The Merchant’s Tale Student Pack
AO3 = Social, Historical, Cultural Context (Blue)
AO5 – Critical Adaptations/Intepretations (Purple)
Week 1
Introduction
What language did people speak in England in the 14 th century?
Chaucer was thought of as the father of English Literature, despite there being
many other writers at the time. Some, like William Langland, were Chaucer’s
friends and lived in London, whilst other less well-known writers lived in more
remote areas of the country. Back in the 14th century, England was a trilingual
country where people spoke English, French and Latin.
It is important to think of Chaucer as not unique but one of the many writers in
the 14th century. Some of these writers wrote in English, and others in another
language. Chaucer was well placed to get the title of the father of English
Literature as he was a court poet and had good connections among the nobility
and among the London middle class. It is also clear that he knew the scribes,
whose job was to write things down professionally and who worked on his
manuscripts for him. Consequently, his works became very well-known and
circulated both in and out of London and were among the first texts to be printed
in the 1480s.
Story Collections
Who might have influenced Chaucer? In your answer, include some detail about
the works of those writers who may have influenced Chaucer.
Story collections was the form that Chaucer used for the Canterbury Tales. He
could have picked this up from Boccaccio during the time he spent in Italy, as
Boccaccio write a long story collection called The Decameron (10 days).
The Decameron is a tale about some aristocrats who run away from Florence in
1348 due to the plague. They move up to a pleasant hillside village where they
wait out the plague, and someone comes up with the idea that they can pass the
time by each person telling a tale about a theme. These may be about love or
money or war or families (each day has a theme). In comparison to the
Canterbury Tales, there is not much diversity among the speakers of the
Decameron, nor is there an insight into the personality or different social classes.
John Gower, Chaucer’s friend and contemporary in London, also wrote a story
collection called Confessio Amantis. This features two characters, including an
investigation of aspects of human psychology, and an explanation of the seven
deadly sins. Some of the stories from CA are also found in the Canterbury Tales.
However, Chaucer and Gower were working on their collections at the same
time, so it is not certain who influenced who, but it’s clear that CT wasn’t
, Chaucer’s first story collection. (He wrote the Legend of Good Women back in the
1370s).
The Legend of Good Women is a collection of 10 stories about women who have
been very badly treated by men and Chaucer draws on a whole range of different
classical authors for his material.
There are several advantages of a story collection as it allows the author to get a
great deal of material from a range of sources and have a lot of variation in the
narrative from tragedy to comedy.
Medieval Romance
How does Dr Larrington define romance as it would have been understood by a
medieval audience?
It can be defined as ‘stories about noble men and women doing things’, and it
was a much-loved genre by European audiences. It was particularly popular with
the upper and middle classes because it was about the kind of people they
aspired to become. Many popular romances first evolved in France, before being
translated into other European languages. For example, stories about King Arthur
had real international appeal.
Romance often shows very private emotions and contains lots of dialogue. The
plots can often have supernatural or miraculous elements and usually has a
happy ending. Chaucer is interested in all the subtypes of romance and
experiments with them in the Canterbury Tales.
Many romances are a form of retelling history and relate ideas of the classical
world. For example, the Legend of Troy. Other romances are interested in the
Orient, the exploits of Alexander the Great. These often feature exotic settings
somewhere in the heart of Asia and magical objects. (The Squire’s Tail).
Experimenting with the possibilities of romance was one of the great benefits of
the story collection form for Chaucer. He tries out six or seven different varieties
of the kinds mentioned, although some of them he does not finish. However, this
romance does, at the very least, give him scope to plumb all kinds of aspects of
human nature.
Drama
The Merchant’s Tale is not a drama.
Fabliau
What is a fabliau (plural is fabliaux)? How did fabliaux contribute to the
discussion around women at the time?
A fabliau is a short tale, often described as extended jokes which usually feature
low born characters and mostly revolve around sex and money. Although it is
likely that the English enjoyed these as much as the French, not many of these
tales survive in English. It can be argued that The Merchant’s Tale is a sort of
AO3 = Social, Historical, Cultural Context (Blue)
AO5 – Critical Adaptations/Intepretations (Purple)
Week 1
Introduction
What language did people speak in England in the 14 th century?
