Chaucerama

I do believe that Chaucer is somehow guiding me through this paper. Hmm.

Nun fight anyone?

:-D

BTW, if you aren’t going to hold onto your copy of Kicking Tongues, I’ll buy it off you, since I’m planning on teaching it again. This offer is good into the future… If you’re moving three years from now and decide that you don’t really want it, get in touch.

No fair selling your Link+ copy, though!

for MONDAY!

I’m giving a presentation on the lovely book Kicking Tongues, so be ready!

I plan on mostly giving my presentation on the “general prologue” section of the book, so make sure you read at least that section closely AND re-read the general prologue to a certain set of tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. You know the one.

Also, please comment here with anything you want to discuss!  Similarities, differences, interesting tidbits that you bring to the table regarding poetry, anything!  If something later in the book interests you, let me know, and I’ll look into it.

Okay, I am somewhat ashamed to have found this.  But these boys actually have a pretty good accent for the Middle English parts.  Just … try to ignore the “Soldier Boy” part at the beginning and the amateur attempts of white boys to rap in the middle.  And it’s probably better if you don’t watch the video and just listen to the music.

(Personally, my favorite line is, “The Wife of Bath likes when guys skeet skeet.”)

Hey, you gotta check out last night’s episode of <u>The Simpsons</u> — Chaucer appears as a major character.  Giving out parenting advice, no less!  Paging Justin, please come to the white courtesy phone…

After doing some research, I came across something that did not come up in class at all while we discussed it: incest.

Apparently, there is some underlying incest in the tale (father-Constance) and is in the original tale. It is said that the introduction to the tale serves as a reminder of this being a part of the tale itself.

What say you?

Also, if I wasn’t clear enough, let me know. Typing with one hand is difficult.

*Edit*
Open question: I’ve stumbled across a lot of spellings of the name Constance and am wondering why that might be.

Any ideas?

… glancing around at more sources, and in my searching I found that some of the authors whose secondary sources I’m using have published a lot of other interesting Chaucer stuff!  Professor Worley might even know them.  Wouldn’t that be cool?

Anyway, in my browsing I found that Winthrop Wetherbee (I love that name) has also published several articles/books about other Chaucerian themes, including lots of stuff on the Romance of the Rose and Troilus and Criseyde.  Also, he has some stuff on John of Gaunt, if anyone is still working on him.  Ditto goes for Susan Crane.  I remember she had one called “The Franklin as Dorigen,” and I immediately thought of Justin’s paper.  So if you guys are looking for some good sources, those two looked pretty prolific.

Great jobs on the presentations today!  I was sad that I had to leave early, but you both did smashing jobs!

I thought that I would toss out some big-picture questions before class on Wednesday. Feel free to discuss them here before AND after class!

1. Why doesn’t the nun’s priest have full description in the general prologue? The most we hear about him is at the end of the Prioress’ description:

“Another Nonne with hire hadde she
That was hir chapeleyne, and Preestes thre.” (ll.163-164).

He isn’t even a special priest! He’s just one of three.

2. What is the significance of Chaucer’s use of animals as main characters in this story?

3. After reading the assigned article, do you think comparing Chauntecleer’s situation with the fall of man in Genesis is valid? (Look to Genesis 3 for reference!)

4. Similar to question 2, why does the host speak to the priest with the informal “thou” instead of the polite “you?” (See note 6 on the bottom of page 341 in the Broadview edition, and if you have another edition, he’s referring to the “thou” used in line 2810.)

… Or that’s what this tale should have been called.

Enjoy this reading for Wednesday! It bring the idea of the Fall of Man from Genesis into play. Awesome!

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/chaucer_review/v036/36.4pelen.html

P.S. Bonnie and Linda – I’m working on an email form for you both!

Among the things we didn’t get to today that really interested me in reading The Prioress’ Tale:

1. The idea of supercessionism in the prologue and story (the idea that Christians believe Jews have incorrectly interpreted Scripture and Christians actually have true and valid understandings of the Old Testament). Namely the reference to Moses in the prologue and to the newe Rachel in the tale, and how these reflect on our ideas of the Prioress and Chaucer himself.

2. Parallels between the Virgin Mary and the boy’s mother as well as between the BVM and the Prioress herself.

Here are a few ideas/questions for Monday’s discussion of the Prioress’ tale.

