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Englishuser Posted 19 years ago
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Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales"

0Hi everyone,02br
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00Are you familiar with Geoffrey Chaucer's 01i00Canterbury Tales02i00? Did you read or study the original text or did you read Chaucer's masterpiece in translation? How well can you understand Middle English (feel free to take a look at the below excerpt from the Prologue of 01i00The Canterbury Tales02i00)? 01blockquote
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11table11tr11td11td11td11td11td11td11td11td11td11td11td11td11td11td11td11td11td11td11td11td11td11td11td11td11td11td11td11td11td11td11td11td11td12tr12table
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11i10Here bygynneth the Book of the tales of Caunterbury.12i12center
12td		11font10112font10 12td10Whan that Aprille, with hise shoures soote,12td11font10212font10 12td10The droghte of March hath perced to the roote12td11font10312font10 12td10And bathed every veyne in swich licour,12td11font10412font10 12td10Of which vertu engendred is the flour;12td11font10512font10 12td10Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth12br
12td		11font10612font10 12td10Inspired hath in every holt and heeth12td11font10712font10 12td10The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne12td11font10812font10 12td10Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne,12td11font10912font10 12td10And smale foweles maken melodye,12td11font101012font10 12td10That slepen al the nyght with open eye-12br
12td		11font101112font10 12td10So priketh hem Nature in hir corages-12td11font101212font10 12td10Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages12td11font101312font10 12td10And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes12td11font101412font10 12td10To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;12td11font101512font10 12td10And specially, from every shires ende12br
12td		11font101612font10 12td12br
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10Of Engelond, to Caunturbury they wende,12br
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10Source: 11a15010 12a10, 15 December 200612br
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1230hrefhttp://www.canterburytales.org/canterbury_tales.html
  

Top answer

0 Yes, I've studied the original text. I even had to memorize that entire opening (with the correct Middle English pronunciation) and recite it for my professor. 0-

— YoungCalifornian

  • 0 Yes, I've studied the original text.
  • I even had to memorize that entire opening (with the correct Middle English pronunciation) and recite it for my professor.
  • 0-
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8 Answers
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0 Yes, I've studied the original text. I even had to memorize that entire opening (with the correct Middle English pronunciation) and recite it for my professor. 0-
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0YoungCalifornian,02br
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00In my eyes, you are pretty cool. You may ask why. My answer is that everytime I got a headache when I attend the lesson of English literature invloving the old English. It is not easy for us to read and understand the boring old English. However, you can memorize and recite. Do you so really like it that you naturally memorize it in mind or Are y
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0Ezra Pound says, "Anyone who is too lazy to master the comparatively small glossary necessary to understand Chaucer deserves to be shut out from the reading of good books for ever." (01i00ABC of Reading02i00)02br
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00I think that's a little harsh; but on the other hand, I'm not sure there's much point in reading a "translation" of Chaucer. He turns
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0 01blockquote
00In my eyes, you are pretty cool. You may ask why. My answer is that everytime I got a headache when I attend the lesson of English literature invloving the old English. It is not easy for us to read and understand the boring old English. However, you can memorize and recite. Do you so really like it that you naturally memorize it in mind or Are you forced to r
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0 As a university senior, I spent an entire quarter reading the original versions of Chaucer's works, including 01i00The Canterbury Tales. 02i00I am still surprised at how Chaucer pioneered many narrative techniques wayyyyyyy before they became standard in other literature (e.g., very different and distinct narrative voices, the concept of a tale within a tale, and the rel
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0 (In fairness to Homer, we can find the tale within a tale in the Odyssey; and the device of many narrators can be found in Boccaccio.) 0-
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0Yeah, good point. 02br
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00I shouldn't sling praise about with such abandon. I suppose that Chaucer is impressive in the same way that Shakespeare is impressive: he writes well and borrows well. It's really quite cool how all of the tales use different voices and are so interconnected. And I think that my original point (although I never managed to make it) was that Chauc
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0<...rather postmodern...>02br
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00Yes; as also in the way that, after narrating perfectly so many other narrators' telling of their tales, he uses doggerel when relating his own (Sir Thopas).02br
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00MrP0-
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