The Age of Chaucer

Up to Chaucers text, there were three languages spoken and written in England:
a. Latin (the language of the church, of education and scholarship) which had little
influence upon English, mainly because there was a huge gulf between the
scholar and the illiterate peasant;
b. French was the language of the conquerors, of public life, of fashionable and
aristocratic society, of the law courts, of the royal administration. If the use of
Latin lasted up to 1687, French was abolished in 1731. As early as the 13 th
century, French was the language of half the royal courts of Europe, and it was to
remain so until late into the 18th century;
c. Anglo-Saxon was used by the common people.
Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer (1340 - 1400), the son of a wine merchant, was a page to
the countess of Ulster in 1357. In 1359 Chaucer accompanied English forces into
France where he was captured, but, in 1360, he was ransomed. In 1366 he married
Philippa, a lady-in-waiting to the queen, and sister to John of Gaunts wife (John of
Gaunt being Chaucers patron). From 1368 to 1374 he travelled in the Kings service
into France, the Low Countries and Italy where he read Petrarchs poetry. Chaucer
had a lot of jobs which enabled him to know various aspects of the life of his times.
From 1395 he was in the service of Henry of Lancaster, who became king Henry IV
in 1399. Chaucer was well rewarded by the king; but he died in 14000 and was
buried in Westminster Abbey (the Poets Corner).
His literary activity is divided into three periods of creation:
a. the French period (up to 1372), characterized by translations and imitations: The
Book of the Duchess;
b. the Italian period (1372 1385), with more original texts, such as Troilus and
Criseyde, The House of Fame, The Parliament of Fowl(e)s and The Legend of Good
Women;
c. the English period (1385 1400), when Chaucer established the standard literary
language with his Canterbury Tales.
In all his poetry, Chaucer deals with some major themes:
a. love (courtly and worldly);
b. pilgrimage seen both as a time of faith and praise and as a space for conviviality
and communication;
c. putting the medieval man to test;
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d. play and seriousness, with The CT as an experiment with the theme of play and
game, life itself being, metaphorically, a game;
e. displaying of the human follies, faults, hypocrisies;
f. human needs backgrounded against a spatio-temporal frame;
g. the making of art;
h. a mixture of medieval and Renaissance elements.
The Canterbury Tales2 (1387 1400) is a picture of Chaucers time; a living
world at the crossroads of two ages: the Middle Ages and the Renaissance; it is also
the fruit of Chaucers maturity and the mirror of the metamorphosis from dream
allegories to realistic creations (G.K.Chesterton, 1962: 154-185). The English critic
fully insists on the English authors originality in TCT, suggesting it by means of a
vegetal metaphor: an oaktree whose roots are deep in the soil of the Middle Ages, but
whose branches rise high towards the horizons of the Renaissance.
The origin of the poem lies in the pilgrimages to holy places. In fact travels to
the Holy Land took place as early as the 3 rd century. In England the most famous
shrine was that of Canterbury which contained the relics of Thomas Becket whose
murder followed his quarrel with Henry II (1154 - 1189). The archbishop was killed
while praying in the cathedral, in 1170 and, since then, the place has been considered
to have miraculous powers.
The medieval pilgrimages, slowly, but gradually, buried their religious purpose
(the veneration of relics, the belief that showing piety to the remains of a martyr may
be an effective form of prayer, the asking of Gods favours and then, of thanking God
for them) under gaiety, merrymaking, dalliance and frivolity. In late medievalism,
man sought for conviviality, laughter and dialogue. Such pilgrimages from London to
Canterbury took three or four days (plus the same number of days on the way back),
which meant enough time for the pilgrims to have a good time together.
The pilgrims met at the Tabard 3 Inn, on the south bank of the Thames, in April.
They were thirty pilgrims (the innkeeper, Harry Bailey, and the poet, Sir Topas being
included in the group), whose minds concentrated both on the mysteries of Christian
faith and on the opportunity offered by the pilgrimage to share experience and lifes
bustling. The only real persons are the innkeeper and the poet; the other pilgrims are
not identified by surname but they are so carefully described in occupation,
appearance, habitat, ways of speaking etc. that they seem faithful portraits of living
people.
The themes of CT focalize on: the portraying of the complexity of human
nature; of life as a quest and an adventure; the unfolding of the social changes in
history and in the religious traditions of the time; the growing interest in turning
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everything into profit; the setting and respecting of rules; the art of story-telling; the
role of the encoder and of the decoder of messages.