Why is the tale situated in Asia?
Piousness of the young boy
Why Hugh of Lincoln reference?
Parallels to the original stories (Monmouth, etc., see readings below)
Is the boy really a martyr?
Biblical allusions? Illusions?
Line 565: What is the timing of this story? From what time on have the Jews conspired?
Animal references?

Here is a link to a very recent 2008 article about the Franklin’s Tale, written by Cathy Hume: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/studies_in_philology/v105/105.3.hume.html.

Let’s explore the relative “normalcy” of the marriage depicted within this tale, in which husband and wife love each other quite traditionally, as well as the then-subversive notion that a wife be equal to her husband.

i know this is very, very early, but i dont want to forget to post these.

instead of reading an article for the prioress’ tale, check out these readings instead:

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1173williamnorwich.html

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1171blois.html

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/g10-jews.html

http://www.bartleby.com/40/18.html

Today’s LA Times, “column one”, has an interesting story about a Franciscan friar very different from Chaucer’s.  

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-protest-priest9-2009apr09,0,3156274.story

Since we’re going to be talking a bit about the Clerk’s tale (and reading the beginning of “Job” would be helpful), I think this would be a nice article to prepare us for our discussion on the Merchant’s tale.

Marriage and the question of allegory in the “Merchant’s Tale”.

The article compares the clerk’s tale and the Merchant’s tale, and I found the topic of marriage in these stories fascinating, so I think this will make a good read for Wednesday. I hope everyone enjoys it.

(April 5) Sunday’s New York Time’s Review of Books  (get it online) reviews a book about Sir Thomas More and his daughter Meg, based on their letters and his preserved writings.  The book is entitled A Daughter’s Love by John Guy.  More believed in his daughters’ intelligence and need for fine education.  However, he did not extend that support to a public life for his girls.  The book sounds fascinating because it documents the life of a woman of high birth in the time of Henry VIII, but one who is NOT bound for the king’s bed.  

If you do check out this edition of the review, also look for the essay entitled “Got Poetry?” which describes one man’s experience memorizing poems.  It’s a fun read and also a bit inspiring.  Maybe I should try to do it.

Such a blogging hog today!  No more  from me for awhile.

Chapter IV in the book Medieval People by Eileen Power gives a marvelous description of  the background and life of a real prioress.  Great information for understanding the tale and also for anyone writing his/her research paper on the Prioress Tale.  If you can’t get a copy of the book at the library, I can lend you mine to make a copy of the chapter.  Actually,  if you’re interested in  the medieval period, this is a great book to own – probably easy to buy online.

April’s issue of Smithsonian Magazine has an article about D.Olson, a Texas State U. professor of astrophysics whose avocation is “forensic astronomy” – meaning he applies astronomy to questions/puzzles in art, lit., history, etc.  A prof. of English lit. asked him to investigate the franklin’s prediction of a strange massive tide.  Using computer analysis of the sun/moon positions, he surmised that Chaucer’s lines “And by his magic for a week or more/It seemed the rocks were gone . . .” refer to an event in 1340.  The sun and moon were  very close to the earth, there was an eclipse of the sun, and their combined gravity caused very high tides along the coast of Brittany.  Science explaining literature – good deal.

In the same article, there’s another swipe at scribes and their mistakes.  When Caesar began his invasion of Britain in 55 BC, he and his troops   saw the enemy at the top of the Dover cliffs.  Caesar ordered the landing several miles away, but where was it – southwest  or northeast ?  History suggests northeast at the town of Deal, but ocean currents on the date Caesar’s SCRIBE recorded would have put them southwest of Dover.  Olson’s investigation strongly suggests that the scribe wrote the wrong date, Aug. 26, and that the invasion landing was actually Aug. 22.  Poor scribes – can’t get no respect.

While I was reading the Clerk’s tale, some very interesting Middle-English to modern English translations caught my eye.

I think the most problematic one, for me, was the translation for “sad” and “sadness.” The Boening Canterbury Tales translates this as “constant” or “constancy.” I think this is true, because it makes sense in the story, but what made this word go from a relatively positive definition to the depressing sadness that we know and love today?

Also, in line 700, “sturdinesse” is translated as “cruelty.” How did the change in that meaning come about?

Maybe today’s values of sturdiness and constancy are not as wonderful as we think they are.

Interesting… (to me, anyway.)