Tuesday, Sept. 11 (9:25 class)
By Becca Garrett
Overview:
To start off class, Dr. Seaman went over the prompts for the paper that are posted on the blog. She reminded us about our Paper Description (due on Sept. 18th) and suggested that the more detailed we are in our Description, the more she can help us. In addition, we went over the paper layout. Dr. Seaman recommended to not worry about a five-paragraph paper layout, but to rather use whatever number of paragraphs are needed to emphasize our points.
We then went on to discuss Geoffrey Chaucer. There are hundreds of documents that mention him, and these documents are mostly about civic concerns and jobs he had in the government, versus his actual writing career. We are unsure if he had actual University education. Chaucer was born into the merchant/middle class, to a wine merchant. He worked his way up in status. We know this because he had positions in court, and married a lady in waiting. He used his experiences at court, but also as a middle class citizen to influence his works. His writings were sophisticated and ironic. Some consider him the “Father of English Poetry” which is only partly correct, considering he was not the only person who wrote these type of works, but he also gathered a lot of inspiration from French and Italian Sources. In terms of his work, he wrote lyrically, about the French tradition of romance, dream visions, Latin tradition of legends, and didactic exempla (stories of directions). On one hand he is exemplary in his work, but on the other hand, he wasn’t the only writer writing these things: he just did more of them, and did them more broadly. His most famous work is “The Canterbury Tales,” however we did discuss “Adam Scrivener” and “Complaint to His Purse.” “Adam Scrivener” talks about how horrible of a copyist or scribe Adam is and how the narrator wants to get rid of the diseased things that Adam has written so that the right words can be written down. Originally, scholars thought that Adam was the Adam from The Bible, but we have recently discovered that there might have been an actual Scrivener named Adam Pinkhurst that the poem might have been about. “Complaint to his Purse” is a lament to Henry IV to make the narrator rich again. Chaucer talks about coins and money, as a lot of writers at this time talked about a lady. He literalized a lot of things, but he also poked fun of things; almost like a parody.
We then moved on to “Sir Orfeo.” The structure of this tale is rhythmic couplets, with four beats per line (often called octosyllabic couplets), a European style that had become popular in England. The story starts off with the narrator talking about his love of music, and describes his wife and court. Heurodis (Orfeo’s wife) is relaxing in a meadow and “dreams” that fairies come and take her away, her ladies in waiting leaving her for dead. The fairies take her to the Fairy King and tells her to be under a certain tree the following day and live with theme forever happily, or they will find her, mutilate her, and drag her to the fairy world. She wakes up in a madness because she is so horrified, and starts to mutilate her self. She only talks after Orfeo calms her down. She goes to the tree to live in the fairy world. Orfeo spends ten years out in the wild trying to find her. When he finally finds the fairy world, he offers himself up (something that hasn’t happened in the fairy kingdom). He plays the harp so beautifully for the King, that he offers Sir Orfeo a reward. Sir Orfeo asks for Heurodis. While reluctant at first, the King accepts Orfeo’s offer, and the pair return to Winchester.
There are many interesting aspects of this poem. Dr. Seaman brought up that there is an ambiguity of life and death in this work. The question of being able to control death at all is brought into question. According to this work, we can’t. We are victims of death. There is also in emotional intensity in this poem. The author obviously wants to create an emotion response in the audience. Finally, we discussed the aspect that there is absolutely not reference to Christianity in this story.
Noteworthy Quotes:
Pg 150, Footnote 2: mentions that the Old French “fée” is derived from the Latin “fata,” or “fates”; which ties into the theme of ambiguity of life and death.
Terms:
Couplets: In poetry, two lines that rhyme.
Octosyllabic Couplets: four beats per line.
