routledge+history+of+literature+in+english

Geoffrey
Chaucer
39
old-fashioned and unwilling to change. But, again, Chaucer does not judge
– it is the reader who must enjoy, evaluate, and decide.
The tales may have the ‘storial thing that toucheth gentleness’:
that is, they tell of noble deeds in days gone by, like The Wife of
Bath’s Tale which talks of ‘the old days of the King Arthur’; or they
may be popular stories – ‘churls’ tales’ – which tend to be told by
the tradesmen. These – deriving from a French tradition of fabliaux,
or comic tales – allow for descriptions of everyday life, rather than
romanticised tales of the past. They also give Chaucer the
opportunity to have his characters speak of areas outside London:
Oxford (the miller); Cambridge (the reeve); Yorkshire (the
summoner). This is the beginning of a provincial voice in Londonbased
literature.
There are also holy tales of ‘morality and holyness’, as told by the
prioress, the second nun, and the other religious figures. The host, Harry
Bailey, is in charge of this early package tour, and it is he who keeps
harmony among the diverse characters, classes and professions, and who,
incidentally, underlines the need for drink to keep the group from
dissension.
Chaucer’s world in The Canterbury Tales brings together, for the
first time, a diversity of characters, social levels, attitudes, and ways of
life. The tales themselves make use of a similarly wide range of forms
and styles, which show the diversity of cultural influences which the
author had at his disposal. Literature, with Chaucer, has taken on a
new role: as well as affirming a developing language, it is a mirror of
its times – but a mirror which teases as it reveals, which questions
while it narrates, and which opens up a range of issues and questions,
instead of providing simple, easy answers.
It is from Chaucer that later writers began to trace the history of
English poetry, beginning with George Puttenham’s The Arte of English
Poesie, published in 1589. This account, two hundred years after
Chaucer was writing The Canterbury Tales, finds ‘little or nothing
worth commendation’ in poetry before Chaucer. However, it must
be remembered how many manuscripts were destroyed in the
Reformation of the 1530s and how few copies of any earlier writing
remained extant.