a woman whose real interests lie not with her religious vocation but in the fashionable world. Her appearance and her dress contribute to her individuality. The monk cares for hunting and good cheer. He is completely out of sympathy with the ascetic rule of his monastic order. His bald head shines like glass and his bright eyes roll in his head. He rides a sleek, brown palfrey, and has many a dainty horse in his stables. His sleeves are trimmed with fine fur at the wrists and his hood is fastened under his chin with a gold love-knot. Chaucer's Friar is a plausible hypocrite, greedy, snobbish and sexually promiscuous. He misuses confession and neglects the needy for a more profitable association with an easy loving class of affluent merchants and "worthy women". He cares for his own purse and belly. His appearance, his eyes and his pronunciation add to his individuality:
Somewhat he lipsed, for his wantonesse,
To make his English sweet upon his tongue,
And in his harping, when that he had song,
His eyes twinkled in his head aright
As doon the stars in the frosty night.
The merchant has a forked beard. He sits high on horse, and puts upon his head a Flemish beaver hat. Despite his pompous mode of address and his constant talk of business profits, he is a debtor, struggling to rescue himself from bankruptcy by illegal transactions in foreign exchange and shady operations as a usurer. The Clerk of Oxford, who is content to go threadbare and dependent upon the alms of his friends, is a highly individualised character. The Man of Law exists only as an impression of character without realized form.
The Franklin is a highly individualised character:
White was his beard as is the daisy,;
Of his complexion he was sanguine.
He is a man who finds endless delight in the pleasures of fine cooking and lavish hospitality. "it snewed in his house of mete and drinke."
The five Gildsmen—Haberdasshere, Carpenter, Webbe, Dyere and Tapicer—put on distinctive costume or livery which each of the gilds adopted for ceremonial occasions. The cook is the shortest of the individual portraits. He has an ulcer on the leg and he drinks too much. The Shipman is outstanding as a human being and as a member of his profession. He is a master mariner of wide experience and ability. "With many a tempest had his beard been shaken." The Doctor of Physic is greedy and has no compassion for his patients:
For gold in phisik is a cordial,
Therefore he loved gold in special.
The Wife of Bath, noisy, assertive and robust, is one of the most completely realized characters in the Prologue:
Her hosen weren of fyn scarlet reed,
Ful streite yteyed, and shoes ful moiste and newe,
Bold was his face, and fair, and reed of hewe.
Her ruddy complexion, her deftness and her widely spaced teeth give her an emphatic personality such as few of the pilgrims can rival. The references to her hips, legs and spurs strengthen her individuality.
The Parson's individuality is asserted by a detailed account of his fidelity to a religious calling. No reference is made to his physical appearance and his personal habits. The Plowman is identified with his honest profession and has little individuality. The Miller is a highly individualised character. His features, physique, habits and dress, all combine to give an impression of human beastliness. He has a dangerous violence of temper lurking beneath the surface of the man's rowdy good-fellowship. The Manciple remains a shadowy figure. Chaucer's Reeve is an individual character. His physical appearance and personal habits have been realistically described. He is a "sclendre colerik man". The poet sees in his bony legs, his cropped hair and his habit of shaving `as ny as ever he kan', the manifestation of a mean, uncharitable nature which makes the Reeve's subordinates go in dread of his malice. The Summoner's corrupt and demoralised character is betrayed by his physical appearance:
As hoot he was and lecherous as a sparwe,
With stalled browes blake and piled berd.
Of his visage children were aferd.
His taste for highly flavoured food and strong wine reveals his coarse appetite, and his drunken shouting and babbling suggest how far animal impulses dominate him. The Summoner and the Pardoner form a pair. Both of them suffer from spiritual rottenness.
Lastly, Harry Bailly, the inn-keeper, is portrayed vividly. Perhaps, he was one of the personal acquaintances of Chaucer. An inn-keeper of that name lived in Southwark during the latter part of the fourteenth century. He is genial, humorous, expansive and pleasure loving man of the world with authority of character. He has even step and robust physique. He is a masterful and considerate organiser of the very mixed company of pilgrims. He exercises his authority wisely and humanely to hold the pilgrims together during the various crises that arise.
