MAE602_British Poetry till 17th Century

Geoffrey Chaucer – The Canterbury Tales… 43 The yeldynge of his seed and of his greyn. His lordes sheep, his neet, his dayerye, His swyn, his hors, his stoor, and his pultrye, Was hoolly in this reves governyng; And by his covenant yaf the rekenyng Syn that his lord was twenty yeer of age; There koude no man brynge hym in arrerage. There nas baillif, ne hierde, nor oother hyne, That he ne knew his sleighte and his covyne; They were adrad of hym as of the deeth. His wonyng was ful fair upon an heeth; With grene trees shadwed was his place. He koude bettre than his lord purchace; Ful riche he was a-stored pryvely. His lord wel koude he plesen subtilly, To yeve and lene hym of his owene good, And have a thank, and yet a cote and hood. In youthe he hadde lerned a good myster; He was a wel good wrighte, a carpenter. This Reve sat upon a ful good stot, That was al pomely grey, and highte Scot. A long surcote of pers upon he hade, CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

44 British Poetry Till 17th Century And by his syde he baar a rusty blade. Of Northfolk was this Reve of which I telle, Biside a toun men clepen Baldeswelle. Tukked he was as is a frere, aboute. And evere he rood the hyndreste of oure route. A Somonour was ther with us in that place, That hadde a fyr-reed cherubynnes face, For sawcefleem he was, with eyen narwe. As hoot he was and lecherous as a sparwe, With scaled browes blake and piled berd,— Of his visage children were aferd. Ther nas quyk-silver, lytarge, ne brymstoon, Boras, ceruce, ne oille of tartre noon, Ne oynement that wolde clense and byte, That hym myghte helpen of his whelkes white, Nor of the knobbes sittynge on his chekes. Wel loved he garleek, oynons, and eek lekes, And for to drynken strong wyn, reed as blood. Thanne wolde he speke, and crie as he were wood. And whan that he wel dronken hadde the wyn, Than wolde he speke no word but Latyn. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Geoffrey Chaucer – The Canterbury Tales… 45 A fewe termes hadde he, two or thre, That he had lerned out of som decree,— No wonder is, he herde it al the day; And eek ye knowen wel how that a jay Kan clepen \"Watte\" as wel as kan the pope. But whoso koude in oother thyng hym grope, Thanne hadde he spent al his philosophie; Ay \"Questio quid juris\" wolde he crie. He was a gentil harlot and a kynde; A bettre felawe sholde men noght fynde. He wolde suffre for a quart of wyn A good felawe to have his concubyn A twelf month, and excuse hym atte fulle; And prively a fynch eek koude he pulle. And if he foond owher a good felawe, He wolde techen him to have noon awe, In swich caas, of the erchedekenes curs, But if a mannes soule were in his purs; For in his purs he sholde y-punysshed be: \"Purs is the erchedekenes helle,\" seyde he. But wel I woot he lyed right in dede. Of cursyng oghte ech gilty man him drede, CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

46 British Poetry Till 17th Century For curs wol slee, right as assoillyng savith; And also war him of a Significavit. In daunger hadde he at his owene gise The yonge girles of the diocise, And knew hir conseil, and was al hir reed. A gerland hadde he set upon his heed, As greet as it were for an ale-stake; A bokeleer hadde he maad him of a cake. With hym ther rood a gentil Pardoner Of Rouncivale, his freend and his compeer, That streight was comen fro the court of Rome. Ful loude he soong, \"Com hider, love, to me!\" This Somonour bar to hym a stif burdoun; Was nevere trompe of half so greet a soun. This Pardoner hadde heer as yelow as wex, But smothe it heeng as dooth a strike of flex; By ounces henge his lokkes that he hadde, And therwith he his shuldres overspradde. But thynne it lay, by colpons, oon and oon; But hood, for jolitee, wered he noon, For it was trussed up in his walét. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Geoffrey Chaucer – The Canterbury Tales… 47 Hym thoughte he rood al of the newe jet; Dischevelee, save his cappe, he rood al bare. Swiche glarynge eyen hadde he as an hare. A vernycle hadde he sowed upon his cappe. His walet lay biforn hym in his lappe, Bret-ful of pardoun, comen from Rome al hoot. A voys he hadde as smal as hath a goot. No berd hadde he, ne nevere sholde have, As smothe it was as it were late y-shave; I trowe he were a geldyng or a mare. But of his craft, fro Berwyk into Ware, Ne was ther swich another pardoner; For in his male he hadde a pilwe-beer, Which that, he seyde, was Oure Lady veyl; He seyde he hadde a gobet of the seyl That Seinte Peter hadde, whan that he wente Upon the see, til Jesu Crist hym hente. He hadde a croys of latoun, ful of stones, And in a glas he hadde pigges bones. But with thise relikes, whan that he fond A povre person dwellynge upon lond, Upon a day he gat hym moore moneye CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

48 British Poetry Till 17th Century Than that the person gat in monthes tweye; And thus with feyned flaterye and japes He made the person and the peple his apes. But trewely to tellen atte laste, He was in chirche a noble ecclesiaste; Wel koude he rede a lessoun or a storie, But alderbest he song an offertorie; For wel he wiste, whan that song was songe, He moste preche, and wel affile his tonge To wynne silver, as he ful wel koude; Therefore he song the murierly and loude. Now have I toold you shortly, in a clause, Thestaat, tharray, the nombre, and eek the cause Why that assembled was this compaignye In Southwerk, at this gentil hostelrye That highte the Tabard, faste by the Belle. But now is tyme to yow for to telle How that we baren us that ilke nyght, Whan we were in that hostelrie alyght; And after wol I telle of our viage And al the remenaunt of oure pilgrimage. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Geoffrey Chaucer – The Canterbury Tales… 49 But first, I pray yow, of youre curteisye, That ye narette it nat my vileynye, Thogh that I pleynly speke in this mateere, To telle yow hir wordes and hir cheere, Ne thogh I speke hir wordes proprely. For this ye knowen al-so wel as I, Whoso shal telle a tale after a man, He moot reherce, as ny as evere he kan, Everich a word, if it be in his charge, Al speke he never so rudeliche and large; Or ellis he moot telle his tale untrewe, Or feyne thyng, or fyndewordes newe. He may nat spare, althogh he were his brother; He moot as wel seye o word as another. Crist spak hymself ful brode in hooly writ, And wel ye woot no vileynye is it. Eek Plato seith, whoso kan hym rede, \"The wordes moote be cosyn to the dede.\" Also I prey yow to foryeve it me, Al have I nat set folk in hir degree CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

50 British Poetry Till 17th Century Heere in this tale, as that they sholde stonde; My wit is short, ye may wel understonde. Greet chiere made oure Hoost us everichon, And to the soper sette he us anon, And served us with vitaille at the beste: Strong was the wyn and wel to drynke us leste. A semely man Oure Hooste was with-alle For to been a marchal in an halle. A large man he was with eyen stepe, A fairer burgeys was ther noon in Chepe; Boold of his speche, and wys, and well y-taught, And of manhod hym lakkede right naught. Eek thereto he was right a myrie man, And after soper pleyen he bigan, And spak of myrthe amonges othere thynges, Whan that we hadde maad our rekenynges; And seyde thus: \"Now, lordynges, trewely, Ye been to me right welcome, hertely; For by my trouthe, if that I shal nat lye, I saugh nat this yeer so myrie a compaignye CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Geoffrey Chaucer – The Canterbury Tales… 51 At ones in this herberwe as is now. Fayn wolde I doon yow myrthe, wiste I how; And of a myrthe I am right now bythoght, To doon yow ese, and it shal coste noght. \"Ye goon to Canterbury—God yow speede, The blisful martir quite yow youre meede! And wel I woot, as ye goon by the weye, Ye shapen yow to talen and to pleye; For trewely confort ne myrthe is noon To ride by the weye doumb as a stoon; And therfore wol I maken yow disport, As I seyde erst, and doon yow som confort. And if you liketh alle, by oon assent, For to stonden at my juggement, And for to werken as I shal yow seye, To-morwe, whan ye riden by the weye, Now, by my fader soule, that is deed, But ye be myrie, I wol yeve yow myn heed! Hoold up youre hond, withouten moore speche.\" Oure conseil was nat longe for to seche; CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

