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Geoffrey Chaucer

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192-505: Geoffrey Chaucer ( / ˈ tʃ ɔː s ər / CHAW -sər ; c.  1343 – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for The Canterbury Tales . He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He was the first writer to be buried in what has since come to be called Poets' Corner , in Westminster Abbey . Chaucer also gained fame as

384-673: A Quartermaster General (who was responsible for billeting and organising movements). There were separate commanders of the Artillery, and Commissary Officers who handled the supplies. The commander of an Army might also have a Military Secretary , responsible for appointments, courts-martial and official correspondence. Infantry and cavalry units had originally been known by the names of their colonels, such as "Sir John Mordaunt's Regiment of Foot". This could be confusing if colonels succeeded each other rapidly; and two regiments (the Buffs and

576-722: A standing army in North America after the war. For the first time, the British Army would be garrisoned in North America in significant numbers in a time of peace. With the defeat of France, the British government no longer sought actively to curry the favour of Native Americans . Urged by his superiors to cut costs, Commander in Chief General Jeffery Amherst initiated policy changes that helped prompt Pontiac's War in 1763, an uprising against

768-501: A London dialect of late Middle English , which has clear differences from Modern English. From philological research, some facts are known about the pronunciation of English during the time of Chaucer. Chaucer pronounced -e at the end of many words, so that care (except when followed by a vowel sound) was [ˈkaːrə] , not / k ɛər / as in Modern English. Other nowadays silent letters were also pronounced, so that

960-408: A bloomin' fool -- you bet that Tommy sees! The Seven Years' War , which took place from 1755 to 1763, has sometimes been described as the first true world war, in that conflict took place in almost every continent and on almost all the oceans. Although there were early setbacks, British troops eventually were victorious in every theatre. The war can be said to have started in North America, where it

1152-423: A common medieval form of apprenticeship for boys into knighthood or prestige appointments. The countess was married to Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence , the second surviving son of the king, Edward III , and the position brought the teenage Chaucer into the close court circle, where he was to remain for the rest of his life. He also worked as a courtier, a diplomat, and a civil servant, as well as working for

1344-544: A copy in his library among other works of Chaucer), with G. K. Chesterton writing, "among the great canonical English authors, Chaucer and Dickens have the most in common." The large number of surviving manuscripts of Chaucer's works is testimony to the enduring interest in his poetry prior to the arrival of the printing press. There are 83 surviving manuscripts of the Canterbury Tales (in whole or part) alone, along with sixteen of Troilus and Criseyde , including

1536-543: A copy of the work on hand, surmising instead that he may have merely read the Decameron at some point. Chaucer may have read the Decameron during his first diplomatic mission to Italy in 1372. Chaucer used a wide variety of sources, but some, in particular, were used frequently over several tales, among them the Bible, Classical poetry by Ovid , and the works of contemporary Italian writers Petrarch and Dante . Chaucer

1728-502: A deposition in the case of Scrope v. Grosvenor . There is no further reference after this date to Philippa, Chaucer's wife. She is presumed to have died in 1387. He survived the political upheavals caused by the Lords Appellants , despite the fact that Chaucer knew some of the men executed over the affair quite well. On 12 July 1389, Chaucer was appointed the clerk of the king's works , a sort of foreman organising most of

1920-423: A disagreement between Church and Crown. Miracle stories connected to his remains sprang up soon after his death, and the cathedral became a popular pilgrimage destination. The pilgrimage in the work ties all of the stories together and may be considered a representation of Christians' striving for heaven, despite weaknesses, disagreement, and diversity of opinion. The upper class or nobility, represented chiefly by

2112-600: A general historical trend towards the creation of a vernacular literature , after the example of Dante , in many parts of Europe. A parallel trend in Chaucer's lifetime was underway in Scotland through the work of his slightly earlier contemporary, John Barbour . Barbour's work was likely to have been even more general, as is evidenced by the example of the Pearl Poet in the north of England. Although Chaucer's language

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2304-632: A great empire to risk. The bill, which would have compensated current owners for their cash investments, passed the Commons in 1871 but was blocked by the House of Lords. Gladstone then moved to drop the system without any reimbursements, forcing the Lords to backtrack and approve the original bill. Liberals rallied to Gladstone's anti-elitism, pointing to the case of Lord Cardigan (1797–1868), who spent £40,000 for his commission and proved utterly incompetent in

2496-432: A lease on a residence within the close of Westminster Abbey on 24 December 1399. Henry IV renewed the grants assigned by Richard, but The Complaint of Chaucer to his Purse hints that the grants might not have been paid. The last mention of Chaucer is on 5 June 1400, when some debts owed to him were repaid. Chaucer died of unknown causes on 25 October 1400, although the only evidence for this date comes from

2688-525: A long lapse in which the theme has not been addressed. Lastly, Chaucer does not pay much attention to the progress of the trip, to the time passing as the pilgrims travel, or to specific locations along the way to Canterbury. His writing of the story seems focused primarily on the stories being told, and not on the pilgrimage itself. The variety of Chaucer's tales shows the breadth of his skill and his familiarity with many literary forms, linguistic styles, and rhetorical devices. Medieval schools of rhetoric at

2880-496: A man named "Adam", this has led to the hypothesis that the scribe who copied these two important manuscripts worked with Chaucer and knew him personally. This identification has been the subject of much controversy in the field of Middle English palaeography, though it is widely accepted as plausible. There is no consensus as to whether a complete version of the Tales exists, and also no consensus regarding Chaucer's intended order of

3072-515: A member of the royal court of Edward III as a valet de chambre , yeoman , or esquire on 20 June 1367, a position which could entail a wide variety of tasks. His wife also received a pension for court employment. He travelled abroad many times, at least some of them in his role as a valet. In 1368, he may have attended the wedding of Lionel of Antwerp to Violante Visconti , daughter of Galeazzo II Visconti , in Milan . Two other literary stars of

3264-458: A modest standing army a necessity to defend England and to maintain her prestige in the world. But public opinion, always anxious of the bad old days, was resolved to allow itself no rest until it had defined the prerogatives of the crown on this delicate point. Parliament finally succeeded in acquiring a control over the army, and under a general bill, commonly called the Mutiny Act , laid down

3456-482: A more ornate tomb, making him the first writer interred in the area now known as Poets' Corner . Chaucer was a close friend of John of Gaunt , the wealthy Duke of Lancaster and father of Henry IV, and he served under Lancaster's patronage. Near the end of their lives, Lancaster and Chaucer became brothers-in-law when Lancaster married Katherine Swynford (de Roet) in 1396; she was the sister of Philippa (de) Roet, whom Chaucer had married in 1366. Chaucer's The Book of

3648-526: A new board of general officers was convened to decide upon rank of several regiments, the seniority of the Scots Greys was reassessed and based on their entry into England in June 1685. At that time there was only one English regiment of dragoons and so after some delay the Scots Greys obtained the rank of 2nd dragoons in the British Army. By the middle of the century, the army's administration had developed

3840-684: A noyse gan they make That erthe & eyr & tre & euery lake So ful was that onethe was there space For me to stonde, so ful was al the place. "The language of England, upon which Chaucer was the first to confer celebrity, has amply justified the foresight which led him to disdain all others for its sake, and, in turn, has conferred an enduring celebrity upon him who trusted his reputation to it without reserve." —T. R. Lounsbury. The poet Thomas Hoccleve , who may have met Chaucer and considered him his role model, hailed Chaucer as "the firste fyndere of our fair langage". John Lydgate referred to Chaucer within his own text The Fall of Princes as

4032-546: A part of Chaucer's trip and heard the stories. He characterises himself as a monk and tells a long story about the history of Thebes before the events of the Knight's Tale . John Lydgate's tale was popular early on and exists in old manuscripts both on its own and as part of the Tales . It was first printed as early as 1561 by John Stow , and several editions for centuries after followed suit. There are actually two versions of The Plowman's Tale , both of which are influenced by

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4224-532: A philosopher and astronomer , composing the scientific A Treatise on the Astrolabe for his 10-year-old son, Lewis. He maintained a career in the civil service as a bureaucrat , courtier , diplomat, and member of parliament. Among Chaucer's many other works are The Book of the Duchess , The House of Fame , The Legend of Good Women , and Troilus and Criseyde . He is seen as crucial in legitimising

4416-474: A regiment remained an influential figure but rarely commanded any of its battalions in the field. Many regiments consisted of one battalion only, plus a depot and recruiting parties in Britain or Ireland if the unit was serving overseas. Where more troops were required for a war or garrison duties, second, third and even subsequent battalions of a regiment were raised, but it was rare for more than one battalion of

