Age of Chaucer: Historical Events

Name: Nilay N. Rathod

Paper 105A: History of English Literature – From 1350 to 1900

Subject Code: 22396

Batch: M.A. Sem-1 (2021-23)

Roll No: 18

Enrolment No:4069206420210030

Email Address: rathodnilay2017@gmail.com

Submitted to: Department of English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

The period between 1343 and 1450 is known as the age of Chaucer. The age of Chaucer is a significant period in the history of England. It marks the beginning of a new era, language, and new literature. W. J. Long introduce this age as ‘The New National Life and Literature’.  The 14th century is also known as the age of Chaucer. He was a great writer, not only of an age but of all ages. He is known as the father of English Literature. This was the age of transformation from medieval to modern times. During the middle age, the people of England were not much satisfied with the so-called religious, political, and social principles.

Two great movements may be noted in England during the fourteenth century. The first is political and culminates in the reign of Edward III. There were strong nationalistic passions due to the 100 Years War between England and France, and the victories of Edward and the Black Prince on French soil, during the Hundred Years' War. In the rush of this great national movement, separating England from the political ties of France and, to a less degree, from ecclesiastical bondage to Rome, the mutual distrust and jealousy which had divided nobles and commons were momentarily swept aside by a wave of patriotic enthusiasm. The French language lost its official prestige, and English became the speech not only of the common people but of courts and Parliament as well. There was a strong dislike for the Papal or Church’s interference, which had previously been the citadel of moral authority, social prestige but now suffered from corruption, turpitude, and superstitions. The Roman Catholics had control over everything. People can’t live freely as we are living today because the roman catholic religion was rigid, and they believed.

The most important events, of the time, are Hundred Year’s war, Black Death, Peasant’s Revolt, collards Movement, and Revolutionized Language.

Hundred Year’s war: 

The period between 1338 and 1453 is marked by the Hundred Years’ War, a long succession of skirmishes and an armed conflict between France and England. The War was a series of short conflicts, broken erratically by several truces and peace treaties. It resulted from disagreements between the ruling families of the two countries, the French Capetians and the English Plantagenets, over territories in France and the succession to the French throne. These battles were largely won by English Yeomen. These wars generated feelings of patriotism and nationalism.

Black Death: 

In the Middle Ages, people did not bother much about hygiene and cleanliness, so leprosy and other diseases which breed in the dirt were very common. England was often stricken by epidemics, especially plague. Black Death, an outbreak of bubonic plague that struck Europe and the Mediterranean area during the latter half of the 14th century. The severest attack of this dreadful epidemic came in 1377. It was called the Black Death. The epidemic swept away one-third of the total population of England at that time and left the country totally disorganized price, rose and the value of money declined.

Peasant’s Revolution:

The Roman Catholic Church was so powerful that it almost controlled everything through its orthodoxy. The lower class was suffering both politically and socially. The suffering peasants became very restless and disconnected. They rebelled in 1831 because, the poll taxes imposed in 1377, 1379 and 1830 were oppressive. The mob stormed London, but Richard II handled the situation.

  The Impact of the Norman Conquest: 

As W. J. Long describes the Normans,

“The men who bore the name came originally from Scandinavia, --bands of big, blond, fearless men cruising after plunder and adventure in their Viking ships and bringing terror wherever they appeared.”

The Normans abandoned their identity and accepted ideals and spoke the French language. Still, their Normandy clings to the new home. The union of Norse and French blood had here produced a race having the best qualities of both, the willpower and energy of the one, the eager curiosity and vivid imagination of the other.

“So rapidly did they adopt and improve the Roman civilization of the natives that, from a rude tribe of heathen Vikings, they had developed within a single century into the most polished and intellectual people in all Europe.”

At the battle of Hastings (1066) the power of Harold, the last of the Saxon kings, was broken, and William, Duke of Normandy, became master of England. the Normans were the first to bring the culture and the practical ideals of Roman civilization home to the English people. they forced upon England the national idea, they brought to England the wealth of a new language and literature, and the English gradually absorbed both. From the Norman-French conquest of England in 1066 until the 14th century, French largely replaced English in ordinary literary composition, and Latin maintained its role as the language of learned works. By the 14th century, when English again became the chosen language of the ruling classes, it had lost much of the Old English inflectional system, had undergone certain sound changes, and had acquired the characteristic it still possesses of freely taking into the native stock numbers of foreign words, in this case, French and Latin ones. Thus, the various dialects of Middle English spoken in the 14th century were like Modern English and can be read without great difficulty today.  This imposing of language, culture and literature obstructed the Old English Language. Normans made their language the official language and some native English spoke the old English language. Chaucer tried to bring the old English language back by his writing. His language was later coming to know as The In-between Language.