The plan fully unfolds and deepens the significations of the themes. Chaucers
plan of travel is dominated by the idea of a definite purpose: that of the pilgrims
reaching Canterbury in order to venerate the bones of the martyr and of thanking
God, and of their returning to London, according to the medieval tradition which said
that one thing should balance another. So, there is a lot of movement and laughter,
but there is movement round one main idea. In spite of the change of attitudes there
is a constant care to preserve the balance: that is, to stand on one side or the other of
something that is in the middle.
What is this middle in Chaucers CT? On the one hand, the idea of the
pilgrimage itself, which, according to the ages mentality, meant an assertion of piety
and respect for sacredness, although negotiation between giving and taking (favours,
profit, service etc.) is beautifully highlighted, as well; on the other hand, the text
itself. What is such a text made of? Of the narrators portraits of the pilgrims and of
the pilgrims stories. The host, the keeper of the Tabard Inn, constantly having an eye
open to profit, and perfectly running his tavern, knows how to manipulate his guests
in order to anticipate and build up a sense of pleasure and definite purpose. He sells
his ideas at an expensive price (the price meant to bring him not only profit, but also
respect and fame), but he is skilled in setting the rules of the game, as well, in order
to support the excitement of the pilgrimage itself. The balance of the text is preserved
by the number of tales told during the journey (each pilgrim should tell two stories
on the way to Canterbury, and two stories on the way back to London 4), by the rules
imposed onto the group of pilgrims and their respecting such rules when back at the
inn (the rewarding of the best story-teller)
The narrative strategy of The Canterbury Tales involves the use of:
a. the frame strategy: the idea of the frame5 connects the tales to The General
Prologue and to one another. This means that there is a frame-within-a-frame
strategy used to create a unified whole out of all the tales. The general frame
contains information about the time, place, individual pilgrims, role of the host,
reward, profit and role of the poet. Within such a large canvas, there are the tales
of each pilgrim, each tale being preceded by its own prologue and ending with an
epilogue.
Such a narrative strategy requires a special activity of reception from the part
of the reader. The prologues to each tale shape themselves as spaces for private
speech. It seems that such literary spaces exist for a discourse of confession which
the pilgrims need before reaching the medieval sacred place for confessional
practices.
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The frame technique also asks for structural order, The Knights Tale being an
illustrative example of Chaucers skill in using and handling opposites so as to
create hierarchies within a framed whole. The Tale is structured according to the
medieval tradition of opposition: Mars vs Venus, male vs female and youth vs
age. It is also evident in the existence of triads: one woman and two suitors, one
god and two goddesses, two supplicants and one judge, or the existence of three
colours associated with Venus (white), Mars (red) and Saturn (black).These triads
and oppositions send towards the idea of hierarchy structuring the medieval
society.
The tale may also be examined and studied in terms of quadratic structures, as
well: four characters associated with four colours (white, red, gold and green),
four seasons, four elements and four humours. The wedding and the funeral at the
beginning and at the end of the tale give it the shape of a mythical plot pattern.
b. individualized pilgrims are presented with reference to the Christian values which
they should uphold. Although belonging to various social classes (except the
royalty and the aristocracy), they are framed into a communal assertion of faith
and praise (Coote, 1986:142).
Thus, the reader is introduced to representatives of :
- high ranks (the Knight, the Squire);
- the clergy6 (the Prioress, the Monk, the Nuns Priest, the Friar);
- the secular clergy (the Parson);
- the learned professions(the Man of Law, the Doctor of Physic);
- the landed gentry (the Franklin);
- the peasants (the Plowman);
- the laymen of lower social standing (the Merchant, the five Guildsmen
haberdasher, weaver, carpenter, upholsterer, dyer -, the Wife of Bath);
- the students (the Clerk of Oxford);
- the soldiers (the Yeoman, the Canon);
- the shipmen (the Seaman);
- minor officials (the Reeve, the Manciple and the Summoner);
- specialized trades (the Cook, the Miller);
- rascals (the Pardoner).
The host (Harry Bailey) and the poet (Sir Topas) are the other two pilgrims;
they are identified as real persons and, through the roles they play in the GP, they
may be interpreted as builders of the middle something mentioned before. Not
only do they create a central balance, but they also invite the reader to judge and
interpret the medieval world from different perspectives.
