AGE OF

CHAUCER
Lecture by :Anum Hussain.

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 Over view on Chaucer’s
Life

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  Geoffrey Chaucer, (born c. 1342/43, London, England—
died October 25, 1400, London),
 The outstanding English poet before Shakespeare and
“the first finder of English language.”
 The Canterbury Tales ranks as one of the greatest poetic
works in English.
 He also contributed importantly in the second half of the
14th century to the management of public affairs as
courtier, diplomat, and civil servant.
 In that career he was trusted and aided by three
successive kings—Edward III, Richard II, and Henry IV.
 But it is his occupation—the writing of poetry—for which
heUniversity
National is remembered.
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 The Age of Chaucer

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 Chaucer’s Age-Both Medieval and Modern:
 Chaucer’s age-like most historical ages-was an age of
transition.
 A shift from the medieval to the modern times.
 The emergence of the English nation from the “dark
ages” to the age of enlightenment.
 Some elements associated with modernity were coming
into prominence, -
 The age was medieval was
 unscientific,
 superstitious,
 chivalrous,
National religious-minded,
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 and “backward”.
  Age of Chaucer was not still: it was inching
its way steadily and surely to the dawn of
the Renaissance and the Reformation, which
were yet a couple of centuries ahead.
 Old things were changing into
new.

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  Hundred Years Of War

 The Hundred Years' War was an ongoing struggle between the

English and the French during the 14th and 15th centuries
over a number of issues, including legitimate claim to the
French throne. Generations of English and French claimants
to the crown were involved in the dispute, from approximately
1337 to 1453.
 Following the Hundred Years' War, many English regarded
French as the enemy's language.
 The status of the English language rose, and Oxford and
Cambridge universities were founded.
 Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales on Middle English.
 National
In 1384, John Wycliffe published his Bible translation
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in
English.
 The Age of Chivalry
 The dawn of the modern era was yet far away.
 Compton-Rickett observes: “Chaucer’s England is ‘Still
characteristically medieval, and nowhere is the
conservative feeling more strongly marked than in the
persistence of chivalry.
 This strange combination of love, war, and religion so far
from exhibiting any signs of decay, reached perhaps its
fullest development at this time.
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 Black Death
 In the middle ages, people did not bother much about
sanitation and cleanliness, so leprosy and other diseases
which breed in dirt were very common. England was often
visited by epidemics; especially plague .
 Black Death, outbreak of bubonic plague that struck
Europe and the Mediterranean area during later half of
the 14th century.
 The severest attack of this dreadful widespread came in
1377.
 It was called the Black Death. The wide-ranging swept
away of the total population of the England at 03/24/2020
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that time9

and left the country totally disorganized price, rose and

 Peasant’s Revolution:

 The suffering peasants of England became very restless and

discontented.
 They revolts in 1381 because , the poll taxes imposed in 1377,
1379 and 1380 were oppressive , Watt Taylor, Jack Straw and
John Bull led the peasants revolt .
 The mob stormed London, but Richard II handled the
situation very cunningly and got the leaders arrested and
then beheaded.
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 The Church:
 In the age of Chaucer, the Church became a hotbed of
wastefulness, corruption, and materialism.
 The overlord of the Church, namely, the Pope of Rome,
himself had ambitions and aptitudes other than
spiritual.
 “Priests are now become blind, dark and
beclouded. There is neither shaven crown on their
head, nor modesty in their words, nor temperance
in their food, nor even chastity in their deeds.”
-By Chaucer
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 This widespread and deep-rooted corruption had
already begun to provoke the attention of some
reformists the most prominent of whom was John Wyclif
(13207-84) who has been called “the morning star of
the Reformation.”
 Compton-Rickett (British Politician and Writer)
observes: “Chaucer’s world is medieval; but
beneath his medievalism the leaven of the
Renaissance is already at work.”

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 OVERVIEW
 Over view on Chaucer’s Life
 Chaucer’s Age-Both Medieval and Modern
 Hundred Years Of War
 Age of Chivalry
 Black death
 Peasant’s revolution
 The church

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