From Caedmon to Caxton

1. From Caedmon to Caxton Thomas HoneggerTm.honegger@uni-jena.de

2. http://www.db-thueringen.de/content/top/index.xmlHistory of English

3. Canterbury Pilgrims

6. Breaking & Completing the Frame • Chaucer not only disregards the ‘social hierarchy‘ in his sequence of tales (the Miller follows after the Knight, though not quite planned), but he also inserts a tale that has its origin in the circumstance that the pilgrims meet a canon and his yeoman. • Later authors add their tales to the framework (Tale of Beryn, Lydgate ...) • Video: The Canon‘s Yeoman‘s Tale

7. Chaucer’s Language 1 • This carpenter hadde wedded newe a wyf, Which that he lovede moore than his lyf;Of eighteteene yeer she was of age.Jalous he was, and heeld hire narwe in cage,For she way wylde and yong, and he was old.

8. Chaucer’s Language 1 • This carpenter hadde wedded newe a wyf, Which that he lovede moore than his lyf;Of eighteteene yeer she was of age.Jalous he was, and heeld hire narwe in cage, • For she way wylde and yong, and he was old. • For she way wylde and yong, and he was old.

9. Chaucer’s Language 2 • A Knyght ther was, and that a worthy man,That fro the tyme that he first biganTo riden out, he loved chivalrie,Trouthe and honour, fredom and curteisie. • chivalrie = prowesstrouthe = fidelityhonour = good reputation, honourfredom = generosity of spiritcurteisie = refinement of manners & feelings

10. Chaucer’s Language 3 • O firste moevyng! Crueel firmament,With thy diurnal sweigh that crowdest ayAnd hurlest al from est til occidentThat naturelly wolde holde another way,Thy crowdyng set the hevene in swich arrayAt the bigynnyng of this fiers viage,That crueel Mars hath slayn this mariage. • firste moevyng = primum mobile (9th sphere)crowden = to pushdiurnal sweigh = daily motion (‘sway’)est til occident = from east to westnaturelly = by natural order

11. Schedelsche Weltchronik 1493 • Terra • Luna • Mercurius • Venus • Sol • Mars • Iupiter • Saturnus • Firmamentum • Primum Mobile

12. Chaucer’s Language 4 • This Nicholas anon leet fle a fartAs greet as it had been a thonder-dent,That with the strook he was almoost yblent;And he was redy with his iren hoot,And Nicholas amydde the ers he smoot.

13. Chaucer’s Language 5 • Aleyn spak first: “Al hayl, Symond, y-fayth!Hou fares thy faire doghter and thy wyf?’ • “Symond,” quod John, “by God, nede has na peer.Hym boes serve hymself that has na swayn,Or elles he is a fool, as clerkes sayn.Oure manciple, I hope he wil be deed,Swawerkes ay the wanges in his heed;And forthy is I come, and eek Alayn,To grynde oure corn and carie it ham agayn;” • italics = Northern dialect forms

14. Geoffrey Chaucer: A Life 14 • 1389 appointed Clerk of the King’s Works. Summoned for debt six times. • 1390 robbed three times in September. • 1389/90 resigns annuities and thus avoids persecution by the parliament => Chaucer shows political instinct • 1391 resigns as Clerk of the King’s Works; writes Treatise on the Astrolabe. • 1394 granted royal annuity of £ 20. • 1398 travels through England on King’s ‘arduous and urgent business’

15. Geoffrey Chaucer: A Life 15 • 1399 death of John of Gaunt; deposition of Richard II in September; accession of Henry IV; Chaucer returns to London.

16. Henry IV Bolingbroke (son of John of Gaunt)

17. Geoffrey Chaucer: A Life 16 • 1399 Chaucer’s Complaint to His Purse (addressed to Henry IV): To you, my purse, you whom I will not slightFor any other, you my lady dear,Bitterly I complain. You are so lightThat certainly you give me heavy cheer.I had as lief be laid upon my bier,And hoping for your mercy, thus I cry:Be heavy again, for if not I shall die.

18. Geoffrey Chaucer: A Life 17 • 25 October 1400 (date based on inscription on his tomb): death of Geoffrey Chaucer; buried in Westminster Abbey; moved in 1556 to ‘Poet’s Corner’.