4608-544: A regiment to serve in the same brigade or division. From the late 17th century onwards, the British army was to be deployed in three main areas of conflict (the Americas , Continental Europe , and Scotland ), one of which (Scotland) was effectively ended at the Battle of Culloden in 1746. The major theatre was often the continent of Europe. Not only did Britain's monarchs have dynastic ties with Holland or Hanover after

4800-561: A relatively new invention that allowed dissemination of the written word never before seen in England. Political clashes, such as the 1381 Peasants' Revolt and clashes ending in the deposing of King Richard II , further reveal the complex turmoil surrounding Chaucer in the time of the Tales' writing. Many of his close friends were executed and he himself moved to Kent to get away from events in London. While some readers look to interpret

4992-461: A religious or spiritual space at its conclusion, and reflect a psychological progression of the spirit, in yet another kind of emotional space. Liminality is also evident in the individual tales. An obvious instance of this is The Friar's Tale in which the yeoman devil is a liminal figure because of his transitory nature and function; it is his purpose to issue souls from their current existence to hell, an entirely different one. The Franklin's Tale

5184-531: A series of stories. In the Decameron , the characters have fled to the countryside to escape the Black Death . It ends with an apology by Boccaccio, much like Chaucer's Retraction to the Tales . A quarter of the tales in The Canterbury Tales parallel a tale in the Decameron , although most of them have closer parallels in other stories. Some scholars thus find it unlikely that Chaucer had

5376-524: A set. The Tales vary in both minor and major ways from manuscript to manuscript; many of the minor variations are due to copyists' errors, while it is suggested that in other cases Chaucer both added to his work and revised it as it was being copied and possibly as it was being distributed. There are no manuscripts of the Canterbury Tales surviving in Chaucer's own hand. The two earliest known manuscripts, which both appear to have been copied by

5568-607: A small standing army made up of some former Royalist and New Model Army regiments. On 26 January 1661, Charles II issued the Royal Warrant that created the first regiments of what would become the British Army , although Scotland and England maintained separate military establishments until the Acts of Union 1707 . King Charles put into these regiments those cavaliers who had attached themselves to him during his exile on

5760-573: A style which had developed in English literature since around the 12th century as an alternative to the alliterative Anglo-Saxon metre . Chaucer is known for metrical innovation, inventing the rhyme royal , and he was one of the first English poets to use the five-stress line, a decasyllabic cousin to the iambic pentametre , in his work, with only a few anonymous short works using it before him. The arrangement of these five-stress lines into rhyming couplets , first seen in his The Legend of Good Women ,

5952-801: A tenant farmer in Agmondesham ( Amersham in Buckinghamshire ), was brought before John Chadworth , the Bishop of Lincoln , on charges of being a Lollard heretic; he confessed to owning a "boke of the Tales of Caunterburie" among other suspect volumes. The Canterbury Tales The Canterbury Tales ( Middle English : Tales of Caunterbury ) is a collection of twenty-four stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. It

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6144-457: A total of about 120 stories). It is revered as one of the most important works in English literature. The question of whether The Canterbury Tales is a finished work has not been answered to date. There are 84 manuscripts and four incunabula (printed before 1500) editions of the work, which is more than for any other vernacular English literary text with the exception of Prick of Conscience . This comparison should not be taken as evidence of

6336-421: A way that kept in mind the speaker, subject, audience, purpose, manner, and occasion. Chaucer moves freely between all of these styles, showing favouritism to none. He not only considers the readers of his work as an audience, but the other pilgrims within the story as well, creating a multi-layered rhetoric. With this, Chaucer avoids targeting any specific audience or social class of readers, focusing instead on

6528-582: A year to ratify the Order in Council renewing the Army Act 1955 ( 3 & 4 Eliz. 2 . c. 18) for a further year. The order of seniority for the most senior line regiments in the British Army is based on the order of seniority in the English army. Scottish and Irish regiments were only allowed to take a rank in the English army from the date of their arrival in England or the date when they were first placed on

6720-448: Is a Breton Lai tale, which takes the tale into a liminal space by invoking not only the interaction of the supernatural and the mortal, but also the relation between the present and the imagined past. While Chaucer clearly states the addressees of many of his poems (the Book of the Duchess is believed to have been written for John of Gaunt on the occasion of his wife's death in 1368),

6912-447: Is a good possibility Chaucer met Petrarch or Boccaccio . The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories built around a frame tale , a common and already long established genre in this period. Chaucer's Tales differs from most other story "collections" in this genre chiefly in its intense variation. Most story collections focused on a theme, usually a religious one. Even in the Decameron , storytellers are encouraged to stick to

7104-401: Is a reference to Lancaster (also called "Loncastel" and "Longcastell"), "walles white" is thought to be an oblique reference to Blanche, "Seynt Johan" was John of Gaunt's name-saint, and "ryche hil" is a reference to Richmond. These references reveal the identity of the grieving black knight of the poem as John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster and Earl of Richmond. "White" is the English translation of

7296-805: Is an account of Jews murdering a deeply pious and innocent Christian boy, a blood libel against Jews that became a part of English literary tradition. The story did not originate in the works of Chaucer and was well known in the 14th century. Pilgrimage was a very prominent feature of medieval society. The ultimate pilgrimage destination was Jerusalem, but within England Canterbury was a popular destination. Pilgrims would journey to cathedrals that preserved relics of saints, believing that such relics held miraculous powers. Saint Thomas Becket , Archbishop of Canterbury, had been murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by knights of Henry II during

7488-517: Is an example of what a Nun was expected to be: her tale is about a woman whose chaste example brings people into the church. The Monk and the Prioress, on the other hand, while not as corrupt as the Summoner or Pardoner, fall far short of the ideal for their orders. Both are expensively dressed, show signs of lives of luxury and flirtatiousness and show a lack of spiritual depth. The Prioress's Tale

7680-419: Is attested by the many poets who imitated or responded to his writing. John Lydgate was one of the earliest poets to write continuations of Chaucer's unfinished Tales . At the same time Robert Henryson 's Testament of Cresseid completes the story of Cressida left unfinished in his Troilus and Criseyde . Many of the manuscripts of Chaucer's works contain material from these poets, and later appreciations by

7872-461: Is believed that he started The Canterbury Tales in the 1380s. Chaucer also translated Boethius ' Consolation of Philosophy and The Romance of the Rose by Guillaume de Lorris (extended by Jean de Meun). Eustache Deschamps called himself a "nettle in Chaucer's garden of poetry". In 1385, Thomas Usk made glowing mention of Chaucer, and John Gower also lauded him. Chaucer's Treatise on

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8064-417: Is believed to be in Chaucer's Parlement of Foules (1382), a dream vision portraying a parliament for birds to choose their mates. Honouring the first anniversary of the engagement of fifteen-year-old King Richard II of England to fifteen-year-old Anne of Bohemia : For this was on seynt Volantynys day Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese his make Of euery kynde that men thinke may And that so heuge

8256-496: Is concerned, it is untrue in a far more fundamental sense. The evidence of history shows that the creation of an efficient military machine [, The New Model Army,] and its proving on the battlefield, predates the Restoration by 15 years. It was on the fields of Naseby , Dunbar and Dunes that the foundations of the British professional army were laid. The New Model Army was the first full-time professional army raised within

8448-475: Is currently seldom followed. General Prologue The Knight's Tale The Miller's Tale The Reeve's Tale The Cook's Tale An alternative ordering (seen in the early 15th-century manuscript Harley MS. 7334 ) places Fragment VIII before VI. Fragments I and II almost always follow each other, just as VI and VII, IX and X do in the oldest manuscripts. Fragments IV and V, by contrast, vary in location from manuscript to manuscript. Chaucer mainly wrote in

8640-659: Is derived from the French chaucier , once thought to mean 'shoemaker', but now known to mean a maker of hose or leggings . In 1324, his father, John Chaucer, was kidnapped by an aunt in the hope of marrying the 12-year-old to her daughter in an attempt to keep the property in Ipswich. The aunt was imprisoned and fined £250, now equivalent to about £200,000, suggesting that the family was financially secure. John Chaucer married Agnes Copton, who inherited properties in 1349, including 24 shops in London, from her uncle Hamo de Copton, who

8832-536: Is described in a will dated 3 April 1354 and listed in the City Hustings Roll as "moneyer", said to be a moneyer at the Tower of London . In the City Hustings Roll 110, 5, Ric II, dated June 1380, Chaucer refers to himself as me Galfridum Chaucer, filium Johannis Chaucer, Vinetarii, Londonie , which translates as: "I, Geoffrey Chaucer, son of the vintner John Chaucer, London". While records concerning

