Discussion: The Canterbury Tales. D

Chaucer had a knowledge of astronomy that was remarkable for his time. He wrote a Treatise on the Astrolabe for his son. According to one researcher, "he preferred the star dial and the Zodiac calendar." It is characterized not by a direct designation of time, but by indirect astronomical indications that determine time. All of them, according to the research of later researchers, accurately indicate the exact date. (Cf. the knight's story, the lawyer's prologue, the chaplain's story, etc.) According to Chaucer himself in his Astrolabe, the sun leaves the sign of Aries after April 11, and the pilgrimage to Canterbury, as indicated in the prologue to the lawyer's story, is timed to coincide with the 16th –April 20 (most likely 1387).

Thomas Becket(1118–1170) - Archbishop of Canterbury, chancellor of Henry II, fought with the king for the independent position of the church and was killed by the king's servants. Later canonized by the Catholic Church.

Tabard- a sleeveless epancha embroidered with coats of arms, which was worn over the weapons as a distinctive sign in battle. Later she wore the attire of envoys and heralds. An image of such a pancha, mounted on a horizontal pole, served as a sign for Harry Bailey's tavern, where Chaucer's pilgrims met. In a book of 1598 (Speght, “Glossary to Chaucer”) this tavern is mentioned as still existing under the old name. Until the end of the 19th century. it was known under the distorted name "Talbot Tavern" (on High Street, in the London suburb of Sowerk).

According to Lounsbury (Students in Chaucer, 1892), Chaucer, when describing the knight, had in mind Henry Bolingbroke, Earl of Darby, Duke of Hereford, later King Henry IV. In his youth he took part in the Crusades; in 1390, as a twenty-four-year-old knight, he fought with the Moors and took part in the campaigns of the Teutonic Order against Lithuania. Although the age and disposition of the knight and Bolingbroke are far from the same, Lounsbury’s assumption is very plausible that Chaucer, trying to indirectly depict the exploits of Henry, the son of his patron the Duke of Lancaster, combined his image with the image of his grandfather, the first Earl of Darby.

According to the mention of the French chronicler Froissart, Alexandria was taken in 1365 by the Cypriot king Peter of Lusignan, who “liberated from the infidels” also Satalia (now Adalia, in Asia Minor) in 1352 and Layas (now Ayas, in Armenia) in 1367 ., “as well as many other cities in Syria, Armenia and Turkey.”

Aljezir(now Algeciras) was taken from the Moors in 1344, and the English knights, the Earls of Darby and Salisbury, took part in the siege. Thus, the knight’s military activity spans about twenty-five years.

When, during the era of the Hundred Years' War, the British introduced something like compulsory military service and organized infantry as the main type of weapon against the French knightly cavalry, it was the yeomen armed with the “long bow” who formed the main backbone of this infantry. Yeoman arrows, much more than knightly spears, helped the English defeat the French.

The “big bow,” made of Spanish yew, larger than the shooter’s height, was so light, flexible and convenient that English archers fired twelve arrows per minute. According to an eyewitness to the battle of Crecy, the Italian Giovanni Villani, these bows fired three times, and according to other sources, six times more often than massive French and Genoese crossbows. This rate of fire and range of the bow (250-300 m), the accuracy of the English archers and the power with which their meter-long arrows pierced the best chain mail and hit horses, forcing the knights to dismount and fall under the weight of their weapons - this is what largely determined the outcome of the battles of Crecy , Poitiers and Agincourt.

Icon of St. Christopher, the patron of foresters, was very common in the Middle Ages as a kind of amulet that protected against dangers in war and hunting.

Chaucer's strong emphasis on the abbess's education and good manners indicates that her abbey, like the famous abbey of St. Mary's in Winchester, was a kind of institute for noble maidens and a refuge for noble ladies.

There is a legend that St. Eligius (French Elois, born ca. 588) resolutely refused to take an oath to King Dagobert. Thus, Chaucer's expression “by St. Elighiem” is interpreted by some researchers as an idiomatic phrase meaning that the abbess did not swear at all; others (Lowes and Manley) believe that she swore by the most fashionable and fashionable saint of the time.

Obviously, in that rough Anglo-Norman language, which was preserved for a long time in England as the language of the court, courts and monasteries. This language was very different from the living French (Parisian) dialect.

It must be borne in mind that in England forks came into use only in the middle of the 17th century, and therefore at dinner a good education in the manner of deftly and neatly using a knife and fingers was especially clearly revealed.

"Amor vincit omnia."– This motto, apparently borrowed from verse 69 of Virgil’s eclogue X “Omnia vincit amor”, could have been on the clasp of the nun’s rosary (clasp) as an ambiguous version of the Gospel text “Above all is love” (I ate, Corinthians, XIII, 13).

Charter of Mauritius and Benedict.- Decrees of St. Mauritius and St. Benedict of Nursia, founder of the Benedictine Order (5th–6th centuries), were the oldest monastic charters of the Catholic Church. Here we have an indirect indication that we are dealing with a high-ranking Benedictine monk, in contrast to a Carmelite, a monk of the mendicant order. Almost every detail in the description of the Benedictine’s lifestyle and clothing (hunting, feasts, expensive fur, gold clasp, boots, bridle with bells, etc.) is a blatant violation of not only the monastic rules, but also numerous secular decrees of the time directed against luxury.

Carmelite- a representative of one of the four mendicant Minorite monks (Carmelites, Augustinians, Franciscans and Dominicans). Founded in the mid-12th and early 13th centuries. for the purpose of religious propaganda among the poor, these orders at first demanded that their monks come out of seclusion, lead an ascetic life, renounce all earthly goods, and help lepers, the poor and the sick. However, very soon, and, in any case, by the time of Chaucer (XIV century), the mendicant brothers degenerated into ordinary monks-parasites, hangers-on and lazy people who did not look into the city slums and hospitals, but became regulars in rich merchant and noble houses.

Chaucer's Carmelite was a "limitour", a brother collector with limited rights that allowed him to collect alms only in a certain circle, in order to avoid clashes with rival collectors from other monasteries.