Chaucer's characters have an independent existence. They do not exist merely for narrating the tales as the mouthpiece of the author. James Winny writes: "They have a life that is independent of their narrative function, as actors in a seemingly undirected comedy of human behaviour and emotions through which Chaucer expresses part of his outlook as a poet." ...... His needle-sharp impressions of personality, caught by a discerning eye and set down with such sly appreciation of human weakness, prove Chaucer deeply absorbed in the human figures which the Cantlebury pilgrimage assembles. In solving the problem of binding together such diverse and unrelated stories, Chaucer also found the means of expressing his sense of turbulent vitality of human beings and affairs."
Chaucer's Humour, Pathos, Satire and Irony
In Chaucer's age the sense of humour was conspicuous by its absence but he is the first great poet who had a keen perception of fun in life. His humour is humane, gentle, invigorating and delightful. He is the precursor of great English humorists—Shakespeare, Lamb, Dickens and many others. Albert says: "The humour which steeps nearly all his poetry has great variety, kindly and patronizing as in the case of The Clerk of Oxford; broad and semifarcical as in the Wife of Bath; pointedly satirical, as in the Pardoner and the Summoner, or coarse, as happens in the tales of the Miller, the Reeve and the Pardoner. The prevailing feature of Chaucer's humour is its urbanity; the man of the world's kindly tolerance of the weaknesses of his erring fellow mortals."
Chaucer had an understanding of and sympathy with the seamy side of life. He had a keen sense of the ludicrous which made him alive to any incongruity or absurdity. Endowed with genial temperament he observed with amused delight and half shut eyes the frailties and foibles of mankind. He even regards the moral failings of the pilgrims "with an amiable indulgence at times bordering an approval". Chaucer good-humouredly observes the Wife of Bath's huge appetite for experience as though with admiration and admits the irregularity of her younger days with the remark that "thereof needeth not to spoke as nowthe". Mark the broad and genial humour in the following lines:
She was a worthy womman al her live,
Housbondes at chirche dore she hadde five,
Withouten oother compaignye in youthe, —
But thereof nedeth not to spoke as nowthe.
There is a tinge of satire in these lines.
Chaucer exposes moral weaknesses of his characters, especially of the ecclesiastical figures, with habitual good temper. James Winny writes: "The pervasive element of social satire in the General Prologue —most prominent in his account of the ecclesiastical figures—suggests Chaucer's serious concern at the debasing of moral standards, and at the materialistic outlook which had taken hold of society."
Chaucer's satire is pointedly directed against the comic self-ignorance of his characters. He ironically exposes the dual identities of man. Man imagines himself to be a distinguished and inscrutable person but he is ignorant about his real identity—the creature that he really is. But Chaucer never loses his good sense and geniality of temperament. In the words of James Winny: "Like his own Host, who offers an expansive welcome to all his guests "right hertely", but reserves the right to snub and admonish, Chaucer administers rebukes without losing the good-humoured humanity that remains his attraction."
Chaucer does not overlook pathos in human life. Excellent examples of pathos are found in The Tale of the Prioress and The Legend of Good Women. Lament of Constance in the Tale of the Man of Law is a fine example of pathos:
Her little child lay weeping on her arm
….. …… ….. …… ….. ……
O little child, Alas ! what is thy guilt,
That never wroughtest sin, as yet, pardee,
Why will thy harde father have thee spilt.
Chaucer ascends the sublime heights of tragedy but he is never sentimental. He had a keen sense of the irony of life. In the Pardoner's Tale he becomes essentially tragic:
What is this world? What asketh men to have !
Now with his love, now in his colde grave,
Alone without any company.
Commenting on Chaucer's deft handling of humour and pathos Rickett writes: "Indeed, for all his considerable powers of pathos, his happy fancy, his lucid imagination, it is as a great humorist that he lingers longer in our memories, with a humour, rich, profound, and sane, devoid of spite and cynicism, irradiated by a genial kindliness, and a consummate knowledge of human life."