52 British Poetry Till 17th Century Us thoughte it was noght worth to make it wys, And graunted hym withouten moore avys, And bad him seye his verdit, as hym leste. \"Lordynges,\" quod he, \"now herkneth for the beste; But taak it nought, I prey yow, in desdeyn; This is the poynt, to speken short and pleyn, That ech of yow, to shorte with oure weye In this viage, shal telle tales tweye, To Caunterbury-ward, I mene it so, And homward he shal tellen othere two, Of aventúres that whilom han bifalle. And which of yow that bereth hym beste of alle, That is to seyn, that telleth in this caas Tales of best sentence and moost solaas, Shal have a soper at oure aller cost, Heere in this place, sittynge by this post, Whan that we come agayn fro Caunterbury. And, for to make yow the moore mury, I wol myselven gladly with yow ryde, Right at myn owene cost, and be youre gyde; And whoso wole my juggement withseye CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Geoffrey Chaucer – The Canterbury Tales… 53 Shal paye al that we spenden by the weye. And if ye vouche-sauf that it be so, Tel me anon, withouten wordes mo, And I wol erly shape me therfore.\" This thyng was graunted, and oure othes swore With ful glad herte, and preyden hym also That he wolde vouche-sauf for to do so, And that he wolde been oure governour, And of our tales juge and réportour, And sette a soper at a certeyn pris; And we wol reuled been at his devys In heigh and lough; and thus, by oon assent, We been acorded to his juggement. And therupon the wyn was fet anon; We dronken, and to reste wente echon, Withouten any lenger taryynge. Amorwe, whan that day gan for to sprynge, Up roos oure Hoost and was oure aller cok, And gadrede us togidre alle in a flok; And forth we riden, a litel moore than paas, CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

54 British Poetry Till 17th Century Unto the wateryng of Seint Thomas; And there oure Hoost bigan his hors areste, And seyde, \"Lordynges, herkneth, if yow leste: Ye woot youre foreward and I it yow recorde. If even-song and morwe-song accorde, Lat se now who shal telle the firste tale. As ever mote I drynke wyn or ale, Whoso be rebel to my juggement Shal paye for all that by the wey is spent. Now draweth cut, er that we ferrer twynne; He which that hath the shorteste shal bigynne. Sire Knyght,\" quod he, \"my mayster and my lord Now draweth cut, for that is myn accord. Cometh neer,\" quod he, \"my lady Prioresse. And ye, sire Clerk, lat be your shamefastnesse, Ne studieth noght. Ley hond to, every man.\" Anon to drawen every wight bigan, And, shortly for to tellen as it was, Were it by áventúre, or sort, or cas, The sothe is this, the cut fil to the Knyght, Of which ful blithe and glad was every wyght; CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Geoffrey Chaucer – The Canterbury Tales… 55 And telle he moste his tale, as was resoun, By foreward and by composicioun, As ye han herd; what nedeth wordes mo? And whan this goode man saugh that it was so, As he that wys was and obedient To kepe his foreward by his free assent, He seyde, \"Syn I shal bigynne the game, What, welcome be the cut, a Goddes name! Now lat us ryde, and herkneth what I seye.\" And with that word we ryden forth oure weye; And he bigan with right a myrie cheere His tale anon, and seyde in this manére. 2. The Canterbury Tales: Summary The Canterbury Tales begins with the introduction of each of the pilgrims making their journey to Canterbury to the Shrine of Thomas a Becket. These pilgrims include a Knight, his son the Squire, the Knight’s Yeoman, a Prioress, a Second Nun, a Monk, a Friar, a Merchant, a Clerk, a Man of the Law, a Franklin, a Weaver, a Dyer, a Carpenter, a Tapestry-Maker, a Haberdasher, a Cook, a Shipman, a Physician, a Parson, a Miller, a Manciple, a Reeve, a Sumoner, a Pardoner, the Wife of Bath and Chaucer himself. The Knight The Knight is the first to tell his tale. It is a story rich in love, rivalry and chivalry. Two men fall in love with the same beautiful young girl. The Knight’s Tale is a tale about two knights, Arcite and Palamon, who are captured in the battle and imprisoned in Athens under the order of King Theseus. While imprisoned in a tower, both see Emelye, the sister of Queen Hippolyta, and fall instantly in love with her. Both knights eventually leave prison separately. A friend of Arcite CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

56 British Poetry Till 17th Century begs Theseus to release him, while Palamon later escapes. Arcite returns to the Athenian court disguised as a servant, and when Palamon escapes he suddenly finds Arcite. They fight over Emelye, but their fight is stopped when Theseus finds them. Theseus sets the rules for a duel between the two knights for Emelye’s affection, and each raise an army for a battle a year from that date.Before the battle, Arcite prays to Mars for victory in battle, Emelye prays to Diana that she may marry happily, and Palamon prays to Venus to have Emelye as his wife. All three gods hear their prayers and argue over whose should get precedence, but Saturn decides to mediate. During their battle, Arcite indeed is victorious, but as soon as he is crowned victor, he is killed. Before he dies, he reconciles with Palamon and tells him that he deserves to marry Emelye. Palamon and Emelye marry. When the Knight finishes his tale, everybody is pleased with its honorable qualities, but the drunken Miller insists that he shall tell the next tale. The Miller The Host asks the Monk to tell the next tale, but the drunken Miller interrupts and insists that his tale should be the next. He tells the story of an impoverished student named Nicolas, who persuades his landlord’s sexy young wife, Alison, to spend the night with him. He convinces his landlord, a carpenter named John, that the second flood is coming, and tricks him into spending the night in a tub hanging from the ceiling of his barn. Absolon, a young parish clerk who is also in love with Alison, appears outside the window of the room where Nicholas and Alison lie together. When Absolon begs Alison for a kiss, she sticks her rear end out the window in the dark and lets him kiss it. His tale was funny but sexy. It was love game. The pilgrims laughed heartily at this tale, but Oswald the Reeve takes offense, thinking that the Miller meant to disparage carpenters. The Reeve In response, The Reeve’s Tale tells the story of a dishonest Miller, Symkyn, who repeatedly cheated his clients, which included a Cambridge college. Two Cambridge students, Aleyn and John, went to the Miller to buy meal and corn, but while they were occupied Symkyn let their horses run free and stole their corn. They were forced to stay with Symkyn for the night. That night, Aleyn seduced the Miller’s daughter, Molly, while John seduced the Miller’s wife. Thanks to a huge confusion of whose bed is who in the dark, Aleyn tells Symkyn of his exploits, thinking CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Geoffrey Chaucer – The Canterbury Tales… 57 he is John: and the two fight. The Miller’s wife, awaking and thinking the devil had visited her, hit Symkyn over the head with a staff, knocking him unconscious, and the two students escaped with the corn that Symkyn had stolen. The Cook The Cook particularly enjoys the Reev’s Tale and offers to tell another funny tale. The tale concerns an apprentice named Perkyn who drinks and dances so much that he is called “Perkyn Reveler.” Finally, Perkyn’s master decides that he would rather his apprentice leave to revel than stay home and corrupt the other servants. Perkyn arranges to stay with a friend who loves drinking and gambling, and who has a wife who is a prostitute. The tale breaks off, unfinished, after fifty eight lines. The Man of Law The host reminds his fellow pilgrims to waste no time, because lost time cannot be regained. He asks the Man of Law to tell the next tale. The Man of Law agrees, apologizing that he cannot tell any suitable tale that Chaucer has not already told – Chaucer may be unskilled as a poet, says the Man of Law, but he has told more stories of lovers than Ovid, and he doesn’t print tales of incest as John Gower does. In the Prologue to his tale, the Man of Law laments the miseries of poverty. He then remarks how fortunate merchants are, and says that his tale is one told to him by a merchant. In the tale, the Muslim sultan of Syria converts his entire sultanate to Christianity in order to persuade the emperor of Rome to give him his daughter, Custance, in marriage. The sultan’s mother and her attendants remain secretly faithful to Islam. The mother tells her son she wishes to hold a banquet for him and all the Christians. At the banquet, she massacres her son and all the Christians except for Custance, who she sets adrift in a rudderless ship. After years of floating, Custance runs ashore in Nothumberland, where a constable and his wife, Hermengyld, offer her shelter. She converts them to Christianity. One night, Satan makes a young knight sneak into Hermengyld’s chamber and murder Hermengyld. He places the bloody knife next to Custance, who sleeps in the same chamber. When the constable returns home, accompanied by Alla, the king of Northumberland, he finds his CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