Franklin–Franklin representative of wealthy landowners, mainly from the old village Anglo-Saxon families. The hereditary estates of the Franklins were free from taxes and feudal duties, which the king imposed on the estates he granted to his Norman vassals. P. 35. Company- an instrument like a violin.

The eighties of the 14th century were a time of decline in the recent power of England. The enemy began to threaten its sea routes. It is no wonder that this worried the nascent English merchants and that they took their own measures. To protect sea routes, already in 1359 a tax was established on the “tonnage and weight” of six pence per pound of goods transported. This money was used to build a navy, and the tax was, in essence, a payment to the king for protection.

One of the main maritime trade routes of that time from the Dutch port of Middleburg (on Walcheren Island) to Orwell (on the site of present-day Harwich on the east coast of England).

Consequently, the student completed only the second of the seven “liberal arts” preparatory courses, which were usually taken in the Middle Ages in this order: 1. Grammar. 2. Logic. 3. Rhetoric. And the second concentration: 1. Arithmetic. 2. Geometry. 3. Music. 4. Astronomy. All these seven subjects were considered general education, and then there was specialization in the following fields: theology, law and medicine (which included all natural sciences, including astrology).

“Our fathers (and ourselves too) often slept with a good round log under their heads instead of a pillow... Pillows, we were told, are needed only by married women,” wrote W. Harrison back in 1580 (“Description of England”).

The figure was considerable for that time, if we remember that the library of Chaucer himself, a versatile educated man, numbered sixty books and was of great value.

Lawyer.“We are talking about the Doctor of Law (Sergeant of Law) - a highly qualified lawyer with at least sixteen years of experience, whom a special royal patent authorized to preside over jury trials and protect the interests of the crown in especially important cases, also giving the right to conduct trials in the House of Commons. There were no more than twenty such lawyers in Chaucer's time.

In Chaucer's time, the London courts closed in the middle of the day, and lawyers, along with their clients, gathered for meetings and consultations on the porch of St. Pavel, which served as a kind of legal exchange.

The culture of the Renaissance with its ideological basis - the philosophy and aesthetics of humanism - arises primarily on Italian soil. It is not surprising that the influence of Italy can be seen in all English writers of the Renaissance. But much more noticeable than the influence of the Italian model is the original character of English culture of this time. Tragic fate the free peasantry in the era of primitive accumulation, the rapid breakdown of medieval orders under the onslaught of the power of money, the development of the national state with its contradictions - all this gives social issues in England a special urgency. The broad folk background of the English Renaissance is its main advantage, the source of such achievements of the 16th century as Thomas More's Utopia and Shakespeare's theater.

English humanism.Early English Renaissance dates back to the 14th century; its most prominent representatives were Geoffrey Chaucer and William Langland. Feudal feuds of the 15th century. delayed the development of English humanism for a long time. At the beginning of the 16th century, humanistic literature came to life again. A breeding ground for new humanistic ideas Oxford University appeared. True, these ideas often had a theological shell; in this respect England was like Germany. The English humanists Grosin, Linecr and John Colet, who traveled to Italy, were carried away there mainly by philological research, showing no interest in natural-philosophical and aesthetic problems. They most often use their philological learning to study issues of religion and morality. But the main figure among the Oxford humanists was Thomas More.

"Utopia" by Thomas More

Henry VIII's Chancellor Thomas More witnessed with his own eyes the beginning of a profound change in the position of the working classes of England, a picture of national disasters caused primarily by the system of enclosures. In his novel-treatise “ golden book, as useful as it is amusing, about the best structure of the state and about the new island of Utopia" (Latin text - 1516, first English translation- 1551)More depicts 16th century England in a mercilessly harsh light. with the parasitism of its upper classes and bloody legislation against the expropriated, England, where “sheep eat people.” From his description of English reality, More concluded: “Where there is private property, where everything is measured by money, the correct and successful course of public affairs is hardly ever possible.” The genius of his basic idea is quite clearly expressed in the principle of compulsory labor for all, in the anticipation of the destruction of the opposition between city and countryside, between mental and physical labor, in the denial of the exploitation of man by man. More's book was a living response to the development of capitalist relations in England and expressed the deepest aspirations of the English masses. More's communist ideal was, as it were, a fantastic anticipation of the future.

In the Middle Ages, criticism of private property usually came out in religious garb. More cleared this criticism from its mystical shell and connected it with political, economic, moral and philosophical issues. For some time it might seem that More's ideas, such as establishing peaceful relations between states, reducing government spending, etc., had an influence on the politics of the court. Nevertheless, the difference in goals was bound to lead to a sharp conflict between the king and his chancellor. More acted as a determined opponent of the English Reformation. At the request of the king, the Lord Chancellor was convicted. In the second half of the century, secular culture was finally established. Humanistic tendencies in the work of D. Chaucer, the innovative nature of the poem “The Canterbury Tales”. Innovations of Chaucer (1343 - 1400): Abandoning alliterative verse, he develops the foundations of English syllabic-tonic versification. Using the experience of contemporary Italian and French writers, he enriches English literature with new genres, introducing into their development a lot of independent and original things (a psychological novel in verse, a poetic short story, an ode). Chaucer lays the foundations of the satirical tradition in English literature. With all its roots, Chaucer's work was connected with the national life of England. This explains the fact that he wrote only in English, although he knew Latin, French and Italian excellently. Chaucer made a major contribution to the development of the English literary language. Chaucer turned to the work of Boccaccio more than once. From the works of Boccaccio (The Decameron, the poem Theseides), he borrows plots and images for his Canterbury Tales. However, when comparing Chaucer with Boccaccio, a significant difference is revealed: in Boccaccio's short stories the main thing is the plot, the action, while in Chaucer the main thing is the characterization of the character. Boccaccio lays the foundations for the narrative art of the Renaissance; Chaucer's work contains the beginnings of dramatic art. Chaucer introduced the ring composition, which was later used by other authors. The main work of Chaucer, which constituted an entire era in the history of English literature and marked a turning point in its development, was The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer created a broad and vibrant picture of contemporary England, presenting it in a gallery of living and full-blooded images. The book opens with a “General Prologue”, in which the appearance of each of the characters. The General Prologue reveals the compositional principle used by Chaucer. The owner of the tavern, Harry Bailey, invites pilgrims to tell entertaining stories to while away the journey to Canterbury and back. Chaucer's book consists of these stories, each of which is a complete poetic novella. In this case, Chaucer uses the compositional principle of Boccaccio’s “Decameron,” which established the method of plot framing a book of short stories in European literature. However, one cannot help but notice that The Canterbury Tales is characterized by a more organic interaction of the “frame narrative” with the content of the stories told by the pilgrims. With a few strokes, Chaucer outlines the appearance of each of the pilgrims, his costume and habits. Already from these laconic remarks one can imagine people of a very certain era, a certain social stratum of society. "The Canterbury Tales" conveys the atmosphere of a turning point, of which Chaucer was a contemporary. The feudal system was becoming obsolete. The definition of Chaucer as the “father of realism” in new European literature refers, of course, primarily to his portrait art. We have the right to talk specifically about the early form of Renaissance realism as a creative method, which implies not only a truthful generalized image of a person, typifying certain social phenomena, but also a reflection of changes occurring in society and in man. English society, as it is depicted in the portrait gallery created by Chaucer, is a society in motion and development. This is no longer old England, as it entered the Hundred Years' War, this is a society in transition, where feudal orders are strong, but outdated, where people of new professions associated with the developing life of the city make up a noticeable majority. Chaucer critically portrays not only the old, passing classes, but also the predatory, profit-hungry merchant, miller, skipper, and majordomo. On the other hand, he sympathetically depicted the peasant, the artisan, the student - working England, which, however, knows how to have fun and enjoy life.

