Some stories are bawdy fabliaux , some saints' lives or serious treatises. Chaucer introduces his pilgrimage by saying that people want to travel in spring on pilgrimages, especially to the shrine of St Thomas Becket in Canterbury - who has helped them when they were sick I Although this introduction, the General Prologue , mentions St Thomas, the 'hooly, blissful martyr', it makes few other allusions to the spiritual side of pilgrimage, though the narrator describes himself as setting out 'with ful devout corage' I Some of his portraits of the pilgrims mention contemporary practices of pilgrimage: the Knight's decision, for example, immediately upon returning from campaigning against the Muslims, 'for oure feith' , to go immediately on his pilgrimage; the Wife of Bath is described as an experienced pilgrim: she has visited shrines at Rome the apostles Peter and Paul , Boulogne Our Lady , Compostela St James , and Cologne the Three Kings.
Chaucer announces that his plan is for his pilgrims to tell tales both going to Canterbury and coming back to London and the Tabard Inn. But, when he died, he left his work in a set of fragments, which do not join up into a coherent depiction of journey to Canterbury.
The Wife of Bath's Prologue describes the opportunities she takes for travel and entertainments, wearing her best clothes and not averse to flirtation:. I made my visitaciouns To vigilies and to processiouns, To prechyng eek, and to thise pilgrimages, To pleyes of miracles, and to mariages III Vigils are the services before a saint's day and the processions she mentions would be in honour of a saint.
This passage illustrates well the element of social entertainment many people clearly found in pilgrimages and other ostensibly religious events. Chaucer seems for the most part to exploit primarily the social side of pilgrimage. But he appears to have written the Parson's Tale , a treatise about sin , virtue and penitence , as a religious text to knit up the actually extremely diverse groups of tales he had already completed. In most manuscripts it appears as the last of the series.
It also includes the metaphor of human life itself as a spiritual journey towards the Heavenly city of Jerusalem. There is thus a shift in tone between most of the Tales , as they have been left to us, and the Parson's Tale , which is not only religious itself but includes two passages that make the earthly pilgrimage into a symbol of the soul's journey on:.
X The Canterbury Tales clearly became popular soon after Chaucer's death. Many manuscripts survive and it was printed in the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
Chaucer's brilliant notion of using a mixed group of Canterbury pilgrims as the frame-story for a collection of tales has captured the imagination of many writers in centuries up to the present day. Quite early on, writers had the idea of writing continuations, something made easy because Chaucer left his own poem so incomplete. Several survive from the first half of the fifteenth century.
Three show interest in taking further the scenario of the Canterbury pilgrimage. John Lydgate , a monk of Bury St Edmunds , presents his lengthy poem, The Siege of Thebes , as if it is one of the tales told on the return journey. His prologue depicts Lydgate himself coming on his own pilgrimage to Canterbury, to give thanks to St Thomas after being ill, and happening to stay at the same inn as the pilgrims. The Host invites him to join them, saying that Lydgate looks thin and sickly and needs good food, ale, and entertainment.
The next morning Lydgate is invited to tell the first tale of the journey back. The Tale of Beryn is an anonymous tale which its author presents as a continuation of the Canterbury Tales. The tale itself is loosely based on a French romance. The introduction, like Lydgate's, describes the pilgrims at their inn the 'Chequer of Hope' at Canterbury. The picture this author gives of the pilgrims is largely very secular : the Pardoner sets himself up, he thinks, for a night of love with the barmaid the author comments that his story isn't a very holy one.
The author describes the pilgrims exploring Canterbury as tourists, a valuable, if perhaps over-comic, description of the contemporary pilgrim's experience. The text may have a direct relationship with Canterbury's role business, one could say as England's major pilgrimage centre: it has been suggested that it was composed in connection with the Canterbury Jubilee celebrations, held every fifty years to mark St Thomas's death, in John Bowers suggests the monks may have been anxious to encourage pilgrims and combat Lollard disapproval of pilgrimages.
