Download or read book Chaucer and War written by John H. Pratt and published by University Press of America. This book was released on 2000 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Chaucer and War, John Pratt studies Chaucer's attitude toward the warfare of his age and how his major poetry reflects this attitude. Using biographical information, reliable fourteenth-century sources, and Chaucer's own writings, Pratt explores Chaucer's use of war through such works as the Knight's Tale, the Squire's Tale, and Troilus and Criseyde. Pratt gives an overview of the military picture during Chaucer's time, examines Chaucer's knowledge of military weapons and his use of this knowledge in his poetry, and evaluates the poetry based on references, word usage, and historical context among others. Pratt concludes that Chaucer, despite his English-Christian perspective, was a writer who knew a good deal about warfare on a global scale, and supported warfare when he felt the cause was just. A strikingly unique perspective from the current evaluations of Chaucer's work, Chaucer and War will be of value to students and scholars of Chaucer and medieval history and literature, as well as those with an interest in the Middle Ages.
Download or read book Continental England written by Elizaveta Strakhov and published by Interventions: New Studies Med. This book was released on 2022 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Employs Chaucer as a lens to argue that Anglo-French translation of formes fixes poetry helped rebuild cultural ties between England and Continental Europe during the Hundred Years' War.
Download or read book De nuptiis written by Ralph Hanna and published by University of Georgia Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The three medieval texts that make up Jankyn's Book of Wikked Wyves have formed a vital part of Chaucerian research for more than half a century. Integrated here for the first time, these texts now form a cornerstone volume of the Chaucer Library series. Near the end of her prologue, Chaucer's Wife of Bath tells how her fifth husband, Jankyn, a clerk of Oxford, taunted her by reading from a collection of antifeminist tracts. The contents of Jankyn's book include three texts that enjoyed wide distribution in the later Middle Ages: Walter Map's "Dissuasio Valerii," Theophrastus's "De Nuptiis," and Jerome's "Adversus Jovinianum." The first two are reproduced in their entirety in this volume, with selections from the third. The editors examine Jankyn's book from many angles, including the extensive manuscript sources from which it may be reconstructed, background information for its literary appreciation, and Chaucer's use of the materials. The publication of this volume, the fourth in the Chaucer Library, represents a major event for medievalists.
Download or read book Chaucer written by Marion Turner and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-09-22 with total page 626 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "More than any other canonical English writer, Geoffrey Chaucer lived and worked at the centre of political life--yet his poems are anything but conventional. Edgy, complicated, and often dark, they reflect a conflicted world, and their astonishing diversity and innovative language earned Chaucer renown as the father of English literature. Marion Turner, however, reveals him as a great European writer and thinker. To understand his accomplishment, she reconstructs in unprecedented detail the cosmopolitan world of Chaucer's adventurous life, focusing on the places and spaces that fired his imagination. Uncovering important new information about Chaucer's travels, private life, and the early circulation of his writings, this innovative biography documents a series of vivid episodes, moving from the commercial wharves of London to the frescoed chapels of Florence and the kingdom of Navarre, where Christians, Muslims, and Jews lived side by side. The narrative recounts Chaucer's experiences as a prisoner of war in France, as a father visiting his daughter's nunnery, as a member of a chaotic Parliament, and as a diplomat in Milan, where he encountered the writings of Dante and Boccaccio. At the same time, the book offers a comprehensive exploration of Chaucer's writings, taking the reader to the Troy of Troilus and Criseyde, the gardens of the dream visions, and the peripheries and thresholds of The Canterbury Tales. By exploring the places Chaucer visited, the buildings he inhabited, the books he read, and the art and objects he saw, this landmark biography tells the extraordinary story of how a wine merchant's son became the poet of The Canterbury Tales." -- Publisher's description.
Download or read book Chaucer s Experience of War written by Kenneth J. Thompson and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Inscribing the Hundred Years War in French and English Cultures written by Denise Nowakowski Baker and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 2000-09-28 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the intersection of the Hundred Years' War and the production of vernacular literature in France and England. Reviewing a range of prominent works that address the war, including those by Deschamps, Christine de Pizan, Gower, Langland, and Chaucer, as well as anonymous texts and the records of Joan of Arc's trial, Inscribing the Hundred Years' War In French and English Cultures demonstrates the ways in which late-medieval authors responded to the immediate sociopolitical pressures and participated in the debates about the war.
Download or read book The Hundred Years War in Literature written by Joanna Bellis and published by D. S. Brewer. This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An analysis of texts narrating the Hundred Years War, from contemporary accounts to the sixteenth century.
Download or read book Chaucer s England written by Diana Childress and published by Shoe String Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents an overview of life in fourteenth-century England as historical context for Geoffrey Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales," covering the social hierarchy and social mobility, views of the Church, warfare and rebellion, the Black Death, the Earth-centered universe and science, medicine, food, work, clothing, courtship, family, schooling, and recreation.