Tuesday September 11 (10:50 class)
by Elizabeth Gerdes
Overview:
We began the class on Tuesday with a small discussion and further explanation of the paper 1 assignment that was first introduced to us last Thursday. The paper should roughly be about 3 or 4 pages long, double spaced, but don’t be afraid to expand a little further over those 3 or 4 pages. You should turn it in through Oaks in the drop box on September 26 by 11 p.m. When writing remember not to limit yourself in terms of the number of paragraphs (the standard five paragraph essay may not fit your argument properly or may hinder you from going into the proper depth with each text). Importantly, all essays need a works cited page, which means all essays also need internal citations for anything quoted.
An example topic description is due on Oaks by September 18th (a week from today) and should be roughly a page long, or more if necessary. The topic description should include how you plan to go about your essay, a reason for why you choose that topic, some details about what you plan to say and a temporary thesis (which is not set in stone, so don’t worry if it changes). You will be given feedback with comments so that you know which direction to go forth with. As with the paper, remember to include a works cited page.
Next, the class went through a brief overview of all the essay topics. The first topic places an Old English piece in its literary/cultural context with a text from Appendix D, where you will work in just one period.
The second topic focuses on just Beowulf and its audience (considering the historical context of the late 900s and the scribe being a monk).
The third topic allows you to look at the role/voice of the narrator in one text from Anglo-Norman or Middle English and one of Old English.
The fourth topic looks at the position of women (where you choose two texts, each from different periods). Remember that we see representations of women in these texts, not what they really were like at that time.
The last topic looks at the supernatural, all kinds of the super natural within a few different texts.
With the paper, if you had seen a blog post from someone else that you wanted to build on or anything like that, you can cite this person in your paper. Also remember if you want to go to office hours to discuss your ideas about the paper. When writing, keep the audience in mind; think of it as if you are speaking to someone who has read the material but was not present in our discussions so do not assume anything but do not give a plot summary.
Next we looked at Chaucer’s biographical information from the reading. He is the first big author we’ve encountered. We know him mostly through his poems, but also through the historical records from the English court (like government documents, his job records and any records of gifts he had given). His class status was of the middle class with his father being a wine merchant dealing with exports and imports, meaning he came from some wealth. He worked as a page to the nobility in the courts system so he had insight into noble and non-noble lifestyles. His poems include humorous stories but also morality poems. He wrote critiques of the Church, but also stories with religious undertones. Much of Chaucer appears as a paradox. He was dubbed the “Father of English Poetry” due to the fact that he was very invested in writing in the English language. Although, he also included French, Italian and Celtic traditions in his works along with Latin and classical legends.
Then we reviewed Chaucer’s “Complaint to His Purse” from last week. Specifically, we looked at the way in which Chaucer referred to his purse as if complaining to his beloved. Like in this example, Chaucer would take courtly conventions and put them in a humorous situation. In the final stanza he ends with his envoy to Henry IV. Chaucer had been a fan of King Richard and when Henry took power by force Chaucer added a comment to this in the final stanza. This poem took on a French lyric form.
Following that, we discussed briefly the Canterbury Tales history. There are 55 complete versions of it that have been recovered and it was the first thing to be printed in the printing press. All of these facts lead us to see that it was quite a popular text. The Ellsemere copy of the Canterbury Tales, located in California, and Hengwrt copy, located in Wales, were both determined to be copied by the same scribe.
Next we discussed the poem by Chaucer, To His Scribe Adam, a piece in which Chaucer takes on the voice of the narrator by threatening his scribe, who seems to make many mistakes with the script of Chaucer’s writing. Chaucer places a curse on Adam that he will “scab under [his] long locks” if he keeps making mistakes. This threat is only fitting since Chaucer continually has to keep scratching away the mistakes in the copy that Adam made mistakes on. The poem has a playful tone, but emphasizes Chaucer’s identity and authority as a writer.
Lastly, we discussed Sir Orfeo. We began by discussing the structure and style of the poem. The end rhyme, couplets, is quite apparent throughout the text, which is standard verse for narratives from France, Italy and now England. In Old English the tradition is alliteration in line, not rhyme. On the other hand, Sir Gawain’s story was in stanza form (alliteration) then a shift at the end of each stanza to end rhyme and shorter lines like in Sir Orfeo. In Sir Gawain’s tale both traditions are put together.