Twenty-nine pilgrims were preparing to go to Canterbury, to the relics of the saint. They met in a tavern, had dinner and talked. The pilgrims did different things in life and were from different classes.

Among the pilgrims there was a Knight who accomplished many feats and participated in many battles. He was with his son. There was also a Forester there, he was wearing green clothes, the Mother Superior of the monastery, a neat and pleasant woman, with her were a Nun and a Priest. She communicated with the Monk. He was cheerful and fat, he loved to hunt. Not far from him sat the Tax Collector. The Merchant was nearby. He was a thrifty and wealthy man. In the tavern there was a Student, a Sheriff (a rich landowner), who loved to drink and eat delicious food. A good Cook and a Weaver were sitting nearby. Also sitting at the table were the Weaver, the Hatmaker, the skillful Doctor, the merciful and just Priest, the Plowman, the Upholsterer, and the Carpenter. Melnik sat opposite them. And sitting nearby were the Housekeeper, the Bailiff, and the Majordomo. Also among the pilgrims were a Salesman, a Fist Fighter, a Dyer, a Skipper, and a Lawyer.

The tavern owner advised the pilgrims to tell different stories on the road, and they agreed.

The knight was the first to begin the story about Theseus. He killed the evil Creon and imprisoned his friends. They fell in love with Emilia (the sister of Theseus' wife). Theseus allowed them to fight for Emilia's hand. As a result, Emilia and Palamon got married.

The miller told about how a student outwitted a carpenter and got his wife.

The next Doctor told about Virginia. His daughter was beautiful. The county judge wanted to outwit Virginia and get his daughter. But his plan didn't work.

Econom's story completes the work. Phoebus had a white crow. He did not let his wife leave the house. While Phoebus was not at home, her lover came to her. When the husband came home, the crow told him everything. He killed his wife, got sunburned, cursed the crow, it turned black and lost its wonderful voice.

The work teaches that people from different classes with different characters, united by one idea, can find common topics for conversation.

Picture or drawing of The Canterbury Tales

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35: But still, while there is a place and time,

37: I think it would be appropriate

38: Tell you about the situation

39: Each of them, as they seemed to me,

40: And what they were, and to what extent,

41: And more about their outfits...

The story tells of the love of two cousins ​​- Palamon and Arsita - for the daughter-in-law of the Duke of Athens, Emilia. The cousins, being princes of a hostile state, are imprisoned in prison by order of Theseus, from the high tower of which they accidentally see Emilia and both fall in love with her. Enmity breaks out between the cousins, and when Theseus learns of the rivalry between the two brothers, he arranges a knight's tournament, promising to give the winner Emilia as his wife. By the intervention of the gods, Palamon wins; Arsita dies by accident; the story ends with the wedding of Palamon and Emilia.

It should be noted that the Knight's tale is one of the longest tales presented by the Pilgrims. One gets the impression of solemnity and majesty of the narrative, since the narrator often retreats from the main action, presenting listeners with large passages of detailed descriptions, often not related to the very development of the plot (description of the women of Thebes mourning the death of their husbands, descriptions of temples, festivals, battles). Moreover, the Knight, as the story progresses, interrupts himself several times, returning to the main characters and the main development of the plot:

“Long passages presenting descriptions of temples, rituals, and armor of warriors emphasize the pretentious luxury of knightly life. The descriptions are rich in imagery and metaphorical, although, as some researchers note, they are standard: "...Palamon in this fightyng were a wood leon, and as a crueel tigre was Arcite..." ("...Palamon in this fight is like a mad lion, and like a ferocious tiger - Arsita..."); when describing the captives, Palamon and Arsita; the author does not go beyond standard epithets: “woful” (“poor”), “sorweful” (“sad”), “wrecked” (“unhappy”), “pitous” (“pathetic”) - epithets repeated throughout narratives".

The central figures of the narrative (the unfolding of the action) are Palamon and Arsita, but most researchers note that the central image is Duke Theseus. He is introduced at the very beginning of the story as perfect image, the embodiment of nobility, wisdom, justice and military virtues. The narrative opens with the introduction of the Duke, a description of his merits, although it would be logical to expect at the very beginning of the story the introduction of the central figures of the narrative, Palamon and Arsita. Theseus appears as a model of chivalry, an ideal figure, and then as a judge in the dispute between Arsita and Palamon. The Duke's greatness is confirmed by military victories and wealth:

Theseus is an ideal image in terms of knightly virtues: he protects those who need it, has knightly valor in battles, is reasonable in controversial matters, and is sensitive to the suffering of others. So, as we have seen, the Duke of Athens, Theseus, is presented to the reader as an example of knightly behavior, an ideal image who will then act as a judge in a dispute between two brothers.