58 British Poetry Till 17th Century slain wife; he tells Alla the story of how Custance was found, and Alla begins to pity the girl. He decides to look more deeply into the murder. After many adventures at sea, including an attempted rape, Custance ends up back in Rome, where she reunites with Alla, who has made a pilgrimage there to atone for killing his mother. She also reunites with her father, the emperor. Alla and Custancereturen to England, but Alla dies after a year, so Custance returns, once more, to Rome. Mauricius becomes the next Roman emperor. The Wife of Bath The Wife of Bath begins her tale with a long dissertation on marriage in which she recounts each of her five husbands. Her first three husbands were old men whom she would hector into providing for her, using guilt and refusal of sexual favors. However, the final two husbands were younger men, more difficult to handle. The final husband, Jankin was a twenty-year-old, half the Wife of Bath's age. He was more trouble, as he refused to let the Wife of Bath dominate him and often read literature that proposed that women be submissive. When she tore a page out of one of his books, Jankin struck her, causing her to be deaf in one ear. However, he felt so guilty at his actions that from that point in the marriage, he was totally submissive to her and the two remained happy. The Wife of Bath's Tale is itself a story of marriage dynamic. It tells the tale of a knight who, as punishment for raping a young woman, is sentenced to death. However, he is spared by the queen, who will grant him freedom if he can answer the question \"what do women want?\" The knight cannot find a satisfactory answer until he meets an old crone, who promises to tell him the answer if he marries her. He agrees, and receives his freedom when he tells the queen that women want sovereignty over their husbands. However, the knight is dissatisfied that he must marry the old, low-born hag. She therefore tells him that he can have her as a wife either old and ugly yet submissive, or young and beautiful yet dominant. He chooses to have her as a young woman, and although she had authority in marriage the two were completely happy from that point. The Friar The Friar asks to tell the next tale, and asks for pardon from the Summoner, for he will tell a tale that exposes the fraud of that profession. The Friar’s Tale tells about a wicked summoner CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Geoffrey Chaucer – The Canterbury Tales… 59 who, while delivering summons for the church court, comes across a traveling yeoman who eventually reveals to be the devil himself. The two share trade secrets, and the devil tells him that they will meet again in hell if the summoner continues to pursue his trade. The summoner visits an old woman and issues her a summons, then offers to accept a bribe as a payment to prevent her excommunication. The old woman believes that she is without sin and curses the summoner. The devil then appears and casts the summoner into hell. The Summoner The Summoner was enraged by the Friar’s Tale. Before he begins his tale, he tells a short anecdote: a friar visited hell and was surprised to see that there were no other friars. The angel who was with him then lifted up Sultan’s tail and thousands of friars swarmed out from his arse. The Summoner’s Tale is an equally vitriolic attack on friars. It tells of a friar who stays with an innkeeper and his wife and bothers them about not contributing enough to the church and not attending recently. When the innkeeper tells him that he was not recently in church because he has been ill and his infant daughter recently died, the friar attempted to placate him and then asked for donations once more. Thomas the innkeeper promised to give the friar a “gift” and gives him a loud fart. The Clerk The Host asks the Clerk to cheer up and tell a merry tale, and the Clerk agrees to tell a tale by the Italian poet Petrach. Griselde is a hardworking peasant who marries into the aristocracy. Her husband tests her fortitude in several ways, including pretending to kill her children and divorcing her. He punishes her one final time by forcing her to prepare for his wedding to a new wife. She does all this dutifully, her husband tells her that she has always been and will always be his wife and they live happily ever after. The Clerk ends with the advice that women should strive to be as steadfast as Griselde, even if facing such adversity is unlikely and perhaps impossible. The Merchant The Merchant praises Griselde for her steadfast character, but claims that his wife is far different from the virtuous woman of the Clerk's story. He instead tells a tale of an unfaithful wife. The Merchant's Tale tells a story of journey, an elderly blind knight who decides to marry a young woman, despite the objections of his brother, Placebo, January marries the young and CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

60 British Poetry Till 17th Century beautiful May, who soon becomes dissatisfied with his sexual attentions to her and decides to have an affair with his squire, Damian, who has secretly wooed her by signs and tokens. When January and May are in their garden, May sneaks away to have sex with Damian. The gods Pluto and Proserpina come upon Damian and May and Pluto restores January’s sight so that he may see what his wife is doing. When January sees what is occurring, May tells him not to believe his eyes – they are recovering from the blindness – and he believes her: leading to an on-the-surface happy ending. The Host prays to God to keep him from marrying a wife like the one the Merchant describes. The Squire The Squire tells the next tale, which is incomplete. The Squire’s Tale begins with a mysterious knight arriving at the court of Tartary. This knight gives King, Cambyuskana mechanical horse that can transport him anywhere around the globe and return him within a day. Further, he gives Canacee, the daughter of Cambyuskan, a mirror that can discern honesty and a ring that allows the wearer to know the language of animals and the healing properties of all herbs. Canacee uses this ring to aid a bird who has been rejected in love, but the tale then abruptly ends. The Squire’s Tale is either unfinished by Chaucer or is meant to be interrupted by the Franklin, who interjects that he wishes his own son were as eloquent as the Squire. The Host expresses annoyance at the Franklin’s interruption, and orders him to begin the next tale. The Franklin The Franklin’s Tale that follows tells of the marriage between the knight Arviragus and his wife, Dorigen. When Arviragus travels on a military expedition, Dorigen laments his absence and fears that, when he returns, his ship will be wrecked upon the rocks off the shore. A young man, Aurelius, falls in love with her, but she refuses to return his favors. She agrees to have an affair with Aurelius only on the condition that he find a way to remove the rocks from the shore, a task she believes impossible. Aurelius pays a scholar who creates the illusion that the rocks have disappeared, while Arviragus returns. Dorigen admits to her husband the promise that she has made, and Arviragus tells her that she must fulfill that promise. He sends her to have an affair with Aurelius, but he realizes the pain that it would cause Dorigen and does not make her fulfill the promise. The student in turn absolves Aurelius of his debt. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Geoffrey Chaucer – The Canterbury Tales… 61 The Physician The Physician’s Tale that follows tells of Virginiusa respected Roman knight whose daughter, Virginia, was an incomparable beauty. Appius, the judge who governed his town, lusted after Virginia and collaborated with Claudius, who claimed in court that Virginia was his slave and Virginius had stolen her. Appius orders that Virginia be handed over to him. Virginius, knowing that Appius and Claudius did this in order to rape his daughter, instead gave her a choice between death or dishonor. She chooses death, and Virginius chops off his daughter's head, which he brings to Appius and Claudius. The people were so shocked by this that they realized that Appius and Claudius were frauds. Appius was jailed and committed suicide, while Claudius was banished. The Pardoner The Pardoner prefaces his tale with an elaborate confession about the deceptive nature of his profession. He tells the secrets of his trade, including the presentation of useless items as saints' relics. The Pardoner's Tale concerns three rioters who search for Death to vanquish him. They find an old man who tells them that they may find Death under a nearby tree, but under this tree they only find a large fortune. Two of the rioters send the third into town to purchase food and drink for the night (when they intend to escape with their fortune) and while he is gone they plan to murder him. The third rioter poisons the drink, intending to take all of the money for himself. When he returns, the two rioters stab him, then drink the poisoned wine and die themselves. The three rioters thus find Death in the form of avarice. The Pardoner ends his tale with a diatribe against sin, imploring the travelers to pay him for pardons, and be absolved, but the Host berates him scatalogically into silence. The Host infuriates the Pardoner by accusing him of fraud, but the Knight persuades the two to kiss and bury their differences. The Shipman The Shipman’s Tale, is the story of a thrifty merchant and his wife. The wife tells a monk, the merchant’s close friend that she is unhappy in her marriage, and asks if she might borrow a hundred francs of his. In return for the loan, she agrees, she will sleep with him. The monk then borrows the money from the merchant himself, sleeps with his wife, and pays her her husband’s money. When the merchant asks for his money back, the monk tells him if he gave it to the wife: CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

