Age of Chaucer
Introduction:
For a profound and comprehensive study of an author’s literary work is required, among other things, a thorough understanding of the age which produced and nurtured him. Without acquaintance with the historical context our evaluation and apprehension of literature is bound to be lop-sided, if not altogether warped and garbled. Every man is a child of his age. He is influenced by it though, if he is a great man, he may influence it also. A great writer like Shakespeare or Chaucer is generally said to be “not of an age, but of all ages.” But, in spite of his universal appeal, the fact remains that even he could not have escaped “the spirit of the age” in which he lived and moved and had his being. So, for understanding him and his works in their fullness it is imperative to familiarise ourselves with the influential currents of thought and feeling and sensibility (not to speak of the sociology politico-economic conditions) obtained in the times in which he flourished. Probably the Reverse of it is also true: we may acquire some understanding of these tendencies and currents, the ethos of the age, through the writer himself. Emphasising this point, W. H. Hudson says: “Every man belongs to his race and age; no matter how marked his personality, the spirit of his race and age finds expression through him” The same critic cogently expresses the relationship between history and literature. “Ordinary English history’ he says, “is our nation’s biography, its literature is its autobiography; in the ‘one we read the story of its actions and practical achievements; in the other the story of its intellectual and moral development.” Though Chaucer transcends the limits of his generation and creates something which is of interest to the future generation too, yet he represents much of what his age stands for. And therein lies his greatness. In the age of Chaucer, the Church became a hotbed of profligacy, corruption, and materialism. The overlord of the Church, namely, the Pope of Rome, himself had ambitions and aptitudes other than spiritual.
Chaucer’s Age-Both Medieval and Modern:
Chaucer’s age-like most historical ages-was an age of transition. This transition implies a shift from the medieval to the modern times, the emergence of the English nation from the dark ages' ' to the age of enlightenment. Though some elements associated with modernity were coming into prominence,-yet mostly and essentially the age was medieval-unscientific, superstitious, chivalrous, religious-minded, and “backward” in most respects. The fourteenth century, as J. M. Manly puts it in The Cambridge History of English Literature, was “a dark epoch of the history of England ''. However, the silver lining of modernity did “succeed in piercing, here and there, the thick darkness of ignorance and superstition. In fact, the age of Chaucer was not stagnant: 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. We cannot agree with Kittredge who calls Chaucer’s age “a singularly modern time”. For that matter, not to speak of the fourteenth, even the eighteenth century was not “modern” in numerous respects. What we notice in the fourteenth century is the start of the movement towards the modern times, and not the accomplishment of that movement, which was going to be a march of marathon nature. Robert Dudley French observes: “It was an age of restlessness, amid the ferment of new life, that Chaucer lived and wrote. Old things and new appear side by side on his pages, and in his poetry we can study the essential spirit, both of the age that was passing and of the age that was to come.”What are these ‘old things and new:’ and what made the age restless? The answer will be provided if we discuss the chief events and features of the age.
The period between 1337 and 1453 is marked by a long succession of skirmishes between France and England, which are collectively known as the “Hundred Years War”. Under the able and warlike guidance of King Edward III (1327-1377) England won a number of glorious victories, particularly at Crecy, Portieres, and Encouraging. The French might have crumbled and Edward was once acknowledged even the king of France. But later, after his demise and with the succession of the incompetent Richard II, the English might waned and the French were able to secure tangible gains. The war influenced fie English character in the following two ways: The fostering of nationalistic sentiment; and The demolition of some social barriers between different classes of society. It was obviously natural for the conflict to have engendered among the English a strong feeling of national solidarity and patriotic fervour. But, as Compton-Rickett reminds us, “the fight is memorable not merely for stimulating the pride of English men.” It is important, too, for the second reason given above. It was not the aristocracy alone which secured the victory for England. The aristocracy was vitally supported by the lowly archers whose feats with the bow were a force to reckon with. Froissart, the French chronicler, referring to the English archers says: “They let their arrows fly so wholly together and so thick that it seemed snow”.
The Age of Chivalry:
Nevertheless, 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 amalgam of love, war, and religion so far from exhibiting any signs of decay, reached perhaps its fullest development at this time. More than two centuries were to elapse before it was finally killed-by the satirical pen of Cervantes.” The Knight in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales is typical of his kind. Even the tale he narrates concerns the adventures of two true knights-Architect and Palamon
The Black Death:
Peasants’ Revolt and Labour Unrest In the age of Chaucer most people were victims of poverty, squalor, and pestilence. Even well educated nobles eyed soap with suspicion, and learned physicians often forbade bathing as harmful for health! That is why England was often visited by epidemics, especially plague. The severest attack of this dread epidemic came in 1348. It was called “the Black Death'' because black, knotty boils appeared on the bodies of the hopeless victims. It is estimated that about a million human beings were swept away by this epidemic. That roughly makes one-third of the total population of England at that time. One immediate consequence of this pestilence was the acute shortage of working hands. The socioeconomic system of England lay hopelessly paralysed. Labourers and villains who happened to survive started demanding much higher wages. But neither their employers nor the king nor Parliament was ready to meet these demands. A number of severe regulations were passed asking workers to work at the old rates of payment. This occasioned a great deal of resentment which culminated in the Peasants’ Revolt in 1381 during the reign of Richard II. The peasants groaning under the weight of injustice and undue official severity were led to London by the Kentish priest John Ball. He preached the dignity of labour and asked the nobles: When Adam delved and Eve span Who was then the gentleman? The king, overawed by the mass of peasantry armed with such weapons as hatchets, spades, and pitchforks, promised reform but later shelved his promise. The “Peasants’ Revolt'' is, according to Compton-Rickett, “a dim foreshadowing of those industrial troubles that lay in the distant future.” Chaucer in his Nun’s Priest’s Tale refers in the following lines to Jack Straw who with Watt Tyler raised the banner of revolt: Certes, he Jake Straw and his meyne Ne made never shouts half so shrill, When that they wolden any Fleeing kill As thilke day was mad upon the fox. R. K. Root thus sums up the significance of this uprising: “This revolt, suppressed by the courage and good judgement of the boy King, Richard II, though barren of any direct and immediate result, exerted a lasting influence on the temper of the lower classes, fostering in them a spirit of independence which made them no longer a negligible quantity in the life of the nation''. This was another line of progress towards modernism.
Summary:
The fourteenth century, as J. M. Manly puts it in The Cambridge History of English Literature, which was “a dark epoch of the history of England”. Latin and French were the dominant languages in fourteenth-century England. Chaucer first appears in public records in 1357 as a member of the house of Elizabeth, Countess of ulster. In October 1385, Chaucer was appointed a justice of the peace for Kent, and in August 1386 he became knight of the shire for Kent.
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