Chaucer’s Tale

Title: Chaucer’s Tale – 1386 and the Road to Canterbury

Author: Paul Strohm

Publisher: Viking, 2014 (First)

ISBN: 9780670026432

Pages: 284

Geoffrey Chaucer (1343 – 1400) is well known as the Father of English Literature, whose work was crucial in legitimizing literary use of English at a time when the dominant languages in England were French and Latin. He is the greatest poet of the Middle Ages and was the first poet to be interred in Westminster Abbey. This book presents Chaucer’s life as a bureaucrat, philosopher, astronomer, courtier and diplomat of middling fame. He was part of many official or diplomatic ventures, but never led any of them. It discusses his literary life as an avocation at night, while keeping his regular job as the controller of wool custom during the day. He was not much known outside the close circle of his friends until the year 1386, when Chaucer’s life was changed beyond recognition. His fame rests predominantly on the Canterbury Tales. The present book traces the literary path of the poet, from London bureaucracy to the creation of the classic, with leading events that transformed his career. The author, Paul Strohm, is a professor of English and has authored many books on the subject. He divides his time between New York and Oxford.

Chaucer’s reputation came about in later centuries as a result of re-appreciation of his literary contribution by a society that was increasingly addicted to literature. Being the son of a vintner, Chaucer had a humble beginning. Instead of pursuing a career with guilds of that trade, he chose royal service by becoming an esquire of the king. He was assisted in great measure by Katherine Swynford, his sister-in-law who was a mistress of John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster and the crown prince. His wife, Philippa, was also on the Duke’s service, which extended his patronage to the poet as well, through Nicholas Brembre – mayor of London and a corrupt official. Chaucer’s sons also came under Lancastrian patronage. Having secured a position as the controller of wool custom, which was the most lucrative export from England, he was granted a room in the Aldgate gatehouse that was one of the seven city gates. The whole traffic in and out of the city literally passed under Chaucer’s feet. He wrestled with accounts of bales transported in daytime and indulged in solitary poetic endeavour by night. The room was dark even at noon, as the only source of natural light was through slits on the wall constructed primarily for archers to shoot arrows against enemies attacking the gate. Naturally, his wife never lodged with him. For twelve years, he continued this existence until 1386 when his powerful allies made him a member of parliament from Kent. Unfortunately for Chaucer, it was a time of troubles for the royal faction. Made furious by the witless king Richard II and his intransigent cronies, the parliament rose in revolt. The next few years were really hellish for the royal camp. Chaucer was ejected from his accommodation and had to leave the city to take up residence in Kent, his constituency. The most fruitful period in Chaucer’s career thus began.

This book is also about England in the late-fourteenth century as it is about Geoffrey Chaucer. It presents an original picture of London’s social life then. The city gates were closed at dusk and opened only at first light the next day. During night time, special permission was required to even walk on the streets. When the Compline bell tolled in the church, people retreated to their residences. There was virtually no privacy anywhere in the city for poor people, which may be true even now. Having no clocks or other time-keeping devices, people’s lives were regulated by the tolling of church bells marking various services being performed there. The parliament in which Chaucer was a member took a bold initiative to install a clock to mark time independently and the reckoning of years changed from regnal years to calendar. This change from liturgical and regnal time to clock and calendar time may be thought of as a distant herald of the enlightenment that was still much ahead. Strohm also describes the working of parliament in interesting detail. The power struggles between the king and parliament lays bare the battlefield where democracy won its laurels in the end.

Strohm portrays the development of English as a literary language along with Chaucer’s career. Writing in English was taking hold when Chaucer began in the 1360s. By 1386, he was fame-worthy, but not famous yet – with the completion of Troilus and Criseide. His audience constituted his friends, allies and possibly patrons which can be numbered in a few hundreds. The common way of appreciating literature at that time was for an author to read aloud to an audience of his acquaintances, who then responded favourably or negatively to the composition. Silent reading was a novelty and required expansion of literacy among the masses to take hold. Authors wrote only for the sake of writing and appending one’s own name as its creator was thought to be a brazen and boastful practice, though the Italian masters like Dante and Petrarch did it. As the public became more literate, cheap reproduction techniques for manuscripts came to the fore. This was further facilitated by rapid advances in papermaking rather than vellum and parchment. The entrepreneurs who later transformed into publishing houses first took root in this fertile tract of land.

The forced relocation to the countryside and separation from his audience forced Chaucer to change his style so as to address a larger, though imaginary, audience through his books. This made him cultivate a desire for expanded literary reputation and a sense of rivalry with Italian poet Giovanni Boccaccio, who was a literary master close in time to Chaucer. The Canterbury Tales was a path-breaking work in the English language that catapulted Chaucer to everlasting fame. Strohm has included a chapter on its theme, major actors and how the story proceeds. The work did become popular only a decade after the poet’s death in 1400. He led a lonely life in the end. His wife died immediately after his relocation to Kent and his dominating sister-in-law leaned more to the religious side. Powerful patrons like king Richard II, John of Gaunt and Nicholas Brembre were further weakened as the years went by, while Chaucer grew in stature as time ticked away.

The book is very heartening to read with a slight demand on the reader to be appreciative to good verse. Snippets from many of Chaucer’s works are reproduced in the book, first as translation in modern English, followed by the original text in Middle English. Sufficient number of Notes is included, along with books for further reading. An index at the end is very helpful. A nice collection of portraits of the life and times of Chaucer adds interest to the book. This is not a biography of the poet as it stops at the point when he began his real career and then veers to a description of the masterpiece. The final years of his life are not included, which is a real handicap. An epilogue might be very effective in future editions.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 4 Star