62 British Poetry Till 17th Century and when the merchant confronts his wife, the wife simply tells him that she will repay the debt to her husband in bed. The Host praises the Shipman’s story, and asks the Prioress for a tale. The Prioress The Prioress’ Tale tells the story of a young Christian child who lived in a town in Asia that was dominated by a vicious Jewish population. One child learned the “Alma redemptoris”, a song praising the Virgin Mary, and traveled home from school singing it. The Jews, angry at his behavior, took the child and slit his throat, leaving him in a cesspit to die. The boy's mother searched frantically for her son. When she found him, he was not yet dead, for the Virgin Mary had placed a grain on his tongue that would allow him to speak until it was removed. When this was removed, the boy passed on to heaven. The story ends with a lament for the young boy and a curse for the Jews who perpetrated the heinous crime. The Prologue and Tale of Sir Thopas Chaucer himself tells the next tale, The Tale of Sir Thopas, a florid and fantastical poem in rhyming couplets that serves only to annoy the other pilgrims. The Host interrupts Chaucer shortly into this tale, and tells him to tell another. The Tale of Melibee Chaucer’s second tale is the long, moral prose story of Melibee. Melibee’s house is raided by his foes, who beats his wife, Prudence, and severely wound his daughter, Sophie, in her feet, hands, ears, nose, and mouth. Prudence advises him not to rashly pursue vengeance on his enemies, and he follows her advice, putting his foes’ punishment in her hands. She forgives them for the outrages done to her, in a model of Christian forbearance and forgiveness. However, he eventually submits to his wife’s plea for mercy. The Monk The Host wishes that his own wife were as patient as Melibee’s and calls upon the Monk to tell the next tale. The Monk’s Tale is not a narrative tale at all, but instead an account of various historical and literary figures who experience a fall from grace. These include Adam, Samson, Hercules, King Pedro of Spain, Bernabo Visconti, Nero, and Croesus. The Knight interrupts the CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Geoffrey Chaucer – The Canterbury Tales… 63 Monk’s Tale, finding his listing of historical tragedies monotonous and depressing, and is backed up by the Host. The Nun’s Priest’s Prologue, Tale and Epilogue The Nun’s Priest’s Tale tells the story of the rooster Chaunticleer and the hen Pertelote. Chaunticleer was ill one night and had a disturbing dream that he was chased by a fox. He feared this dream was prophetic, but Pertelote assured him that his dream merely stemmed from his imbalanced humours and that he should find herbs to cure himself. Chaunticleer insisted that dreams are signifiers, but finally agreed with his wife. However, Chaunticleer is indeed chased by a fox, and carried off – but is saved when he tricks the fox into opening his mouth, allowing Chaunticleer to fly away. The Second Nun’s Prologue and Tale Chaucer follows this with The Second Nun’s Tale. This tale is a biography of Saint Cecilia, who converts her husband and brother to Christianity during the time of the Roman Empire, when Christian beliefs were illegal. Her brother and husband are executed for their beliefs, and she herself is cut three times with a sword during her execution, but does not immediately die. Rather, she lingers on for several more days, during which time she orders that her property be distributed to the poor. Upon her death Pope Urban declared her a saint. All the three – Cecilia, Tiburce, and Valerian are put to death by the Romans. The Canon’s yeoman’s Prologue and Tale After the Second Nun finishes her tale, a Canon (alchemist) and his Yeoman join the band of travelers. The Canon had heard how they were telling tales, and wished to join them. The Yeoman speaks incessantly about the Canon, praising him hugely, but then retracts his praise, annoying the Canon, who suddenly departs. The Yeoman therefore decides to tell a tale about a duplicitous Canon. The Yeoman tells a tale of how a Canon defrauded a priest by creating the illusion of alchemy using sleight of hand. The Manciple’s Prologue and Tale The Host pokes fun at the Cook, riding at the back of the company, blind drunk. The Cook is unable to honour the Host’s request that he tells a tale, and the Manciple criticizes him for his CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

64 British Poetry Till 17th Century drunkenness. The Manciple relates the legend of a white crow, taken from the Roman Poet Ovid’s Metamorphoses and one of the tales in The Arabian Nights. In it, Phoebus’s talking white crow informs him that his wife is cheating on him. Phoebus kills the wife, pulls out the crow’s white feathers, and curses it with blackness. According to the Manciple, this explains why crows are black and can only sing in an unpleasant tone. The Parson As the company enters in a village late afternoon, the Host calls upon the Parson to give them a fable. The Parson tells the final tale. The Parson’s Tale is not a narrative tale at all, however, but rather an extended sermon on the nature of sin and the three parts necessary for forgiveness: contrition, confession, and satisfaction. Refusing to tell a fictional story because it would go against the rule set by St. Paul, the Parson delivers a lengthy treatise on the Seven Deadly Sins, instead. Chaucer’s Retraction Chaucer’s appeals to readers to credit Jesus Christ as the inspiration for anything in his book that they like, and to attribute what they don’t like to his own ignorance and lack of ability. He retracts and prays for forgiveness for all of his works dealing with secular and pagan subjects, asking only to be remembered for what he has written of saint’ lives and homilies. Chaucer ends the tales with a retraction, asking those who were offended by the tales to blame his rough manner and lack of education, for his intentions were not immoral, while asking those who found something redeemable in the tales to give credit to Christ. 2.3 Critical Analysis The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer is a series of different kinds of stories told by a group of imaginary pilgrims going to Canterbury: the Cathedral, a place of assassination of Saint Thomas a Becket. One of the pilgrims, Chaucer’s persona or narrator, who is a civil servant, retells us the stories. Chaucer planned to write a long series of stories in verse, so as to describe his native country, its people and their way of life, and to express the experiences of the native people in the native language, thereby developing a national literature. The invocation of spring with which the General Prologue begins is lengthy and formal compared to the language of the CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Geoffrey Chaucer – The Canterbury Tales… 65 rest of the Prologue. The first lines situate the story in a particular time and place, but the speaker does this in cosmic and cyclical terms, celebrating the vitality and richness of spring. This approach gives the opening lines a dreamy, timeless, unfocused quality, and it is therefore surprising when the narrator reveals that he’s going to describe a pilgrimage that he himself took rather than telling a love story. A pilgrimage is a religious journey undertaken for penance and grace. As pilgrimages went, Canterbury was not a very difficult destination for an English person to reach. It was, therefore, very popular in fourteenth-century England, as the narrator mentions. Pilgrims traveled to visit the remains of Saint Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, who was murdered in 1170 by knights of King Henry II. Soon after his death, he became the most popular saint in England. The pilgrimage in The Canterbury Tales should not be thought of as an entirely solemn occasion, because it also offered the pilgrims an opportunity to abandon work and take a vacation. In line 20, the narrator abandons his unfocused, all-knowing point of view, identifying himself as an actual person for the first time by inserting the first person —“I”— as he relates how he met the group of pilgrims while staying at the Tabard Inn. He emphasizes that this group, which he encountered by accident, was itself formed quite by chance (25–26). He then shifts into the first-person plural, referring to the pilgrims as “we” beginning in line 29, asserting his status as a member of the group. The narrator ends the introductory portion of his prologue by noting that he has “time and space” to tell his narrative. His comments underscore the fact that he is writing some time after the events of his story, and that he is describing the characters from memory. He has spoken and met with these people, but he has waited a certain length of time before sitting down and describing them. His intention to describe each pilgrim as he or she seemed to him is also important, for it emphasizes that his descriptions are not only subject to his memory but are also shaped by his individual perceptions and opinions regarding each of the characters. He positions himself as a mediator between two groups: the group of pilgrims, of which he was a member, and us, the audience, whom the narrator explicitly addresses as “you” in lines 34 and 38. On the other hand, the narrator’s declaration that he will tell us about the “condicioun,” “degree,” and “array” (dress) of each of the pilgrims suggests that his portraits will be based on objective facts as well CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

66 British Poetry Till 17th Century as his own opinions. He spends considerable time characterizing the group members according to their social positions. The pilgrims represent a diverse cross section of fourteenth-century English society. Medieval social theory divided society into three broad classes, called “estates”: the military, the clergy, and the laity. (The nobility, not represented in the General Prologue, traditionally derives its title and privileges from military duties and service, so it is considered part of the military estate.) In the portraits that we will see in the rest of the General Prologue, the Knight and Squire represent the military estate. The clergy is represented by the Prioress (and her nun and three priests), the Monk, the Friar, and the Parson. The other characters, from the wealthy Franklin to the poor Plowman, are the members of the laity. These lay characters can be further subdivided into landowners (the Franklin), professionals (the Clerk, the Man of Law, the Guildsmen, the Physician, and the Shipman), laborers (the Cook and the Plowman), stewards (the Miller, the Manciple, and the Reeve), and church officers (the Summoner and the Pardoner). As we will see, Chaucer’s descriptions of the various characters and their social roles reveal the influence of the medieval genre of estates satire. 2.4 Theme of The Canterbury Tales The prologue to The Canterbury Tales is most important because it established the class structure of society in Medieval England. Chaucer uses the genre of estates satire. Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales displays extraordinary diversity in genre, source materials, and themes. At the very least, the specific tales told by the pilgrims as they wend their way to Canterbury generally reflect their respective positions within medieval society as well as their personal characteristics. As or more important, Chaucer employs the device of a narrative framework, the story of twenty- nine individuals committed to both a religious pilgrimage and to participation in a story-telling contest. Reinforced by exchanges between the contestants, shared motifs appear in their respective narrations. Of these running themes, relations between men and women is the most prominent topic, but additional motifs, such as financial duplicity, unite groups of characters and run through several of their tales. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Geoffrey Chaucer – The Canterbury Tales… 67 In the General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales, the poet establishes a shared motivation for the pilgrims as a natural urge for spiritual renewal. The essential spirit behind The Canterbury Tales is social and playful. The prologue and the tales together both tell and show us the people’s way of life, their food, dress, interests, and habits, beliefs and attitudes, superstitions, religious life, rituals, social etiquette, table manners, hypocrisies, and many other details that create a vivid picture of the society. Chaucer barely holds the mirror up to the society of his time. Even when we read only the prologue to The Canterbury Tales, we meet all the kinds of people of his time, leaving probably only the topmost, the king, and the very bottom, the beggar. He has included all the three estates, the nobility, the clergy and the commoners. As we read the description of his characters, we are given the impression that Chaucer’s age was a time of transition from the medieval world to that of the Renaissance. Unlike the other writers who were lost in dreams and allegories, Chaucer has presented real life and people with their activities, tendencies, weaknesses, greatnesses, individual and professional behaviors, their passions and their absurdities. Corruptions, love game, politics, honesty, unity, hypocrisy, etc. are the themes of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Social satire, courtly love and sexual desire, corruption in church, competition, Christianity, class, lies and deception, justice and judgment, company and rivalry are the major themes of The Canterbury Tales. 2.5 Unit End Questions (MCQs and Descriptive) A. Descriptive Type Questions 1. What plan for the group does the Host propose in The Canterbury Tales? 2. What is Chaucer’s main reason for writing about the pilgrimage in“The Prologue” from The Canterbury Tales? 3. What are the Monk’s traits, and what medieval class does he represent in the The Canterbury Tales? 4. How many husbands The Wife of Bath had? 5. Why do the pilgrims go to the shrine of St. Beckett? 6. What are some of the places where the Knight has fought? CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

