Canterbury Tales

Canterbury Tales Medieval Times

The KnightEstate: Nobility • Lower nobility • Fight to serve their Lord under the feudal system • Follow the code of chivalry: brave and fearless in battle, courtesy, honor and gallantry toward women • Courtly Love – emotional love/courting. Combating the often loveless arranged marriages of the day. Open admiration and flirtation regardless of martial status.

The SquireEstate: Nobility • Lower nobility • Attendant to the knight – knight in training • Attend to knight in battle, attend to horses and armor • Lessons/Training – code of chivalry, horsemanship, swordsmanship, speed and dexterity Questions What does the Squire’s appearance and behaviors tell the reader about the focus of his training? Does the Squire fit within his estate? Are any satirical tools being utilized?

The YeomanEstate: Lower Nobility/Middle Class • Minor land owner • Owned and worked their own land • Known for their hard work and toil on the land Questions What does the narrator imply when stating “He was a proper forester I guess” (Chaucer 121)?

Women in the religious worldThe PrioressEstate - Church • Women had two life choices: religious life or secular life as a married woman • Reasons for choosing religious life: felt a genuine calling to devote oneself to God OR alternative for women who were unmarriageable. Life in the convent • Relationship with God is of most importance • Routine – prayer, work, study • Convent provides a level of education not available elsewhere to women • Complete devotion to God – distractions were not allowed. Pets would be seen as a distraction. • Charity is love focused toward God. • Simple, modest clothing.

Breaking the estate? • Why is it important that the reader is told the Prioress’s name? • What do the Prioress’s manners suggest about her character? • Why are the Prioress’s actions at odds with her life as a nun? • What kind of love is suggested by the Prioress’s brooch? • Is the Prioress more secular or religious?

MonkEstate: Church • Layman that seeks religious life • Vow of poverty, chastity and obedience • Daily life is a schedule of work and prayer • Lowest order in the monastery – withdrawn from the world Questions What do the Friar’s clothing and behaviors tell us about his personality? Does he fit within his estate?

The FriarEstate: Church • A monk who lives in the world rather than withdrawing from it • Apostolic idea of poverty, focus on serving others • Dedicate their lives to fighting heresy and teaching about God. Questions Does the Friar fit within his estate? What satirical tools are being used to satirize the Friar?

The MerchantEstate: Middle Class • Bought goods from local wholesalers and sold to those living in town • Organized into guilds –association of craftsman • Great merchants specialized in long distance versus local trade. These merchants were able to gain considerable wealth through their trade.

The ClericEstate: Middle Class/Church New Need in Society • Early Middle Ages education rested primarily with the clergy • Rise of town life, cities had a need for educated workers in government, law and business. • Educational opportunities became available outside of the church. Rise of universities. • Oxford University is founded in 1208. • Some clerics still found employment within the church after graduating from the university. Others went to work in the public sector – employment in town or often hired by nobles.

“By our standards student life in the 13th century was harsh. Food and lodging were primitive, heating scarce, artificial lighting nonexistent, and income sporadic. The daily schedule was rigorous, made more so by the shortage of books and writing material. An ‘ideal’ student’s day, as sketched out in a late medieval pamphlet for student use, now seems rather grim” (Baldwin). • We get probably a far more realistic picture of what students were actually doing and thinking about from the considerable amount of popular poetry that comes from the student culture of the medieval period. This poetry depicts a student life we are all familiar with: a poetry of wine, women, song, sharp satires at the expense of pompous professors or poor accommodations, and the occasional episodes of cruelty that most individuals are capable of only when they are banded into groups . . . Medieval students’ complaints were also typical: poor housing, high rents, terrible food, lack of jobs after graduation! (Baldwin). • A Student’s Day at the University of Paris 4:00 A.M. Rise 5:00-6:00 Arts Lectures 6:00 Mass and breakfast 8:00-10:00 Lectures 11:00-12:00 Disputations before the noon meal 1:00-3:00 ‘Repetitions’--study of morning lectures with tutors 3:00-5:00 Cursory lectures (generalized lectures on special topics) or disputations 6:00 Supper 7:00-9:00 Study and repetitions; bed at 9:00 P.M. http://socsci.gulfcoast.edu/rbaldwin/new_page_2.htm

The Wife Estate: Nobility/Middle/Peasantry • Women further categorized: virgin, wife or widow • Legal, spiritual and moral extensions of the men in their life: father, kinsman or husband • femmes couvert versus femme sole • Women seen as having two characters: Virgin Mary and Eve

Law • Note this summary of her status from the reign of England’s King John: "It is adjudged that the wife has nothing of her own while her husband lives, and can make no purchase with money of her own" (Queen et al 153). • "In the 13th century the English woman lost all capacity to own chattels or movables, which at her marriage passed completely under the ownership of her husband. Analogous changes can be found elsewhere in Europe" (Herlihy 100). Reality • Court records show that women did hold property independently of their husbands, even during marriage. Court records also show that women incurred their own debts and made contracts independently of their husbands; some industries--e.g. brewing--were fully under the control of women, and they had to be able to make contracts and incur debt to run the business . . . although both law and ideology placed the wife in a subservient position, the realities of life often made her virtually equal to her husband (Queen et al 154-159). http://web.campbell.edu/faculty/vandergriffk/FamMiddleAges.html

The ParsonEstate: Church • Local priest, works amongst the people • Often uneducated but concerned, as a group, about increasing own education • Often from the peasant class themselves (and, therefore, sympathetic toward peasants) • Stereotypically radical in political and theological thought (e.g., Lollardy)

Canterbury Tales as a metaphor • Pilgrimage of life, earthly journey leading to God. “A pleasant tale in prose I will relate To weave our feast together at the end. May Jesus, of His grace, the wit me send To show you, as we journey this last stage, The way of that most perfect pilgrimage To heavenly Jerusalem on high.” -Parson’s Prologue

The PardonerEstate: The Church • Selling indulgences • "An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain defined conditions through the Church’s help when, as a minister of redemption, she dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions won by Christ and the saints" (Indulgentarium Doctrina 1). • Indulgence is an exterior sign of the inward repentant soul. • In the beginning, indulgences were a way to avoid purgatory: the individual would pray for their souls and make a donation to the church. The donation served to pay retribution for the sin. This practice became corrupt an ended with salvation being offered to those with the biggest checkbook. • Selling Relics • Preaching

Abuses • The Church authorized individuals to collect money (Pardoner). • Indulgences were often forged by criminals, the pardoner would keep the money. • Pardoners would sell pardons to con men. • Con men would create fake relics to sell to the people.

Sources • http://www.boisestate.edu/courses/westciv/medsoc/21.shtml • http://eolit.hrw.com/hlla/writersmodel/pdf/W_P1201.pdf?WebLogicSession=Qhzx0UpELNmxostoouz8PtunTC728... • http://cla.calpoly.edu/~dschwart/engl430/estates.html • http://socsci.gulfcoast.edu/rbaldwin/new_page_2.htm • http://faculty.winthrop.edu/kosterj/ENGL201/chaucer3.htm • http://web.campbell.edu/faculty/vandergriffk/FamMiddleAges.html • http://gsteinbe.intrasun.tcnj.edu/tcnj/midlit/social%20class.htm • http://www.catholic.com/library/Myths_About_Indulgences.asp • http://www.stjohns-chs.org/english/pardon/pdr.html

Canterbury Tales