9024-841: Is hinted as having a corrupt relationship with the Pardoner. In The Friar's Tale , one of the characters is a summoner who is shown to be working on the side of the devil, not God. Churchmen of various kinds are represented by the Monk, the Prioress, the Nun's Priest, and the Second Nun. Monastic orders, which originated from a desire to follow an ascetic lifestyle separated from the world, had by Chaucer's time become increasingly entangled in worldly matters. Monasteries frequently controlled huge tracts of land on which they made significant sums of money, while peasants worked in their employ. The Second Nun

9216-465: Is known to have set a collection of tales within the framework of pilgrims on a pilgrimage. It is obvious, however, that Chaucer borrowed portions, sometimes very large portions, of his stories from earlier stories, and that his work was influenced by the general state of the literary world in which he lived. Storytelling was the main entertainment in England at the time, and storytelling contests had been around for hundreds of years. In 14th-century England,

9408-470: Is mentioned in the Tales , which also mention a specific incident involving pardoners (sellers of indulgences , which were believed to relieve the temporal punishment due for sins that were already forgiven in the Sacrament of Confession ) who nefariously claimed to be collecting for St. Mary Rouncesval hospital in England. The Canterbury Tales is among the first English literary works to mention paper,

9600-449: Is much closer to Modern English than the text of Beowulf , such that (unlike that of Beowulf ) a Modern English speaker with an extensive vocabulary of archaic words may understand it, it differs enough that most publications modernise his idiom. The following is a sample from the prologue of The Summoner's Tale that compares Chaucer's text to a modern translation: The first recorded association of Valentine's Day with romantic love

9792-554: Is religious (although the prologue comments ironically on its merely seasonal attractions), making religion a significant theme of the work. Two characters, the Pardoner and the Summoner, whose roles apply the Church's secular power, are both portrayed as deeply corrupt, greedy, and abusive. Pardoners in Chaucer's day were those people from whom one bought Church "indulgences" for forgiveness of sins, who were guilty of abusing their office for their own gain. Chaucer's Pardoner openly admits

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9984-428: Is the transitional or transformational space between a "real" (secure, known, limited) world and an unknown or imaginary space of both risk and possibility. The notion of a pilgrimage is itself a liminal experience, because it centres on travel between destinations and because pilgrims undertake it hoping to become more holy in the process. Thus, the structure of The Canterbury Tales itself is liminal; it not only covers

10176-449: Is uncertain how many children Chaucer and Philippa had, but three or four are most commonly cited. His son, Thomas Chaucer , had an illustrious career as chief butler to four kings, envoy to France, and Speaker of the House of Commons . Thomas's daughter, Alice , married the Duke of Suffolk . Thomas's great-grandson (Geoffrey's great-great-grandson), John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln , was

10368-464: Is uncertain, but he seems to have travelled in France, Spain, and Flanders , possibly as a messenger and perhaps even going on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela . Around 1366, Chaucer married Philippa (de) Roet . She was a lady-in-waiting to Edward III's queen, Philippa of Hainault , and a sister of Katherine Swynford , who later ( c.  1396 ) became the third wife of John of Gaunt . It

10560-579: Is unclear to what extent Chaucer was seminal in this evolution of literary preference. The Canterbury Tales is generally thought to have been incomplete at the end of Chaucer's life. In the General Prologue , some 30 pilgrims are introduced. According to the Prologue, Chaucer's intention was to write four stories from the perspective of each pilgrim, two each on the way to and from their ultimate destination, St. Thomas Becket's shrine (making for

10752-497: Is widely regarded as Chaucer's magnum opus . The tales (mostly written in verse , although some are in prose ) are presented as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together from London to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral . The prize for this contest is a free meal at the Tabard Inn at Southwark on their return. It has been suggested that

10944-484: The Black Death , many Europeans began to question the authority of the established Church. Some turned to Lollardy, while others chose less extreme paths, starting new monastic orders or smaller movements exposing church corruption in the behaviour of the clergy, false church relics or abuse of indulgences . Several characters in the Tales are religious figures, and the very setting of the pilgrimage to Canterbury

11136-837: The Brodie helmet was supplied for better personnel protection against shrapnel and the Mark I tank was invented to try to end the stalemate of trench warfare . The vast majority of the British Army fought in France and Belgium on the Western Front but some units were engaged in the Mediterranean, the Middle East , Africa and Mesopotamia , mainly against the Ottoman Empire . One battalion also fought in China during

11328-726: The Cardwell and Childers Reforms of the late 19th century. These gave the British Army its modern shape, and defined its regimental system. The Esher Report in 1904, recommended radical reform of the British Army, such as the creation of an Army Council , a General Staff and the abolition of the office of Commander in Chief of the Forces and the creation of a Chief of the General Staff. The Haldane Reforms in 1907, created an expeditionary force of seven divisions , it also reorganized

11520-554: The Cook's Tale , which Chaucer never finished, The Plowman's Tale , The Tale of Gamelyn , the Siege of Thebes , and the Tale of Beryn . The Tale of Beryn , written by an anonymous author in the 15th century, is preceded by a lengthy prologue in which the pilgrims arrive at Canterbury and their activities there are described. While the rest of the pilgrims disperse throughout the town,

11712-515: The Green Howards ) had to be distinguished by their facing colour in official correspondence because for several years, both had colonels named Howard. In time, these became the official names of the regiments. In 1751 a numeral system was adopted, with each regiment gaining a number according to their rank in the order of precedence , so John Mordaunt's Regiment became the 47th Regiment of Foot . The later Jacobite risings were centred in

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11904-600: The Hanoverian Succession , but Britain's foreign policy often required intervention to maintain a balance of power in Europe (usually at the expense of the Kingdom of France ). Within England and especially Scotland, there were repeated attempts by the exiled House of Stewart and their Jacobite supporters to regain the throne , leading to severe uprisings. These were often related to European conflict, as

12096-701: The Indian subcontinent , the French East India Company and the militaries of the most powerful rulers of the Mughal Empire were defeated after the prolonged Third Carnatic War , allowing the steady expansion of British East India Company -controlled territory. In Europe, although Britain's allies (chiefly the Royal Prussian Army ) carried the main burden of the struggle, British troops eventually played an important role at

12288-667: The Industrial Revolution and the enactment of liberal reforms within Britain. The Victorian era was also marked by the steady expansion and consolidation of the British Empire . The role of the military was to defend the Empire and, for the Army, to control the natives. The Industrial Revolution had changed the Army's weapons, transport and equipment, and social changes such as better education had prompted changes to

12480-595: The Life Guards (formed from exiled cavaliers); and The Blues (or The Oxford Blues), formed by Lord Oxford, out of some of the best New Model Army horse regiments. The foot regiments were Grenadier Guards (initially two regiments Lord Wentworth's Regiment and John Russell's Regiment of Guards which amalgamated in 1665), the Coldstream Guards (the New Model Army regiment of General Monck ),

12672-566: The Middle English language from a combination of the Kentish and Midlands dialects. This is probably overstated; the influence of the court, chancery and bureaucracy – of which Chaucer was a part – remains a more probable influence on the development of Standard English . Modern English is somewhat distanced from the language of Chaucer's poems owing to the effect of the Great Vowel Shift sometime after his death. This change in

12864-492: The Parliament of the United Kingdom . The Prussian system of professional soldiers with up-to-date weapons was far superior to the traditional system of gentlemen-soldiers that Britain used. The Cardwell Reforms centralised power in the War Office, abolished the purchase of officers' commissions, and created reserve forces stationed in Britain by establishing short terms of service for enlisted men. Edward Cardwell (1813–1886) as Secretary of State for War (1868–1874) designed

13056-420: The Romantic era poets were shaped by their failure to distinguish the later "additions" from the original Chaucer. Writers of the 17th and 18th centuries, such as John Dryden , admired Chaucer for his stories but not for his rhythm and rhyme, as few critics could then read Middle English and the text had been butchered by printers, leaving a somewhat unadmirable mess. It was not until the late 19th century that

13248-416: The Royal Navy (RN), the British Army played a significant role. As of 2015 , there were 92,000 professionals in the regular army (including 2,700 Gurkhas ) and 20,480 Volunteer Reserves . Britain has generally maintained only a small regular army during peacetime, expanding this as required in time of war, due to Britain's traditional role as a sea power . Since the suppression of Jacobitism in 1745,

13440-399: The Royal Scots (formed from the Scotch guard in France), and the Second Queen's Royals . Many of Charles' subjects were uneasy at his creation of this small army. Pamphleteers wrote tracts voicing the fear of a people who within living memory had experienced the Rule of the Major-Generals and had liked neither the imposition of military rule, or the costs of keeping an army in being when

13632-431: The Royal Tank Regiment ) was the only corps formed in World War I that survived the cuts. Corps such as the Machine Gun Corps were disbanded, their functions being taken by specialists within infantry units. One new corps was the Royal Signals , formed in 1920 from within the Royal Engineers to take over the role of providing communications. Within the cavalry, sixteen regiments were amalgamated into eight, producing