68 British Poetry Till 17th Century 7. When the Parson asks allegorically, “if gold rust, what would the iron do?”, what is he talking about? 8. “The Canterbury Tales is the mirror of society.” Justify. 9. In the Prologue of The Canterbury Tales, how will the winner of the story telling game be decided? Do the stories seem to meet the criteria? 10. Compare The Pardoner’s Tale and The Wife of Bath’s Tale to discuss which should win the contest Harry Bailey proposes at the end of the prologue. 11. How does the satire and humour in Chaucer’s General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales work within a subtle frame of evaluation of the pilgrims? 12. How does the Host quickly win the trust of all or most of the pilgrims in “The General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales”? 13. What in your opinion is Chaucer’s viewpoint regarding the social, economic and religious institutions of which his characters in The Canterbury Tales are representatives? B. Multiple Choice/Objective Type Questions 1. Who wrote The Canterbury Tales? (a) Oscar Wilde (b) Sir Gawain (c) Geoffrey Chaucer (d) William Shakespeare 2. What is the Narrator’s name? (a) Sir Topas (b) The Narrator’s name is not given (c) Geoffrey Chaucer (d) Sir Gawain 3. Where is the Narrator going? (a) Jerusalem (b) Canterbury (c) London (d) The town is not given 4. Why is the Narrator on his journey? (a) He is looking for work (b) He is competing in a knights’ tournament CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Geoffrey Chaucer – The Canterbury Tales… 69 (c) He is going to visit family (d) He is on a religious pilgrimage 5. What is the prize for the best tale? (a) Forgiveness from the Pardoner (b) The cost of the trip paid for (c) Bragging rights (d) A meal paid for by the other pilgrims 6. Who will determine the best tale in the contest? (a) The Pardoner (b) The group will vote (c) The Host (d) The Narrator 7. How is it determined that the Knight will tell the first tale? (a) The Pardoner asks the Knight to go first (b) The Host asks the Knight to go first (c) The pilgrims draw straws (d) The Knight volunteers 8. Which of the following events took place in 1381 in England? (a) Treaty of Bretigny (b) Death of Edward III (c) Invention of the printing press (d) The Peasant’s Revolt 9. Which of the following facts is not true of the life of Geoffrey Chaucer? (a) He was a diplomat (b) He died in 1410 (c) He was the only son of a London wine-merchant (d) He was a translator 10. During which of the following periods were The Canterbury Tales written? (a) 1240-1244 (b) 1310-1315 (c) 1387-1400 (d) 1395-1405 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

70 British Poetry Till 17th Century 11. In his initial plan for The Canterbury Tales, how many stories did Chaucer wish to include? (a) 20 (b) 60 (c) 100 (d) 90 12. How many tales did Chaucer complete? (a) 12 (b) 20 (c) 24 (d) 30 13. Which of the following is a theme of the text? (a) Courtly love (b) Importance of company (c) Corruption of the Church (d) All of the above 14. In which season does the pilgrimage take place? (a) Spring (b) Summer (c) Autumn (d) Winter Answers 1. (c), 2. (c), 3. (b), 4. (d), 5. (d), 6. (c), 7. (b), 8. (b), 9. (b), 10. (c), 11. (a), 12. (c), 13. (d), 14. (a). 2.6 References 1. www.enotes.com/people/karaejacebi 2. www.enotes.com/people/theyellowbookworm 3. www.coursehero.com 4. www.bookrags.com 5. The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer by Walter W. Skeat 6. The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales – Geoffrey Chaucer – Critical Evaluation by Dr. S. Sen. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Unit 2 CHAPTER 3 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: AN INTRODUCTION William Shakespeare (26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) Structure: 3.0 Learning Objectives 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Biography of William Shakespeare 3.3 Shakespeare’s Work 3.4 Shakespeare’s writing Style 3.5 What is Sonnet? 3.6 Sonnet 18 3.7 Sonnet 29 3.8 Sonnet 73 3.9 Sonnet 94: ‘They that have power to hurt’

72 British Poetry Till 17th Century 3.10 Unit End Questions (MCQs and Descriptive) 3.11 References 3.0 Learning Objectives After reading this lesson, students will be able to:  Identify the figurative language of all the Sonnets  Explain the meaning or theme of the poem.  Determine the theme in each sonnet and describe how the themes are similar.  Identify the rhyme scheme and volta in each sonnet. 3.1 Introduction William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright and actor of the Renaissance era. He was an important member of the King’s Men Company of theatrical players from roughly 1594 onward. Known throughout the world, Shakespeare’s writings capture the range of human emotion and conflict and have been celebrated for more than 400 years. And yet, the personal life of William Shakespeare is somewhat a mystery. There are two primary sources that provide historians with an outline of his life. One is his work — the plays, poems and sonnets — and the other is official documentation such as church and court records. However, these provide only brief sketches of specific events in his life and yield little insight into the man himself.William Shakespeare, often called England’s national poet, is considered the greatest dramatist of all time. His works are loved throughout the world, but Shakespeare’s personal life is shrouded in mystery. 3.2 Biography of William Shakespeare No birth records exist, but an old church record indicates that a William Shakespeare was baptized at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon on April 26, 1564. From this, it is believed he was born on or near April 23, 1564, and this is the date scholars acknowledge as Shakespeare’s birthday. Located about 100 miles northwest of London, during Shakespeare’s time Stratford-upon-Avon was a bustling market town along the River Avon and bisected by a CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

William Shakespeare: An Introduction 73 country road.Shakespeare was the third child of John Shakespeare, a leather merchant, and Mary Arden, a local landed heiress. Shakespeare had two older sisters, Joan and Judith, and three younger brothers, Gilbert, Richard and Edmund. Before Shakespeare’s birth, his father became a successful merchant and held official positions as alderman and bailiff, an office resembling a mayor. However, records indicate John’s fortunes declined sometime in the late 1570s. Scant records exist of Shakespeare’s childhood and virtually none regarding his education. Scholars have surmised that he most likely attended the King’s New School, in Stratford, which taught reading, writing and the classics. Being a public official’s child, Shakespeare would have undoubtedly qualified for free tuition. But this uncertainty regarding his education has led some to raise questions about the authorship of his work. Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway at the age of 18. She was eight years older than him. They had three children: Susanna and twins Hamnet and Judith. After his marriage information about his life became very rare. But he is thought to have spent most of his time in London writing and performing in his plays. Between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, later known as the King’s Men. Around 1613, at the age of 49, he retired to Stratford, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare’s private life survive. He died on 23rd April 1616 at the age of 52. He died within a month of signing his will, a document which he begins by describing himself as being in “perfect health.” In his will, Shakespeare left the bulk of his large estate to his elder daughter Susanna. There are seven years of Shakespeare’s life where no records exist after the birth of his twins in 1585. Scholars call this period the “lost years,” and there is wide speculation on what he was doing during this period. 3.3 Shakespeare’s Work William Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were mainly comedies and histories and these works remain regarded as some of the best work produced in these genres. He them wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest works in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies also known as romances and collaborated with CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