If so, however, one would expect a rather more determinedly religious work to have been written for the occasion. The text provides a valuable picture of everyday people visiting the shrine and some of the practices there. They go to the Cathedral. Even here, a comic eye for secular preoccupations shows these pilgrim's devotions as mixed with less holy concerns. They go to make their offerings of silver brooches and rings; there is a struggle for precedence at the Cathedral door and the Knight, taking charge, directs the ecclesiastical pilgrims to go in first; then a monk sprinkles their heads with holy water and the Friar wants to take this job over himself - because he want to peep at the Prioress's face; the Knight goes forward to St Thomas's shrine, together with his more upper-class companions, 'to do what they were come for and after for to dine' a very Chaucerian rhyming of shrine and dine , the holy and the profane mingled together, even for these pious and dignified pilgrims ; but the Miller and Pardoner and the other 'ignorant sots', wander round the building, pretending to be gentlemen and understand the heraldry, and then making ludicrous mistakes trying to interpret the stained glass windows.
The Host orders them to the shrine and there they kneel, say their rosaries, kiss the holy relics , with a monk-guide instructing them as to what these are. Then they go to other holy places and hear the divine service. Everyone buys pilgrims' tokens, so people at home will know which saint's shrine they have visited. The Miller and Pardoner steal some of the pilgrim badges on sale at the Cathedral the Summoner insists on sharing their loot.
Everyone has a cheerful dinner. The Monk, Parson and Friar go out and have a drink with an old Canterbury friend of the Monk, while the Prioress and Wife, feeling too tired to walk much, go and look at the flowers in the garden. That night the Pardoner gets cheated by the barmaid. They all set out next day and the Merchant offers to tell the tale: the Tale of Beryn.
The Ploughman's Tale is an anonymous poem which purports to be one of the Canterbury tales. It tells how the Ploughman sets out on his Canterbury pilgrimage. In a conversation with the Host he says that he is so poor because, although he works hard, the priests demand that laymen pay for their livelihood too.
The Host invites him to preach and tell 'some holy thing'. What is the reward for the best tale? In Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, the prize for telling the best tale on their pilgrimage was a free dinner, paid for by all who are going on the journey to Canterbury. It is the Innkeeper who comes up with the idea to offer a prize. What type of people were pilgrims? The native inhabitants of the region around Plymouth Colony were the various tribes of the Wampanoag people, who had lived there for some 10, years before the Europeans arrived.
Soon after the Pilgrims built their settlement, they came into contact with Tisquantum, or Squanto, an English-speaking Native American. What does the monk tend to ignore? The Monk was a man who, according to his job description, was supposed to live in poverty, chastity, and obedience. Benet or St. What does the Squire wear? In regards to being fashionable, the Squire is not only dressed in the finest clothes but also mounted on his horse rather well.
How do they determine who will tell the first tale? Whomever the Host decides has told the most meaningful and comforting stories will receive a meal paid for by the rest of the pilgrims upon their return. He tells the group members to draw straws to decide who tells the first tale.
The Knight wins and prepares to begin his tale. What were the risks of going on a pilgrimage? Respiratory illnesses are only the beginning of the many dangers faced at religious pilgrimages, though. Pilgrims should worry about fires, stampedes, diarrhea, and guns. In fact, if you're in a hurry to meet your maker, a religious pilgrimage may be the most direct route.
Why are the pilgrims telling each other tales? The telling of the tales He decides to join them on their pilgrimage to Canterbury. What use does Chaucer make of the device of pilgrimage? Which excerpt from the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales tells us that the knight had been part of the Crusades were military expeditions in which Christians sought to win the Holy Land?
What was the main reason for the popularity of The Canterbury Tales in medieval England quizlet? Which detail in the excerpt suggests that the narrator may be unreliable? In what way is the excerpt characteristic of Gothic literature? Which best describes the effect of the narration?
Which word from this excerpt could be used to argue that the narrator is unreliable? What impact does the phrase However when I let the captain? What statement best explains what the word choice in this excerpt reveals about Crusoe? How does this passage contribute to the overall meaning of the story when I was on the desperate expedition? When I was on the desperate expedition on the desert shores of Africa?
When I was on the desperate expedition on the desert shores of Africa I never had so much as one thought of what would become of me when I was delivered and taken up at sea by the Portuguese captain had not the least thankfulness in my thoughts when again I was shipwrecked ruined and in danger of drowning on this island?
What impact does the phrase however? What is the meaning of this excerpt? Which setting is described here dark hauntings?
Did Roderick kill Madeline? Why does Roderick bury Madeline alive? Which of the following is the best example of a tumultuous event? What do you mean by tumultuous? What does Tumulous mean? What is a tumultuous event? Is tumultuous good or bad?
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