“The structure of the story is unusual for a simple narrative as the development of a plot. The symmetry of the structure of the story, the symmetry of the images, the pretentious static descriptions, the rich symbolism suggest that attention is not focused on the search for skillfully drawn images, not on moral conclusions - all the reader’s attention is focused on the aesthetic impression of the story.”

At the lexical level, a large number of epithets were noted (when describing characters, temples, rituals), but the standardization and repetition of epithets does not allow us to determine the stylistic coloring of the text. To a greater extent, the stylistic coloring of the text, the lyricism of the story is presented using parallel constructions, enumeration (that is, at the syntactic level).

“The images presented are more symbolic than real. The images are revealed by the structure of the story - the structure presupposes the role and position of each character in the story, his characteristics (if any), symbolism."

The story presents the reader with an expanded image of the Knight as an image of a romantic hero.

This proves the presence of elements of a chivalric romance in this work.

At the same time, Chaucer rethinks the genre tradition of the chivalric romance. The writer presents all the characters as unique individuals and approaches their descriptions in detail; creates the ideal image of a Knight as the embodiment of the dignity of nobility and honor; uses a large number of epithets and metaphors; His descriptions of nature and terrain are especially rich in imagery.

1.3. THE INFLUENCE OF OTHER GENRES OF MEDIEVAL LITERATURE ON THE CANTERBURY TALES

As mentioned earlier, “The Canterbury Tales” is an encyclopedia of poetic genres: here is a courtly tale, an everyday novel, a lay, a fabliau, a fable, a parody of knightly adventure poetry, and a didactic narrative in verse.

The stories of the monastery chaplain and housekeeper have a fable-like character. The story of the indulgence seller echoes one of the plots used in the Italian collection “Novellino”, and contains elements of a folk tale and parable (the search for death and the fatal role of the found gold lead to the mutual extermination of friends).

The most striking and original are the stories of the miller, the majordomo, the skipper, the carmelite, the bailiff of the church court, and the canon's servant, which reveal closeness to the fabliau and, in general, to the medieval tradition of the short story type.

The spirit of the fabliau also emanates from the story of the Bath weaver about herself. This narrative group contains themes of adultery and the associated techniques of trickery and counter-cheating (in the stories of the miller, the majordomo and the skipper), which are familiar both to the fabliau and to the classical short story. The story of the bailiff of the church court gives the clearest description of a monk extorting a gift to the church from a dying man, and sarcastically describes the rude retaliatory joke of the patient, rewarding the extortionist with stinking “air”, which still needs to be divided among the monks. In the Carmelite’s story, another extortionist appears in the same satirical vein, a “cunning” and “dashing fellow”, “a despicable bailiff, pimp, thief.” At the moment when the church bailiff tries to rob the poor old woman, and she, in despair, sends him to hell, the devil who is present takes the bailiff’s soul to hell. The story of the canon's servant is devoted to the popular topic of exposing the trickery of alchemists.

Thus, we have come to the conclusion that J. Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales” is a unique encyclopedia of medieval literary genres. Among them are a courtly story, an everyday short story, a lay, a fabliau, a folk ballad, a parody of knightly adventure poetry, a fable, and a didactic narrative in verse.

2. REALISM J. CHAUCER AND THE GENRE SPECIFICS OF HIS WORK

“The essence and basis of the book is its realism. It includes portraits of people, their assessment, their views on art, their behavior - in a word, a living picture of life."

It is not for nothing that Gorky called Chaucer the “father of realism”: the lush painting of portraits of his contemporaries in his poetic “Canterbury Tales” and even more so their general concept, such an obvious clash between old feudal England and the new England of merchants and adventurers, testify to Chaucer’s belonging to the literature of the Renaissance.

“But the category of realism is a complex phenomenon that has not yet received an unambiguous definition in the scientific literature. During the 1957 debate, several points of view on realism emerged. According to one of them, realism, understood as verisimilitude, fidelity to reality, can be found already in the earliest monuments of art. From another point of view, realism is like artistic method knowledge of reality arises only at a certain stage in human history. There is no complete unity among supporters of this concept regarding the time of its origin. Some believe that the conditions for the emergence of realism developed only in the 19th century, when literature turned to the study of social reality.” Others associate the genesis of realistic art with the Renaissance, believing that at this time writers began to analyze the influence of society and history on people.

Both of these judgments are fair to a certain extent. Indeed, realism as an artistic method received full development only in the 19th century, when a movement known as critical realism emerged in European literature. However, like any phenomenon in nature and society, realism arose “not immediately, not in a finished form, but with a certain gradualness, experiencing a more or less long process of formation, formation, maturation” [cit. according to 8, 50]. It is therefore natural that some elements, certain aspects of the realistic method are also found in the literature of earlier eras. Based on this point of view, we will try to find out what elements of the realistic method are manifested in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. As you know, one of the most important principles of realism is the reproduction of life in the forms of life itself. This formula, however, does not imply that realism or verisimilitude in the works of all historical periods is obligatory. modern sense this word. As rightly noted by Academician. N.I. Kondrad: “The concept of “reality” carried different contents for writers of different centuries. “The love potion in the novel “Tristan and Isolde” is not “mystic” at all, but simply a product of the pharmacology of that time. . ."" .

The concept of reality expressed in the Canterbury Tales was largely based on medieval ideas. So, “reality” in late Middle Ages included astrological representations. Chaucer took them quite seriously. This is evidenced by the fact that in The Canterbury Tales characters and situations are often determined by the positions of the stars and heavenly bodies. An example would be A Knight's Tale. Astrology in Chaucer's time combined medieval superstitions and scientific astronomical knowledge. The writer's interest in them is manifested in the prose treatise “On the Astrolabe,” in which he explains to a certain “little Lewis” how to use this ancient astronomical instrument.