74 British Poetry Till 17th Century other playwrights. Shakespeare’s plays remains highly popular today and are constantly studied, performed, and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world. With the exception of the tragic love story Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare’s first plays were mostly histories. Henry VI (Parts I, II and III), Richard II and Henry V dramatize the destructive results of weak or corrupt rulers and have been interpreted by drama historians as Shakespeare’s way of justifying the origins of the Tudor Dynasty. Julius Caesar portrays upheaval in Roman politics that may have resonated with viewers at a time when England’s aging monarch, Queen Elizabeth I, had no legitimate heir, thus creating the potential for future power struggles. Shakespeare also wrote several comedies during his early period: the whimsical A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the romantic Merchant of Venice, the wit and wordplay of Much Ado About Nothing and the charming As You Like It and Twelfth Night. Other plays written before 1600 include Titus Andronicus, The Comedy of Errors, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Taming of the Shrew, Love’s Labour’s Lost, King John, The Merry Wives of Windsor and Henry V. It was in Shakespeare’s later period, after 1600, that he wrote the tragedies Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth. In these, Shakespeare’s characters present vivid impressions of human temperament that are timeless and universal. Possibly the best known of these plays is Hamlet, which explores betrayal, retribution, incest and moral failure. These moral failures often drive the twists and turns of Shakespeare’s plots, destroying the hero and those he loves. In Shakespeare’s final period, he wrote several tragicomedies. Among these are Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest. Though graver in tone than the comedies, they are not the dark He wrote about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, of which the authorship of some is uncertain. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

William Shakespeare: An Introduction 75 3.4 Shakespeare’s Writing Style The playwright, poet, and actor, William Shakespeare was born in Elizabethan England in the 16th century. He wrote plays that appealed to both the commoner and the queen, and he wrote as well as performed in his plays. His plays were performed in London at the Globe Theater and in Stratford at The New Place Theater. He is referred to as William Shakespeare, Shakespeare, or the Bard by countless fans of his work around the world. Shakespeare wrote his earlier plays in the traditional style of the time. He relied heavily on using drawn out—sometimes extravagant—metaphors and narcissisms. His style often sounded pompous and pretentious. Shakespeare’s first original comedy called “The Two Gentlemen of Verona” (1590) shows an undeveloped and conflicting writing style. Romeo and Juliet shows Shakespeare’s witty writing style and his creative mastery. At this point in his life (around 1595), he favored a more theatrical structure, such as changing between comedy and tragedy to increase suspense. He expanded minor characters and developed sub-plots to amplify the story. Shakespeare also associated various poetic styles to different characters, occasionally evolving the style as the character developed. Shakespeare wrote in iambic pentameter. The results were plays and sonnets that had ten syllables per line and with his plays, these lines were unrhymed. The simplest way to describe the rhythm of iambic pentameter is to liken it to a heartbeat, which means a series of stressed words, then unstressed words. In the case of the heartbeat, it would sound like bump BUMP, bump BUMP. Using an example from Shakespeare’s sonnets, this would be: When I do count the clock that tells the time This style of writing lent itself to the theatricality of a play, which was as much about using the language beautifully as it was about telling a good story or furthering the plot. Some of the most famous lines in the history of literature come from the writings of William Shakespeare. As well, some of the most famous literary devices also come from William CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

76 British Poetry Till 17th Century Shakespeare. He produced many highly-praised stories of human drama, comedy, and romantic sonnets and his work continues to influence writers to this day. Shakespeare’s early plays were written in the conventional style of the day, with elaborate metaphors and rhetorical phrases that didn’t always align naturally with the story’s plot or characters. However, Shakespeare was very innovative, adapting the traditional style to his own purposes and creating a freer flow of words. Shakespeare’s sonnets are written in iambic pentameter, with the exception of Sonnet 145, which is written in iambic tetrameter. Shakespeare’s style of writing and metre choice were typical of the day, and other writings of the time influenced how he structured his compositions. With only small degrees of variation, Shakespeare primarily used a metrical pattern consisting of lines of unrhymed iambic pentameter, or blank verse, to compose his plays. At the same time, there are passages in all the plays that deviate from this and use forms of poetry or simple prose. William Shakespeare was the most influential writer of all time, bringing a lyrical element to plays about great kings and poor paupers alike. His iambic pentameter verses utilized a natural rhythm of the English language and his themes as well as his literary devices continue to inspire and influence writers even now in the 21st century. Literary Legacy What seems to be true is that Shakespeare was a respected man of the dramatic arts who wrote plays and acted in some in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. But his reputation as a dramatic genius wasn’t recognized until the 19th century. Beginning with the Romantic period of the early 1800s and continuing through the Victorian period, acclaim and reverence for Shakespeare and his work reached its height. In the 20th century, new movements in scholarship and performance have rediscovered and adopted his works. Today, his plays are highly popular and constantly studied and reinterpreted in performances with diverse cultural and political contexts. The genius of Shakespeare’s characters and plots are CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

William Shakespeare: An Introduction 77 that they present real human beings in a wide range of emotions and conflicts that transcend their origins in Elizabethan England. Shakespeare as a Poet Shakespeare was not only a dramatist but also a great poet in his age. He wrote many short poems which are generally known sonnets. In 1593 and 1594, when the theatres were closed because of plague Shakespeare published two narrative poems on sexual themes, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. He dedicated them to Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton. In Venus and Adonis, an innocent Adonis rejects the sexual advances of Venus; while in The Rape of Lucrece, the virtuous wife Lucrece, is raped by the lustful Tarquin. Influenced by Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the poems show the guilt and moral confusion that result from uncontrolled lust.Both proved popular and were often reprinted during Shakespeare’s lifetime. A third narrative poem, A Lover’s Complaint, in which a young woman laments her seduction by a persuasive suitor, was printed in the first edition of the Sonnets in 1609. Most scholars now accept that Shakespeare wrote A Lover’s Complaint. Critics consider that its fine qualities are marred by leaden effects. The Phoenix and the Turtle,printed in Robert Chester’s 1601 Love’s Martyr, mourns the deaths of the legendary phoenix and his lover, the faithful turtle dove. In 1599, two early drafts of sonnets 138 and 144 appeared in The Passionate Pilgrim, published under Shakespeare’s name but without his permission. 3.5 What is Sonnet? A sonnet is a short lyric poem composed in iambic pentameter, with a twist in meaning, known as a “turn,” toward the end. The word “sonnet” comes from the Italian sonetto, meaning a little sound or song. Sonnets originated in Italy, where they were popularized by the poet Petrarch. Sir Thomas Wyatt brought the sonnet form to England in the early sixteenth century. A sonnet is a stanza of 14 lines poem written in iambic pentameter. It soon became a staple of poets like Edmund Spenser, William Shakespeare, John Milton, and still later, Elizabeth Barrett Browning. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

78 British Poetry Till 17th Century 3.6 Sonnet 18 Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm’d; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d; But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou growest: So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this and this gives life to thee. Summary The speaker opens the poem with a question addressed to the beloved: “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” The next eleven lines are devoted to such a comparison. In line 2, the speaker stipulates what mainly differentiates the young man from the summer’s day: he is “more lovely and more temperate.” Summer’s days tend toward extremes: they are shaken by “rough winds”; in them, the sun (“the eye of heaven”) often shines “too hot,” or too dim. And summer is fleeting: its date is too short, and it leads to the withering of autumn, as “every fair from fair sometime declines.” The final quatrain of the sonnet tells how the beloved differs from the summer in that respect: his beauty will last forever (“Thy eternal summer shall not fade...”) and CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

William Shakespeare: An Introduction 79 never die. In the couplet, the speaker explains how the beloved’s beauty will accomplish this feat, and not perish because it is preserved in the poem, which will last forever; it will live “as long as men can breathe or eyes can see.” Commentary This sonnet is certainly the most famous in the sequence of Shakespeare’s sonnets; it may be the most famous lyric poem in English. Among Shakespeare’s works, only lines such as “To be or not to be” and “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” are better-known. This is not to say that it is at all the best or most interesting or most beautiful of the sonnets; but the simplicity and loveliness of its praise of the beloved has guaranteed its place. On the surface, the poem is simply a statement of praise about the beauty of the beloved; summer tends to unpleasant extremes of windiness and heat, but the beloved is always mild and temperate. Summer is incidentally personified as the “eye of heaven” with its “gold complexion”; the imagery throughout is simple and unaffected, with the “darling buds of May” giving way to the “eternal summer”, which the speaker promises the beloved. The language, too, is comparatively unadorned for the sonnets; it is not heavy with alliteration or assonance, and nearly every line is its own self-contained clause — almost every line ends with some punctuation, which affects a pause. Sonnet 18 is the first poem in the sonnets not to explicitly encourage the young man to have children. The “procreation” sequence of the first 17 sonnets ended with the speaker’s realization that the young man might not need children to preserve his beauty; he could also live, the speaker writes at the end of Sonnet 17, “in my rhyme.” Sonnet 18, then, is the first “rhyme”—the speaker’s first attempt to preserve the young man’s beauty for all time. An important theme of the sonnet (as it is an important theme throughout much of the sequence) is the power of the speaker’s poem to defy time and last forever, carrying the beauty of the beloved down to future generations. The beloved’s “eternal summer” shall not fade precisely because it is embodied in the sonnet: “So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,” the speaker writes in the couplet, “So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.” CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

