English & American Literature (Английская и американская литература)

of stories in verse told by the pilgrims on their journey to Canterbury. Each pilgrim was to tell four stories. Chaucer managed to write only twenty-four instead of the proposed one hundred and twenty-four stories. A l l his characters are typical representatives of their classes. When assembled, they form one people, the English people. Chaucer kept the whole poem alive and full of humour not only by the tales themselves but also by the talk, comments and the opinions of the pilgrims. The prologue is the most interesting part of the work. I t acquaints the reader w i t h medieval society. The pilgrims are persons of different social ranks and occupations. Chaucer has portrayed them w i t h great skill as types and as individuals true to their own age. There is a knight, a yeoman (a man who owned land; a farmer), a nun, a monk, a priest, a pardoner, a miller, a merchant, a clerk, a sailor, Chaucer himself and others, thirty-one pilgrims in a l l . The knight is brave, simple and modest. He is Chaucer's ideal of a soldier. The nun weeps seeing a mouse caught in a trap but turns her head from a beggar in his "ugly rags". The fat monk prefers hunting and good dinners to prayers. The merchant's wife is merry and strong. She has red cheeks and red stockings on her fat legs. The clerk is a poor philosopher who spends all his money on books. Each of the travellers tells a different kind of story showing his own views and character. Thus, the knight tells a romance, the miller - a fabliau, the pardoner - a moralizing tale. Some stories are comical, gay, w i t t y or romantic, others are serious and even tragic. Here are the contents of the pardoner's tale Three Young Men, Death and a Bag of Gold. Three young men were making merry over a bottle of wine at an inn, when they saw a funeral pass under the windows. "Who is dead?" they asked, and were told i t was a dear friend of theirs, a young man like themselves. A t first they could not believe i t , but the innkeep...