Đề 2 văn hoc anh mỹ NGUYỄN THỊ BÍCH TUYỀN

FULL NAME: NGUYỄN THỊ BÍCH TUYỀN
CLASS: FSP313
STUDENT ID: 20C7148803819

ĐỀ 2
I. Answer the following questions: (50 points)
1. What three languages were spoken in England in the 11th - 13th centuries, and
whom were they spoken by? Mention some reasons.
Three main languages spoken in England in the 11th - 13th centuries: Middle
English, Anglo-Norman (or French) and Latin.
- Middle English: The earliest literary document in English in the University of
Nottingham’s collections is a fragment from the life of St Bridget, from the South English
Legendary, composed in the late thirteenth century. The scribe uses the Anglo-Saxon
letters ‘yogh’ for ‘y’ or ‘g’ and thorn for ‘th’. He leaves a wide gap between the first
capital letter of each line and the rest of the word.
- Anglo-Norman: Anglo-Norman had emerged as a distinct dialect of French after
the Norman Conquest in 1066 established a French-speaking aristocracy in English. It
was still dominant in the mid-thirteenth century when Robert of Gretham wrote his advice
on moral conduct, the Mirur. For Robert the appropriate language for lay education was
French, but by the late fourteenth century his book had been translated into English.
- French: John Gower, a contemporary and friend of Geoffrey Chaucer in the late
fourteenth century, wrote in all three languages. His ballades include the French
poem Traitié pour les amantz marietz, promoting the virtues of married love. Shown here
is a section headed by an introduction (rubricated in red ink) in which Gower apologises
for any mistakes in his French. The introduction to the passage is in Latin, and reads
'Gower, qui Anglicus est, sua verba Gallica … excusat' ('Gower, who is English, makes
excuse for his French words'). This followed a familiar convention of bilingual
presentation. Gower’s great English work was known by its Latin title Confessio
Amantis and included Latin running titles and section headings.
2. What is a romance, a fabliaux, a bestiaria? In what language were they written?
a. Fabliau

- Fabliau, plural fabliaux, a short metrical tale made popular in medieval France by
the jongleurs, or professional storytellers. Fabliaux were characterized by vivid detail and
realistic observation and were usually comic, coarse, and often cynical, especially in their


treatment of women.
- About 150 fabliaux are extant. Many of them are based on elementary jokes or
puns—such as one called Estula, which can either be a person’s name or mean “Are you
there?” - or on wry situations, such as one tale in which a man is rescued from drowning
but has his eye put out by the boat hook that saves him. The majority of fabliaux are
erotic, and the merriment provoked often depends on situations and adventures that are
sometimes obscene. Recurring characters include the cuckold and his wife, the lover, and
the naughty priest. The theme of guile is often treated, frequently to show the deceiver
deceived.
b. Romance
- In the strictest academic terms, a romance is a narrative genre in literature that
involves a mysterious, adventurous, or spiritual story line where the focus is on a quest
that involves bravery and strong values, not always a love interest. However, modern
definitions of romance also include stories that have a relationship issue as the main
focus.
- In the academic sense, an example of a romance is a story in which the main
character is a hero who must conquer various challenges as part of a quest. Each
challenge could be its own story and can be taken out of the overall story without
harming the plot.
c. Bestiaria
- A bestiary (from bestiarum vocabulum) is a compendium of beasts. Originating in
the ancient world, bestiaries were made popular in the Middle Ages in illustrated volumes
that described various animals and even rocks. The natural history and illustration of each
beast was usually accompanied by a moral lesson. This reflected the belief that the world
itself was the Word of God and that every living thing had its own special meaning. For

example, the pelican, which was believed to tear open its breast to bring its young to life
with its own blood, was a living representation of Jesus. Thus the bestiary is also a
reference to the symbolic language of animals in Western Christian art and literature.
- Medieval bestiaries contained detailed descriptions and illustrations of species
native to Western Europe, exotic animals and what in modern times are considered to be
imaginary animals. Descriptions of the animals included the physical characteristics
associated with the creature, although these were often physiologically incorrect, along
with the Christian morals that the animal represented. The description was then often
accompanied by an artistic illustration of the animal as described in the bestiary.


