


In order to escape the plague in Florence. His people are aristocrats ~ spending time in the Tuscan countryside

Supposedly told to each other, by a group of people, as entertainment.īoccaccio's 'Decameron' has ten storytellers, each telling a story per day for
Tavern keeper pardoners tale pilgrim series#
The Canterbury Tales, a series of short stories, Theĭecameron, by Giovanni Boccaccio, is, like It is possible that the two men met The works of Boccaccio and Chaucer have often been compared. 'Teseide' is 'translated' by Chaucer to become ' The Knight's Tale'. He was also influenced by other popular contemporary stories and by fabliaux. He met Petrarch and was influenced by Dante.

Paris, the illegitimate son of a Certaldo merchant. The writer Giovanni Boccaccio was born in 1313, probably in Tuscany, though some say He was whipped as a consequence of his actions.īecket was made a saint, and his shrine at Canterbury became the most important place of pilgrimage in England. Henry had been angry with Becket, but he claimed neither to have ordered, nor wished for, his old friend's death. When Henry heard of this he is said to have uttered the famous words: "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?" Four of Henry's knights, who had apparently heard this 'request', returned to England to demand that the Archbishop of York, and others, should be re-instated. Henry II was in Normandy, but some of his supporters, including the Archbishop of York, were, indeed, excommunicated. While in exile, Becket, supported by the Pope and the King of France, organised a campaign against Henry II which left the king wondering if he was to be excommunicated.īecket must have felt able, or willing, or obliged, to return to England, because he did so in 1170. The king ordered his archbishop to appear at one of his courts over a land dispute. Both men were proud and aware of the importance of their office both believed that they were in the right both felt betrayed.īy 1164 the rift between the two men had grown.
Tavern keeper pardoners tale pilgrim trial#
There was a major debate and a huge disagreement on who should be allowed the privilege of a trial in a church court, as opposed to a royal court. The friendship then came under strain, as Becket felt that he had to put his loyalty to the church before his loyalty to his friend. This was not a popular decision in the Church. When Theobald died in 1161, he also became his Archbishop of Canterbury. Thomas Becket became Henry II's chancellor, advisor and friend. The stress is on the second of each two syllables, so this is iambic pentameter. Well sickerer was his crowing in his lodge,Īs we can see, Chaucer's tales are written in rhyming couplets, with ten 'beats' to each line. His voice was merrier than the merry or gon, In all the land of crowing n'as his peer. In which she had a cock, hight Chanticleer Seind bacon, and sometimes an egg or tway Milk and brown bread, in which she found no lack, Her board was served most with white and black, No wine drank she, neither white nor red: Jealous he was, and held her narr'w in cage,įor she was wild and young, and he was old,īut since that he was fallen in the snare, Of eighteen year, I guess, she was of age. The second is from 'The Nun's Priest's Tale': I have clarified some of the final rhymes. Here are some excerpts from The Canterbury Tales (written between around 1387 and some time before 1400). Shakespeare wrote a lot of his work in iambic pentameter and ended many of his scenes with a 'heroic' rhyming couplet.Īccording to, the 'iamb' (or 'iambus') is from the Greek 'iambos', meaning 'lampoon’, apparently because iambic meter was first used by Greek satirists. lines ending in the same or a similar sound ~ written in iambic pentameter, is called a 'heroic couplet'. If a poem has ten beats to each line, divided into five iambs, then this is called iambic pentmer.Ī pair of rhyming lines ~ ie. The stressed syllable will be longer than the unstressed syllable. If the stress is on the first of the two syllables, then it is called a trochee. If a two-syllable metrical foot has the stress on the second syllable, then this is called an 'iamb'. The smallest 'unit of rhythm' is the 'foot'. There are 'units of rhythm' within poetry ~ this is described as 'meter'. This poem seems to be, at least in parts, an elegy for 'the White Lady' ~ 'Blanche' meaning 'white' ~ but possibly, also, an attempt to encourage Gaunt to leave behind the excesses of his grief.Įxtract from Book of the Duchesse - by Geoffrey Chaucer. Blanche of Lancaster died of plague in 1369, while her husband was away. The Book of the Duchess appears to have been written by Chaucer for his benefactor, John of Gaunt, after the Death of Gaunt's beloved wife, the Duchess Blanche. The Book of the Duchess: An Elegy for the Living?