Medieval philosophy often declared real not only the objects around a person, but also angels and even human souls. The influence of these ideas can also be seen in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. His idea of ​​the world includes Christian miracles, which are narrated in the "Abbess's Tale" and in "The Lawyer's Tale", and the fantasy of Breton lais, which appears in the "Tale of the Weaver of Bath", and the idea of ​​​​Christian long-suffering - in "The Oxford Student's Tale" . All these ideas were organic to the medieval consciousness. Chaucer does not question their value, as evidenced by the inclusion of similar motifs in The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer, as a writer of the earliest stage of the English Renaissance, is characterized not by a denial of medieval ideals, but by a somewhat ironic attitude towards them. This is manifested, for example, in “The Tale of an Oxford Student,” which recounts in detail the story of the patient Griselda, popular at that time. The daughter of a poor peasant, she becomes the wife of a large feudal lord, who demands unconditional obedience from her. Wanting to test Griselda, her husband and ruler orders her children to be taken away from her and stages their murder. Then he deprives Griselda of all property and even clothes, expels her from the palace and announces his decision to remarry a young and noble girl. Griselda meekly follows all her husband's orders. Since obedience is one of the basic Christian virtues, at the end of the story Griselda is fully rewarded for it. Her husband returns his favor to her, she again becomes the ruler of the entire area and meets with the children whom she considered killed.

“Chaucer’s hero faithfully retells the famous parable. But his final words ironic:

It were full hard to fynde now-a-dayes

In al a toun Grisildis thre or two.

It would be very difficult these days

Find two or three Griseldas in the entire city.

The conclusion of the student narrator is very revealing. It reflected the understanding of unrealism and implausibility of ideas that were part of medieval reality.”

Realistic tendencies in Chaucer's art have not fully developed; they are in their infancy. In relation to literature of the 14th century. it is hardly possible to talk about the reproduction of reality in the forms of reality itself. However, the author of The Canterbury Tales is distinguished by a very conscious desire for a truthful depiction of life. This can be confirmed by the words that the writer puts into the mouth of a pilgrim named Chaucer. In the prologue to The Miller's Tale, he expresses the fear that not all storytellers will observe the rules of good dancing in their stories. “Apologizing for the obscenities found in some stories, Chaucer the Pilgrim says:

I moot reherce

Nig tales alle, be they bettre or

Or elles falsen son of my matere.

I have to convey

All their stories, be they good or

Or fake a part of mine

works".

The poet strives to reproduce these stories in a form as close as possible to the way they were allegedly told during the pilgrimage. In "The Canterbury Tales" a creative attitude towards realistic reproduction of life is manifested, albeit in rudimentary form.

Domestic literary scholars, regardless of whether they recognize realism in the literature that preceded 19th century, believe that identifying features of realism in works of different eras contributes to a correct understanding of continuity in the development of artistic creativity. Thus, R. M. Samarin, discussing the realism of the Renaissance, notes its close connection with the fruitful traditions of medieval art.

Chaucer's work belongs to a complex and transitional historical period, uniting contradictory trends: the originality of The Canterbury Tales largely stems from the fact that the writer continues medieval traditions, interpreting them in a new way. This is manifested, for example, in the ways of characterizing heroes. The artistic method of realism involves depicting typical characters in typical circumstances. The French researcher J. Bedier, analyzing fabliau, one of the main genres of medieval literature, noted that typification was still weak in it. He probably meant typification as it was understood in the 19th century.

The character of a hero of that time was determined by his position on the hierarchical ladder, but since antiquity, ideas about the influence of external circumstances on a person’s character have existed in scientific treatises and their popular adaptations. Of course, circumstances were often understood in a metaphysical, or even an astrological, spirit. In the era of Chaucer, fiction begins to look for the reasons for certain characteristics of the human personality not just in a person’s position within the feudal hierarchy, but in himself and in external circumstances. The attempts of writers of the late Middle Ages to penetrate the secrets of human psychology were based on the doctrine of temperaments dating back to Hippocrates, according to which all people were divided into choleric, melancholic, sanguine and phlegmatic. Each type of temperament corresponded to certain character traits. Chaucer was probably familiar with this teaching, since its influence is felt, for example, in the portrait of the majordomo. The hero's words and actions confirm this characteristic.

Astrology was considered one of the most important circumstances shaping a person’s character in Chaucer’s time. According to astrological concepts, the star under which a person was born influences his character. Thus, the weaver from Bath claims that her love was predetermined by Venus, and her warlike spirit by Mars. Both of these planets were in the sky at the hour of her birth.

In some cases, Chaucer shows the influence of social circumstances on the character of his hero. The image of the miller Simkin from “The Majordomo’s Tale” is very interesting in this regard. The dishonesty of millers was a generally accepted fact, so it is no coincidence that in Chaucer’s time there was a riddle: “Who is the bravest in the world?” - “The miller’s shirt, because it embraces the swindler every day.” By portraying his hero as a thief, the writer follows medieval ideas about people of his profession. However, Chaucer is not limited only to class and professional characteristics. Simkin is a representative of the wealthy strata of the third estate, therefore, in his image there are many features determined precisely by this circumstance. He is a man with bright expressed feeling self-esteem, comically turning into swagger. But he has no traditional reasons for pride: he is not of noble origin, and has not accomplished any great feats of chivalry. The basis of the miller's independence is his wealth, created by himself through deception and theft. In the person of Simkin in The Canterbury Tales an attempt is made to show a socially determined character.

One of the main features of realistic art is the ability to reveal the typical in the individual and through the individual. Since such a technique was unknown in medieval literature, writers of that time usually limited themselves to a brief typical description, for example in a fabliau. In contrast, Chaucer gives his heroes individualized characteristics. The individualization of images in The Canterbury Tales is determined by certain processes that took place in the society and ideology of the 14th century. The early Middle Ages, as D.S. Likhachev believes, “does not know someone else’s consciousness, someone else’s psychology, someone else’s ideas as an object of objective representation,” because at that time the individual had not yet separated from the collective (class, caste, corporation, guild). However, during the time of Chaucer, due to the growth of entrepreneurship and private initiative, the role of the individual in the life of society increases, which serves as the basis for the emergence of individualistic ideas and trends in the field of ideology.