Chaucer was thought of as the father of English Literature, despite there being
many other writers at the time. Some, like William Langland, were Chaucer’s
friends and lived in London, whilst other less well-known writers lived in more
remote areas of the country. Back in the 14th century, England was a trilingual
country where people spoke English, French and Latin.
It is important to think of Chaucer as not unique but one of the many writers in
the 14th century. Some of these writers wrote in English, and others in another
language. Chaucer was well placed to get the title of the father of English
Literature as he was a court poet and had good connections among the nobility
and among the London middle class. It is also clear that he knew the scribes,
whose job was to write things down professionally and who worked on his
manuscripts for him. Consequently, his works became very well-known and
circulated both in and out of London and were among the first texts to be printed
in the 1480s.
Story Collections
Who might have influenced Chaucer? In your answer, include some detail about
the works of those writers who may have influenced Chaucer.
Story collections was the form that Chaucer used for the Canterbury Tales. He
could have picked this up from Boccaccio during the time he spent in Italy, as
Boccaccio write a long story collection called The Decameron (10 days).
The Decameron is a tale about some aristocrats who run away from Florence in
1348 due to the plague. They move up to a pleasant hillside village where they
wait out the plague, and someone comes up with the idea that they can pass the
time by each person telling a tale about a theme. These may be about love or
money or war or families (each day has a theme). In comparison to the
Canterbury Tales, there is not much diversity among the speakers of the
Decameron, nor is there an insight into the personality or different social classes.
John Gower, Chaucer’s friend and contemporary in London, also wrote a story
collection called Confessio Amantis. This features two characters, including an
investigation of aspects of human psychology, and an explanation of the seven
deadly sins. Some of the stories from CA are also found in the Canterbury Tales.
However, Chaucer and Gower were working on their collections at the same
time, so it is not certain who influenced who, but it’s clear that CT wasn’t
, Chaucer’s first story collection. (He wrote the Legend of Good Women back in the
1370s).
The Legend of Good Women is a collection of 10 stories about women who have
been very badly treated by men and Chaucer draws on a whole range of different
classical authors for his material.
There are several advantages of a story collection as it allows the author to get a
great deal of material from a range of sources and have a lot of variation in the
narrative from tragedy to comedy.
Medieval Romance
How does Dr Larrington define romance as it would have been understood by a
medieval audience?
It can be defined as ‘stories about noble men and women doing things’, and it
was a much-loved genre by European audiences. It was particularly popular with
the upper and middle classes because it was about the kind of people they
aspired to become. Many popular romances first evolved in France, before being
translated into other European languages. For example, stories about King Arthur
had real international appeal.
Romance often shows very private emotions and contains lots of dialogue. The
plots can often have supernatural or miraculous elements and usually has a
happy ending. Chaucer is interested in all the subtypes of romance and
experiments with them in the Canterbury Tales.
Many romances are a form of retelling history and relate ideas of the classical
world. For example, the Legend of Troy. Other romances are interested in the
Orient, the exploits of Alexander the Great. These often feature exotic settings
somewhere in the heart of Asia and magical objects. (The Squire’s Tail).
Experimenting with the possibilities of romance was one of the great benefits of
the story collection form for Chaucer. He tries out six or seven different varieties
of the kinds mentioned, although some of them he does not finish. However, this
romance does, at the very least, give him scope to plumb all kinds of aspects of
human nature.
Drama
The Merchant’s Tale is not a drama.
Fabliau
What is a fabliau (plural is fabliaux)? How did fabliaux contribute to the
discussion around women at the time?
A fabliau is a short tale, often described as extended jokes which usually feature
low born characters and mostly revolve around sex and money. Although it is
likely that the English enjoyed these as much as the French, not many of these
tales survive in English. It can be argued that The Merchant’s Tale is a sort of