Sir Orfeo, in its Breton lai format isn’t overtly focused on English tradition and is less descriptive in details. There is a strong emphasis on art and artistry; Orfeo’s identity comes from what he does with his music for example. Art causes emotion, represents emotional experience and encourages an emotional response from the audience.
The plot of the story follows a standard romance. The introduction points to the hero and describes how great he is. Orfeo is a king in England with parents of King Pluto and King Juno, who used to be gods. Then there is a turn of events, here being the abduction of the queen. The Fairy King does not take the queen right way in order to show his power, create a sense of temptation, give an opportunity to tell the queen what will happens if she resists. Therefore, the queen has to submit. All of this makes the audience feel trapped as well. The poem sets up the characters in a position where things happen outside of their control. The theme throughout the story is the impossibility of resisting death, much like the queen cannot resist going with the Fairy King. Orfeo runs away when she’s taken, giving up all responsibilities to his Steward and goes into the woods with his harp. Much like the romantic tradition, there is a common idea that when one goes mad, one goes into the woods. Yet in this instance, Orfeo keeps a bit of his humanity by bringing his harp.
The final reunion at the end of the story of the queen to Orfeo and Orfeo to his kingdom give a fantasy tone on all fronts. The poem also has strong non-Christian themes. There is no reference to anything Christian.
Key Terms
Octosyllable: A line in a poem with 8 syllables.
Couplets: End rhyme.
Quotes:
Complaint to His Purse
“blessed sound may hear, O see your color like the sun bright”
To His Scribe Adam
“scab under your long locks”
Sir Orfeo
“We redeth oft and findeth y-write,
And this clerkes wele it wite” (lines 1-2)
“’O lef liif, what is te,
That ever yete hast ben so stille
And now gredest wonder schille?
Thy bodi that was so white y-core,
With thine nailes is all to-tore.” (lines 102-106)
Thursday, Sept 13 (10:50 class)
By Frances Wanning
Class began today with a discussion based around the paper Topic description that is due on September the 18th, next Tuesday, in the Dropbox in OAKS. There are five different prompts that students can choose from, all of which can be found on the blog under the “Assignments” tab. Under the “Assignments” tab, students have access to a grading rubric, the five prompts for the paper, and samples of the paper topic that is due on the 18th, along with a sample of an actual paper. Remember to include a works cited! There is also a tab, under the “Assignments” tab, where students can find a link to the OWL website which can assist with proper citing and works cited pages format.
We then transitioned from the paper topic, to the reading that was due on that day. We discussed the purpose of The Canterbury Tales, written by Chaucer, and a little bit of the background story that goes along with Chaucer and the way that he chose to write the individual stories. The Canterbury Tales, although never completely finished, were meant to be separate stories, told by different people, that eventually all intertwined and met up, in a way, at the end. This is recognized as a “frame narrative”, or an overarching story in which many different stories are told. The General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales begins with a description of the time period (Spring) and the idea that these people were on a pilgrimage to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Thomas Beckett. They decide to have a story-telling competition along the way, with the winner to be bought a dinner at the Tabard Inn when the group returns from Canterbury.
After discussing the background and purpose of The Canterbury Tales, we moved into discussing The Miller’s Prologue and Tale. Immediately into the prologue the reader is informed that the Miller is intoxicated and “barges in” to tell his tale out of the pre-determined, by class, order of storytelling. Although he is met with some opposition in telling his tale, begins anyway.
The Miller’s Prologue and Tale is one that is very comical and full of trickery. This tale begins with descriptions of the characters, John, Nicholas, and Allison. John is introduced to us as a hardworking, pious, and we eventually find out very gullible, man. He is a carpenter who is married to a young, beautiful wife named Allison. Nicholas, a student of astronomy, is then introduced as a smart, charming, “ladies man” (if you will). Nicholas is interested in Allison and comes up with a scheme (that Allison is in on) to fool John so that he and Allison can sleep together.