13824-696: The Scottish Highlands . From the late 17th century, the Government had organised Independent Highland Companies in the area, from clans which supported the Hanoverian monarchs or the Whig governments, to maintain order or influence in the Highlands. In 1739 the first full regiment, the 42nd Regiment of Foot , was formed in the region. Towards the end of the 18th century, the battalion became

14016-569: The Siege of Tsingtao . In 1919–1920 there was a short-lived boom in the British economy , caused by a rush of investment pent-up during the war years and another rush of orders for new shipping to replace the millions of tons lost. But, following the boom, interwar Britain faced serious economic woes beginning with the Depression of 1920–1921 . Heavy defence cuts were consequently imposed by

14208-427: The Tales' popularity in the century after Chaucer's death, because, according to Derek Pearsall, it is unfair considering that Prick of Conscience had all the benefit of the "preservation of a dogmatic religious subject-matter". Fifty-five of these manuscripts are thought to have been originally complete, while 28 are so fragmentary that it is difficult to ascertain whether they were copied individually or as part of

14400-690: The Townshend Acts . North Americans in the Thirteen Colonies objected to both the idea of a " standing army " and " taxation without representation " and increasingly denied that the Parliament of Great Britain should have authority or, eventually, sovereignty over the colonies, positions which Parliament viewed as challenges to parliamentary supremacy . For the British Army, the American War of Independence had its origins in

14592-1019: The controller of army accounts, the Army Medical Board , the Commissariat Department of HM Treasury , the Board of General Officers, the Judge Advocate General of the Forces , the Commissary General of Muster , the Paymaster of the Forces . The Militia did not belong to the Army and was administrated by the Home Office through the Lord Lieutenants . In the field, a commander's staff consisted of an Adjutant General (who handled finance, troop returns and legal matters), and

14784-517: The fabliau scarcely notices the operations of God, the saint's life focuses on those at the expense of physical reality, tracts and sermons insist on prudential or orthodox morality, romances privilege human emotion." The sheer number of varying persons and stories renders the Tales as a set unable to arrive at any definite truth or reality. The concept of liminality figures prominently within The Canterbury Tales . A liminal space, which can be both geographical as well as metaphorical or spiritual,

14976-540: The pronunciation of English, still not fully understood, makes the reading of Chaucer difficult for the modern audience. The status of the final -e in Chaucer's verse is uncertain: it seems likely that during the period of Chaucer's writing, the final -e was dropping out of colloquial English and that its use was somewhat irregular. It may have been a vestige of the Old English dative singular suffix -e attached to most nouns. Chaucer's versification suggests that

15168-514: The "lodesterre (guiding principle) … off our language". Around two centuries later, Sir Philip Sidney greatly praised Troilus and Criseyde in his own Defence of Poesie . During the nineteenth and early twentieth century, Chaucer came to be viewed as a symbol of the nation's poetic heritage. In Charles Dickens ' 1850 novel David Copperfield , the Victorian era author echoed Chaucer's use of Luke 23:34 from Troilus and Criseyde (Dickens held

15360-458: The Army budget yet increased its strength of the army by 25 battalions, 156 field guns, and abundant stores, while the reserves available for foreign service had been raised tenfold from 3,500 to 36,000 men. The British Army during World War I could trace its origins to the increasing demands of imperial expansion together with inefficiencies highlighted during the Crimean War , which led to

15552-406: The Army, and further talk of reform went nowhere. The demand for professionalization was, however, achieved by Florence Nightingale , who gained worldwide attention for pioneering and publicizing modern nursing while treating the wounded. The Crimean War demonstrated that reforms were urgently needed to guarantee that the Army could protect both the home nation and the Empire. Nevertheless, reform

15744-573: The Astrolabe describes the form and use of the astrolabe in detail and is sometimes cited as the first example of technical writing in the English language. It indicates that Chaucer was versed in science in addition to his literary talents. The equatorie of the planetis is a scientific work similar to the Treatise and sometimes ascribed to Chaucer because of its language and handwriting, an identification which scholars no longer deem tenable. Chaucer wrote in continental accentual-syllabic metre ,

15936-534: The British Army The history of the British Army spans over three and a half centuries since its founding in 1660 and involves numerous European wars , colonial wars and world wars. From the late 17th century until the mid-20th century, the United Kingdom was the greatest economic and imperial power in the world, and although this dominance was principally achieved through the strength of

16128-627: The British Army has played little role in British domestic politics (except for the Curragh incident ), and, apart from Ireland, has seldom been deployed against internal threats to authority (one notorious exception being the Peterloo Massacre ). The British Army has been involved in many international conflicts, including the Napoleonic Wars , the Crimean War and both World War I and World War II. Historically, it contributed to

16320-522: The British Army or colonial militias . The Army itself had established many British units during the war to serve in North America or provide replacements for garrisons. All but three (the 23rd Regiment of (Light) Dragoons and two Highland infantry regiments, the 71st and 78th Foot ) were disbanded immediately after the war. The Army was forced to adapt its tactics to the poor communications and forested terrain of North America. Large numbers of light infantry (detached from line units) were organised, and

16512-549: The British Government in the early 1920s as part of a reduction in public expenditure known as the " Geddes Axe " after Sir Eric Geddes . The Government introduced the Ten Year Rule , stating its belief that Britain would not be involved in another major war for 10 years from the date of review. This ten-year rule was continually extended until it was abandoned in 1932. The Royal Tank Corps (which later became

16704-496: The British army, for example the 60th (Royal American) Regiment of Foot . On other occasions (as in the case of troops raised by the British East India Company ), the local forces were administered separately from the British Army, but cooperated with it. Troops sent to serve overseas could expect to serve there for years, in an unhealthy climate far removed from the comforts of British society. This led to

16896-646: The British military occupation of the former New France . Amherst was recalled during the war and replaced as commander in chief by Thomas Gage . The American Revolution had its origins in George III 's unpopular attempts to station a permanent garrison force in British America , and in the taxes, duties, and customs levied on colonies to fund the force such as the Sugar Act , the Stamp Act , and

17088-780: The City and the countryside, bishops and presbyters, the Scottish army, the Welsh people, and the English Fleet, all now turned against the New Model Army. The Army beat the lot! Having survived Parliament's attempts to disband it, the New Model Army prospered as an institution during the Interregnum . It was disbanded in 1660 with the restoration of the Stuart monarchy under Charles II . At his restoration Charles II sought to create

17280-610: The Crimean war, where he ordered the disastrous "Charge of the Light Brigade" in 1854. Cardwell was not powerful enough to install a general staff system; that had to await the 20th century. He did rearrange the war department. He made the office of Secretary of State for War superior to the Army's commander in Chief; the commander was His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge (1819–1904), the Queen's first cousin, and an opponent of

17472-562: The Duchess (also known as the Deeth of Blaunche the Duchesse ) was written to commemorate Blanche of Lancaster, John of Gaunt's first wife. The poem refers to John and Blanche in allegory as the narrator relates the tale of "A long castel with walles white/Be Seynt Johan, on a ryche hil" (1318–1319) who is mourning grievously after the death of his love, "And goode faire White she het/That was my lady name ryght" (948–949). The phrase "long castel"

17664-613: The English Pui was a group with an appointed leader who would judge the songs of the group. The winner received a crown and, as with the winner of The Canterbury Tales , a free dinner. It was common for pilgrims on a pilgrimage to have a chosen "master of ceremonies" to guide them and organise the journey. Harold Bloom suggests that the structure is mostly original, but inspired by the "pilgrim" figures of Dante and Virgil in The Divine Comedy . New research suggests that

17856-585: The English establishment. For example, in 1694 a board of general officers was convened to decide upon rank of English, Irish and Scots regiments serving in the Netherlands, the regiment that became known as the Scots Greys were designated as the 4th dragoons because there were three English regiments raised prior to 1688 when the Scot Greys were first placed on the English establishment. In 1713 when

18048-673: The European continent and had fought for him at the Battle of the Dunes against the Roundheads of the Protectorate and their French allies. For political expediency he also included some elements of the New Model Army. The whole force consisted of two corps of horse and five or six of infantry. It is, however, on this narrow and solid basis that the structure of the English army was gradually erected. The horse consisted of two regiments

18240-509: The French tale Bérinus and exists in a single early manuscript of the tales, although it was printed along with the tales in a 1721 edition by John Urry . John Lydgate wrote The Siege of Thebes in about 1420. Like the Tale of Beryn , it is preceded by a prologue in which the pilgrims arrive in Canterbury. Lydgate places himself among the pilgrims as one of them and describes how he was