The Dawn of New Learning:

 In the age of Chaucer, medieval habits and traditions continued to influence the masses. Church continued to influence the masses and controlled scholarship, thoughts, and feelings. Theology moulded and affected the entire life of people and ecclesiastical ideas swayed the feelings of common people, but their sway was to some extent weakened by the spirit of new learning. The spirit of humanism, which was one of the formative influences of the age of Chaucer, engendered “the quickened sense of beauty, the delight in life, and the free secular spirit” which began to have appeared, though dimly, both in life and literature. Root says:

“The movement of Renaissance first assumed definite form, and our modern world began”.

Geoffrey Chaucer:

   Chaucer’s best descriptions, of man, manners, and place, are of the first rank in their beauty, impressiveness, and humour. Even when he follows the common examples of the time, as when giving details of conventional spring, mornings, and flowery gardens, he has a vivacity that makes his poetry unique.

His life:

The date of his birth is uncertain, but it is now generally accepted as being 1340. He was born in London, entered the household of the wife of the Duke of Clarence (1357), and saw military service abroad, where he was captured. Next, he seems to have entered the royal household, for he is frequently mentioned as the recipient of royal pensions and bounties. When Richard II succeeded to the crown, Chaucer was confirmed in his offices and pensions, and shortly afterwards. He was sent to Italy on one of his several diplomatic missions. He was the first poet to be buried in what is now known as the poets’ corner in west minister Abbey.

Works of Chaucer:

The works of Chaucer are roughly divided into three classes, corresponding to the three periods of his life. Some of his Canterbury Tales were written earlier than the English period and were only grouped with the others in his final arrangement.

Romaunt of the Rose, a translation from the French Roman de la Rose, the most popular poem of the Middle Ages, is a graceful but exceedingly tiresome allegory of the whole course of love. The Rose growing in its mystic garden is typical of the lady Beauty. Gathering the Rose represents the lover's attempt to win his lady's favour; and the different feelings aroused--Love, Hate, Envy, Jealousy, Idleness, Sweet Looks--are the allegorical persons of the poet's drama. Chaucer translated this universal favourite, putting in some original English touches; but of the present Romaunt only the first seventeen hundred lines are believed to be Chaucer's own work.

Perhaps the best poem of this period is the "Dethe of Blanche the Duchesse," better known, as the "Book of the Duchesse," a poem of considerable dramatic and emotional power, written after the death of Blanche, wife of Chaucer's patron, John of Gaunt. Additional poems are the "Compleynte to Pite," a graceful love poem; the "A B C," a prayer to the Virgin, translated from the French of a Cistercian monk, its verses beginning with the successive letters of the alphabet; and several what Chaucer calls "ballads, roundels, and virelays," with which, says his friend Gower, "the land was filled." The latter were imitations of the prevailing French love ditties.

The chief work of the second or Italian period is Troilus and Criseyde, a poem of eight thousand lines. The original story was a favourite of many authors during the Middle Ages, and Shakespeare makes use of it in his Troilus and Cressida. The "House of Fame" is one of Chaucer's unfinished poems, having the rare combination of lofty thought and simple, homely language, showing the influence of the great Italian master. The third great poem of the period is the “Legende of Goode Wimmen”, Chaucer's masterpiece, the Canterbury Tales, one of the most famous works in all literature, fills the third or English period of his life.

Summing up the characteristics of Chaucer age, Edward Albert remarks 

“A curious 'MODERN' NOTE begins to be apparent at this period. There is a sharper spirit of criticism, more searching interest in man’s affairs, and less childlike faith in, and a less complacent acceptances of, the established order. The vogue of romance, though it has by no means gone, is passing, and in Chaucer, it is derided. The freshness of the romantic ideal is being superseded by the more acute spirit of the drama, which even at this early time is faintly foreshadowed.”

Moreover, we have for the first time a figure of outstanding literary importance, who gives to the age the form and pressure of his genius.