Nicholas, pretends to be in a state of sickness, and easily convinces John that he has had a vision from God. He explains to John that in his vision he was told by God that there would be a flood and that they would need to prepare for this flood. John, who, as a class, we discussed senses Nicholas’ intelligence/superiority over him due to his education, immediately believes and doesn’t try to question Nicholas’ story. He puts up three bathtubs where he, Allison, and Nicholas will spend the night not speaking to each other, but praying. So, the plan ends up working for Nicholas and Allison and John is fast asleep in his hanging tub awaiting the floods to hit.
Next we discussed, in The Miller’s Tale, Absolon’s character. The introduction of Absolon adds to the tale a love square, rather than a triangle. Absolon is also interested in Allison, but Allison is not interested in him. It is clear that Allison has no feelings toward him whatsoever and is not, in any way, flattered or amused by his chasings of her. Absolon, in another attempt to win Allison’s heart, comes to the window where she and Nicholas are. He is talking to her through the window and pestering her as usual with the confessions of his love for her. In an attempt to make a fool of him, she promises him a kiss through the window. However, to the embarrassment of Absolon, he ends up kissing her backside rather than her lips. He is immediately angry and goes to attempt to get her back for the embarrassment she caused him. As a class, we discussed the comedy in the fact that this man has been “dying for her love” for the longest time, but once this scene happens, immediately is ready to return the hurt to her.
Absolon arrives back to the house, hot poker in hand, and begs for one last kiss from his beloved Allison. Nicholas, instead, takes Allison’s place at the window and places his backside out to be kissed by Absolon. However, instead of lips, Nicholas’ rearend is met with a hot poker. This leads Nicholas in crying out “Water”, which then leads to John thinking the flood is coming, which then results in him cutting himself and the tub down from the ceiling and the breaking of his arm.
After explaining the tale itself, we then discussed the idea that irony and intentional humor is present throughout this whole tale. The way Allison and Nicholas interact with each other in the beginning, along with the way Absolon completely loses interest with Allison once she tricks him are just two examples of the irony and humor that is present in this story.
We also mentioned the fact that in most tales that involve an older man and a young wife, the older husband is usually a character that we don’t find ourselves feeling sorry for at the end for being humiliated. However, when John is made a fool of at the end of this tale, we as the audience feel sorry for him and the way that his gullibility has lead him to make these poor decisions.
One of the last key notes that we touched on had to do with the role that Allison plays in this tale. The role of women throughout the pieces of literature that we have read has been a reoccurring topic throughout our discussions, even showing up in the blog questions. Allison plays a woman who has complete control of her opinions and her actions throughout this tale. She makes her own decisions, chooses who she wants to be with and when she wants to be with them, and “never gets burned”.
TERMS:
Frame narrative: collection of stories, told by different people. Story within which other stories are told
Boccacio- writer during the time of the Black plague who wrote similarly to the The Canterbury Tales, in his Decameron. However, his stories don’t contain a range of narrators
Gower- also wrote a frame narrative (Confessio Amantis); formal, conventional tradition, shorter stories
Preview of Week 5
I probably don’t need to remind you that we won’t be having class on Thursday, since I will be away at a conference.
In class on Tuesday, we will discuss the Miller’s Tale a bit further before covering the Wife of Bath’s Prologue. In her prologue, the Wife represents herself very vividly, and the interest provided by this vibrant character risks encouraging us to overlook some of what she’s doing with the story she’s telling about her own life and the argument she’s making about the status of virginity and virgins—and of married women– within the Church. Pay special attention to how she handles the first third of the prologue, when she enters into the debate about marriage; and then to how she describes her first three husbands; and then to her more extended narrative of life with Jankyn. In the end, what is your sense of the dynamics of that last marriage, and the nature of the conflict and of its resolution?