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Chaucer’s place in the history of the English literature

The Canterbury Tales conclude with a curious Retraction, in which Chaucer asks forgiveness for most of his literary output: “Now I pray to … our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom proceedeth all wit and all goodness… if there be anything that displese hem, I pray hem also they arrette (attribute) it to the defaut of mine unkonning (my ignorance), and not to my will, … that Christ for his greet mercy foryve me the sin”. These lines along with a cursory discussion of Chaucer’s work show that he shared the medieval worldview with its dominant intellectual limitations, and he accepted current forms and materials with no striking change in their external aspects. Nevertheless, his greatness lay in the freshness of his interpretation, directly related to the life around him. With his sympathetic vision, the poet embraced all levels of English society – rich and poor, high and low, petty and great – thus producing a microcosm of medieval culture. Moreover, his work, and primarily his Canterbury Tales, supplies a miniature not only of English poetry up to date, but also of medieval literature as a whole.

Chaucer’s literary language, based on the mixed (largely East Midland) London dialect, is known as classical Middle English; in the 15th and 16th centuries, it became the basis of the national literary English language. Thus, Chaucer’s work being a synthesis of the medieval literature makes the poet a herald of the Renaissance and a truly national poet, the first in the English literature of whom this can be said in a broad undisputed sense.

Chaucerian stanza or Rime royal – is a rhyming stanza, introduced into English poetry by Chaucer. It consists of seven lines, usually in iambic pentameter. The rhyme scheme is a-b-a-b-b-c-c.Chaucer first used the rhyme royal stanza in his long poemsTroilus and Criseyde and Parlement of Foules. It was called “rime royal” after its being used by King James I of Scotland.

 


Date: 2015-01-11; view: 1379


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