18432-595: The French word "blanche", implying that the white lady was Blanche of Lancaster. Chaucer's short poem Fortune , believed to have been written in the 1390s, is also thought to refer to Lancaster. "Chaucer as narrator" openly defies Fortune , proclaiming that he has learned who his enemies are through her tyranny and deceit, and declares "my suffisaunce" (15) and that "over himself hath the maystrye" (14). Fortune , in turn, does not understand Chaucer's harsh words to her for she believes that she has been kind to him, claims that he does not know what she has in store for him in

18624-536: The General Prologue, in which the innkeeper and host Harry Bailey introduces each pilgrim, is a pastiche of the historical Harry Bailey's surviving 1381 poll-tax account of Southwark's inhabitants. The Canterbury Tales contains more parallels to the Decameron , by Giovanni Boccaccio , than any other work. Like the Tales , the Decameron features a frame tale in which several different narrators tell

18816-550: The Knight and his Squire, was in Chaucer's time steeped in a culture of chivalry and courtliness. Nobles were expected to be powerful warriors who could be ruthless on the battlefield yet mannerly in the King's Court and Christian in their actions. Knights were expected to form a strong social bond with the men who fought alongside them, but an even stronger bond with a woman whom they idealised to strengthen their fighting ability. Though

19008-489: The Knight go first gives one the idea that all will tell their stories by class, with the Monk following the Knight. However, the Miller's interruption makes it clear that this structure will be abandoned in favour of a free and open exchange of stories among all classes present. General themes and points of view arise as the characters tell their tales, which are responded to by other characters in their own tales, sometimes after

19200-495: The Pardoner seeks the affections of Kate the barmaid, but faces problems dealing with the man in her life and the innkeeper Harry Bailey. As the pilgrims turn back home, the Merchant restarts the storytelling with Tale of Beryn . In this tale, a young man named Beryn travels from Rome to Egypt to seek his fortune only to be cheated by other businessmen there. He is then aided by a local man in getting his revenge. The tale comes from

19392-636: The Peace and, in 1389, Clerk of the King's Works. It was during these years that Chaucer began working on The Canterbury Tales . The end of the fourteenth century was a turbulent time in English history. The Catholic Church was in the midst of the Western Schism and, although it was still the only Christian authority in Western Europe, it was the subject of heavy controversy. Lollardy , an early English religious movement led by John Wycliffe ,

19584-647: The Regular Army of 247,000 and Territorial Force of 145,000 ), over half of which were posted overseas to garrison the British Empire . This total included the Regular Army and reservists in the Territorial Force. Together they formed the BEF, for service in France and became known as the Old Contemptibles . The 'second' army was Kitchener's Army , formed from the volunteers in 1914–1915, which

19776-526: The Stuarts and Jacobites were aided and encouraged by Britain's continental enemies for their own ends. After the Battle of Culloden in 1746, these rebellions were crushed. Finally, as the British empire expanded, the army was increasingly involved in service in the West Indies, North America and India. Troops were often recruited locally, to lessen the burden on the Army. Sometimes these were part of

19968-511: The Visconti and Sir John Hawkwood , English condottiere (mercenary leader) in Milan. It has been speculated that it was Hawkwood on whom Chaucer based his character, the Knight, in the Canterbury Tales , for a description matches that of a 14th-century condottiere. A possible indication that his career as a writer was appreciated came when Edward III granted Chaucer "a gallon of wine daily for

20160-479: The actual reader. Chaucer's works may have been distributed in some form during his lifetime in part or in whole. Scholars speculate that manuscripts were circulated among his friends, but likely remained unknown to most people until after his death. However, the speed with which copyists strove to write complete versions of his tale in manuscript form shows that Chaucer was a famous and respected poet in his own day. The Hengwrt and Ellesmere manuscripts are examples of

20352-406: The aim of chivalry was to noble action, its conflicting values often degenerated into violence. Church leaders frequently tried to place restrictions on jousts and tournaments, which at times ended in the death of the loser. The Knight's Tale shows how the brotherly love of two fellow knights turns into a deadly feud at the sight of a woman whom both idealise. To win her, both are willing to fight to

20544-518: The army being recruited from the elements of society with the least stake in it; the very poorest or worst-behaved. The red-coated soldier , "Thomas Lobster", was a much-derided figure, as described in the Rudyard Kipling poem Tommy : For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the brute!" But it's "Saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot; An' it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' anything you please; An' Tommy ain't

20736-595: The bulk of the changes in the Haldane reforms put to the test. The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) of six divisions was quickly sent to the Continent, while the Territorial Forces fourteen divisions and Reserves were mobilised as planned to provide a second line. During the war there were three distinct British Armies. The 'first' army was the small volunteer force of about 400,000 soldiers (comprising

20928-487: The care taken to distribute the work. More manuscript copies of the poem exist than for any other poem of its day except The Prick of Conscience , causing some scholars to give it the medieval equivalent of bestseller status. Even the most elegant of the illustrated manuscripts, however, is not nearly as highly decorated as the work of authors of more respectable works such as John Lydgate 's religious and historical literature. John Lydgate and Thomas Occleve were among

21120-425: The characters of The Canterbury Tales as historical figures, other readers choose to interpret its significance in less literal terms. After analysis of Chaucer's diction and historical context, his work appears to develop a critique of society during his lifetime. Within a number of his descriptions, his comments can appear complimentary in nature, but through clever language, the statements are ultimately critical of

21312-432: The characters of the story and writing their tales with a skill proportional to their social status and learning. However, even the lowest characters, such as the Miller, show surprising rhetorical ability, although their subject matter is more lowbrow. Vocabulary also plays an important part, as those of the higher classes refer to a woman as a "lady", while the lower classes use the word "wenche", with no exceptions. At times

21504-547: The colonists' representatives was the protection of the settlers from raids by Native American war parties, while the British generals often had different strategic priorities. Partly through the naval superiority gained by the Royal Navy , Britain was eventually able to deploy superior strength in North America, winning the decisive Battle of the Plains of Abraham at Quebec City and conquering New France . Similarly, in

21696-407: The commissioners of peace for Kent at a time when French invasion was a possibility. He is thought to have started work on The Canterbury Tales in the early 1380s. He also became a member of parliament for Kent in 1386 and attended the ' Wonderful Parliament ' that year. He appears to have been present at most of the 71 days it sat, for which he was paid £24 9s. On 15 October that year, he gave

21888-548: The connection is less obvious. Consequently, there are several possible orders; the one most frequently seen in modern editions follows the numbering of the Fragments (ultimately based on the Ellesmere order). Victorians frequently used the nine "Groups", which was the order used by Walter William Skeat whose edition Chaucer: Complete Works was used by Oxford University Press for most of the twentieth century, but this order

22080-415: The corruption of his practice while hawking his wares. Summoners were Church officers who brought sinners to the Church court for possible excommunication and other penalties. Corrupt summoners would write false citations and frighten people into bribing them to protect their interests. Chaucer's Summoner is portrayed as guilty of the very kinds of sins for which he is threatening to bring others to court, and

22272-405: The country was not at war with itself or others. People also remembered the " Eleven Years' Tyranny " of Charles I and feared that a standing army under royal command would allow monarchs in the future to ignore the wishes of Parliament. The English were not fully reconciled to the need for a standing army until the reign of William III when the near perpetual wars with other European states made

22464-511: The death. Chivalry was on the decline in Chaucer's day, and it is possible that The Knight's Tale was intended to show its flaws, although this is disputed. Chaucer himself had fought in the Hundred Years' War under Edward III , who heavily emphasised chivalry during his reign. Two tales, Sir Topas and The Tale of Melibee , are told by Chaucer himself, who is travelling with the pilgrims in his own story. Both tales seem to focus on

22656-590: The decisive Battle of Minden . The result of this war was to leave the British Empire as the dominant imperial power in North America, and the only European power east of the Mississippi River (although it would return East Florida back to the Spanish Empire ). There was increasing tension between the British government and the American colonists, especially when it was decided to maintain

22848-490: The distance between London and Canterbury, but the majority of the tales refer to places entirely outside the geography of the pilgrimage. Jean Jost summarises the function of liminality in The Canterbury Tales , Both appropriately and ironically in this raucous and subversive liminal space, a ragtag assembly gather together and tell their equally unconventional tales. In this unruly place, the rules of tale telling are established, themselves to be both disordered and broken; here

23040-402: The dukes of Lancaster, York , and Gloucester , and a portion of line 76 ("as three of you or tweyne") is thought to refer to the ordinance of 1390 which specified that no royal gift could be authorised without the consent of at least two of the three dukes. Most conspicuous in this short poem is the number of references to Chaucer's "beste frend". Fortune states three times in her response to