“In the 14th century. The problem of the individual is heard in literature, art, philosophy, and religion. P. Mrozkowski connects the tendency towards individualization with the ideas of scotism, which “emphasized the beauty of each given individual object.” The founder of this philosophical and theological movement was Dune Scotus (1266-1308). In the famous dispute between medieval realists and nominalists, he took the position of a moderate nominalist. According to J. Morse, in Okoth’s teachings, two points are of greatest value: the idea of ​​the primacy of will over reason and the idea of ​​the uniqueness of the individual.” For us, the second position is more important, which is associated with the dispute about the reality of abstract concepts. According to Duns Scotus, the phenomena denoted by these concepts really exist: after all, humanity consists of individuals. The possibility of combining them into one is due to the fact that the difference between individuals is not generic, but formal in nature. All human souls belong to the same genus, they have a common nature, so collectively they can be called humanity. But each soul has an individual form. “The very existence of a separate soul,” writes J. Morse, analyzing the views of Duns Scotus, “consists in its uniqueness. The soul has not only quidditas ("whatness", spirituality), but also haecceitas ("thisness", ...individuality)... It is not only "soul", but "this soul"; Likewise, the body has not only physicality, but also individuality. A person is not just a human being, he is a human being, and this quality determines his belonging to humanity.”

In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer uses various methods of individualization. He emphasizes the features of the appearance and behavior of the participants in the pilgrimage: a wart on the miller’s nose, a merchant’s forked beard, the motto on the abbess’s brooch. Often a writer resorts to characterization by action. In this regard, the image of carpenter John is indicative. In "The Miller's Tale" there is no author's description of this hero; all the traits of his character appear as the action develops. The carpenter's kindness is revealed by Chaucer in the next episode: he himself goes to visit Nicholas when he feigns despair over the supposedly expected flood. Chaucer makes John gullible and not very smart. The reader realizes this when the carpenter accepts Nicholas's prediction at face value. Chaucer's hero is not selfish, he is capable of caring for others. When he learns of the impending disaster, he worries not about himself, but about his young wife:

"How? Well, what about the wife?

Should Alison really die?

Almost for the first time in the history of English literature, Chaucer individualizes the speech of his heroes. He uses this technique when characterizing the students Alan and John in "The Majordomo's Tale"; The northern dialect is noticeable in the speech of these students. According to some Western literary scholars, in the time of Chaucer, northerners were considered rude and uncouth people. This fact aggravates the insult that Alan and John inflict on their master. They seduce his wife and daughter, whose “noble birth” the miller is very proud of.

The above considerations allow us to talk about the realism of The Canterbury Tales, although “its features are still of an initial, rudimentary nature, different from the nature of later and mature realism. These features are due to the close connection between the literature of the early Renaissance and medieval culture."

The realism of J. Chaucer contributed to the rethinking and revaluation of genre canons. The writer did not remain within the canons of realistic elements of the internal and external world. Chaucer's realism became a prerequisite for genre synthesis, which was discussed more than once throughout the work.

In this course work we examined the work of art by J. Chaucer “The Canterbury Tales”. The phenomenon has been studied to some extent genre originality works.

For Chaucer, the various original genres with which he operates not only coexist within the same collection (this was also the case in medieval “examples”), but interact with each other and undergo partial synthesis, in which Chaucer already partly echoes Boccaccio. Chaucer, like Boccaccio, does not have a sharp contrast between “low” and “high” subjects.

"The Canterbury Tales" is a completely Renaissance (in type) encyclopedia English life XIV century, and at the same time - an encyclopedia of poetic genres of the time: here is a courtly story, and an everyday short story, and a lay, and a fabliau, and a folk ballad, and a parody of knightly adventure poetry, and a didactic narrative in verse.

In contrast to the extremely schematic depictions of representatives of various social and professional groups in medieval narrative literature, Chaucer creates very vivid, through lively descriptions and accurate details of behavior and conversation, portraits of social types of English medieval society (namely social types, and not “characters” as sometimes literary scholars identify Chaucer's characters). This depiction of social types is given not only within the framework of individual specific short stories, but no less in the depiction of the narrators. The social typology of the pilgrim-storytellers is clearly and amusingly manifested in their speeches and disputes, in their personal characteristics, and in their choice of plots for the story. And this class-professional typology constitutes the most important specificity and unique charm in The Canterbury Tales. It distinguishes Chaucer not only from his medieval predecessors, but also from most Renaissance novelists, in whom the universal human family principle, on the one hand, and purely individual behavior, on the other, in principle dominate over class features.

The Canterbury Tales represent one of the remarkable syntheses of medieval culture, remotely comparable in this quality even to Dante's Divine Comedy. Chaucer also has, although to a lesser extent, elements of medieval allegorism, alien to the short story as a genre. In the synthesis of The Canterbury Tales, the short stories occupy a leading place, but the synthesis itself is much broader and much more important for Chaucer. In addition, Chaucer’s synthesis of genres is not complete; there is no complete “novelization” of the legend, fable, fairy tale, elements of a knightly narrative, sermon, etc. Even novelistic “stories,” especially in the introductory parts, contain verbose rhetorical arguments about various subjects with examples from the Holy Scriptures and ancient history and literature, and these examples are not developed narratively. The self-characteristics of the narrators and their disputes go far beyond the scope of the short story as a genre or even a collection of short stories as a special genre formation.