Chaucer as the Father of English Poetry Or
Chaucer's Language and Versification
Chaucer has rightly been called "the father of English poetry". He founded English language and poetry alike. Alber calls him "the earliest of the great moderns" because he imparted modernity to English language and poetry, and "it is through him that its free secular spirit first expresses itself in our poetry". Matthew Arnold was right in asserting that "with him is born our real poetry". He was rightly recognised during the Renaissance as the Father of English poetry:
Father of verse ! who in immortal song
First taught the muse to speak the English tongue.
1. New Poetic Subject: As regards Chaucer's poetic material he unhesitantly took what suited him. He sometimes borrowed wholesale without change, and often adapted and reshaped his matter freely. Moody and Lovett write in this connection: "But what is more important is that Chaucer improved whatever he borrowed, and stamped it with his individuality of thought and style and structural skill. That part of his work we value most, however, such as the prologues to the Legend of Good Women and to The Canterbury Tales, was original in every sense, and some of the Tales have been so radically and vitally remodelled that they stand as genuinely original." Besides striking the note of originality, Chaucer turned his eyes to the life and people of his time. His realism reflects his modernity.
2. Humour and Pathos: Chaucer is the first genuine humorist in English poetry. Stopford A. Brooke writes: "Sometimes his humour is broad, sometimes shy, sometimes gay, but it is also exquisite and affectionate. His pathos does not go into the far depths of sorrow and pain, but it is always natural. He can bring tears into our eyes, and he can make us smile or be sad as he pleases."
3. Chaucer's Language and Versification: Chaucer is the first national poet of England, for he gave to the people a language, so reformed and reshaped, as to be a potent instrument for the expression of national life and thought. During Chaucer's time there was no standard form of English. There were four dialects — Southern, East Midland, Northumbrian and Kentish. Chaucer popularised the East Midland dialect by giving it a new form and shape. Chaucer made it the standard for future writers and the model of current modern English. He imparted to it smoothness, suppleness and simplicity and breathed into it a high poetic life. Chaucer wrote his memorable work The Canterbury Tales in the reshaped and reformed East Midland dialect. Lowes rightly remarks: "He found English a dialect and left it a language." Spenser called him "the well of English undefiled".
Chaucer imparted musical sweetness and liquidity to language. Stopford A. Brooke remarks: "His eye for colour was superb and distinctive. He had a very fine ear for the music of verse, and the tale and the verse go together like voice and music. Indeed, so softly flowing and bright are they, that to read them is like listening in a meadow full of sunshine to a clear stream riffling over its bed of pebbles."
Chaucer's style is noticeable for vigour, clarity and concreteness. His images are conspicuous for "uncomplicated naturalness". They are taken from the familiar areas of common experience; for example, the Monk's horse is "as broun as is a berie", the Friar's eyes twinkle "as doon the sterres in the frosty night", the Franklin's purse is as white as morning milk, and the threadbare Clerk's mount is "bene as is a rake". Chaucer uses'simple and direct adjectives to describe his pilgrims, for example: worthy, gay, bright, fair, fresh, perfect, sharp, wise etc. His descriptions are graphic and startling. The description of the Wife of Bath creates a graphic effect:
Booled was hir face, and fair, and reed of hewe.
Albert writes: "Chaucer's best descriptions of men, manners and places, as when giving details of conventional spring mornings and flowery gardens, have a vivacity that makes his poetry unique."
Instead of using courtly and elegant style Chaucer preferred the simple and racy vocabulary of colloquial English. James Winny writes: "In its racy turn of phrase and pithy commentary, the style of the General Prologue is close to the terse, pungent manner of the proverbial sayings which are scattered plentifully through his work. ...... By using this direct and richly vernacular style Chaucer is able to secure an effect of sensational reality, in which material objects take on a heightened power, as though seen with the intensity of imaginative insight."
Chaucer is the first man to use "naked words" in English; "the first to make our composite language a thing compact and vital". Stopford A. Brooke points out that he wrote The Canterbury Tales in "almost the English of our time. Chaucer made our tongue into a true means of poetry. He did more, he welded together the French and English elements in our language and made them into one English tool for the use of literature, and all our prose writers and poets derive their tongue from the language of The Canterbury Tales."