23232-568: The early 1340s (by some accounts, including his monument, he was born in 1343), though the precise date and location remain unknown. The Chaucer family offers an extraordinary example of upward mobility. His great-grandfather was a tavern keeper, his grandfather worked as a purveyor of wines, and his father, John Chaucer, rose to become an important wine merchant with a royal appointment. Several previous generations of Geoffrey Chaucer's family had been vintners and merchants in Ipswich . His family name

23424-445: The end of the Napoleonic Wars , the army had been through a series of structural, recruitment, tactical and training reforms and its manpower had vastly increased. At its peak, in 1813, the regular army contained over 250,000 men. The British infantry was "the only military force not to suffer a major reverse at the hands of Napoleonic France ." During the long reign of Queen Victoria , British society underwent great changes such as

23616-526: The engraving on his tomb, which was erected more than 100 years after his death. There is some speculation that he was murdered by enemies of Richard II or even on the orders of his successor Henry IV, but the case is entirely circumstantial. Chaucer was buried in Westminster Abbey in London, as was his right owing to his status as a tenant of the Abbey's close. In 1556, his remains were transferred to

23808-563: The era were in attendance: Jean Froissart and Petrarch . Around this time, Chaucer is believed to have written The Book of the Duchess in honour of Blanche of Lancaster , the late wife of John of Gaunt, who died in 1369 of the plague. Chaucer travelled to Picardy the next year as part of a military expedition; in 1373, he visited Genoa and Florence . Numerous scholars such as Skeat, Boitani, and Rowland suggested that, on this Italian trip, he came into contact with Petrarch or Boccaccio . They introduced him to medieval Italian poetry ,

24000-593: The expansion and retention of the British Empire . The British Army has long been at the forefront of new military developments. It was the first in the world to develop and deploy the tank, and what is now the Royal Air Force (RAF) had its origins within the British Army as the Royal Flying Corps (RFC). At the same time the British Army emphasises the continuity and longevity of several of its institutions and military tradition. The English Army

24192-544: The final -e is sometimes to be vocalised and sometimes to be silent; however, this remains a point on which there is disagreement. Most scholars pronounce it as a schwa when it is vocalised. Besides the irregular spelling, much of the vocabulary is recognisable to the modern reader. Chaucer is also recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary as the first author to use many common English words in his writings. These words were probably frequently used in

24384-467: The first critics of Chaucer's Tales , praising the poet as the greatest English poet of all time and the first to show what the language was truly capable of poetically. This sentiment was universally agreed upon by later critics into the mid-15th century. Glosses included in The Canterbury Tales manuscripts of the time praised him highly for his skill with "sentence" and rhetoric, the two pillars by which medieval critics judged poetry. The most respected of

24576-484: The first such manoeuvres since the Napoleonic Wars. The Crimean War (1854–56) had so many blunders and failures—most famously the ill-advised " Charge of the Light Brigade "—that it became an iconic symbol of logistical, medical and tactical failures and mismanagement. Public opinion in Britain was outraged at the failures of traditional methods in the face of modernization everywhere else in British society;

24768-634: The form which it would retain for more than a hundred years. A number of independent offices and individual officers were responsible for various aspects of Army administration. The most important were the Commander-in-Chief of the Forces , the Secretary at War , and the twin Secretaries of State ; most of whose military responsibilities were passed to a new Secretary of State for War in 1794. Others who performed specialist functions were

24960-410: The formerly rigid drills of the line infantry were modified to a style known as "loose files and an American scramble". While the British defeated the colonists in most of the set-piece battles of the war, none of these had any decisive result, whereas the British defeats at the Battle of Saratoga and Siege of Yorktown adversely affected British morale, prestige and manpower. Historians have examined

25152-570: The forms and stories of which he would use later. The purposes of a voyage in 1377 are mysterious, as details within the historical record conflict. Later documents suggest it was a mission, along with Jean Froissart, to arrange a marriage between the future King Richard II and a French princess, thereby ending the Hundred Years' War. If this was the purpose of their trip, they seem to have been unsuccessful, as no wedding occurred. In 1378, Richard II sent Chaucer as an envoy (secret dispatch) to

25344-464: The future, but most importantly, "And eek thou hast thy beste frend alyve" (32, 40, 48). Chaucer retorts, "My frend maystow nat reven, blind goddesse" (50) and orders her to take away those who merely pretend to be his friends. Fortune turns her attention to three princes whom she implores to relieve Chaucer of his pain and "Preyeth his beste frend of his noblesse/That to som beter estat he may atteyne" (78–79). The three princes are believed to represent

25536-504: The greatest contribution of The Canterbury Tales to English literature was the popularisation of the English vernacular in mainstream literature, as opposed to French, Italian or Latin . English had, however, been used as a literary language centuries before Chaucer's time, and several of Chaucer's contemporaries— John Gower , William Langland , the Pearl Poet , and Julian of Norwich —also wrote major literary works in English. It

25728-407: The grotesque, Lent and Carnival , officially approved culture and its riotous, and high-spirited underside." Several works of the time contained the same opposition. Chaucer's characters each express different—sometimes vastly different—views of reality, creating an atmosphere of testing, empathy , and relativism . As Helen Cooper says, "Different genres give different readings of the world:

25920-474: The heir to the throne designated by Richard III before he was deposed. Geoffrey's other children probably included Elizabeth Chaucy, a nun at Barking Abbey , Agnes, an attendant at Henry IV 's coronation; and another son, Lewis Chaucer. Chaucer's "Treatise on the Astrolabe" was written for Lewis. According to tradition, Chaucer studied law in the Inner Temple (an Inn of Court ) at this time. He became

26112-438: The heroic meter of the 15th and 16th centuries sometimes known as riding rhyme , and is an ancestor of iambic pentameter . Chaucer's verse is usually also characterised by couplet rhyme , but he avoided allowing couplets to become too prominent in The Canterbury Tales , and four of the tales (the Man of Law's, Clerk's, Prioress', and Second Nun's) use rhyme royal . In 1386, Chaucer became Controller of Customs and Justice of

26304-426: The ill-effects of chivalry—the first making fun of chivalric rules and the second warning against violence. The Tales constantly reflect the conflict between classes. For example, the division of the three estates : the characters are all divided into three distinct classes, the classes being "those who pray" (the clergy), "those who fight" (the nobility), and "those who work" (the commoners and peasantry). Most of

26496-405: The intended audience of The Canterbury Tales is more difficult to determine. Chaucer was a courtier , leading some to believe that he was mainly a court poet who wrote exclusively for the nobility. He is referred to as a noble translator and poet by Eustache Deschamps and by his contemporary John Gower. It has been suggested that the poem was intended to be read aloud, which is probable as this

26688-462: The issue of responsibility for the defeat in terms of personalities. They also have explored such issues as communications and supply, a lack of defined objectives, and the underestimation of the American forces. The British Army during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars experienced a time of rapid change. At the beginning of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1793, the army was a small, awkwardly administered force of barely 40,000 men. By

26880-437: The king from 1389 to 1391 as Clerk of the King's Works. In 1359, in the early stages of the Hundred Years' War , Edward III invaded France, and Chaucer travelled with Lionel of Antwerp, Elizabeth's husband, as part of the English army . In 1360, he was captured during the siege of Rheims . Edward paid £16 for his ransom, a considerable sum equivalent to £14,557 in 2023, and Chaucer was released. After this, Chaucer's life

27072-419: The king's building projects. No major works were begun during his tenure, but he did conduct repairs on Westminster Palace , St. George's Chapel, Windsor , continued building the wharf at the Tower of London and built the stands for a tournament held in 1390. It may have been a difficult job, but it paid two shillings a day, more than three times his salary as a comptroller. Chaucer was also appointed keeper of

27264-416: The language at the time, but Chaucer was the earliest extant manuscript source with his ear for common speech. Acceptable , alkali , altercation , amble , angrily , annex , annoyance , approaching , arbitration , armless , army , arrogant , arsenic , arc , artillery and aspect are just some of almost two thousand English words first attested in Chaucer. Widespread knowledge of Chaucer's works

27456-416: The liquid stipend until Richard II came to power, after which it was converted to a monetary grant on 18 April 1378. Chaucer obtained the very substantial job of comptroller of the customs for the port of London, which he began on 8 June 1374. He must have been suited for the role as he continued in it for twelve years, a long time in such a post at that time. His life goes undocumented for much of

27648-426: The literary use of Middle English when the dominant literary languages in England were still Anglo-Norman French and Latin . Chaucer's contemporary Thomas Hoccleve hailed him as " the firste fyndere of our fair langage " (i.e., the first one capable of finding poetic matter in English). Almost two thousand English words are first attested to in Chaucerian manuscripts. Chaucer was born in London, most likely in

