Chaucer, on the other hand, does not have any limit on how many words he can use, nor any qualms about using them. He is not concerned with being concise. The very first line of the Canterbury Tales tells us that the story begins in "Aprill," although you might not realize that until you reread that passage and find out that the Ram has "halfe cours y-ronne" (8), and subsequently read the footnote explaining that that means. As Chaucer continues, we find out that our narrator is at an inn in Southwerk while they "redy to wenden on [their] pilgrimage to Caunterbury" (21-22). Nonetheless, this is The Canterbury Tales' version of a "Once upon a time..." or "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..." All of these preludes establish a setting and get us, the reader, buckled up for the ride we're about to go on. Simple! Easy! Totally understandable!
In any case, there's more to an introduction than founding a setting that the story can build off of. They need to extend a bit further, introducing the characters that will be featured in the narrative, as well as any significant backstory for those characters. True to his form, Chaucer does this with a litany of lavishly lyrical poetry, which is my poetic way of saying the most verbose way possible. After taking seven lines to decide to tell us about how he's gonna tell us about the other pilgrims, Chaucer spends another fifty-seven lines describing two people. Two. Out of how many total characters?
(It's a trick question. We don't know how many because our author just spent 100 lines setting up the story and telling us about two people.)
As much as I rag on him, I actually really enjoy reading Chaucer, although I've always read translations of his work or just unabashedly bastardized the original Middle English. I'm still dipping my toes into the phonetics of Chaucer's day, but I like those so far too.
(It's a trick question. We don't know how many because our author just spent 100 lines setting up the story and telling us about two people.)
As much as I rag on him, I actually really enjoy reading Chaucer, although I've always read translations of his work or just unabashedly bastardized the original Middle English. I'm still dipping my toes into the phonetics of Chaucer's day, but I like those so far too.
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ReplyDeleteYour little intro about the "legwork" of "once upon a time" is captivating. (I took a class on fairy tales with Dr. MB!) I never knew why I liked the phrase, or I could never put it into words, but you nailed it, and I think I would've liked its concise component most if it were apart of The Canterbury Tales. I'm a fan of long, drawn out descriptive poetry that focuses obviously too long on any given detail of the story (I really, really am), but Chaucer's Middle English version of that is really hard to follow, for me anyways. All that being said, I'm looking forward to reading all of these pilgrims' stories too. I just hope I can dip more than my toes into it all. I might need to dip my whole leg or - I don't know - my entire body.
ReplyDelete-Amanda
P.S. The prettiest "once upon a time," in my opinion, isn't at the beginning of a story at all but in the middle of Anastasia. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Bsdu57SFZc)
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ReplyDeleteFrom what I have read, and what little I understand, I have concluded that there is a parallel universe in which we live in relationship to Chaucer’s time. It is as if every word means something else. You know when you sit down to write a paper and you haven’t spoken to anyone in what seems like a year or two because you have been busy studying for exams and you have a few finals that you have prepared for from the beginning of the term and you have no clue how to manage your social life. In theory, you get in your own head and start talking to yourself like you’ve spent the winter, and I mean the month is January at the moment, or February if you want to take it to an extreme. You are all cozy and cooped up in a log cabin like it’s “The Shining” with Jack Nicholson. “Here’s Johnny,” he said as he’s hacking away at the bathroom door with an axe. She’s cutting at his hand with a knife while screaming. He’s screaming in pain. His son is saying Murder backwards. His kid is painting it in red. Anyways, there is this whole social element where Chaucer seems to write his own dictionary based on slang, and hands out pamphlets for Jesus, or just pamphlets on his book telling people what it is about and people just read it. It is possible that the King made it mandatory reading just because he wanted everyone to know it was a good book. It became this trend where everyone started dressing their part, and acting as though they were cut out for the next show. Chaucer writes about large feasts, people congregating and socializing. Everyone was reading this book and everyone was copying it.
ReplyDeleteI affirm that I “have neither given nor received any unauthorized aid on this paper”
Alex Cooper
Alexander Stephen Cooper
I agree that we don't necessarily need that many lines that introduce a story but I think that's what makes Poetry sound so beautiful. Yeah it takes a while but it sounds great while it's taking its time
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