Another major function of the pilgrims in The Canterbury Tales is that of
showing the modern reader what Chaucers conception of his audience was,
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particularly if taking into consideration the fact that Chaucer wrote in an age
dominated by the patronage system (John of Gaunt being his patron). Thus, critics
could have in mind an implied audience able to recognize biblical and classical
allusions. The author also examines the relationship between reader and poet
posed in The General Prologue.
c. a persona Chaucer as teller, and of Chaucer, the author, constructing the narrative
poem. The two Chaucers envisage the tellers skill in turning the pilgrimage-text
alive, and the authors craftsmanship in portraying the whole medieval world and
showing it work and run according to its most specific codes: religious,
mercantile, moral and aesthetic.The authors concern about time and space is
worth studying, because it reveals Chaucer as a modernist poet interested in the
making of the text built up on two dimensions: time and space.
Time is a restrictive element in tale-telling, forcing the pilgrims to shorten or
speed up the tales they are going to tell in order to please the members of the
audience. The Hosts idea of a good tale is a tale of joy and mirth, and pilgrims
subscribe to his point of view. This desire is taken into account, although towards the
end of the poem mirth is replaced by a desire for teaching and instruction, and the
Parson replaces the Host as leader. Ultimately the best tale is the story of the
pilgrimage to Canterbury itself.
Human space is perceived in two opposing ways: it is seen as a prison, where
all enclosures become objective correlatives for the prison of this life. On the other
hand, enclosed places become spaces of meeting between man and woman when
they can laugh, talk and have a good time together. Thus, there are two perspectives
of judging space by a human being: a serious perspective (reminding of the chivalric
code) which examines space as prison (with the conceptual metaphor life is a
prison); with a light-hearted worldly outlook, the perception is that of a space open
to merriment, talk, meeting and exchange (with the conceptual metaphor life is an
endless space).
The attitude of the pilgrims on the way to the shrine in Canterbury and their
perspective on the way back to the Tabard Inn with the image of revelry in mind,
backgrounded against the concept of medieval balance, reveal Chaucers view of
life.
Chaucers art in The Canterbury Tales
In The Canterbury Tales, the emphasis is primarily laid on dramatic action,
which means that the words communicate or create a meaning, becoming vehicles to
communicate attitudes, opinions etc. and to give access to individual opinion, a
characteristic illustrative of the Renaissance discourse (Easthope, 1990:94-96).
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The strategies used by Chaucer to make his text dynamically alive show a
gradual change from medievalism to modernism (the time of the Renaissance):
- quarrels and arguments between pilgrims, as the ones between the Summoner and
the Friar, or that between the Reeve and the Miller;
- the characterization of a pilgrim made by another traveler;
- the prologues to each tale;
- the use of sharp visual images to portray individual tellers;
- the use of words (means of representation) to communicate a certain signification
(worthy with the Wife of Bath, for example).
The last three strategies are particularly important. The prologues keep the tales in
a unified whole within the framework and display the authors keen observation of
contemporary life and his skill in creating dramatic tension. This helps with the
antithesis between the ideal and the real, represented, for example by the tales of the
Knight and that of the Miller, the action of the stories taking place in an ideal world
that of chivalry -, and in an everyday world of common life.
The most quoted example showing Chaucers use of visual images, on the one
hand, and the change from medieval balance and order to the Renaissance concept of
man, on the other hand, is the one referring to Death in The Pardoners Tale
(Chesterton, 1962:168-169). To the medieval man, Death is a person, therefore both
victim and cruel enemy are perceived in visual images. The suggestiveness of the
image of Death is enhanced by the portrait of the Old Man, who might be one of the
many shapes Death may have ever had, another one being a heap of gold etc. This
shows that Death is a subtler and more insidious symbol with Chaucer than with the
other medieval texts before him; it is just this elusiveness of the symbol which
enhances the dramatic force of the tale.
As for the use of words, let us take the Wife of Bath as an example. First of all,
why the Wife of Bath? The signification of the bath7 in medieval culture sends
towards a worldly place of sexuality where old men prey on young women, as far as
bathing implies the societys views on the body and sex. Wifehood implies
domesticity, closeness and servitude.Thus, the syntagm itself is a container of
inner tensions, which best illustrate the nature of the pilgrimess (see also the
subchapter on the pilgrims portraits)
From a postmodernist point of view, The Wife of Baths Tale may be
interpreted taking into consideration three metaphors:
- that of the machine;
- of the organism;
- of constituent parts/organs of the text.
Thus, with the metaphor of the machine, the reader should discuss the tension
between flesh and spirit from a male sovereign perspective; hence the authors
intention and the way in which the text fulfills, or does not fulfill, its function.