80 British Poetry Till 17th Century 3.7 Sonnet 29 When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes, I all alone be weep my outcast state, And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries, And look upon myself and curse my fate, Wishing me like to one more rich in hope , Featured like him, like him with friends possessed, Desiring this man’s scope, With what I most enjoy contented least, Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising. Haply I thank on thee, and then my state, (Like to the lark at break of day arising From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven’s gate, For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings, That then I scorn to change my state with kings. Summary Sonnet 29 focuses on the speaker’s initial state of depression, hopelessness and unhappiness in life and the subsequent recovery through happier thoughts of love. The first eight lines are full of self-pity and negative impressions, whilst the final six lines are all about the positives sweet love brings that help drive despondency away. The speaker of this sonnet says he’s completely bummed and that he’s been bawling his eyes out over his pathetic life and all of his misfortune. He says he’s all alone and feels alienated and unsuccessful. Heck. Even God is ignoring him and won’t return his phone calls. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

William Shakespeare: An Introduction 81 He says he wishes he was rich and had something to hope for. Also, he totally wishes he was good looking, popular with friends, and talented like some other dudes he knows. But he’s not, which is why nothing seems fun anymore — not even the stuff he used to enjoy doing. Just as our bummed out speaker is thinking about all the stuff he used to really dig, he suddenly remembers a special person in his life and his mood begins to shift in a big, dramatic way. The mere thought of this unnamed mystery person makes our speaker so unbelievably happy and hopeful that he feels like a bird (a “lark,” to be exact) that rises up and sings to the heavens. Finally, our speaker concludes that, hey, life is pretty great after all. Even though this unnamed person isn’t exactly around right now, just thinking about his or her “sweet love” makes our speaker feel like the luckiest guy ever — so lucky that he wouldn’t trade places with anyone else for all the money and power in the world.In a nutshell, a depressed loser somehow finds joy and meaning in the sweetness of love. Life is worth living after all. Commentary Sonnet 29 is a fourteen line Shakespearean (or English) sonnet with a turn or volta after eight lines, which make up the ‘problem’, and the final six lines which shift the narrative and provide a solution. This sonnet is a little different from the others Shakespeare wrote because some scholars think it has three parts and is not a traditional when/then type of sonnet. The first eight lines are indisputably about the speaker’s darker side, then lines 9 and 10 express a subtle change of tone before lines 11-14 conclude with a more positive outlook.. There are several interesting differences in this sonnet – the metre (meter in USA) changes from the usual iambic pentameter several times, there are rare feminine endings to some lines and certain rhymes repeat. Rhyme Scheme The rhyme scheme ababcdcdebebff is slightly different to the traditional ababcdcdefefgg – which points to the author wanting to place emphasis on contrasting lines with the same rhyme. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

82 British Poetry Till 17th Century  So this variant occurs in lines 10 and 12 where state/gate, match lines 2 and 4 state/fate. It’s interesting to note that the word state turns up three times, twice reflecting the importance the speaker attaches to their status as a human being in terms of feeling, and once in the last line where my state signifies their position or material ownership, likened to a king’s.  Note the closeness of lines 9 and 11 with 13 and 14 – helping to tighten the latter part of the sonnet: despising/arising/brings/kings. Iambic Pentameter and Trochee Sonnet 29 does have a basic iambic pentameter rhythm, that is, each line is made up of five unstressed and five stressed syllables, making a total of ten syllables per line. But there are some exceptions, notably lines 3, 5, 6, 9, 10 and 11. Starting with the first line:  When in/disgrace/with For/tune and/men’s eyes, which is regular steady iambic pentameter (five feet), as is line two:  I all/alone/beweep/my out/cast state, but when we get to line three things start to change:  And trou/ble deaf/heaven with/my boot/less cries, note the inverted trochee heaven with which brings sharp double stress to deaf heaven (heaven is treated as one syllable) before normal rhythm is retained in line 4 :  And look upon myself and curse my fate, but line 5 disrupts the status quo again:  Wishing/me like/to one/more rich/in hope, Another trochee starts the line, putting the emphasis on the speaker’s plight, as in line 6:  Featured/like him,/like him/with friends/possessed, and in lines 7 and 8 iambic pentameter returns:  Desir/ing this/man’s art,/and that/man’s scope, CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

William Shakespeare: An Introduction 83  With what I most enjoy contented least, Before line 9 introduces the extra beat with 11 syllables:  Yet in/these thoughts/my self/almost/despis/ing, the extra beat or hyperbeat also known as a feminine (unstressed) ending, rare in a Shakespeare sonnet. Line 10 is different again:  Haply I think on thee, and then my state, a trochee starts the line which reverts back to iambic. Meanwhile line 11 is the sister to line 9:  Like to the lark at break of day arising whilst lines 12-14 are regular iambic pentameter:  From sullen earth sings hymns at heaven’s gate,  For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings  That then I scorn to change my state with kings. 3.8 Sonnet 73 That time of year thou may'st in me behold When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. In me thou see'st the twilight of such day, As after sunset fadeth in the west, Which by-and-by black night doth take away, Death's second self, that seals up all in rest. In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

84 British Poetry Till 17th Century That on the ashes of his youth doth lie, As the death-bed whereon it must expire Consum'd with that which it was nourish'd by. This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong, To love that well which thou must leave ere long. Note Please note that: thou means you and thy means your. In line 10 his means its, and the archaic ere means before in the last line. Summary In this Shakespeare sonnet each quatrain is a statement given by the speaker, relating age to the seasons and the natural world. Note the end stop at lines 4, 8 and 12. The speaker, a male or female, is laying down three personal observations, mirrored in the natural environment. Line 1 is a clear reference to time and its relation to the aging process. It's as if the speaker is saying ‘I’m growing old, that much is clear.’ The time of year is the season of fall (autumn) or winter. It’s iambic, with five stresses, the common meter (metre) of the English sonnet. Lines 2-4 .The speaker is reminding a partner, lover, wife, that he’s no longer youthful like Spring, but losing it, just like the trees are losing their leaves. To reinforce this fact the metaphor is extended to include branches and a cold, bare ruined choir – part of a church where the choristers sing – and he’s looking back, perhaps to the summer when birds sang. Lines 5-8 deepen the sense that here is someone past their prime, not as bright and vibrant. The natural world is invoked again, this time with sun and sky. The speaker is comparing himself to the end of day, a time of quiet, a time of rest. Things are winding down and evening will soon be turning into night. ‘Death’s second self’ is a fascinating repeat of the commonest vowel e – assonance – a useful poetic device Shakespeare excelled at. This confirms the idea of activity ceasing and a finality approaching. The word seal brings to mind the coffin (casket) or tomb. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

William Shakespeare: An Introduction 85 Lines 9-12 again start with ‘In me’ emphasising the personal, the one-to-one observation. Yet, as always with Shakespeare, the metaphorical is the bridge to the universal. If the second quatrain contained the sun, this third one gives the reader the pure element of fire, human spirit, which, as life inevitably draws to a close, fades. Line 12 sums it up – the fire consumes when it formerly fed. Lines 13-14 form a concluding couplet. You know I’m old, we both know that the strong love you have will continue even if you (or I) have to leave. Commentary This sonnet is the set of past, present and future. The speaker appears to be a bit down because he or she is getting older, repeatedly concentrating on their image and the effects of time. Sonnet 73 is one of four William Shakespeare wrote on the subject of time, the aging process and mortality. It’s a thoughtful, reflective sonnet, the voice of a person getting older, aimed at a partner whose love the speaker obviously needs.this poem is all about the strength of someone’s love and the love between two people who have known each other a long time. This is deep- seated, spiritual love, nothing to do with the physical. Sonnet 73 is one of a quartet, 71-74, focusing on the aging process, mortality and love after death. Poetic Devices This 14 line English or Shakespearean sonnet has a rhyme scheme of ababcdcdefefgg, making up 3 quatrains and an end couplet. Rhymes are full: fire/expire and strong/long, by/lie. Assonance can be found in lines 2, 3 and 13 and alliteration in 7 and 8. Syntactically it’s pretty straightforward. 3.9 Sonnet 94: ‘They that have power to hurt’ They that have power to hurt, and will do none, That do not do the thing they most do show, Who, moving others, are themselves as stone, Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow; CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

