PHILOLOGY 1 — SHORT SUMMARY © Peter Hofstee 1. The Franklin’s Tale: Courtly love. Arviragus (goes away); married to Dorigen; Aurelius (seduces Dorigen). 2. The Wife of Bath’s Tale: Romance. Knight (rapist, quest); the old hag (marries knight for answer). Sovereignty over their husbands. 3. The Miller’s Tale: Fabliau and parody of courtly love and biblical images. Student Nicholas; John the carpenter, married to Alison; and Absolon. 4. The Pardoner’s Tale: Exemplum. Three rioters, wanting to kill Death; old man; heap of gold; one gets stabbed; other 2 poisoned. 5. The Nun’s Priest’s Tale: Beast Fable. Cock Chaunticleer and hen Pertelote; Chaunticleer caught by fox, tricks fox and is ee again. 6. The Reeve’s Tale: Fabliau. Miller Symkyn, students Aleyn and John, Symkyn’s daughter Molly and Symkyn’s wife. Clergy: - Regular: Monks, iars: enclosed orders, monastic vows. - Secular: Pop, bishop, parish priests. > Minor orders: not committed to celibacy. > Major orders: living under celibacy (priests, deacons). Estates Satire: medieval literary genre which gives an analysis of the vices and follies of certain social functions or professions, not of individuals. Man’s three souls: Head: rational soul: reason. Heart: sensible soul: feeling. Belly: vegetable soul: passion. Contraries: Dry Hot Cold Moist
Elements: Fire Earth Air Water
➛ ➛ ➛ ➛ ➛
Humours: Yellow bile Black bile Blood Phlegm
➛ ➛ ➛ ➛ ➛
Complexions: Choleric complexion Melancholic complexion Sanguine complexion Phlegmatic complexion
The Great Chain of Being: God ➛ Angels ➛ Men ➛ Animals ➛ Plants ➛ Inanimate objects. Medieval methods of instruction: 1. Exemplum: A concrete example, illustrating an abstract point made before. 2. Scholasticism: Based on logic, using rules to veri a conclusion. a. Scholastic approach: arguing for and against. b. Analysis by division and subdivision (material, formal, efficient and final cause). 3. (Fourfold) Exegesis: Explanation, telling what it means (literal, allegorical, topological/moral, anagogical). 4. Allegory: Treats facts/events as metaphors, representing truth or other events: it signifies something else. It needs to be translated; it relies on shared doctrine. The allegorical figure exists on two levels of meaning: literal (what the figure does in the narrative) and symbolic (what the figure stands for outside the narrative). The Seven Deadly Sins: pride, wrath (anger), envy, avarice (greed), lechery (lust), gluttony and sloth (laziness). The Seven Liberal Arts:
- Trivium: grammar, logic and rhetoric. - Quadrivium: math, geometry, music and astronomy. 1
ME dialects: Northern, Southern, East-Midland, West-Midland, Kentish. Rise of Standard English: London was the best place, South-East Midland the best candidate. Influence of Chancery English and Caxton, who introduced the printing press in England. Close and open vowels: long ō: long ē:
close if PDE pronunciation is like ‘good’, ‘foot‘, or ‘other’. open if PDE pron. is with a diphthong, or sometimes spelled with . close if PDE spelling is with or . open if PDE spelling is with .
Adjectives: Weak (‘-e’): Preceded by def. art., demonstr., poss. pron., proper noun in gen., adj. in vocative. Strong: Preceded by indef. art., and all other instances. Weak verbs: preterite is formed by adding <-⒠d>. Strong verbs: preterite os formed by changing the stem vowel. Jakke fool = you idiot al be that = although amenden = correct anon = at once avauntour = boaster benedict⒠ = bless us (you) benefice = ecclesiastical living benygne = gracious bigyle = deceive boles = bulls but, but if = unless but if = unless can, kan = know (how to), be able catel = property clad = covered [past. part.] clepe = to call cursen = excommunicate deerne = secretive defame = infamy desolaat = wretched epsie = seize everemo = constantly faren = behave ferne halwes = distant shrines forswerynges = perjuries for which = because for youre curteisye = if you please ful = very gan preye = prayed han = have hem loste/liste = they wanted holwe = emaciated hym happede = it happened to him (th)ilke = (the) same inspire = breathe it shal been = it must be
koude = knew (how to), might lemman = sweetheart leyser = opportunity looth = reluctant maugre⒠ = in spite of moornynge = yearning myghte = could nam = am not [negated] namely = especially, specifically nas = was not [negated] nat fully = not even nere = were not [negated] niste = did not know [negated] nolde = would not [negated] nones, nonys = occasion noot = know not [negated] nyce = foolish nygard = miser nys = is not [negated] nyste = knew not [negated] oe sithes = many times paraventure = perhaps, possibly pardee = certainly, by God quyk = vivid raughte = reached rede = advise, interpret, read replecciouns = overeating right (wel) = very (well) right = just, quite save = except for secree = discreet sholde = have to [obligation] shul = must sith = since, then so as wys! = certainly/truly somdel = somewhat 2
[ gan + inf. indicates past tense! ]
sondry = various soote = agrant sownynge in = consonant to stal him hoom = stole home straunge = foreign strondes = shores substaunce = income sweven(ys) = dream⒮ swich = such, of which task (taketh) = take ther, ther as = where therto = also, in addition thoughte (imp.) = it seemed though that = even though thynketh (imp.) = it seems to and o = back and forth to dreden = to be aaid to scoleye = to attend the schools of the university undertake = affirm verray = true walweth = turns war = aware a ware yow = beware, take heed werk = deeds wherwith = wherewithal whylom = once, formerly wolde = wanted to wryen = turn yaf = gave ycleped = named ydo = done yet = however, nevertheless ygo = gone [past. part.] yholden = considered ystiked = stabbed
