2015-08-21
1328
Three rioters, three evil-doing men, were sitting at a tavern having a drink. And as they sat there they heard a hand-bell ring and saw a coffin being carried past them in the street. So one of them said to the tavern-boy, “Go and find out at once whose corpse is in that coffin, and mind you don’t forget his name.”
“Sir,” said the boy, “there is no need for me to go. Just before you came in I was told that this dead man, who used to be a friend of yours, had died last night. We’ve got a thief round here called Death. He killed a thousand people in the present plague, and having killed he goes away without a word.”
“What the child says is right,” added the innkeeper. “You better be careful too, and look out you don’t meet him on the road.”
“Is he as fierce as that?” cried the rioter. “Then I’ll search for him.” And then he turned to the other two rioters and said, “Here, chaps, we’ll go all three together and we’ll be brothers in this affair and each defend the others. And we’ll kill this traitor Death.” And the other two joined in shouting at the top of their voices: “If we can only catch him, Death is dead.”
And the three rioters set out to find the enemy of mankind. They had not walked half a mile when they met a very poor man who humbly greeted them. But the proudest of the three young answered, “What old fool? Give place! Why live so long? Isn’t it time for you to die?”
The old man answered quietly that he would gladly die, but since he had as yet never met a man who would give away youth and take from him his old age, he was compelled to live on and couldn’t help it. Then he told them not to speak roughly to an old man who didn’t mean to injure them.
He wanted to go away, but the second rioter, who was a gambler, barred his way: “We won’t let you go off so easily. We heard you mention the traitor Death. You are most probably his spy; now wait a bit, say where he is or shall pay for it.”
“Well, Sirs,” said the old man, “if you have made up your mind to find Death, you needn’t go far. Turn up this crooked way to that grove. You’ll find Death waiting under an oak. He isn’t one to hide.”
At once the three young rioters began
To run, and reached the tree, and there they found
A pile of golden florins on the ground,
New-coined, eight bushels of them as they thought.
No longer was it Death those fellows sought,
For they were all so thrilled to see the sight,,
The florins were so beautiful and bright,
That down they sat beside the precious pile.
The wickedest spoke after a while.
“Brothers,” he said, “you listen to what I say.
I’m pretty sharp, although I joke away.
It’s clear that Fortune has bestowed this treasure
To let us live in jollity and pleasure.
Light come, light go! We’ll spend it as we ought.
God’s precious dignity! Who would have thought
This morning was to be our lucky day?
If one could only get this gold away,
Back to my house, or else to yours, perhaps, -
For as you know the gold is ours, chaps, -
We’d all be at the top of fortune, hey?
But certainly it can’t be done by day.
People would call us robbers – a strong gang,
So our own property would make us hang.
No, we must bring this treasure back by night
Some prudent way and keep it out of sight.”
He then proposed to draw lots: the man whose luck was to draw the longest lot was to run to town and fetch bread and wine, while the two others were to stay behind and guard the gold. And after dark they would all three carry it away.
The lot fell to the youngest and he ran off. No sooner was he gone than the wicked man made another plan: “We have a chance,” one of them said, “to get each a large share of the gold if we divide it into two parts and not into three. If you want me to do you a friendly turn, do as I tell you: as soon as the young fellow comes back, have a wrestle with him as if for fun, and while you are struggling, I’ll come up and put my dagger through his back, and when he falls, you’ll do same and finish him.
In the meantime the youngest, who had nearly reached the town, kept thinking about the gold pieces until it struck him that he could take them all for himself. If he got some poison he could go away with his two friends, and then the gold would be all his own.
At first he got the bread and wine. Then he found an apothecary who was selling poison to kill rats. He bought some. Then he found a man who lent him three bottles. One bottle he kept clean for his own use and into the other two he poured the poison. Then he filled them all with wine and walked back to the grove.
When he reached the oak, the first two rioters did exactly as they had planned: they fell on the young one and killed him, which was not hard to do since they were two to one.
Then said the first of them when this was done:
“Now for a drink. Sit down and let’s be merry,
For later on there’ll be the corpse to bury.”
And as it happened, reaching for a sup
He took a bottle full a poison up
And drank; and his companion, nothing loth,
Drank from it also, and they perished both.
Thus these two murderers received their due,
So did the treacherous young poisoner too.
CHAUCER’S CONTRIBUTION TO LITERATURE
1. “The Canterbury Tales” sums up all types of stories that existed in the Middle Ages: the Knight tells a romance; the Nun, a story of a saint; the Miller, a fabliau (a funny story); the Priest, a fable (a moral tale), etc. Some of these stories were known only in Norman-French before Chaucer. Chaucer also used the writings of his near contemporaries as well as the works of writers of ancient times and distant lands.