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The second metaphor allows the study of the text as a system, a cultural
system for example, where the interplay of codes should be highlighted, such as the
codes of courtly love and of secular ways of experiencing life (the Wife of Baths
belief in female supremacy is an example of attitudes changing at the crossroads of
centuries).
The third metaphor points out opposing structures/poles of attraction/signs
which, through semiosis, create a net of significations which communicate the
beings mentality at the crossroads of medievalism and the Renaissance period:
gentillesse7, worldly love, female dominance. The Wife of Bath represents the
tensions of medieval society, a society which forced the woman to trade her virginity
and her youth for economic safety in and through marriage. Cloth-making and
marriage are her gains in a patriarchal system; but the major signification of the tale
is the need of a woman to be understood not possessed.
Words are also used as puns which support Chaucers questioning of authority
in language. An interesting pun is that on taille in The Shipmans Tale, which
expresses the monetary and linguistic movements within the tale, and which shows
the importance of money and words to create wealth.
The art of portrayal
In the making of a portrait9, Geoffrey Chaucer shows a very good command of
rhetoric, thus proving to be a poet of the medieval times. The rules of rhetoric from
treatises by Vendme or Vinsauf, or by the Latin orator Cicero, influenced Chaucer
very much.
According to Cicero, the attributes of a person are: name, sex, place of origin,
family, age, bodily appearance and mind qualities, manner of life, occupation, home
life, fortune, habit seen as special knowledge or bodily dexterity gained by practice,
feelings, interests, purposes, achievements, accidents, ways of speaking, of dressing.
Geoffrey of Vinsauf considered that any description should start from top to
toe, from the head downwards, detail by detail.
Vendmes doctrine asked for the description of the moral nature first and
then of the physical appearance of the person.
Chaucers portraits show that the poet used either one of the doctrines or that
he mixed the three of them in order to obtain special effects (see the Knight, the
Prioress, the Wife of Bath, Emily in The Knights Tale etc.). Humour is achieved
when Vinsaufs model is used to describe Sir Topas, for example.
Another strategy used to describe the pilgrims refers to codes and rules. Such
rules about the attire of the representatives of the clergy show that the Monks habit
falls within the boundaries of imposed codes, which means that the Monks portrait
is not a satire, while the Prioresss is mildly ironical.
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The use of details about clothing the Wife of Baths travelling and new
shoes, her stockings, or her headgear, for example points out aspects of the
mentality of the age. The Wifes headgear may indicate her submissive station as a
wife, but the other articles of clothing (in fact, all her travelling attire), show her
wealth as a cloth-maker and her being too quarrelsome and talkative a woman. It
may also be interpreted as showing a fair outward appearance vs a foul interior pride.
Clothing is also used by the author to show his admiration for the men of
professional skill The humility and practical nature of the Knight are suggested by
his dirty surcoat. The competence of the Knights Yeoman and the contentment with
his place in life are clear in his bright, trim clothes and accessories. The Man of
Physics clothes suggest the discreet luxuryof a successful professional man (Coote,
1986:133).
Another important strategy to foreground the moral traits of the pilgrims is
revealed by a subtle command of colours (which is another element belonging to
medieval doctrines of portraying). Red is the colour of the Wife of Bath, of the
Prioress and of the Miller; green is that of the Yeoman; the Reeves coat is blue,
which stands for a tricky and severe man. Grey, dark and yellow produce a gloomy
impression upon the audience.
The use of detail is not considered to be just an ornament; nor is it a mark of
discrimination, or of some useless piling of quantitative material. On the contrary, it
is an essential element as it foregrounds a certain mentality, that of the medieval age
when the image of the body is dominated by big mouths and prominent noses as
characteristic of a carnivalesque world (see also M. Bakhtin).
Chaucers most interesting use of the detail refers to the pilgrims faces,
particularly their mouths and noses being carefully described. Through the details
they provide, the portraits of the Monk, the Friar, the Wife of Bath, the Cook, the
Summoner, the Miller or the Pardoner give an element of caricature to each of these
pilgrims. The reader finds out not only a great deal about what such characters really
are, but s/he also discovers the poets attitude and the way he would like that
character to be perceived and interpreted.