As a poetic artist, Chaucer is superb. In this respect he stands apart from other poets of his age. Gower wrote with a set object, and nothing can be less beautiful than the form in which he puts his tales. The author of Piers Plowman wrote with the object of reform of social and ecclesiastical affairs, and his form is harsh and uncouth. Chaucer wrote because he was full of emotion and joy in his own thoughts, and he did his best to arouse the same feelings and thoughts in the heart of his readers. He does not moralise. He does not reform. He is a pure poet. He, then, has the best right to the poet's name. He is, within his own range, the clearest of English artists.
As a versifier Chaucer is unique in contemporary poetry. He struck a modern note in versification because he discarded altogether the Old English irregular lines and alliteration—rim, ram, roff. He deftly adopted the French method of regular metre and end rimes. He introduced the heroic couplet into English verse and invented the rhyme royal.
4. Chaucer's Narrative Art or Chaucer as the Father of English Novel: Chaucer is a matchless narrator in verse. He is "often called the father of English poetry, it would be perhaps less flattering, but certainly true, to call him the father of English novel." His Troilus and Cressyde is the first English novel in everything except that it is written in verse. It is a love story and it contains all the elements of a modern novel. It has plot, dialogue, humour, irony, realism, conflict, dramatic element etc. In it Chaucer naturally told a story with delicacy, humour and psychological insight. The character of Cressyde is the first true psychological study of a complex woman and Pandarus is the first great comic character in English. S. D. Neil remarks: "Had Chaucer written in prose, it is possible that his Troilus and Cressyde and not Richardson's Pamela would be celebrated as the first English novel."
The Canterbury Tales is the best exposition of the spirit of novel. Almost all the tales are novels in miniature. What makes these tales novels in miniature is their realistic description of contemporary life and manners, singleness of plot, vivid characterisation with psychological insight, subtle sense of humour and dramatic element. In the words of W. J. Long, Chaucer's Tales "are stories as well as poems, and Chaucer is to be regarded as our first story-teller as well as our first modern poet."
Chaucer's method of narration is dramatic Action and dramatic vitality are the keynotes of his tales. Action, dialogue, gesture and costume are all there as in real life. Prologue "is the first act in the drama and gives us the dramatis personae of that "comedy which is not intended for the stage." F. N. Robinson comments on dramatic element in the Tales: "In fact, from one point of view, the pilgrimage is a continuous and lively drama, in which the stories themselves contribute to the action. Because of this sustained dramatic interest and the vivid reality of characters, as well as for the inclusive representation of English society, The Canterbury Tales has been called a Human Comedy. The implied comparison with Balzac's great series of stories of the life of modern France is not inappropriate."
Chaucer, as we have seen, created English language which became the future medium of English novel. Church says: "It is important to remember that from this fountainhead (Chaucer) there trickled, as a sidestream, the new medium of prose which was to become the appropriate vehicle for the novel proper."
Chaucer anticipated the novel in the real sense. G. K. Chesterton humorously remarked: "If Chaucer is the father of English poetry, he is the grandfather of English fiction."
Chaucer's Limitations
Certain limitations may also be noted in Chaucer's poetry:
1. Chaucer presents the growth of intelligence and the consequent weakening of passion and imagination. A lyric is a compound of passion and imagination, so there is lack of lyricism in his poetry.
2. According to Matthew Arnold, Chaucer "lacks the high seriousness of the great classics, and therefore, an important part of their virtue." Arnold does not accept Chaucer as one of the classics because he does not have that gravity and absolute sincerity which is found in Homer, Dante, Milton and Shakespeare. Arnold's view is hardly tenable. The Tale of Sir Thopas has both gravity and high seriousness. To quote G. K. Chesterton: "There are things in Chaucer which are both austere and exalted, such as certain lines in his religious poems, especially in his address to the Blessed Virgin; there are things in Chaucer that are both grim and violent, such .as the description of the death-blow that broke the neck of the accuser of Constance."
3. E. Albert charged Chaucer "for a fondness for long speeches, for pedantic digressions on such subjects as dreams and ethical problems, and for long explanations when none are necessary."
4. Chaucer had no message to deliver. He was a court poet who did not present the misery and discontent which had followed in the wake of the Black Death and the Peasant Revolt.
