THE MONK LIKES FAT SWAN
JACOB'S TALE, THROWN UP TWO SECONDS BEFORE SWIM PRACTICE. CORRECT SPELLING AND USAGE IS NOT INSURED
GENERAL PROLOUGE/CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MONK
Nice Clothing--------
Nice Horse
Well Fed
Expensive adornment of the horse
Interests: Hunting, Gold, Being Lavish, Eating, Horses
Disinterests: Books & Texts, Study, Prayer, Physical Labor, Toil
**NB in relation to Carolynn’s Friar, we see how corrupt the Monk is.
TALE PROLOUGE
Host
•Laments the story of Melibee
•Don John? Don Thomas? Don Albion? Name guessed but unknown
•Mocks the Monk and the Church
••“You would have been a hen-hopper alright!”
•“God knows, in no light weight of coin pay you!”
•“Religion, why its gathered all the corn of treading and we laymen are but shrimps…that’s why our heirs are all so very slender”
Monk
•Agrees to tell a good tale, BUT doesn’t really
•“Or rather, first some tragedies I’ll tell,
Whereof I have a hundred in my cell”-- retaliate on host for insulting him?
• Tells stories in random order, “as they to memory may come by chance”
CONTENT
•Host requests a happy story-----------------Monk tells tragedies
1.Lucifer
2.Adam
3.Samson
4.Hercules
5.Nebuchadnezzar
6.Belshazzar
7. Zenobia
8. Pedro, King of Spain
9. Peter, King of Cyprus
10. Bernabo of Lombardy
11. Ugolino, Count of Piza
12. Nero
13.Holoferns
14.Antiochus Epiphanes
15.Alexander
16.Julius Caesar
17.Croesus
And some notes/.quotes
“For certain ‘tis, when Fortune wills to flee,
There may no man the course of her withhold;
Let no man trust in blind prosperity;
Be warned by these examples true and old.”
•Irony
•Hypocrisy
•Corruption of the Church
PURPOSE OF THE TRAGEDIES
MONK’S REASONS
•Host was being rude, had to be reminded of his place
•Stories about the fall of those who thought highly of themselves
•Defend the Church
•Shield to his own lavishness—denial and hypocrisy
•Life of the party
CHAUCER’S REASONS
•Appeal to reader’s dislike of “tyrants”
•“Ecclesiastical tyrants”- oppressive land lords and bureaucrats
•Experience with Dante [Inferno and Comedy], Boccaccio
•Complied his own book of tragedies, never published
•Critique Church/ Mockery of the Monk
•Support a Wycleffte view of Church abuses
IS IT A FRAGMENT?
---thought to be for a long time, but could not
Significance/Relevance of it not being a fragment
11.Chaucer relied on previous author’s styles
•Composition of Guillaume de Machaut, poet/ musician (and HUGE influence on Chaucer)
--Structure, Rhyme Scheme, Length
--Monk probably not a fragment
2.Plot and Character Areas
•Monk is a ‘craftsperson’ & a poet
•Knight appears foolish
•Stories told for a reason, not just thrown in
Some useful websites (if you really want to read the Tragedies)
http://www.unc.edu/depts/chaucer/zatta/monk.html
•http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/chaucessays.htm
•http://faculty.goucher.edu/eng330/chaucermonk.htm
JACOB'S TALE, THROWN UP TWO SECONDS BEFORE SWIM PRACTICE. CORRECT SPELLING AND USAGE IS NOT INSURED
GENERAL PROLOUGE/CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MONK
Nice Clothing--------
Nice Horse
Well Fed
Expensive adornment of the horse
Interests: Hunting, Gold, Being Lavish, Eating, Horses
Disinterests: Books & Texts, Study, Prayer, Physical Labor, Toil
**NB in relation to Carolynn’s Friar, we see how corrupt the Monk is.
TALE PROLOUGE
Host
•Laments the story of Melibee
•Don John? Don Thomas? Don Albion? Name guessed but unknown
•Mocks the Monk and the Church
••“You would have been a hen-hopper alright!”
•“God knows, in no light weight of coin pay you!”
•“Religion, why its gathered all the corn of treading and we laymen are but shrimps…that’s why our heirs are all so very slender”
Monk
•Agrees to tell a good tale, BUT doesn’t really
•“Or rather, first some tragedies I’ll tell,
Whereof I have a hundred in my cell”-- retaliate on host for insulting him?
• Tells stories in random order, “as they to memory may come by chance”
CONTENT
•Host requests a happy story-----------------Monk tells tragedies
1.Lucifer
2.Adam
3.Samson
4.Hercules
5.Nebuchadnezzar
6.Belshazzar
7. Zenobia
8. Pedro, King of Spain
9. Peter, King of Cyprus
10. Bernabo of Lombardy
11. Ugolino, Count of Piza
12. Nero
13.Holoferns
14.Antiochus Epiphanes
15.Alexander
16.Julius Caesar
17.Croesus
And some notes/.quotes
“For certain ‘tis, when Fortune wills to flee,
There may no man the course of her withhold;
Let no man trust in blind prosperity;
Be warned by these examples true and old.”
•Irony
•Hypocrisy
•Corruption of the Church
PURPOSE OF THE TRAGEDIES
MONK’S REASONS
•Host was being rude, had to be reminded of his place
•Stories about the fall of those who thought highly of themselves
•Defend the Church
•Shield to his own lavishness—denial and hypocrisy
•Life of the party
CHAUCER’S REASONS
•Appeal to reader’s dislike of “tyrants”
•“Ecclesiastical tyrants”- oppressive land lords and bureaucrats
•Experience with Dante [Inferno and Comedy], Boccaccio
•Complied his own book of tragedies, never published
•Critique Church/ Mockery of the Monk
•Support a Wycleffte view of Church abuses
IS IT A FRAGMENT?
---thought to be for a long time, but could not
Significance/Relevance of it not being a fragment
11.Chaucer relied on previous author’s styles
•Composition of Guillaume de Machaut, poet/ musician (and HUGE influence on Chaucer)
--Structure, Rhyme Scheme, Length
--Monk probably not a fragment
2.Plot and Character Areas
•Monk is a ‘craftsperson’ & a poet
•Knight appears foolish
•Stories told for a reason, not just thrown in
Some useful websites (if you really want to read the Tragedies)
http://www.unc.edu/depts/chaucer/zatta/monk.html
•http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/chaucessays.htm
•http://faculty.goucher.edu/eng330/chaucermonk.htm
posted by L Lazarow | 12:32 PM
2 Comments:
among the clergy, is the monk the highest ranking on the trip?
the monk's tales also, like steve said, have a focus of those who have a large amount of fortune will fall, which is hypocritical of himself beucase of his lavish hobbies.
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