Chaucer

GEOFFREY CHAUCER (c1343 - 1400)

Chaucer is regarded as the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages, and the father of modern English poetry. His celebrated Canterbury Tales date from after 1380. In the Reeve's Tale, the poet gives his two 'likely lads', Alan and John, a northern accent, usually rendered in modern translation as Geordie. This was the first time such a comic device had been used in English literature and testifies eloquently to the marginalisation of Northumbrian speech by Chaucer's time, and the deliberate placing of the North as somewhere a long way off. The Yeoman, in another tale, describes himself merely as living 'fer in the north contree'.

The two Cambridge students hail from 'Strother', about whose precise northern location Chaucer is casually vague. Chaucer and his wife were in the service of Edward III's Queen Philippa, and this may be a joke at the expense of her Tynedale bailiff, Alan de Strother. There was also a Sir John Strother at Kirknewton in 1374. In addition, there is the circumstance that Chaucer's father, John, had been among the 200 Londoners who soldiered in the boy-king Edward III's dismal campaign of 1327 against Robert the Bruce. The English army had assembled at Newcastle and after stumbling about in Northumberland and losing contact with its baggage-train (a circumstance exploited commercially by the local peasantry) was able to block the Tyne crossing. The Scots, however, ravaged where they pleased. Encamped near Stanhope in Weardale, they declined to give chivalrous battle on level ground and the tearful Edward was eventually forced to swallow his pride and recognise Robert the Bruce, victor at Bannockburn in 1314, as King of Scots. Strothers Dale, near Slaley, lies in the centre of these troop movements, and it may be that Chaucer's father spoke of the place and conveyed the peculiarities of the native speech to his son.

The Man of Law's Tale, probably written between 1372 and 1382, tells of the fair Lady Constance set adrift in Syria. Her long voyage proceeds, in Nevill Coghill's translation:

Safe through our stormy channel till at last,
Under a castle that I cannot name,
Far in Northumberland, the billows cast
Her vessel on the sands and held it fast

There she effects a miraculous cure and converts her heathen host before marrying the king. There are more vicissitudes of fortune for Constance, including being set adrift once again, but Constance and the king are reunited in Northumbria until his death, when she finds her father once again in Rome. Chaucer gives us a pleasant picture of a seaside stroll near Bamburgh or Warkworth:

Bright was the sun when, on a summer's day,
The Constable suggested they might go,
He, Constance and his wife, along the way
Towards the sea for half a mile or so,
Just for the pleasure of roaming to and fro.

Myers Literary Guide:	The North-East
GEOFFREY CHAUCER (c1343 - 1400) Chaucer is regarded as the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages, and the father of modern English poetry. His celebrated Canterbury Tales date from after 1380. In the Reeve's Tale, the poet gives his two 'likely lads', Alan and John, a northern accent, usually rendered in modern translation as Geordie. This was the first time such a comic device had been used in English literature and testifies eloquently to the marginalisation of Northumbrian speech by Chaucer's time, and the deliberate placing of the North as somewhere a long way off. The Yeoman, in another tale, describes himself merely as living 'fer in the north contree'. The two Cambridge students hail from 'Strother', about whose precise northern location Chaucer is casually vague. Chaucer and his wife were in the service of Edward III's Queen Philippa, and this may be a joke at the expense of her Tynedale bailiff, Alan de Strother. There was also a Sir John Strother at Kirknewton in 1374. In addition, there is the circumstance that Chaucer's father, John, had been among the 200 Londoners who soldiered in the boy-king Edward III's dismal campaign of 1327 against Robert the Bruce. The English army had assembled at Newcastle and after stumbling about in Northumberland and losing contact with its baggage-train (a circumstance exploited commercially by the local peasantry) was able to block the Tyne crossing. The Scots, however, ravaged where they pleased. Encamped near Stanhope in Weardale, they declined to give chivalrous battle on level ground and the tearful Edward was eventually forced to swallow his pride and recognise Robert the Bruce, victor at Bannockburn in 1314, as King of Scots. Strothers Dale, near Slaley, lies in the centre of these troop movements, and it may be that Chaucer's father spoke of the place and conveyed the peculiarities of the native speech to his son. The Man of Law's Tale, probably written between 1372 and 1382, tells of the fair Lady Constance set adrift in Syria. Her long voyage proceeds, in Nevill Coghill's translation: Safe through our stormy channel till at last, Under a castle that I cannot name, Far in Northumberland, the billows cast Her vessel on the sands and held it fast There she effects a miraculous cure and converts her heathen host before marrying the king. There are more vicissitudes of fortune for Constance, including being set adrift once again, but Constance and the king are reunited in Northumbria until his death, when she finds her father once again in Rome. Chaucer gives us a pleasant picture of a seaside stroll near Bamburgh or Warkworth: Bright was the sun when, on a summer's day, The Constable suggested they might go, He, Constance and his wife, along the way Towards the sea for half a mile or so, Just for the pleasure of roaming to and fro.
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