These are minor and negligible limitations which do not obstruct his claim to be the undisputed creator of English language and poetry. He is a poet of the world, of man and human nature. As a poet he is endowed with sanity, soundness, balance, large-hearted humanity and free secular spirit. These are the great poetic qualities which equal him with Virgil, Dante, Shakespeare and Milton.
A General Estimate of Chaucer's Poetic Genius Or
Chaucer's Place in Literature or Chaucer's Contribution to Literature
Chaucer was the greatest literary figure of his age. As a creator of English language and poetry he occupies an unassailable place and all writers and poets who have enriched English literature right from his age to our own time are the heirs of Chaucer. W. J. Long calls him "our first modern poet", and E. Albert says that "he is the earliest of the great moderns." He adds: "In comparison with the poets of his own time, and with those of succeeding century, the advance he makes is almost startling. Manning, Hampole, and the romancers are of another age and of another way of thinking from ours; but apart from the superficial archaisms of spelling, the modern reader finds in Chaucer something akin. All the Chaucerian features help to create this modern atmosphere: the shrewd and placidly humorous observation, the wide humanity, the quick aptness of phrase, the dexterous touch upon the metre, and, above all, the free and formative spirit—the genius turning dross into gold. Chaucer is indeed a genius; he stands alone, and for nearly two hundred years none dare claim equality with him."
Chaucer's abiding contribution to literature may be summed up as follows:
1. He is the creator of English language and poetry. He is the first great material artist.
2. He is the first great realist who breathed into poetry the free secular spirit.
3. He is the first great character painter.
4. As a narrator in verse he is superb. He is also the father of English novel.
5. Chaucer was a dramatist before the drama proper was horn.
6. Chaucer was the first great humorist and humanist. All great English humorists have been indebted to him.
7. He was the first national poet of England.
Thus, Chaucer's poetry is suffused with modernity and a forward looking quality. He is indisputably one of the great poets of the world, though not one of the greatest. In the Middle Ages he stands with Dante. If Dante is more sublime, Chaucer is more human. Indeed, in the thorough human quality of his best work, he yields to Shakespeare alone. Chaucer is a poet for all ages. He has received universal appreciation for over six centuries. He is as popular today as he was in his own age. The fifteenth century was filled with his name. In the Renaissance he was highly praised. Spenser, Sydney and Shakespeare came under his influence. Milton admired him. Even Dryden and Pope highly appreciated him in the Age of Neoclassicism. In the nineteenth century even Matthew Arnold admired him for "the gold dew drops of speech, the divine liquidity of diction and fluidity of movement". The poets and critics of the twentieth century are full of praise for Chaucer. Paying glowing tribute to Chaucer, G. K. Chesterton writes: "Chaucer made not only a new nation but a new world; and was nonetheless its real maker because it is an unreal world. And he did it in a language that was hardly usable until he used it, and to the glory of a nation that had hardly existed till he made it glorious." Legouis and Cazanuan admire him for "having civilised his country poetically!" Chaucer was
The morning star of song, who made
His music heard below,
Don Chaucer, the first warbler, whose sweet breath
Preluded those melodious bursts that fill
The spacious times of great Elizabeth
With sounds that echo still.
He was the
Father of verse, who in immortal song
First taught the Muse to speak the English tongue.
Other Poets of Chaucer's Age
1. William Langland (1332-1400?). Langland stands next only to Chaucer. Little is known about his life. The extant references to him reveal as a poor melancholy man who was interested in the ironies of life and not in the gay spectacle of life like Chaucer. He is known for The Vision of William Concerning Piers, the Plowman. It has great historical and literary significance. The poem describes a series of remarkable visions that pass before the poet-dreamer. Piers, the Plowman has threefold aspect:
(a) It is a picture of fourteenth century England, of contemporary manners in town and country. It is a fiery and satiric denunciation of the corrupt clergy of the time. It exposes the follies of the age. As a satirist Langland mocks at those who shun honest work, the drunkard and the oppressor, the tradesman who cheats and the preacher who counsels one thing and follows another. Langland presents a vivid account of the suffering of common man and draws a sympathetic picture of peasant life. He envisions a better social and religious order. In his reformatory and moral pursuit Langland is bitter and satiric, and in this respect he differs from Chaucer who is kind, considerate and human. "Chaucer describes the rich much more fully than the poor, and shows the holiday making, cheerful, genial phrase of English life, but Langland pictures the homely poor in their ill-fed, hardworking condition, battling against hunger, famine, injustice, oppression, and all the stern realities and hardships that tried them as gold is tried in the fire. Chaucer's satire often raises a good humoured laugh, but Langland's is that of a man who is constrained to speak out all the bitter truth."