27840-451: The lives of his contemporaries William Langland and the Gawain Poet are practically non-existent, since Chaucer was a public servant, his official life is very well documented, with nearly five hundred written items testifying to his career. The first of the "Chaucer Life Records" appears in 1357, in the household accounts of Elizabeth de Burgh , the Countess of Ulster , when he became the noblewoman's page through his father's connections,

28032-405: The lodge at the King's Park in Feckenham Forest in Worcestershire , which was a largely honorary appointment. In September 1390, records say that Chaucer was robbed and possibly injured while conducting the business, and he stopped working in this capacity on 17 June 1391. He began as Deputy Forester in the royal forest of Petherton Park in North Petherton , Somerset on 22 June. This

28224-444: The major tactical unit of the army. On the continent of Europe, where large field formations were usual, a regiment was a formation of two or more battalions, under a colonel who was a field commander. The British Army, increasingly compelled to disperse units in far-flung colonial outposts, made the battalion the basic unit, under a lieutenant colonel. The function of the regiment became administrative rather than tactical. The colonel of

28416-411: The military occupation of Boston in 1768. Tensions between the army and local civilians helped contribute to the Boston Massacre of 1770, but outright warfare did not begin until 1775, when the " Minutemen " militias in the Massachusetts Bay Province attacked an army detachment sent to seize colonial munitions at Battles of Lexington and Concord . Reinforcements were sent to America to put down what

28608-420: The newspapers demanded drastic reforms, and parliamentary investigations exposed a multiplicity of grave problems. However, the reform campaign was not well organized. This allowed the traditional aristocratic leadership of the Army to pull itself together and block all serious reforms. No one was punished. The outbreak of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 shifted attention to the heroic defense of British interests by

28800-541: The next ten years, but it is believed that he wrote (or began) most of his famous works during this period. Chaucer's "only surviving handwriting" dates from this period. This is a request for temporary leave from work presented to King Richard II, hitherto believed to be the work of one of his subordinates due to the low level of language. On 16 October 1379, Thomas Staundon filed a legal action against his former servant Cecily Chaumpaigne and Chaucer, accusing Chaucer of unlawfully employing Chaumpaigne before her term of service

28992-414: The official Chaucerian canon, accepted today, was decided upon, largely as a result of Walter William Skeat 's work. Roughly seventy-five years after Chaucer's death, The Canterbury Tales was selected by William Caxton as one of the first books to be printed in England. Chaucer is sometimes considered the source of the English vernacular tradition. His achievement for the language can be seen as part of

29184-557: The opening lines of The Merchant's Prologue : No manuscript exists in Chaucer's own hand; all extant copies were made by scribes. Because the final -e sound was lost soon after Chaucer's time, scribes did not accurately copy it, and this gave scholars the impression that Chaucer himself was inconsistent in using it. It has now been established, however, that -e was an important part of Chaucer's grammar, and helped to distinguish singular adjectives from plural and subjunctive verbs from indicative. No other work prior to Chaucer's

29376-646: The personal copy of Henry IV. Given the ravages of time, it is likely that these surviving manuscripts represent hundreds since lost. Chaucer's original audience was a courtly one and would have included women as well as men of the upper social classes. Yet even before his death in 1400, Chaucer's audience had begun to include members of the rising literate, middle and merchant classes. This included many Lollard sympathisers who may well have been inclined to read Chaucer as one of their own. Lollards were particularly attracted to Chaucer's satirical writings about friars, priests, and other church officials. In 1464, John Baron,

29568-410: The pilgrim's actions. It is unclear whether Chaucer would intend for the reader to link his characters with actual persons. Instead, it appears that Chaucer creates fictional characters to be general representations of people in such fields of work. With an understanding of medieval society, one can detect subtle satire at work. The Tales reflect diverse views of the Church in Chaucer's England. After

29760-630: The plaintiff, "And also, you still have your best friend alive" (32, 40, 48); she also refers to his "beste frend" in the envoy when appealing to his "noblesse" to help Chaucer to a higher estate. The narrator makes a fifth reference when he rails at Fortune that she shall not take his friend from him. Chaucer respected and admired Christians and was one himself, as he wrote in Canterbury Tales , "now I beg all those that listen to this little treatise, or read it, that if there be anything in it that pleases them, they thank our Lord Jesus Christ for it, from whom proceeds all understanding and goodness.", though he

29952-514: The reforms that Gladstone promoted in the name of efficiency and democracy. In 1868 he abolished flogging , raising the private soldier status to more like an honourable career. In 1870 Cardwell abolished "bounty money" for recruits, discharged known bad characters from the ranks. He pulled 20,000 soldiers out of self-governing colonies, like Canada after Canadian Confederation , which learned they had to help defend themselves. The most radical change, and one that required Gladstone's political muscle,

30144-440: The reforms. The surveyor-general of the ordnance, and the financial secretary became key department heads reporting to the Secretary. The militia was reformed as well and integrated into the Army. The term of enlistment was reduced to 6 years, so there was more turnover and a larger pool of trained reservists. The territorial system of recruiting for regiments was standardised and adjusted to the current population. Cardwell reduced

30336-441: The regiments of the old armies transferred in situ to the new army so too was the institutional ethos, customs, and traditions, of the old standing armies that had been created shortly after the Stuart Restoration 47 years earlier. Stuart Asquith argues for roots before 1660: Many authorities quote the Restoration of 1660 as the birth date of our modern British Army. While this may be true as far as continuity of unit identity

30528-453: The rest of his life" for some unspecified task. This was an unusual grant, but given on a day of celebration, St George's Day , 1374, when artistic endeavours were traditionally rewarded, it is assumed to have been for another early poetic work. It is not known which, if any, of Chaucer's extant works prompted the reward, but the suggestion of him as a poet to a king places him as a precursor to later poets laureate . Chaucer continued to collect

30720-404: The restrictions which, whilst respecting the rights of the sovereign, were likewise to shield the liberty of the people. It did this by making the standing army conditional on an annually renewed act of Parliament. To this day, annual continuation notices are required for the British Army to remain legal. On paper, this also guarantees representative government, as Parliament must meet at least once

30912-469: The same meter throughout almost all of his tales, with the exception of Sir Thopas and his prose tales. This is a line characterised by five stressed syllables, usually alternating with unstressed syllables to produce lines usually of ten syllables , but often eleven and occasionally nine; occasionally a caesura can be identified around the middle of a line. This metre was probably inspired by French and Italian forms. Chaucer's meter would later develop into

31104-426: The same scribe, are MS Peniarth 392 D (called " Hengwrt "), and the Ellesmere Manuscript , a deluxe, illustrated manuscript. Until the 1940s, scholars tended to prefer the Ellesmere manuscript as closer to Chaucer's intentions; following John M. Manly and Edith Rickert , scholars increasingly favoured Hengwrt. The first version of The Canterbury Tales to be published in print was William Caxton 's 1476 edition. It

31296-401: The same word will mean entirely different things between classes. The word "pitee", for example, is a noble concept to the upper classes, while in the Merchant's Tale it refers to sexual intercourse. Again, however, tales such as the Nun's Priest's Tale show surprising skill with words among the lower classes of the group, while the Knight's Tale is at times extremely simple. Chaucer uses

31488-431: The stories. Textual and manuscript clues have been adduced to support the two most popular modern methods of ordering the tales. Some scholarly editions divide the Tales into ten "Fragments". The tales that make up a Fragment are closely related and contain internal indications of their order of presentation, usually with one character speaking to and then stepping aside for another character. However, between Fragments,

31680-452: The story Piers Plowman , a work written during Chaucer's lifetime. Chaucer describes a Plowman in the General Prologue of his tales, but never gives him his own tale. One tale, written by Thomas Occleve , describes the miracle of the Virgin and the Sleeveless Garment. Another tale features a pelican and a griffin debating church corruption, with the pelican taking a position of protest akin to John Wycliffe 's ideas. The Tale of Gamelyn

31872-428: The structure of the Tales is largely linear, with one story following another, it is also much more than that. In the General Prologue , Chaucer describes not the tales to be told, but the people who will tell them, making it clear that structure will depend on the characters rather than a general theme or moral. This idea is reinforced when the Miller interrupts to tell his tale after the Knight has finished his. Having

32064-497: The tales are interlinked by common themes, and some "quit" (reply to or retaliate against) other tales. Convention is followed when the Knight begins the game with a tale, as he represents the highest social class in the group. But when he is followed by the Miller, who represents a lower class, it sets the stage for the Tales to reflect both a respect for and a disregard for upper class rules. Helen Cooper, as well as Mikhail Bakhtin and Derek Brewer, call this opposition "the ordered and