II. Comments (50 points)
Write what you know about the life and works of Geoffrey Chaucer - The
founder of English realism.
Geoffrey Chaucer, (born c. 1342/43, London, England - died October 25, 1400,
London), the outstanding English poet before Shakespeare and “the first finder of our
language.” His The Canterbury Tales ranks as one of the greatest poetic works in English.
He also contributed importantly in the second half of the 14th century to the management
of public affairs as courtier, diplomat, and civil servant. In that career he was trusted and
aided by three successive kings—Edward III, Richard II, and Henry IV. But it is his
avocation—the writing of poetry—for which he is remembered.
Perhaps the chief characteristics of Chaucer’s works are their variety in subject
matter, genre, tone, and style and in the complexities presented concerning the human
pursuit of a sensible existence. Yet his writings also consistently reflect an all-pervasive
humor combined with serious and tolerant consideration of important philosophical
questions. From his writings Chaucer emerges as poet of love, both earthly and divine,
whose presentations range from lustful cuckoldry to spiritual union with God. Thereby,
they regularly lead the reader to speculation about man’s relation both to his fellows and
to his Maker, while simultaneously providing delightfully entertaining views of the
frailties and follies, as well as the nobility, of mankind. Chaucer’s forebears for at least

four generations were middle-class English people whose connection with London and
the court had steadily increased. John Chaucer, his father, was an important London
vintner and a deputy to the king’s butler; in 1338 he was a member of Edward III’s
expedition to Antwerp, in Flanders, now part of Belgium, and he owned property
in Ipswich, in the county of Suffolk, and in London. He died in 1366 or 1367 at age 53.
The name Chaucer is derived from the French word chaussier, meaning a maker of
footwear. The family’s financial success derived from wine and leather.
Chaucer’s service as clerk of the king’s works lasted only from July 1389 to June 1391.
During that tenure he was robbed several times and once beaten, sufficient reason for
seeking a change of jobs. In June 1391 he was appointed subforester of the king’s park in
North Petherton, Somerset, and an office that he held until his death. He retained his
home in Kent and continued in favor at court, receiving royal grants and gifts during
1393–97. The records show his close relationship during 1395–96 with John of Gaunt’s
son, the earl of Derby, later King Henry IV. When John died in February 1399, King
Richard confiscated John’s Lancastrian inheritance; then in May he set forth to crush the


Irish revolt. In so doing, he left his country ready to rebel. Henry, exiled in 1398 but now
duke of Lancaster, returned to England to claim his rights. The people flocked to him, and
he was crowned on September 30, 1399. He confirmed Chaucer’s grants from Richard II
and in October added an additional generous annuity. In December 1399 Chaucer took a
lease on a house in the garden of Westminster Abbey. But in October of the following
year he died. He was buried in the Abbey, a signal honour for a commoner.
Chaucer’s great literary accomplishment of the 1390s was The Canterbury Tales.
In it a group of about 30 pilgrims gather at the Tabard Inn in Southwark, across the
Thames from London, and agree to engage in a storytelling contest as they travel on
horseback to the shrine of Thomas à Becket in Canterbury, Kent, and back. Harry Bailly,
host of the Tabard, serves as master of ceremonies for the contest. The pilgrims are
introduced by vivid brief sketches in the General Prologue. Interspersed between the 24
tales told by the pilgrims are short dramatic scenes presenting lively exchanges, called

links and usually involving the host and one or more of the pilgrims. Chaucer did not
complete the full plan for his book: the return journey from Canterbury is not included,
and some of the pilgrims do not tell stories. Further, the surviving manuscripts leave room
for doubt at some points as to Chaucer’s intent for arranging the material. The work is
nevertheless sufficiently complete to be considered a unified book rather than a collection
of unfinished fragments. Use of a pilgrimage as a framing device for the collection of
stories enabled Chaucer to bring together people from many walks of life: knight,
prioress, monk; merchant, man of law, franklin, scholarly clerk; miller, reeve, pardoner;
wife of Bath and many others. Also, the pilgrimage and the storytelling contest allowed
presentation of a highly varied collection of literary genres: courtly romance, racy fabliau,
saint’s life, allegorical tale, beast fable, medieval sermon, alchemical account, and, at
times, mixtures of these genres. Because of this structure, the sketches, the links, and the
tales all fuse as complex presentations of the pilgrims, while at the same time the tales
present remarkable examples of short stories in verse, plus two expositions in prose. In
addition, the pilgrimage, combining a fundamentally religious purpose with its secular
aspect of vacation in the spring, made possible extended consideration of the relationship
between the pleasures and vices of this world and the spiritual aspirations for the next,
that seeming dichotomy with which Chaucer, like Boethius and many other medieval
writers, was so steadily concerned.