(b) Secondly, it is an allegory on life. The good and bad aspects of human nature strive for mastery. The poet falls asleep and sees in a dream a sorry scene— a field of repentant sinners drawn from every section of society. They are all going on a pilgrimage to the shrine of truth, but they do not know the way. Piers, the Plowman, appears on the scene and guides them. He is a symbol for Christ. He stands for virtue and righteousness. The personages are for the most part abstractions with such names as Warren Wisdom, Lady Meed, Holy Church etc. Langland's spirit is strictly moral, puritan and democratic. He emerges as an ardent champion of the cause of the poor. He sought to bring English religion back to the simplicity and purity of Gospel truth.
(c) Piers, the Plowman is a revival of Old English rhymeless measure, having alliteration as a basis of the line. Its language and style are far more rustic and old fashioned than those of Chaucer's work.
2. John Gower (1332?-1408). He is remembered for his three works —Speculum Meditantis in French, Vox Clamantis in Latin and Confessio Amantis in English. It is a conventional allegory, with a disquisition on the seven deadly sins. It has several anecdotes which reveal Gower's capacity as a story teller. His narrative style is diffuse and watery. The metre is the octosyllabic couplet, conspicuous for great smoothness and fluency. Gower was a conscious moralist. He was not a social reformer. Like Chaucer he had no sympathy for contemporary movements.
PROSE IN CHAUCER'S AGE
The bulk of prose in this period is strikingly small and its literary quality is so slight that it is hardly of value except as giving information about the period. French and Latin were still the favourite languages. English was still a disinherited tongue. It was mainly used for translating French and Latin works. English prose style of this period lacks in originality and naturalness. The following works deserve mention:
1. John of Trevisa. A priest, named John Trevisa, translated Higden's Polychronicon from Latin about 1387. Its style is crude and awkward, and sentences are long and tortuous. It is written in South West dialect.
2. Travels of Sir John Mandeville. It is a memorable translation of a French work, which appeared in 1377. According to the preface, Mandeville, an adventurous knight, set out on his journey of eastern countries in 1322 and after his return in 1356 he told his experiences to other's. It is a work of fiction, which abounds in imaginary, unbelievable and fantastic descriptions. It is the first work in prose meant for entertainment and not for moral edification. It is written in simple, clear, effortless and charming style. The sentences are short and well constructed. The narration is simple and straightforward. It exercised a healthy influence on the development of English prose. George Saintsbury remarks: "To see the marvel of the rising of literary prose style in English there is no better way than to read the Travels of Sir John Mandeville." According to Hudson, "It keeps its place as the first English prose classic."
3. Chaucer. His prose has little of the originality shown in his poetry. He is no more than a translator when he writes prose. He translated into English Consolation of Boathius about 1381. Chaucer's prose is simple and straightforward.
4. John Wycliff (1324-1384). Born in Yorkshire, Wycliff was educated at Oxford, took holy orders, and took a prominent part in the ecclesiastical feuds of the day. He was an active controversialist of his time. Wycliff wrote many books in Latin in support of his revolutionary opinions. The first translation of the Bible into English is attributed to him. His English style abounds in Latin constructions and the frequent use of relative clauses. Edward Albert writes: "His English style is not polished, but it is vigorous and pointed, with a homely simplicity that makes its appeal both wide and powerful." He supplied the first elements of that Biblical language which was to be an integral part of English and was to be used for the famous Authorised Version of the Bible. Thus, Wycliff made English the popular language of religious thought.
Wycliff also wrote a number of pamphlets and sermons which are not written "in the dry, philosophic style of the schoolmen, but in short, sharp, stinging sentences, full of homely words used in his own Bible, denying one by one almost all the doctrines, and denouncing the practices of the Church of Rome. He was our first Protestant. It was a new literary vein to open, the vein of the pamphleteer." (Stopford A. Brooke)