In the 1380s Chaucer moved to the county of Kent on the southern coast of England, home to the town of Canterbury and its famous Cathedral, and began work on his Tales.
Where was Canterbury Tales written?
The Canterbury Tales, frame story by Geoffrey Chaucer, written in Middle English in 1387–1400. The framing device for the collection of stories is a pilgrimage to the shrine of Thomas Becket in Canterbury, Kent.
When did Chaucer write The Canterbury Tales?
1387
The Canterbury Tales was one of the first major works in literature written in English. Chaucer began the tales in 1387 and continued until his death in 1400.
Where was The Canterbury Tales first published?
London
Late in 1475 or early in 1476 Caxton set up his own printing press in London. Among his earliest books are two magnificent editions of the 14th-century classic, Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales: the first published in 1476 and the second, illustrated with woodblock prints, in 1483.
Why did Chaucer write The Canterbury Tales in Middle English?
Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales in vernacular, Middle English, because that was the type of English spoken by the English people at the time. Since many works were written in French and Latin, there was a dearth of works in English.
Is The Canterbury Tales set in England?
It is widely regarded as Chaucer’s magnum opus. The tales (mostly written in verse, although some are in prose) are presented as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together from London to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral.
Where is Canterbury located and why is it famous?
Canterbury (/ˈkæntərb(ə)ri/ ( listen), /-bɛri/) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury, a local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour.
What is the main theme of Canterbury Tales?
Social Class. One present theme throughout The Canterbury Tales is the importance of social status during Chaucer’s time. For example, the Prioress and the Parson are opposite characters in their regard for social status. The Parson is more concerned with his religious devotion than his class.
What is the most famous Canterbury tale?
Perhaps the most famous – and best-loved – of all of the tales in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, ‘The Miller’s Tale‘ is told as a comic corrective following the sonorous seriousness of the Knight’s tale.
What inspired The Canterbury Tales?
Chaucer’s early work is heavily influenced by love poetry of the French tradition, including the Romaunt of the Rose (c. 1370) and Saint Cecilia (c. 1373), later used as the “Second Nun’s Tale” in the Canterbury Tales.
Who is the first character introduced in The Canterbury Tales?
The Knight
The first pilgrim Chaucer describes in the General Prologue, and the teller of the first tale. The Knight represents the ideal of a medieval Christian man-at-arms. He has participated in no less than fifteen of the great crusades of his era. Brave, experienced, and prudent, the narrator greatly admires him.
How many Canterbury Tales are there?
Taken together, the tales offer a fascinating insight into English life during the late 14th century. Chaucer’s original plan was for over 100 stories, but only 24 were completed, some of which had already been written for earlier works.
Who told the first tale in The Canterbury Tales?
The Host, whose name, we find out in the Prologue to the Cook’s Tale, is Harry Bailey, suggests that the group ride together and entertain one another with stories. He decides that each pilgrim will tell two stories on the way to Canterbury and two on the way back.
Did Chaucer write in old or Middle English?
Middle English
Chaucer wrote during the final decades of the fourteenth century; hence, his language belongs to the later Middle English period. An important feature of the division between the Middle and the Early Modern periods was the emergence of a standard written variety of English.
What is Chaucer’s style of writing?
Moreover, like much of Shakespeare’s work, Chaucer’s frame narrative is written in iambic pentameter, an unpretentious, conversational meter with alternate stresses.
Who is called the father of English poetry?
Ever since the end of the 14th century, Chaucer has been known as the “father of English poetry,” a model of writing to be imitated by English poets. “He was one of the first poets of his day to write exclusively in English (his contemporary John Gower, for example, wrote in Latin, French, and English).
Why are The Canterbury Tales banned in the US?
The Canterbury Tales was once banned in the United States by the U.S. Postal Service. It refused to mail copies under the Comstock Act of 1873, stating that the work contained obscene, filthy and inappropriate material.
What religion is The Canterbury Tales?
Written during a tumultuous period of Christianity, The Canterbury Tales provides a window into the debasement of Christianity under the Catholic Church during Chaucer’s time. But on the balance, Chaucer is also mindful of the fact that there are still individuals who practice what they preach.
Is Canterbury and Kent the same?
The city, a district within the administrative county of Kent, includes the town of Canterbury, the surrounding countryside, and an area extending to the Thames estuary, including the seaside towns of Whitstable and Herne Bay.
Why is it called Canterbury?
Canterbury as a city has it’s origins in the Roman settlement of Durovernum Cantiacorum, established in the first century AD after the Roman invasion of 43 AD. The name was taken from the Cantiaci tribe that inhabited the area at the time of the Roman invasion. The name of the county of Kent also derives from them.
What language is spoken in Canterbury?
The dominant language spoken at home, other than English, in City of Canterbury Bankstown was Arabic, with 17.2% of the population, or 63,655 people speaking this language at home.