Tuesday, 10/28/14: Card Quiz; Begin Chaucer

* Open

 

* Card Quiz 

 

Geoffrey Chaucer (1340--1400)

 

* Finally, we have an author we can name! Geoffrey Chaucer.  We will be reading from his Canterbury Tales. 


* Do you enjoy people-watching? I do.  When I was first married, my wife and I had very little money, so our typical date was to go to Starbuck's in downtown Santa Cruz...then enjoy the circus walking by and chuckle our way through an evening together.  I think we all enjoy encountering different characters.  That's part of what can make school fun: we are motley crew, indeed (teachers and administrators included)!  Geoffrey Chaucer had a gift for bringing characters to life in fiction, and his various diplomatic posts gave him a great opportunity to interact with many colorful subjects to fuel his gift.  His work, combined with his wildly rich imagination, led to the birth of a host of characters in English literature.

• First, read and take notes from a quick biographical background here (scroll past the ad after the first paragraph).  (If you wish for more biographical study, see here.)
• Second review this chronology (list at least five important events in the development of Chaucer's career).
• Third, define the following lit terms in your notes:
• couplet (Chaucer's verses that we read are in decasyllabic couplets...the precursor to the heroic couplet)
• frame narrative 
• irony 
• verbal
• dramatic
• situational 

  *  The Canterbury Tales' premise: It's spring, and twenty-nine pilgrims are making their way from Southwerk, London to Canterbury Cathedral to visit the shrine of Thomas Becket. The thirtieth man, the host, decides to join them and to make a wager. Whichever pilgrim can tell the best story to beguile the time as they go will receive a free dinner when they return from their pilgrimage. "The Prologue" introduces the pilgrims, and tales follow. Chaucer never finished the tales, but what we have we treasure. 

HW: Finish the introductory notes above in your composition book