#chaucer

[thewilliacycle]

Yeoman's Tale: Geoffrey Chaucer

[illustratus]

The Canterbury Pilgrims by Paul Hardy

[medievalistsnet]

The Chaucerian

How a German school teacher became the world’s most prolific Chaucer scholar, and then was promptly forgotten - read here

[cultofthepigeon]

if all of the canterbury tales are fully together in one book the earth will explode by the way

[shakespearenews]

While preparing my fall seminars, I had found it increasingly difficult to think about how to teach Chaucer and not discuss Gaza. Not only because, if Chaucer doesn’t resonate with the lives and concerns of students now, I personally see little point in teaching him. Not only because a depoliticized Middle Ages is a Middle Ages made available to the uses and abuses of white supremacist history.1 

Not only because my solidarity with Palestinian struggle does not end when I leave the protest crowd. And not only—although substantially—in memory of, the professor and poet murdered on or around December 6, 2023, who wrote about teaching Dickens and Shakespeare to students at the Islamic University of Gaza and watching them slowly come to identify with the despised Jewish figures of Fagin and Shylock.2

---

But, recently, while rereading Troilus in order to teach it, I was struck by the blunt reality of what lies at the core of Chaucer’s plot. Troilus is a poem about a city under siege. Its protagonists are a combatant—Troilus—seeking to defend that city, and a civilian woman—Criseyde—trying to negotiate her survival, even while being traded as a hostage as part of political negotiations in which she has no say. The war is not mere “backdrop.” It’s the engine of Troilus’s plot, grounding its every action: from the vulnerable Criseyde turning to Troilus for “lordshipe” (protection), to the revelation of Criseyde’s “betrayal,” when Troilus sees her brooch pinned on a coat of arms captured from the Greek soldier Diomede.

[bitesizedpoetry]

Sylvia Plath

[itspileofgoodthings]

Listening to Down Bad and reading The Knight’s Tale for class tomorrow. There is nothing new under the sun etc.

[titusandronicusonice]

And eek I praye Jhesu shorte hir lyves That noght wol be governed by hir wyves

From Geoffrey Chaucer, 'The Wife of Bath's Prologue' (ll. 154-62) in The Canterbury Tales

Modern English translation: 'And also I pray Jesus shorten their lives / That will not be governed by their wives'

[shaylogic]

From my personal notes on The Case of Crystal and Charles. . .

[withasideofshakespeare]

Whore (affectionate)

[engagemythrusters]

like to re-kill Chaucer

reblog to re-kill Chaucer

[a-kind-of-merry-war]

in answer to @elgooso - #so. prev tags #what. what do you mean#home of rimming?

on this post about Canterbury and my tag: #HOME OF RIMMING

SO.

Calling Canterbury the home of rimming (or "the home of the chocolate smooch") is an in-joke from when we went to visit Canterbury during first year of uni.

BUT WHY, YOU ASK?

Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (which, admittedly, happen on the road between London and Canterbury, not in the city itself, but whatever) features The Miller's Tale.

There's a bunch of different things that happen in The Miller's Tale, but for our purposes the key bit is this. Warning - this does, I guess, count as SA, but this is a story told for gross-out reasons by drunken idiot. The point is that its crass and terrible.

Anyway!

Alisoun, who has a husband but is being wooed by two other dudes anyway, is sick of Absolon (guy #2) hanging out under her window, singing to him, and begging her for a kiss. At the climax of the poem, he's outside asking for a kiss, so she sticks her arse out of the window and he kisses her right on the bumhole. With relish.

Here's the key bit of the poem, and a Harvard translation:

Original: And at the wyndow out she putte hir hole and Absolon, hym fil no bet ne wers but with his mouth he kiste hir naked ers ful savourly, er he were war of this. Abak he stirte, and thoughte it was amys, For wel he wiste a womman hath no berd.

Translation into modern English: And at the window out she put her hole, and Absolon, to him it happened no better nor worse, but with his mouth he kissed her naked ass with great relish, before he was aware of this. Back he jumped, and thought it was amiss, for well he knew a woman has no beard.

What really got me was the ful savourly part. And the part where Chaucer specifies that it's her hole, not just her bum or her bumcheek. Because of this delightful tale, we started to call Canterbury the home of rimming. Look, we were young and very, very silly.

Anyway! There we go. Go forth with this knowledge, and kiss people's buttholes ful savourly 🍑

[writing-for-life]

Sandman Comics Re-Read

Issue 13: Men of Good Fortune

We pulled up this issue for our community discussion early so we can start with the rewatch of episode 6 (“The Sound of her Wings”) today. If you are looking for the corresponding reread of issue 8, you can find it here.

This is an issue full of historical references, and it was great to look at it from this angle. If you’d like to read all contributions or would like to join us—we’d love to have you!

As usual, here are my contributions for later reference (the summary came from @tickldpnk8 this week):

[oddlyspecifichistorymemes]

somebody help them!!1!

[shakespearenews]

These Shakespeare plays lack energy in part because the author venerates his source too much: he is uncomfortable dramatizing, or making free with, his material. His single augmentation of “The Knight’s Tale,” the subplot of the wacky jailer’s daughter, is superfluous. The prologue of The Two Noble Kinsmen even visualizes Shakespeare’s fear at causing Chaucer to spin in his grave: “How will it shake the bones of that good man, / And make him cry from under ground.” This is the anxiety of influence turned the influence of anxiety.