Chaucer, apparently, took up this main work in earnest no earlier than 1386. But we know that its individual pieces were written long before that: “St. Cecilia” (the story of the second nun), fragments of the monk’s story, “Lalamon and Archytas” (a knight's story), "Melibaeus" (Chaucer's second story), a priest's story. When these things were written, Chaucer hardly had a plan for The Canterbury Tales. It appeared later, and suitable material, previously prepared, was drawn into the emerging frame in the most natural way. The most significant part of the Canterbury Tales appeared in the four years 1386-1389. The final text contains 20 complete things, two unfinished and two broken. Here, as we will see, not everything that was planned. But the social meaning of the work, artistic value his influence on the further growth of English literature was fully felt. In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer depicts the society of New England. There is a place for the knight in this society, just as there is a place for him in the motley company of the Canterbury pilgrims. But both here and there it is already being squeezed out, and the most lively and flexible part of the feudal class begins, under the pressure of circumstances, to move onto the path of bourgeois management. And soon - this has already begun with the accession of Chaucer's benefactor Bolingbroke - the feudal lords will begin to exterminate each other: the War of the Roses is approaching. The knights will be replaced by others. These others are the middle classes. Chaucer paints them with particular passion. Many of the Canterbury pilgrims are merchants and artisans of good means or representatives of liberal professions. They wear clothes made of good cloth, they have nice horses, and their wallets have enough to pay for their quarters. Even his peasant (prologue) is not a poor man: he regularly pays his tithes and fulfills his duties, without complaining about his fate. He is not at all like Langland's hungry cotters or the peasant depicted with such stunning strength in the Creed of Peter the Plowman. Chaucer willingly goes into the details of merchant and craft (the miller's story) life. He does not hide the funny sides of the townspeople (the woman from Bath), but nowhere is his humor so imbued with gentle affection as in these cases. His attitude towards the upper classes is not hostile. Only subtle mockery, visible, for example, in the parody story about Sir Topaz, shows that the author has outgrown the knightly ideology. Much more obvious is ridicule of clergy. There are several of them in the company, and all of them are caricatures (with the exception of the priest), especially the monks: perhaps there were echoes of Wycliffe’s sermon here. Chaucer knows perfectly well that the church must feed the army of its parasites at the expense of the sons of the people, because otherwise it cannot exist, and he knows how to show this (the story of the seller of indulgences). He considers only the parish priest necessary. The rest are no longer needed.

27) English literature of the 15th century: general characteristics.

The fifteenth century in the history of England usually appears to us as a time of decline and decay. In all areas of life and culture of this historical period, the observer's gaze reveals, first of all, the features of decay and weakening of creative activity. At first glance, the literature of this period does not put forward a single major name; The place of former poetic luminaries is taken by compilers, imitators, translators, who live entirely on the heritage of past times. Continuous wars and civil strife were not conducive to the development of peaceful creative work. The 14th century ended with the deposition of King Richard II (1399). In the person of Henry IV, the Lancaster dynasty came to the English throne. Henry's reign was troubled and full of failures. The arbitrariness of the feudal lords, the constant strife between them, the heavy taxes that fell on the shoulders of the working population, the beginning of the fanatical persecution of “heretics” - all this soon embittered the population, and at the beginning of the reign of Henry V (1413-1422) led to massive popular unrest . Henry V tried to divert attention from internal troubles with widely planned military campaigns against the French, thus renewing the Hundred Years' War with France, which had somewhat died down under Richard II and Henry IV. Outwardly, these were successful and for a long time afterwards they pleased the English national pride. The Battle of Agincourt (1415), when Henry, who landed on the French coast with his small troops and defeated a large French army, never lost its attractive force for English poets, playwrights and novelists; She was also glorified by Shakespeare. Henry V's further successes seemed even more dazzling; the capture of the entire north of France, the capture of Paris (1422) was the limit of the hopes that his contemporaries pinned on him. But Henry V died unexpectedly, at the height of his military glory. His young son (Henry VI, 1422-1461) received the crown. Immediately, feuds among the feudal lords began, the struggle of court parties for influence and power; The French possessions of England began to quickly decline; after a period of brilliant victories, a time of bitter defeats began. By 1450 the English retained only one place on the continent, Calais. However, before the Hundred Years' War with France ended, new, this time internecine wars arose in England, plunging the country into a state of complete lawlessness. The War of the Roses (1455-1485) was the last mortal struggle of the rebellious feudal forces. It was a struggle for the crown and, at the same time, for the creation of a new absolute monarchical regime. On the battlefields between supporters of York and Lancaster, along with the death of almost all the old feudal nobility, the old feudal culture bled and died. The Battle of Bosworth (1485), when Henry Tudor defeated his rival Richard III, begins a new era in English history. The young Tudor dynasty relied on new social forces. The new nobility, which seized the hereditary land holdings of the old feudal families, destroyed during the period of internecine wars, was directly dependent on the royal power and supported its desire for further national-state unification of the country. Throughout the 15th century, the influence of the gentry, merchants, and cities was constantly growing, noticeable already in the 14th century; Industry and trade are expanding, and the spirit of entrepreneurship is growing. Throughout this period, literacy undoubtedly increased in wider circles of the population than before. Along with the growing needs of the strengthened middle class, the network of schools in London and the provinces increased, ranging from schools established by the king (at Eton and Cambridge), and schools run by churches or guilds, down to small private institutions in which children were given their first lessons in literacy. It is characteristic that the largest number of schools belonged to the category of primary schools, where students did not receive a scientific education, but only prepared for purely practical, most often merchant, activities. The development of school education increased the demand for books and increased the production of manuscripts as the then form of publishing activity. From one official document dating back to 1422, we can conclude that in that year, out of 112 London guilds, four guilds were specifically engaged in copying manuscript books for sale. By the middle and especially by the end of the 15th century, we have a number of information about libraries of such handwritten books that appeared not only among land magnates or representatives of the church, but also among nobles and wealthy townspeople. One of the most famous documents of this kind is the inventory of the private library of John Paston, a landowner, made shortly after 1475. Other arts - painting, sculpture, architecture - were also not in decline in England in the 15th century; on the contrary, they received new and stronger foundations for of its development. English painting and sculpture of this time, for example, experienced the beneficial influences of the Italian and Burgundian schools and created a number of wonderful works designed not only for church use. Architecture was experiencing one of its heydays and was also gradually becoming secularized; Along with the magnificent buildings of churches and monasteries, wonderful secular buildings were also erected in England - university colleges, houses of wealthy citizens (Crosby Hall in London, 1470), buildings for guild associations (London Guildhall, 1411-1425). Commercial connections attracted a much larger number of foreigners to London and English port cities than before. The largest number of Englishmen who showed in the first half of the 15th century. a penchant for studying classical antiquity and a commitment to new science belonged to the highest clerical nobility. Against this background, the figure of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, brother of Henry V, who was the first humanist philanthropist and patron of humanistic interests among English scientists and writers of his time, stands out sharply. Humphrey was a great lover of antiquity and an ardent admirer of Italian learning. He ordered teachers from Italy to study ancient authors, spent huge amounts of money on purchasing manuscripts, corresponded with a number of humanists, and ordered them translations of Greek authors. The most important result of Humphrey's activities was the accumulation of remarkable book treasures, which the first English humanists were able to take advantage of half a century later. Humphrey's library was bequeathed to Oxford University. Next to Humphrey, one can name another representative of the English aristocracy of the 15th century, who gained significant fame in Italy itself for his exemplary Latin oratory. This was John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester. Beginning in the 1450s, a growing number of young Englishmen were drawn to Italy by a thirst for knowledge. Changes in the field of language were of great importance for everything under consideration and for subsequent periods. Compared to the 14th century. in England at this time the prevalence of French speech undoubtedly decreased, even in the circles of the highest nobility. Throughout the century, the London dialect grew in importance. Under its influence, dialectal differences in the written language of other English regions were obscured. The completion of the centralization of political power by the end of the Wars of the Scarlet and White Roses also contributed to centralization in the field of language, the development of a general English literary speech based on the London dialect. The emergence of printing in England was of great importance in this regard. The opening of the first printing press in England was the work of William Caxton (1421-1491). ), publisher and translator. As a young man, Caxton entered as an apprentice to the wealthy London merchant Robert Large, who was sheriff and later lord mayor of the capital. After Large's death, Caxton lived for about 30 years in Bruges; one of the most important trading centers of the then northwestern Europe. There he achieved considerable position and honor, being a kind of consul, "governing the English living abroad." Many writers, translators, calligraphers, miniaturists and bookbinders lived in Bruges; Literature and poetry bloomed here, however, in the late autumn color of medieval culture, already doomed to destruction; medieval chivalric novels and courtly lyrics were still in great vogue here. All this could not but have an impact on Caxton; Around 1464, he began to translate a collection of stories about Troy from French. Caxton subsequently published this translation in the same Bruges (The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye, 1474). This was the first printed book on English, although it was published outside of England. In 1474-1475 Caxton entered into company with the miniature painter and calligrapher Mansion and began printing books. In addition to the "Collected Stories of Troy", Caxton, together with Mansion, published in Bruges a book about the game of chess (The Game And Playe of the Chesse) and one book in French.