86 British Poetry Till 17th Century They rightly do inherit heaven’s graces, And husband nature’s riches from expense; They are the lords and owners of their faces, Others, but stewards of their excellence. The summer’s flower is to the summer sweet, Though to itself, it only live and die, But if that flower with base infection meet, The basest weed outbraves his dignity: For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds; Lilies that fester, smell far worse than weeds. Summary Sonnet 94, considered one of the most challenging and ambiguous of all the Sonnets. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 94, beginning ‘They that have power to hurt, and will do none’, is, for our money, also one of the top five best sonnets in the whole sequence. One scholar and poet, J.H. Prynne, has even written a whole book about this one sonnet. Before we proceed to an analysis of this enigmatic poem, here’s a reminder of Sonnet 94. First, a brief paraphrase of the sonnet, by way of summary: ‘There are those who have the power to hurt others, because of the beauty they possess; but they don’t hurt anyone, even though they can. They inspire sexual desire in those, but are themselves cool and unaffected, and not easily tempted. These people deserve our praise, and that of heaven, too. They are like lords in their greatness, who own it outright; we others are like stewards who merely look after their excellence. The flower that blooms in the summer is sweet, even though the flower itself neither knows nor cares how sweet it is; but if that sweet flower is infected, then even the lowliest weed is more dignified and honourable. Sweet things which turn sour, do so because they become corrupted; weeds are preferable to rotting and festering lilies.’Further the closing couplet of the poem seems to connect the flower section to the section about the mysterious powerful people. Apparently, by CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

William Shakespeare: An Introduction 87 keeping their inner selves hidden, they keep themselves from becoming corrupted, and so are able to remain as beautiful as flowers. The way Shakespeare puts it is much more of a downer, though, and the closing line shows the consequences of corruption, inviting us to smell festering “Lilies” whose stench, he assures us, “is far worse than weeds.” Commentary Sonnet 94 is one of the most difficult sonnets in the sequence, at least in terms of the reader’s ability to know what exactly the speaker is talking about. He jumps from an almost opaque description of these mysterious people who “have pow’r to hurt and will do none” to an almost inexplicable description of a flower in the summer. The two parts of the poem seem almost unconnected. In order to understand them, both on their own and in relation to one another, it is necessary to understand something about the tradition out of which the first 126 sonnets were written. In Elizabethan England, it was very difficult for poets to make money simply by writing and selling their poetry. Many writers sought out aristocratic patrons, who supported them in return for the prestige of having a poet at their beck and call. Very often, poets courted their patrons, and ensured their places in their patrons’ good graces, by writing fawning verses in praise of the patron’s beauty, valor, power, and so on. The first 126 of Shakespeare’s sonnets, while not exactly fawning praise aimed at an infinitely higher-up aristocrat (the speaker often seems quite intimate with the young man), do come from this tradition of patronage and praise. The speaker’s lengthy invocations to the beloved’s beauty, sweetness, and worth, and the occasional intimations of power differences between him and his beloved (as in Sonnet 87, where the speaker says that the young man is “too dear for my possessing”), hint at this tradition. Certain other poems — such as the sequence from 82 to 86, in which the speaker reacts to the presence of a rival poet competing for his patron’s favors — express it outright. Sonnet 94 is a reaction to the conditions of the speaker’s patronage. An aristocrat was in no way obligated to treat the poet he supported as an equal; in fact, his superiority was in some ways the entire point of the exchange. The speaker, genuinely in love with the young man, is forced to relate to him not as an equal, but as an inferior. To him, the young man can often seem cold, distant, and grave, and the speaker, who loves him, is forced to CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

88 British Poetry Till 17th Century try to explain this behavior in a way that will enable him to continue loving the young man. The solution is to praise his very distance and reserve: he is not only “unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow,” he is “the lord and owner” of his face, and the inheritor of “heaven’s graces.” But praise of this chilly detachment seems inadequate (after all, the speaker’s tone seems to imply that he has been hurt by the young man’s behavior, so how can he say that the young man “will do none”?), so he makes his argument even more oblique by turning to the metaphor of the flower. The summer’s flower, like the cold aristocrats of the first two quatrains, is beautiful only in and for itself; it has no interest in the fact that the summer loves it, because “to itself it only live and die.” Like the summer, the speaker hopes he can love the young man simply for his beauty without expecting anything in return. But he is forced to acknowledge that the young man is not so neutral and inactive: he has committed hurtful deeds, which act like a “base infection” in the flower to render it lower than a weed. The couplet brilliantly brings the two parts of the poem into full relation: the first line refers specifically to the first part of the poem (“Sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds” — as opposed to the perfect creatures who “do not do” hurtful deeds), and the second half refers to the metaphor of the flower (“Lilies that fester”— a sour deed—”smell far worse than weeds”). 3.10 Unit End Questions (MCQs and Descriptive) A. Descriptive Type Questions 1. “William Shakespeare was a great poet of sonnet.” Justify. 2. How Shakespeare’s poetic work is different from his plays. 3. What is sonnet? Describe with example. 4. How is the Sonnet 18 different from the Sonnet 94? 5. Explain how the metaphor in “Sonnet 18” contributes to the overall meaning of the poem. Ans: In this sonnet, the speaker compares his lover to a “summer’s day” via a metaphor, a comparison of two unalike objects where one thing is said to be the other. He asks if he should compare her in this way, and then he goes ahead and does it, noting that she is actually far superior to a summer day. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

William Shakespeare: An Introduction 89 The speaker explains that his beloved is more “lovely” and more “temperate” than a summer day for many reasons. First, summer is a season that lasts only a short while; next, the sun sometimes shines a little too hot during the summer and can make things too hot and uncomfortable; third, the light of the sun is sometimes not bright enough because it is dimmed by clouds; and, finally, everything in nature grows less and less beautiful as it ages. However, the poem’s volta, or turn, takes place in the ninth line when the speaker declares that his lover’s beauty is like an “eternal summer” that will never fade, unlike everything else in nature whose beauty will inevitably die. The speaker says that his lover will never become less beautiful and her beauty will never die because he has written these “eternal lines to time” about her and her beauty. He declares that as long as men live and their eyes can see, his words will live on and continue to keep his lover alive as well. Thus, the metaphor contributes to the overall meaning of the poem because of the contrast between the shortness of summer versus the speaker’s eternal love and the way he immortalizes her beauty. B. Multiple Choice/Objective Type Questions 1. In which year was William Shakespeare born? (a) 1534 (b) 1564 (c) 1594 2. During his life time, Shakespeare wrote a total of (a) 144 sonnets (b) 154 (c) 164 3. In which town or city in England was Shakespeare born? (a) Stratford-upon-Avon (b) Warwick (c) London CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

90 British Poetry Till 17th Century 4. Between what time period Shakespeare begin a successful career in London as an actor? (a) Between 1585 and 1592 (b) Between 1579 and 1583 (c) Between 1580 and 1591 5. When did Shakespeare write his plays? (a) 14th and 15th century (b) 15th and 16th century (c) 16th and 17th century 6. “To be or not to be” is a famous line form: (a) Hamlet (b) Othello (c) Macbeth 7. Shakespeare is known mostly for his __________. (a) Dramas (b) Poetry (c) Novels 8. A sonnet is a lyric poem of __________ lines. (a) 10 (b) 14 (c) 16 9. Shakespeare composed much of his plays in what sort of verse? (a) Alternative verse (b) Iambic pentameter (c) Sonnet 10. Shakespeare died at the age of __________. (a) 60 (b) 65 (c) 52 Answers 1. (b), 2. (b), 3. (a), 4. (a), 5. (c), 6. (a), 7. (a), 8. (b), 9. (b), 10. (c). CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

William Shakespeare: An Introduction 91 3.11 References 1. Adapted from Wikipedia 2. Shakespeare’s Sonnet by G. Eld for T.T. 1607 3. Analysis by Sonnets by Andrew Spacy 4. Poets.org. 5. https://owlcation.com/humanities 6. https://interestingliterature.com/category/literature 7. A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare by James Shapiro CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Unit 2 CHAPTER 4 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS William Shakespeare (26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) Structure: 4.0 Learning Objectives 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Sonnet 110 4.3 Sonnet 116 4.4 Sonnet 129 4.5 Sonnet 130 4.6 Sonnet 138 4.7 Unit End Questions (MCQs and Descriptive) 4.8 References