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Chivalry In Chaucers Canterbur - School Essays

Chivalry In Chaucers Canterbur

In his Canterbury Tales, Chaucer fully explicates the cultural standard known as curteisye through satire. In the fourteenth century curteisye embodied sophistication and an education in French international culture. The legends of chilvalric knights, conversing in the language of courtly love, matured during this later medieval period. Chaucer himself matured in the King's Court, and he reveled in his cultural status, but he also retained an anecdotal humor about curteisye. One must only peruse his Tales to discern these sentiments. In the General Prologue, he meticulously describes the Prioress, satirically examining her impeccable table manners. In the Miller's Tale Chaucer ...

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Chaucer mocks her etiquette by so specifically describing it, and in doing so he also mocks her conception of sophistication. For Chaucer, sophistication represented more than table manners and "Frenssh… of Stratford at the Bowe."(General Prologue, 124,5) Curteisye required an intimate, first hand knowledge and experience with French culture. This Prioress had learned her French in an English convent school, hardly the equivalent to Chaucer's travels in France. Chaucer creates the feeling that the narrator is basing his statements not only on the nun's actions but also on her attitudes. The details of her dainty manners prove to the reader that she truly believes that she appreciates curteisye, making her seem even more naļve. Chaucer continues in his description, adding comments on her emotional state, "She wolde weepe if that she saw a mous / Caught in a trappe,"(General Prologue, 144-5), and her neat appearance. All elements combine to illuminate a woman who could only ...

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Added: 1/4/2005 07:31:57 PM
Category: Book Reports
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 792
Pages: 3

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