Периоды английской литературы. Карпова В.А. - 4 стр.

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give both pleasure and moral instruction. The “moral behind the
story” was a guarantee that the tales were more than mere entertainment.
       Most of the tales appear to be old traditional tales that were told in his age
of story – telling when there were rich oral as well as written traditions to draw
on. Some of the tales are based on old romances or “Breton lays”, others on
fabliaux or “merry tales”. But of almost every one he makes a work of the
maturest and wisest art. Yet where the art seems most mature, the traditional
roots are also the deepest. The Wife of Bath’s great dramatic monologue is a
brilliant new invention of sophisticated art. But it grows out of ancient roots,
partly the traditional flytings between man and his wife such as those between
Noah and his wife in the Miracle Plays. The Wife of Bath herself is a new type –
the bourgeois woman, one might call her – yet in essentials she is as old as
humanity.
       The diversity of the tales fulfils the promise of that initial diversity of
pilgrims presented in the Prologue, characters who are individuals and at the
same time are morally and socially representative. In the interludes between the
tales these “characters” are set in action, talking, disputing, and the tales
themselves are a livelier extension of their talk. These tales are the entertainment
the pilgrims provide for each other and at the same time they are a fuller
revelation of themselves, their interests, attitudes, and antagonisms. Most of the
pilgrims, like the merchant, the lawyer, the cook, the sailor, the ploughman, and
the miller, are ordinary people, but each of them can be recognized as a real
person with his or her own character. One of the most enjoyable characters, for
example, is the Wife of Bath. By the time she tells her story we know her as a
woman of very strong opinions who believes firmly in the need to manage
husbands strictly.
       Chaucer’s mastery of his art is rooted deep in past poetic practice and in
the civilization already centuries old. On the other hand, his originality marks a
new beginning. Chaucer was a very remarkable innovator. He adopted certain
modes, themes, and conventions of French and Italian medieval poetry to
English poetry for the first time. He developed the art of literature itself beyond
anything to be found in French or Italian or any other medieval literature. In the
“Canterbury Tales” he developed his art of poetry still further towards drama
and towards the art of the novel. The unity of the “Canterbury Tales” is not
altered by the fact that the whole poem as planned remained incomplete.
       The poet who is perhaps nearest to Chaucer is Gower. Gower’s verse (he
was Chaucer’s contemporary and friend) certainly implies the same social and
cultural milieu as Chaucer’s. In Gower’s English book, “Confessio Amantis”
(1390-3) – it is notable that of the three books he composed, one is in Latin, one
in French, one in English – we recognize again the well-bred, easy
conversational tone and manner that we are familiar with in Chaucer, and the
smooth – flowing - perhaps in Gower’s work, too smooth – flowing - verse. Yet
“Confessio Amantis”, for all its great length and considerable achievement in
workmanship, is a pale shadow compared not only with the “Canterbury Tales”
but also with the other poems of Chaucer.

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