Canterbury Tales
Topic: Medieval Europe: Feudalism and the Three Orders · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 3 "Changing Traditions"; Class 11, Ch 4 "The Three Orders"; Class 11, Ch 5 "Changing Cultural Traditions"
Meaning
The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written in Middle English (an early form of English) by Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1340–1400). The stories are told by a group of pilgrims travelling to Canterbury in England. It is one of the earliest great works of English literature. It also shows that people in the fourteenth century were criticising the Church.
Example
Chaucer's fourteenth-century tales include funny portraits of a nun, a monk and a friar, showing them as worldly and lazy rather than holy. Such writing reflected a growing complaint that monks were not living by their vows.
Don't confuse with
- Piers Plowman: a poem by William Langland (c. 1360–70). It contrasts the comfort of lazy monks with the pure faith of ordinary ploughmen and shepherds. It was written by a different author.