Download or read book Historians on Chaucer written by Alastair Minnis and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2014-12-04 with total page 525 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As literary scholars have long insisted, an interdisciplinary approach is vital if modern readers are to make sense of works of medieval literature. In particular, rather than reading the works of medieval authors as addressing us across the centuries about some timeless or ahistorical 'human condition', critics from a wide range of theoretical approaches have in recent years shown how the work of poets such as Chaucer constituted engagements with the power relations and social inequalities of their time. Yet, perhaps surprisingly, medieval historians have played little part in this 'historical turn' in the study of medieval literature. The aim of this volume is to allow historians who are experts in the fields of economic, social, political, religious, and intellectual history the chance to interpret one of the most famous works of Middle English literature, Geoffrey Chaucer's 'General Prologue' to the Canterbury Tales, in its contemporary context. Rather than resorting to traditional historical attempts to see Chaucer's descriptions of the Canterbury pilgrims as immediate reflections of historical reality or as portraits of real life people whom Chaucer knew, the contributors to this volume have sought to show what interpretive frameworks were available to Chaucer in order to make sense of reality and how he adapted his literary and ideological inheritance so as to engage with the controversies and conflicts of his own day. Beginning with a survey of recent debates about the social meaning of Chaucer's work, the volume then discusses each of the Canterbury pilgrims in turn. Historians on Chaucer should be of interest to all scholars and students of medieval culture whether they are specialists in literature or history.
Download or read book The Familiar Enemy written by Ardis Butterfield and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2009-12-10 with total page 477 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Familiar Enemy examines the linguistic, literary, and cultural identities of England and France during the Hundred Years War. It explores works by Deschamps, Charles d'Orléans, and Gower, as well as Chaucer who, the book argues, must be resituated within the context of the multilingual cultural geography of medieval Europe.
Download or read book The Riverside Chaucer written by Geoffrey Chaucer and published by American Chemical Society. This book was released on 2008 with total page 1386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A re-editing of F.N. Robinson's second edition of The works of Geoffrey Chaucer published in 1957 by the team of experts at the Riverside Institute who have greatly expanded the introductory material, explanatory notes, textual notes, bibliography and glossary. The result of many years' study. The Riverside Chaucer is the most authentic and exciting edition available of Chaucer's complete works.
Download or read book The Canterbury Tales written by Geoffrey Chaucer and published by . This book was released on 1853 with total page 662 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Chaucer and the House of Fame written by Philippa Morgan and published by Carroll & Graf Pub. This book was released on 2004 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sent on a diplomatic mission to France, medieval English poet Geoffrey Chaucer finds himself in the middle of furor when his host is killed in a hunting "accident" and he must uncover the culprit before he is accused of the crime.
Download or read book Canterbury Tales written by Geoffrey Chaucer and published by . This book was released on 1903 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Chaucer and the House of Fame written by Philippa Morgan and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fourteenth century is probably best remembered for the conflicts that raged between England and France, known collectively as the Hundred Years War. Begun by Edward III of England who laid claim to the throne of France, it had eventually run its weary course by the reign of his weak and ineffectual grandson Henry VI. Yet in 1370 the Hundred Years War was only a half of the way through, with England in imminent danger of losing most of her territorial possessions in France. At this critical moment in time, Geoffrey Chaucer, court envoy, ambitious poet, and protege of the king's powerful son John of Gaunt, is sent on a secret mission to the territory of the Comte de Guyac to persuade the French nobleman to stay loyal to the English cause. stronghold on the Dordogne in south-west France. The welcome is warm - Chaucer was once in love with Isabelle, the Comte's sister - but within a few days everything has changed. At the end of a hunting expedition, Guyac's body is discovered with a crossbow bolt through the throat. Suspicion points at the new English arrivals. So Chaucer must discover the real culprit if he is to save his own neck. The investigation will turn the poet and diplomat into a fugitive and the truth will not emerge until Chaucer joins Gaunt's brother Edward - known to history as the Black Prince - at the siege of Limoges, one of the crucial events in this endless war.
