What do the first 18 lines of the Canterbury Tales mean?
What do the first 18 lines of the Canterbury Tales mean?
The first eighteen lines of the General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales describe the setting and the basic blot of the poem’s frame story: in the springtime, as nature reawakens, people of England are drawn to go on pilgrimages to the town of Canterbury to pay respects to Saint Thomas Becket.
What are the first 18 lines of the prologue called?
First 18 lines
| First 18 lines of the General Prologue | |
|---|---|
| The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne | The tender crops; and the young sun |
| Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne, | Has in the Ram his half-course run, |
| And smale foweles maken melodye, | And small fowls make melody, |
What is the opening line of Canterbury Tales?
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages. These are the opening lines with which the narrator begins the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales .
What are three major themes in the Canterbury Tales?
What are three major themes in the Canterbury Tales?
- Theme #1. Social Satire.
- Theme #2. Courtly Love and Sexual Desire.
- Theme #3. Corruption in Church.
- Theme #4. Competition.
- Theme #5. Christianity.
- Theme #6. Class.
- Theme #7. Lies and Deception.
- Theme #8. Justice and Judgement.
Who is the plowman’s brother?
The Plowman is just as holy and virtuous as his brother the Parson. Living a simple life of hard labor, the Plowman has to do the dirtiest jobs of the medieval world, like load carts full of cow manure.
Why does the narrator join the 29 pilgrims at the inn?
He is planning to travel as well. He joins the group traveling. He offered to go as judge and settle any disputes.
Why is the Knight first in the General Prologue?
The Knight is first to be described in the General Prologue because he is the highest on the social scale, being closest to belonging to the highest estate, the aristocracy. The Knight’s nobility derives from the courtly and Christian values he has sworn to uphold: truth, honor, freedom, and courtesy.
Why is the General Prologue important?
The General Prologue establishes the frame narrative for The Canterbury Tales, provides a series of compelling vignettes of late medieval society, and gives the reader some context in which to read each tale by introducing the storytellers.
What kind of poem is the General Prologue?
Form and Structure of The Canterbury Tales: General Prologue Chaucer wrote his poem in rhyming couplets with every two lines rhyming with each other. Though they are divided into stanzas, it is structured with the lines of iambic pentameter, with five pairs of unstressed and stressed syllables.
