Rebirth of English"It is a language that will do you good in England, but passe Dover it is worth nothing.”

1591 Giovanni Florio

French

English

What We Know of Chaucer’s Education

Chaucer’s Education - Conjectures

• Primary School• Grammar School• On the job – page to Elizabeth de Burgh, the

Countess of Ulster, wife of Lionel, Duke of Clarence

• Inns of Courts• Oxford

French

• Paris French• Evolved Anglo-Norman• Law French• Rules required use of spoken Latin; Oriel

(1326) and Queens (1340) required conversation to be in French

The Prioress

Full well she sang the services divine, Intoning through her nose, becomingly; And fair she spoke her French, and fluently, After the school of Stratford-at-the-Bow, For French of Paris was not hers to know.

The Clerk

A clerk from Oxford was with us also, Who'd turned to getting knowledge, long ago. As meagre was his horse as is a rake, Nor he himself too fat, I'll undertake, But he looked hollow and went soberly. Right threadbare was his overcoat; for he Had got him yet no churchly benefice, Nor was so worldly as to gain office.

The Clerk

For he would rather have at his bed's head Some twenty books, all bound in black and red, Of Aristotle and his philosophy Than rich robes, fiddle, or gay psaltery. Yet, and for all he was philosopher, He had but little gold within his coffer;

Spoken Language

Royal family, central administrators, senior judiciary, and some of the high nobility– Spoken French

Gentry and bourgeoisie– Pragmatic French, written French

Drivers of Switch to Written English

• Political opposition to France• Isolation from spoken French• Participation of native English speaking

merchant class in government• Plague effects – loss of Latin-trained clergy• Wyclif’s attempts to reach out to English

speakers (limited and unsupported)

Writing: Chaucer to Adam [Pinkhurst]

Adam scrivener, if ever thee befallBoece or Troilus [the earlier books] for to write new [again],Under thy longe locks thow maist have the scall [scabs],But [unless] after my makinge thou write mor trew,So oft a day I mot [must] thy werke reneweIt to correct, and eke [also] to rubbe and scrape,And all is thorowe thy necligence and rape [haste].

Middle English

• Taken to be the form used from 1150-1500• Through 1350– Relies less on inflectional endings and more on

word order– Borrowings from French, Latin and Scandinavian

(they, anger, law, skill, skin)– More regional variation due to lack of literature

Video

Seth Lerer, Chaucer’s English

‘They’ variants

They - Hy

Ordinances of Grocers

• 1348 Original in Norman French• 1419 Order English translations• 1463 Better (?) translation made

1362 English made a language of official business

• Educated clergy and lawyers had been killed by the plague

• Chancellor opens Parliament in English

1399 Henry IV addresses Parliament in English

• Deposition against Richard II in English• Abdication in English

Statute of Pleadings 1362

The laws, customs, and statutes. . . are not commonly known . . . since they are pleaded, counted, and judged in the French language, which is very much unknown . . . , so that the people who plead or are impleaded in the king's courts and the courts of others have no understanding or knowledge of what is said for them or against them.

Statute of Pleadings

The king, desiring the good governance and tranquillity of his people, and to prevent the misfortunes that do and could befall in this matter

wills that all pleas that shall be pleaded in any of his courts . . . shall be pleaded and counted in the English language . . .

and that they be entered and enrolled in Latin;

Statute of Pleading Text

Political Environment

• Continuing resolution– Wool subsidy (peacetime!)

• Concession that Parliament has right to initiate the subsidy

• Other concessions of Royal prerogatives

Education – Prioress’ Tale

A little school of Christian folk stood downAt that end that was furthest from the townA bunch of children, all of Christian kind,There were who in that school each year did learnThe customary things, for there we findThey're taught to sing, and right from wrong discern,And from their childhood cheating ways to spurn

Education – Prioress’ Tale

At seven he his schooling had begun;This little child, his little book in hand,As in the school he sought to understandHis little primer, heard the children singThe Alma Redmptoris antiphon;Closer he drew to hear the music ring,For to the notes and lyrics he was drawn;The first verse he did memorize anon.

Education – Prioress’ Tale

The meaning of the Latin words he sung,He knew not for he was still very young,

So with an older student he conferred,Who answerd thus, "This song, as I have heard,Was for our blessed Lady kind composed,To hail her, and to pray that she might beFor us our succor when life's book is closed.That's all the help, I fear, you'll get from me;My Latin grammar's not so good, you see.

14th Century Primer in English

Reading LessonMid 15th Century Flemish

University – Seven Liberal Arts

• Trivium (grammar, logic, rhetoric)• Quadivium (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy,

music)

University – Higher facilities

Theology, Canon law, Civil law, Medicine

Student support

• Family and friends• Income• Benefice• Scholarship

College Officials

• Warden• Manciple

University Courses (mentioned by Chaucer)

• Boethius on music • Euclid on geometry • Almagesta of Ptolemy – Astronomy• Works of Aristotle in general

Clergy - Hierarchy

• Pope– Bishops: generally University graduates• Priests: Grammar school graduates– Deacons» Subdeacons

Literate Pilgrims

• Sergeant at Law – Reads French and Latin– Writes legal instruments