32256-454: The tales of game and earnest, solas and sentence, will be set and interrupted. Here the sacred and profane adventure begins, but does not end. Here, the condition of peril is as prominent as that of protection. The act of pilgrimaging itself consists of moving from one urban space, through liminal rural space, to the next urban space with an ever fluctuating series of events and narratives punctuating those spaces. The goal of pilgrimage may well be

32448-402: The tales was at this time the Knight's, as it was full of both. The incompleteness of the Tales led several medieval authors to write additions and supplements to the tales to make them more complete. Some of the oldest existing manuscripts of the tales include new or modified tales, showing that even early on, such additions were being created. These emendations included various expansions of

32640-416: The terms of service and outlook of many soldiers. Nevertheless, it retained many features inherited from the Duke of Wellington's army, and since its prime function was to maintain the expanding British Empire , it differed in many ways from the conscripted armies of continental Europe. For example, it did not undertake large-scale manoeuvres. Indeed, the Chobham Manoeuvres of 1853 involving 7,000 troops were

32832-445: The theme decided on for the day. The idea of a pilgrimage to get such a diverse collection of people together for literary purposes was also unprecedented, though "the association of pilgrims and storytelling was a familiar one". Introducing a competition among the tales encourages the reader to compare the tales in all their variety, and allows Chaucer to showcase the breadth of his skill in different genres and literary forms. While

33024-410: The three kingdoms of England , Ireland and Scotland . It was created in 1645 by the English Long Parliament and it proved supreme in field. At the end of the First Civil War the New Model Army survived attempts by Parliament to disband it. Winston Churchill described its prowess thus: The Story of the Second English Civil War is short and simple. King, Lords and Commons, landlords, merchants,

33216-461: The time encouraged such diversity, dividing literature (as Virgil suggests) into high, middle, and low styles as measured by the density of rhetorical forms and vocabulary. Another popular method of division came from St. Augustine , who focused more on audience response and less on subject matter (a Virgilian concern). Augustine divided literature into "majestic persuades", "temperate pleases", and "subdued teaches". Writers were encouraged to write in

33408-500: The volunteers into a new Territorial Force of fourteen cavalry brigades and fourteen infantry divisions, and changed the old militia into the special reserve to reinforce the expeditionary force. The British Army was different from the French and German Armies at the beginning of the conflict in that it was made up from volunteers not conscripts . It was also considerably smaller than its French and German counterparts. The British entry into World War I in August 1914 saw

33600-487: The war dragged on, the ministry also sought to recruit Loyalist soldiers. Five American Loyalist units (known as the American Establishment , formed in 1779) were placed on the regular army roster, though there were many other Loyalist units. When the war ended in 1783 with the British government forced to recognize its defeat and U.S. independence under the Treaty of Paris , many United Empire Loyalists fled north to British Canada , where many subsequently served with

33792-410: The war, General James Wolfe amalgamated companies from several regiments into an ad hoc unit, the Louisbourg Grenadiers . There were also disagreements between high-ranking British officers and the provincial troops recruited from the colonies. It was laid down that even the most senior Provincial officers were subordinate to comparatively junior officers in the British Army. The first concern of

33984-427: The word knight was [kniçt] , with both the k and the gh pronounced, not / n aɪ t / . In some cases, vowel letters in Middle English were pronounced very differently from Modern English, because the Great Vowel Shift had not yet happened. For instance, the long e in wepyng "weeping" was pronounced as [eː] , as in modern German or Italian, not as / iː / . Below is an IPA transcription of

34176-411: Was a common activity at the time. However, it also seems to have been intended for private reading, since Chaucer frequently refers to himself as the writer, rather than the speaker, of the work. Determining the intended audience directly from the text is even more difficult, since the audience is part of the story. This makes it difficult to tell when Chaucer is writing to the fictional pilgrim audience or

34368-505: Was aware that as in any place some people in the church were venal and corrupt. Chaucer's first major work was The Book of the Duchess , an elegy for Blanche of Lancaster, who died in 1368. Two other early works were Anelida and Arcite and The House of Fame . He wrote many of his major works in a prolific period when he worked as customs comptroller for London (1374 to 1386). His Parlement of Foules , The Legend of Good Women , and Troilus and Criseyde all date from this time. It

34560-590: Was completed, which violated the Statute of Labourers . Though eight court documents dated between October 1379 and July 1380 survive the action, the case was never prosecuted. No details survive about Chaumpaigne's service or how she came to leave Staundon's employ for Chaucer's. It is not known if Chaucer was in the City of London at the time of the Peasants' Revolt , but if he was, he would have seen its leaders pass almost directly under his apartment window at Aldgate . While still working as comptroller, Chaucer appears to have moved to Kent , being appointed as one of

34752-442: Was destined to go into action at the Battle of the Somme . The 'third' was formed after the introduction of conscription in January 1916 and by the end of 1918 the British Army had reached its peak of strength of four million men and could field over seventy divisions. The war also saw the introduction of new weapons and equipment. The Maxim machine gun was replaced by the improved and lighter Vickers and Lewis machine guns ,

34944-420: Was first established as a standing military force in 1660. In 1707 many regiments of the English and Scottish armies were already combined under one operational command and stationed in the Dutch Republic fighting in the War of Spanish Succession . Consequently, although the regiments were now part of the new British military establishment, they remained under the same operational command, and so not only were

35136-477: Was impossible until the 1870s when the army assumed the form it took in 1914. Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone paid little attention to military affairs apart from budgets, but as he and the rest of stunned Europe watched the German coalition led by Prussia crushed France in a matter of weeks , the myriad old inadequacies of the British army set the agenda. His Secretary of State for War, Edward Cardwell proposed far-reaching reforms that Gladstone pushed through

35328-465: Was included in an early manuscript version of the tales, Harley 7334, which is notorious for being one of the lower-quality early manuscripts in terms of editor error and alteration. It is now widely rejected by scholars as an authentic Chaucerian tale, although some scholars think he may have intended to rewrite the story as a tale for the Yeoman. Dates for its authorship vary from 1340 to 1370. General Online texts Facsimiles History of

35520-434: Was initially expected to be a short-lived rebellion, despite the fact that in July 1776 the Second Continental Congress leading the revolt declared the Thirteen Colonies' independence as the United States of America . Because the British army was understrength at the outset of the war, the British government hired the mercenaries of several German states, referred to generically as " Hessians ", to fight in North America. As

35712-425: Was known as the French and Indian War . The early years saw several British defeats. The British units first despatched to the Continent were untrained in the bush warfare they met. To provide light infantry, several corps such as Rogers' Rangers were raised from the colonists. (A light infantry regiment, the 80th Regiment of Light-Armed Foot , was raised by Colonel Thomas Gage , but subsequently disbanded). During

35904-465: Was no problem if they were entirely wanting in military knowledge or leadership skills. From the Tory perspective it was essential to keep the officer corps the domain of gentlemen, and not a trade for professional experts. They warned the latter might menace the oligarchy and threaten a military coup; they preferred an inefficient army to an authoritarian state. The unification of Germany by Otto von Bismarck made this reactionary policy too dangerous for

36096-406: Was no sinecure, with maintenance an essential part of the job, although there were many opportunities to derive profit. Richard II granted him an annual pension of 20 pounds in 1394 (equivalent to £22,034 in 2023), and Chaucer's name fades from the historical record not long after Richard's overthrow in 1399. The last few records of his life show his pension renewed by the new king and his taking

36288-443: Was one of the first books to be printed by Caxton, the first person in England to print books using a printing press . Only 10 copies of this edition are known to exist, including one held by the British Library and one held by the Folger Shakespeare Library . The copyist of the Hengwrt and Ellesmere manuscripts has been identified as a scrivener named Adam Pinkhurst . Since a poem, apparently by Chaucer, identifies his scribe as

36480-419: Was the first author to use the work of these last two. Boethius ' Consolation of Philosophy appears in several tales, as do the works of John Gower , a friend of Chaucer's. Chaucer also seems to have borrowed from numerous religious encyclopaedias and liturgical writings, such as John Bromyard 's Summa praedicantium , a preacher's handbook, and Jerome 's Adversus Jovinianum . Many scholars say there

36672-409: Was to abolish the system of officers obtaining commissions and promotions by purchase, rather than by merit. The system meant that the rich landholding families controlled all the middle and senior ranks in the army. Promotion depended on the family's wealth, not the officer's talents, and the middle class was shut out almost completely. British officers were expected to be gentlemen and sportsmen; there

36864-406: Was used in much of his later work and became one of the standard poetic forms in English. His early influence as a satirist is also important, with the common humorous device, the funny accent of a regional dialect , apparently making its first appearance in The Reeve's Tale . The poetry of Chaucer, along with other writers of the era, is credited with helping to standardise the London Dialect of

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