19. Chaucer’ Tomb (erected 1556) at Westminster Abbey

20. From Middle English to Early Modern English The Great Vowel Shift

21. The Great Vowel Shift 1 ME early ModE ModEngl foul [u:] =====> foul [´U] ====> foul [aU] mood [o:] ====> mood [u:] ====> mood [u:] boot [O:] =====> boat [o:] ====> boat [´U]

22. The Great Vowel Shift 2 ME early ModE ModEngl fife [i:] =====> five [´I] ======> five [aI] feet [e:] =====> feet [i:] ======> feet [i:] clene [E:] ===> clean [e:] =====> clean [i:] name [a:] > [æ:] > name [E:] > [e:] > name [ei]

23. Great Vowel Shift 3 • but not: • break /breik/ • */bri:k/ • great /greit/ • */gri:t/ • steak /steik/ • */sti:k/

26. Great Vowel Shift • affects only long vowels => • short vowels retain their ME pronunciation • five /faif/ < ME fi-fe /fi:f´/ < OE fife /fi:f´/ • vs. fifteen /fifti:n/ < ME fif-teene /fifte:n´/ < OE fiftene /fi:fte:n´/

27. Henry IV (1367-1413, reigned 1399-1413)

28. Henry V(1387-1422, reigned 1413-1422)

29. A New Standard Rising • City of Westminster centre of government administration since c. 1150. • Court of the Lord Chancellor > chancelery > The Chancery • Use of English in administrative documents re-established about 1430 • English used in the Chancery spread all over Britain by means of trained scribes

32. Gothic Bookhand (13th c.) vs. Cursiva Anglicana (14th c.)

33. Chancery English (letter by Henry V, 1418) • Right trusty and welbeloued / brother / We grete yow wel / And as we suppose / It is not out of youre Rememberance in what wise and how we ofte haue charged yow by oure lres / πat good and hasty repacon and retitucon were ordeined and maade at altymes of suche atemptates as hapned to be made by oure suggettes / ayenst πe trewes taken betwix vs and oure brother πe duc of Bretaigne.

34. William Caxton (1422-1491)

35. William Caxton • born between 1415 and 1425 to a Kentish family • apprentice to the Mercers’ Company 1438 • lived outside England, 1463 Governor of the English merchants at Bruges => contact to the Burgundian court => translates Raul Lefevre’s Recuyell des histories de Troie into English in 1469.

36. William Caxton • 1472 participates in the publication of Bartholomaeus Anglicus’ De Proprietatibus Rerum => becomes interested in the ‘art of printing’ • 1473 in Bruges sets up his own printing press

37. Caxton Style Press (1476)

39. Caxton‘s First Book printed in England (1477)

40. Some of Caxton’s Books • 1474 Recuyell of the Historie of Troye, The Game of Chess (both at Bruges) => first book in English not printed in England! • 1477 first book printed in England: The Dictes or Sayengis of the Philosophres • 1478 The Canterbury Tales, Parliament of Fowls, Consolatio Philosophiae • 1479 The Book of Courtesy

41. Some of Caxton’s Books • 1482 Trevisa’s translation of Higden’s Polychronicon; Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde • 1483 The Golden Legend (Caxton’s translation of Jacobus de Voraigne’s Legenda Aurea) • 1485 Malory’s Morte Darthur

45. Pages from Caxton‘s Printing of Trevisa‘s Polychronicon

46. Caxton’s revision of the Polychronicon • I William Caxton a symple persone have endeuoyred me to wryte fyrst overall the sayd book of Proloconycon and somwhat have chaunged the rude and old Englyssh, that is to wete certayn wordes which in these dayes be neither vsyd ne vnderstanden.

47. As it is i-knowe how meny manere peple beeπ in πis ilond πere beeπ also so many dyuers longages and tonges; As it is knowen how many maner peple been in this Ilond ther ben also many langages and tonges. Polychronicon (Trevisa 1385 vs. Caxton 1482)

48. As it is i-knowe how meny manere peple beeπ in πis ilond πere beeπ also so many dyuers longages and tonges; As it is knowen how many maner peple been in this Ilond ther ben also many langages and tonges. Polychronicon (Trevisa 1385 vs. Caxton 1482)

49. walsche men and scottes πat beeπ nought i-medled wiπ oπer naciouns holdeπ wel nyh hir firste longage and speche. walshmen and scottes that ben not medled with other nacions kepe neygh yet theyr first langage and speche. Polychronicon 2(Trevisa 1385 vs. Caxton 1482)

50. walsche men and scottes πat beeπ nought i-medled wiπ oπer naciouns holdeπ wel nyh hir firste longage and speche. walshmen and scottes that ben not medled with other nacions kepe neygh yet theyr first langage and speche. Polychronicon 2(Trevisa 1385 vs. Caxton 1482)