Give a clear-cut description of the six of Chaucer's pilgrims that impress you most strongly. How has the _Prologue_ added to our knowledge of life in the fourteenth century? Give examples of Chaucer's vivid pictures. What specimens of his humor does the _Prologue_ contain? Do any of Chaucer's lines in the _Prologue_ show that the Reformation spirit was in the air, or did Wycliffe and Langland alone among contemporary authors afford evidence of this spirit? Compare Chaucer's verse with Langland's in point of subject matter. What qualities in Chaucer save him from the charge of cynicism when he alludes to human faults? Does the _Prologue_ attempt to portray any of the nobler sides of human nature? Is the _Prologue_ mainly or entirely concerned with the personality of the pilgrims? Has Chaucer any philosophy of life? Are there any references to the delights of nature? Note any passages that show special powers of melody and mastery over verse. Does the poem reveal anything of Chaucer's personality? In your future reading see if you can find another English story-teller in verse who can be classed with Chaucer.
[Footnote 2: For the location of all the English cathedral towns, see the _Literary Map_, p. XII.]
[Footnote 33: _The Prologue_, Lines 331-335.]
[Footnote 34: The cuts of the Pilgrims are from the Fourteenth Century Ellesmere MS. of _Canterbury Tales_.]
[Footnote 37: _Truth: Balade de bon Conseyl_.]
[Footnote 39: _The Parlement of Foules_.]
[Footnote 40: For full titles, see p. 50.]
[Footnote 41: For full titles, see p. 6.]
CHAPTER III: FROM CHAUCER'S DEATH, 1400, TO THE ACCESSION OF ELIZABETH, 1558
The Course of English History.--The century and a half that followed the death of Chaucer appealed especially to Shakespeare. He wrote or helped to edit five plays that deal with this period,--_Henry IV., Henry V., Henry VI., Richard III._, and _Henry VIII_. While these plays do not give an absolutely accurate presentation of the history of the time, they show rare sympathy in catching the spirit of the age, and they leave many unusually vivid impressions.
Henry IV. (1399-1413), a descendant of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, one of the younger sons of Edward III., and therefore not in the direct line of succession, was the first English king who owed his crown entirely to Parliament. Henry's reign was disturbed by the revolt of nobles and by contests with the Welsh. Shakespeare gives a pathetic picture of the king calling in vain for sleep, "nature's tired nurse," and exclaiming:--