Between the opening of the Westminster printing house and the end of the 15th century (before 1500), about 400 books were printed in England. English literature of the 15th century was of a transitional nature - from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. The old traditions are still very strong in it; it still gravitates towards the old forms, but gradually these forms are filled with new content, which modifies and breaks them. Epic tends toward the novel and chronicle; prose takes the place of poetry. The attraction to prose is reinforced by the widely developed translation activity. In the 15th century in England they translate Latin treatises, French novels, and a wide variety of works that have applications to life. Literature receives a specifically practical purpose, which it did not have before, and begins to serve the numerous needs of the population on a much wider scale. Catalogs of English manuscripts of the 15th century are replete with treatises on hunting and fishing, military art and fortification, growing orchards, agriculture and home improvement. Medicine and education, cookbooks and rules of etiquette are found here more often than theological works or works of fiction in the proper sense of the word. Books related to trading activities are especially numerous: commercial directories and guides for traveling merchants, works of a geographical or economic nature. In the first half of the 15th century. all such works, including educational books, are written primarily in poetry; In the second half of the century, poetry is replaced by prose, the technique of which is already acquiring some stability, developing general literary and grammatical norms. A typical example of a poetic work of purely practical purpose is the very curious “Little Book of English Politics” (Lybelle of Englishe Polycye, 1486), written by an unknown person for the purpose of instructing the English merchants. She pushes broad program government measures necessary, in the author’s opinion, for the further prosperity of the country, at a time when England, indeed, is increasingly moving towards active trading activities and the conquest of new markets. The author sees the true way to enrich the English state in protecting trade with all its might and, with the help of the fleet and weapons, dominating “over the narrow sea,” that is, the English Channel, between both English ports at that time - Dover and Calais. Among the sciences in England in the 15th century, theology continued to dominate. Dogmatic problems were still in the foreground, but next to them new ethical interests were emerging, which were put forward by life itself, in addition to theology and aside from it. Apologists for Catholic orthodoxy at this time used Latin for their polemical writings. The only exception is the theological works of Reginald Peacock, who was one of the most important English prose writers of the 15th century. In the historical and journalistic literature of the 15th century, as well as in other areas of writing, the Latin language gradually gives way to English. English journalism of the 15th century was born not within the walls of a monastery, but in a whirlpool of political passions and bloody civil strife. England's first major political writer, John Fortescue (circa 1395-1476), stood at the very center of the dynastic struggle for the throne and literary activity He began his career as the author of topical political pamphlets. The most important of his Latin works, written by him for Prince Edward of Lancaster, is the treatise On Nature natural law"(De natura legis naturae), the first part of which speaks of various forms state system; unlimited monarchy (dominium regale), republic (dominium politicum) and constitutional monarchy (dominium politicum et regale). Fortescue also wrote a Latin treatise for the Prince of Lancaster, “Praise of the English Laws” (De laudibus legum Angliae, 1470). This essay is wonderful in many ways. Fiction in the proper sense of the word, however, it is much more scarce in England in the 15th century than in the previous century. Poets imitate Chaucer and for a long time cannot find their own creative ways; prose writers are few in number: next to Caxton the translator stands only Thomas Malory, published by him, with his only book of stories about the knights of the Round Table. But in the 15th century in England, as if in contrast to the relatively poor book poetry, folk poetry flourished. The ballads of England and Scotland - the most original and viable type of poetry of this time - have a strong influence on subsequent literary development. Folk drama also blooms at this time with all the fullness of life, which will have a powerful impact on the English theater of the Renaissance.