Chaucers England by Jayne Pynes for Dual Credit English and the analysis of Chaucers characters in The Prologue to Canterbury Tales 103111 The Three Traditional Estates The Clergythose who prayed ID: 572996
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Slide1
The Estates in Chaucer’s England
by Jayne Pynes
for Dual Credit English and the analysis of Chaucer’s characters in “The Prologue” to
Canterbury Tales
10/31/11Slide2
The Three Traditional Estates
The Clergy---those who prayed
The Nobility---those who fought
The Commoners---those who worked
And then there were splits occurring:
The Intellectuals—those who read
The Legal Class—those who practiced law
The
Merchant Class—those who made/sold goodsSlide3
The First Estate
During this time period, there was no other church in England; it was the Catholic church.
The Clergy was the First Estate:
They were to be the spiritual and moral guides,
ie
those who pray.
This system came from the Holy Roman Empire.
They were the archbishops, bishops, pardoners,
summoners
, friars, monks, parsons, prioresses, and nuns who “ran” the church on an institutional or local level dependent on their own backgrounds.Slide4
So Who Were the Clergy, really?
The “noble” clergy were the second and third (and so on) sons and daughters whose fathers/older brothers/uncles were higher ranking nobles in favor with the king and the church. They either couldn’t make a “successful” marriage or didn’t want to marry.
The “noble” clergy were mostly educated in Latin and the humanities. They had some knowledge of the faith….this actually varied from none to expert.
They came with small amounts of land in order to create “jobs” with some prestige and places for them.
Archbishops and bishops had ecclesiastical power over the areas they were granted.Slide5
The “Noble” Clergy, cont.
They were often allied with their father/brother to help keep control over the family lands.
Their authority was exerted through the church courts and through church taxes.
Women whose family had quite a bit of money and/or land that could be given to the church as a dowry often found themselves in positions of authority in their convent. Those w/o money/land, were the lesser nuns.
As always, the characters profiled in “The Prologue” are stereotypes. So, there were those who took to their positions and were faithful. But, the problems were due to those that didn’t.Slide6
The “Common” Clergy
Commoners also joined the clergy.
Working class commoners, who showed some talent and wished to have a place that was somewhat secure, entered service to the church as well. Faith may have also lead them.
They often were considered secular in role because they lived outside the monasteries and served and/or interacted with the common people directly.Slide7
The Clergy, cont.
So, as you analyze the clergy in “The Prologue,” you have a leading question to ask.
Is this character a “noble” or “common” clergy member?
Where does the character serve? In a cloistered monastery or convent? Or in public (parish, traveling, etc.)
How can you determine the answer to that question?
Clothing -- Actions
Manners --AccessoriesSlide8
The Second Estate
The role of the Nobility was to fight; they were the Second Estate.
So, basically, as we learned from our study of
Beowulf,
nobility rose from those who lead and fought.
Kings, princes, lords, dukes, knights, and their sons were noble not because of birth originally but because of bravery on the battlefield.
Then the idea of succession, primogeniture, came into play. The idea is that the first or, in some cases, favored son inherits the title the father earned, but the son may not have done anything but be born (so the tradition of being noble to become a noble becomes lost).
Nobles continued to rise from commoners who fought.Slide9
The Second Estate
The Nobles ran the civil part of life as it were.
They were responsible for the land area granted to them.
They were the lords to the commoners and oversaw their work (or they were supposed to do this).
They also would donate portions of their land, bounty, and people (yes, those who worked for them) to the king and/or church as needed (think wars and crusades).
They owed allegiance to the king and to the church. This caused problems when those two institutions were at odds.Slide10
The Second Estate, cont.
So the question to ask as you look at the three possible “noble” characters for analysis:
Is this character noble in action or by birth?
Some critics put the Yeoman into this category.
Others put him into the Commoner category.
If you choose to analyze him, you need to decide to which category you will assign him.Slide11
The Third Estate
The commoners, also known as the workers/peasants/serfs, comprise the Third Estate.
They are more than 90% of the population of England at this time.
They do the daily work communities needed to survive:
c
ooking, sewing, cleaning, farming, weaving,
barkeeping
, winemaking, and other common tasks.Slide12
The Third Estate, cont.
This group, as presented in “The Prologue,” really are the
rising Merchant
M
iddle
C
lass.
They are commoners who have made good through a craft.
They COULD be a noble child who chose to go into a craft
vs
the clergy but more often are commoners who rose up.
They work for the nobility, but they are beginning to resent that fact as they have had to earn what they have
vs
potentially being given what one has via birth.Slide13
The Emerging Intellectual Class
This class comes primarily from the noble sons who are sent to the clergy but wish to focus upon studies over serving the church.
The Emerging Legal Class
This class comes from the noble class as well, but its focus is to serve the concerns of the king as he works to exert legal power over the land
vs
that of the church (which has its own courts). (The whole argument is who really owns the land…thus has the power?)Slide14
The Various Third Estate…
So the question becomes to which of the varying Third Estates (Working, Merchant, Intellectual, or Legal) does the character belong? Remember the Third Estate is defined by what work the character does.
What does the character’s clothing, manners, concerns, etc., reveal about him or her? (Can you discern if the genesis is peasant or noble class?)Slide15
Final Thoughts (well, not really)
Your paper, rough draft due on 11/10 and final draft due on 11/17, will analyze this question:
What does Chaucer reveal about 14
th
century England in “The Prologue” to
Canterbury Tales
through three characters who belong to different estates (one must be clergy; one must be noble; the other must be from one varying estates that are considered working; if you bring in more characters to show differences, that is fine as long as three major characters are your focus). (These are the instructions copied to EPCC.)Slide16
More on the paper
This is a formal analytical paper.
You must not use first (I) or second (you) person in it.
You need to focus upon
the characters and society
itself.
The textbook, “The Prologue,” and my notes are all you need to do this paper.
Note page numbers if you quote the history from the text; note line number from “The Prologue.”
Your rough draft must be submitted to EPCC’s online service. 10 points off the final paper if this is not done.