On my trip to England, I made a point to visit Canterbury Cathedral. The vaulted ceiling and gorgeous history haunted me, soaring in my memory when I tried to sleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it wasn\u2019t the architecture that drew me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course It was because of Chaucer. That jester poet who marked a line in path of the Norman noble courts of Britain and forever carved his name with The Canterbury Tales.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Chaucer took the tropes of his day, all the characters that his audience were so familiar with, and let them speak English to one another as they pilgrimaged to the cathedral.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not the snooty French of the nobility and their sycophants\u2014the language of the people who hadn\u2019t gotten that far. The characters poke fun at each other with stories they\u2019ve learned. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Tonight I joined a book discussion of this story. What did this book still have for us today?<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was a challenge to make it to the zoom meeting because my daughter had only the night before had the vomits pretty bad. I\u2019d stayed up to soothe her, but I had missed out on the reading. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A sick pitiful pool of a child, she felt better but was weak and in need of company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A perfect time to read aloud that last section of the book that was assigned. I need to do it and she\u2019s not in a position to resist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I warned her that it was bawdy and naughty, which intrigued rather than alarmed her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And we began the Reeve\u2019s tale. I pointed out the double entendres<\/em>, and we puzzled out some of the more confusing story points. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For being such high literature, the tales have a lot of primitive humor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Farts, fooling and carnal relations<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oh<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chaucer is perfect for teenagers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m going to go read the rest of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On my trip to England, I made a point to visit Canterbury Cathedral. The vaulted ceiling and gorgeous history haunted me, soaring in my memory when I tried to sleep. But it wasn\u2019t the architecture that drew me. Of course … Continue reading