Download or read book The Knight s Tale written by Geoffrey Chaucer and published by Stephen F. Austin University Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Knight's Tale breaks boundaries. It uncovers the dark heart of chivalric idealism, injects the political seriousness of epic into the timeless summer of romance, insists on a pagan outlook within a Christian culture, and draws compassion for female suffering from a man's world. Along with the exquisite anonymous poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the Knight's Tale is the most intricately structured and stylistically pleasing of medieval English romances. For these reasons, it is worthy of its own edition, but what makes it particularly suitable to an illustrated edition is how its narration works by condensing actions and their effects into powerful images and figures. The Knight's Tale has, in fact, been illustrated many times, but never so thoroughly as in the current edition. Moreover, past illustrations have tended to romanticize or sentimentalize the story, eschewing its most violent and disturbing images. The illustrations in this edition attempt to recapture Chaucer's mature vision of the noble life, which refuses to deny the tragic aspects of the chivalric equation of love with war and war with honor. Past illustrations have also tended to adopt a Gothic idiom. The illustrations in our edition adopt a Classical Greek idiom drawn from the Parthenon frieze, Attic black- and red-figure pottery, and ancient Greek sculpture--an idiom suitable to the setting of the tale in legendary Athens and Thebes as well as to Chaucer's humanist impusle. The If considering Theseus's prosecution of war as a civilizing force, one can point to the fact that he puts an end to Creon's "tirannye" (941), restoring the bodies of the desecrated dead to the Argive widows. However, if his objective in attacking Thebes is to avenge the widows on Creon, why does he destroy the city after he has already killed him and routed the Theban army, tearing down "wall, and sparre and rafter" (line 990)? The motive is hardly humanitarian, nor even strategic in the military sense since the Theban forces have already been defeated. Its only objective is pillage--to pay off the Athenian troops--and, of course, it is while ransacking the dead that they find Palamon and Arcite still alive among a pile of corpses, a detail unique to Chaucer's text. While such a practice was endemic to chivalric warfare, it was difficult to contain once started, and it would inevitably produce results inimical to Theseus's stated purpose for going to war against Thebes, which was to right a wrong done to a group of helpless women. As Maurice Keen writes, the trouble with the practice of looting-as-pay was that to pay off soldiers in this way was not the same as to disband them. They had to be left at large, still armed with equipment that was their own, beyond control; and so whole provinces were subjected to the indiscriminate pillaging of soldiery that sought to claim a share in chivalry but whose manner of living was the antithesis of what chivalry stood for, the protection of the poor, the fatherless and the widow. Knight's Tale poses the pivotal question about war: Is there such a thing as civilized warfare, as war fought for a just cause in a controlled manner as a means of restoring order to society, or do all wars inevitably lead to acts of savagery and excess that make a mockery of policy?35 Ancient Thebes is the story of a sustained, sordid, brutal, and self-indulgent lust for power and pleasure eventuating in spectacular violence--Cadmus and the dragon-tooth warriors, Oedipus's primal crimes against nature, Eteocles and Polynices' impiety and fratricidal warfare, Creon's desecration of his nephew's corpse and subsequent murder of his niece Antigone. The idea of a moderate use of force to serve the common good is alien to the Theban legend. Statius considers the possibility of a good war by inserting the Athenian warlord Theseus into the myth of Thebes. Theseus brings peace to Thebes and, in Statius's version of events, saves Antigone, but only after an unforgettable orgy of death has occurred. As discussed above, Chaucer returned to Statius's brooding treatment of the Theban material in order to foreground it. He rereads the Teseida through the lens of the Thebaid, turning it from a conventional love story into a philosophical reflection on the nature of love, war, and governance--both earthly and cosmic. Indeed, it becomes a kind of theodicy, asking why humans must suffer so much and whether there is a benevolent order that transcends the individual ills of human experience, providing an origin for temporal governance. In this vein, Chaucer presents the stadium Theseus builds to hold the tournament as a theatrum mundi, a microcosmic space in which Theseus will try to civilize the unruly dispute between Palamon and Arcite, itself symbolic of the dynastic rivalry between Polynices and Eteocles. 36 Ominously, there is nothing to stop Theseus's men from just such rapine, as he "dide with al the contree as hym leste" (line 1004). For Chaucer, it seems it is not justice but fortune that decides the outcome of war. The eldest Argive widow reminds Theseus of the role of "Fortune" in war, and Chaucer returns to the idea of the uncertainty of military ventures in the temple of Mars murals, where an enthroned "Conquest" (line 2028) is depicted with the sharp sword of Damocles hanging over his head by the thinnest of threads. Perhaps Theseus learns this lesson, as he moves steadily away from militarism in Chaucer's narrative, changing the rules of the tournament to prevent mortal combat and ending the strife with Thebes through the diplomacy of the parliament. Yet, even in the mock battle of the tournament, death cannot be prevented, despite his best efforts. Is Chaucer suggesting that the prospect of limited warfare for some greater purpose (in this case the eventual pacification of Thebes) is human folly? Chaucer's
Download or read book A Great and Glorious Adventure written by Gordon Corrigan and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-07-15 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The glory and tragedy of the Hundred Years War is revealed in a new historical narrative, bringing Henry V, the Black Prince, and Joan of Arc to fresh and vivid life. In this captivating new history of a conflict that raged for over a century, Gordon Corrigan reveals the horrors of battle and the machinations of power that have shaped a millennium of Anglo-French relations. The Hundred Years War was fought between 1337 and 1453 over English claims to both the throne of France by right of inheritance and large parts of the country that had been at one time Norman or, later, English. The fighting ebbed and flowed, but despite their superior tactics and great victories at Crécy, Poitiers, and Agincourt, the English could never hope to secure their claims in perpetuity: France was wealthier and far more populous, and while the English won the battles, they could not hope to hold forever the lands they conquered. Military historian Gordon Corrigan's gripping narrative of these epochal events is combative and refreshingly alive, and the great battles and personalities of the period—Edward III, The Black Prince, Henry V, and Joan of Arc among them—receive the full attention and reassessment they deserve.