2. But the most important things about Chaucer is that he managed to show all ranks of society, all types of people that living during his time, and through these people he shows a true picture of the life of the 14th century.
a) It was very common to criticize the Church and churchmen, but Chaucer gives a true and impartial portrayal. Most of his churchmen are not religious at all. For instance, the Prior cares above all for good food and wine and hunting; he wants to live and enjoy himself, and the author sees nothing wicked or sinful in it. There is Pardoner who deceives people by selling “pardons” by permission of the Pope and is well paid for it; in this character there is much biting criticism of the Church. At the same time Chaucer shows us the poor priest. He knew the churchmen of this type: they protested against social inequality in general (Langland was one of them), and hated the rich and ignorant bishops.
b) Long before Malory, Chaucer saw sings of the end of feudalism. During Chaucer’s time there appeared in England men of a new type, who had features of the bourgeoisie of the following epoch. They had no feudal prejudices, and cared for money alone. Chaucer understood quite clearly that the man like the Miller and the brother, The Poor Priest, were the only characters who escaped Chaucer’s satire. They came from peasant stock. Yet, when the up Merchant would conquer the future. Yet he regretted that the chivalrous ideals of feudalism were retreating into the past. Chaucer shows us the Knight and the Squire, father and son, - men of different epochs and ethics. The Knight is an honest champion of his medieval ideals, and needs practically nothing for himself, the Squire prefers luxury and safety to the dangers his father had been through; he is a courtier in the true sense of the word.
c) The Ploughman, “as a honest worker, good and true”, and his rising of 1381 broke out, Chaucer saw in the mass of peasants “a people undiscreet”;1 he called them so because he did not trust them.
3. Chaucer was the creator of a new literary language. He chose to write in the popular tongue, though the aristocracy at the time read and spoken French; even the burgesses up to the year 1362 had to deliver their speeches in Parliament in French.
A single language emerges from a number of dialects only when the people who speak these dialects have become one nation. The necessity for one common language for the English people during the Hundred Years’ War was a sign that they were becoming one nation. Chaucer shared in his national feeling. He wrote in the London dialect, for it enable him to define the typical features on his characters, to satirize feudal literature and to add humour to many an old story. His use of the many jokes popular in his time makes his poetry very lively. Chaucer made up new words which have remained in the language to this day: such as “daisy”, the name of a flower, which meant “day’s eyes”(light); “coal-black”, and “snow-white”. It is to be remembered that with Chaucer’s poetry the popular tongue became literary English.
Chaucer was the true founder of English literature, and when the great English poet Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909) called him “the father Chaucer”, he did him full justice.
4. Chaucer was by learning a man of the Middle Ages, but his attitude towards mankind was so broad-minded that his work is timeless. Chaucer did not teach his readers what is good or bad by moralizing; he was not a preacher. He merely called attention to the people around him; he drew his characters from life: he saw men as belonging to certain ranks of society. Chaucer described the individual features of his characters “according to profession and degree”, so they instantly became typical of their class. When assembled, they form one people, the English people.
Chaucer is the earliest English poet who may still be read for pleasure today.
Exercises
Prepare a report or write a short composition on the following:
1. Chaucer – the last poet of the Middle Ages.
1)What types of stories did Chaucer collect in his “Canterbury Tales”?
2)What literature was read at court before Chaucer? What was the literature of the townsfolk?
2. Chaucer – the first English poet to lay the way for the coming epoch in literature.
1)Who were Chaucer’s characters?
2)What was Chaucer’s attitude towards:
a)religion and the churchmen?
b)the court and the knights?
c)the common people: burgesses, professional men, etc.?
3. Chaucer – the earliest English poet, father of English poetry.
1)How did it come about that Chaucer wrote in English at a time when the educated people read and spoke only Norman-French?
2)Why may Chaucer still be read for pleasure today?
THE LITERATURE OF THE 15TH CENTURY
The Wars of the Roses. The death of Chaucer was a great blow to English poetry. It took two centuries to produce a poet equal to him. The Hundred Years’ War ended, but another misfortune befell the country: in 1455 a feudal war broke out between the descendants of Edward 3, which is known as the Wars of the Roses.
The feud turned into a bitter struggle for the crown, each party splitting up into smaller parties that murdered every likely heir to the throne. The commons took little part in the struggle. Anarchy reigned, making the exchange of knowledge almost impossible. Indeed, it was impossible for others to continue the work Chaucer had begun while the people suffered from continual war and remained completely ignorant.
William Caxton (1422-1491). In his early youth William Caxton was apprentice to a company of London dealers in silk and woollen cloth. Later, he lived in Flanders, in the town of Bruges, where he worked as a hand-copier of books for the royal family. He was a learned man and translated French histories into English. When on business in Cologne [kэ’loun], a German town, he learned the art of printing. In 1476 Caxton set up the first printing-press in Westminster.
Two years later, after Caxton had attracted public notice, a second printing-press was sat up at Oxford. During the next fifteen years Caxton printed sixty-five works, both translations and originals. The works of Chaucer were also printed with great care.