The pilgrims attitude towards laughter, games, music and food are signs of the
carnival which celebrates the destruction of the old order and the birth of the new
world (carnival and pilgrimage being the two dimensions of Chaucers pilgrims
life); and, through such attitudes, pilgrims may be grouped into representatives of an
old or a new order. Closely associated to this, is the pilgrims interest in money,
which makes pilgrims fall into three major groups: the idealistic, the wealthy and
professional, and the third group ranging from mild snobbery of affluence to being
downright grasping rogues(Coote, 1986:136). The Knight, the Parson, the Plowman
belong to the first group; the second group is represented by the Doctor of Law, the
Franklin and the Manciple; while the third group includes pilgrims such as the
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Prioress, the Friar, the five rather faceless Guildsmen, the Miller, the Reeve, the
Wife of Bath, the Friar, the Summoner, the Pardoner.
Chaucers style
The major stylistic device used in TCT is amplification, showing the poets art
of enlarging and embellishing the subject-matter of the poem. Chaucer used different
ways to support this rhetorical device:
a. circumlocution: the device of making a simple statement in a decorative way (see
The Knights Tale, with six lines for a simple statement, such as the sun rose
brightly);
b.interpretatio: the repeating of an idea (sometimes not merely repeating but giving it
a new twist) in other words;
c.digressio: consisting either in the developing of an idea within the story in a
manner directly arising from it, or consisting in digressing the matter outside the
story in order to illuminate it (The Merchants Tale);
d.occupatio: used when the poet says he has no time to go into details, but, in fact, he
describes them later (The Squires Tale);
e.apostrophatio: consisting either in a series of exclamations (exclamation and
conduplicatio) or in rhetorical questions (subjectio, dubitatio), this being Chaucers
favourite device. Interjections and exclamations (analysed as paratextual elements
as well) create irony and narrative suspense.
All these devices help to create the dramatic tension of the text and to enhance
its authenticity. They also help with creating a certain pathos, often mingled with
irony, particularly when Chaucer contrasted mans earthly existence to the after life
solitariness (The Merchants Tale, The Pardoners Tale). His use of irony is, in fact,
part of his broad sense of humour, which gives a clearer and better insight to the
portraits of his pilgrims and makes out of the poet a Renaissance creator of
characters.
The problem of author/ity
An important aspect of authority in The CT refers to the qualities of a good
tale. Chaucer and the Host are the ones that try to circumscribe the territory of good
art: for the Host, a good tale should entertain, work on the audiences attention and
have more possible significations (the Parsons Tale); for Chaucer a tale is good
when it discloses the story-tellers skill (the Reeves Tale, the Man of Laws Tale), and
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when such rhetorical skills support the tellers intentions (the Merchants, Squires,
Franklins and Pardoners Tales).
Re-literalizing texts The Song of Songs in The Shipmans Tale, for example
threatens authority. Chaucer employs the theme of counterfeiting or literalizing
symbols in the Merchants Tale, The Millers and the Nuns Priets Tales which works
to subvert authority, as well.
Another aspect of Chaucers artistic craftsmanship takes into consideration the
use of a large variety of models, the act of writing in different styles (the Nuns
Priests Tale with four types of style: intimate, conversational, didactic, poetic is an
example of Chaucers interest in the uses of language), the parodying of accepted
forms which prove too limited for the variety and complexity of life, all this
disclosing authorial virtuosity.
The use of the Midland dialect (which becomes the standard English
language10) and of the iambic pentameter offer an immense flexibility and power of
expressing emotion, of describing characters or events, of rendering conversation as
lively as possible, and, above all, of showing authorial skill in handling with words.
Referring to the use of English in Chaucers TCT, Holmes considers it as the most
spectacular effect of the movement towards the modern world of the Renaissance
(1995:354).
Notes
1. Chaucer made use of octosyllabic and heroic couplets. According to the
Dictionary of Literary Terms the octosyllabic couplet is iambic or trochaic
tetrameter and the heroic couplet is a rhyming couplet of iambic pentameter,
containing a complete thought, with a heavy pause at the end of each line (pp.155156).Linguists consider that the iambic pentameter is characteristic of the English
language and its first historical roots can be traced in Chaucers Middle English
iambic structure (Easthope, 1990:51-77)
2. Dan Duescu translated The Canterbury Tales into Romanian, his translation
bearing the mark of uniqueness.
3. A tabard is a coat embroidered with armorial bearings, sleeveless and open at the
sides.
4. Chaucer intended to write 120 tales, but he made only 24, four being left
unfinished.
5. Geoffrey Chaucer did not invent the narrative strategy of the frame; it was
borrowed from the One Thousand and One Tales, but it preserved its oriental
flavour, particularly in creating a space of waiting which enhances a feeling of
suspense.
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6. The anti-clerical sentiment becomes much clearer when the reader realizes that the
Prioress, the Monk, or the Nun, for example, are surrounded by symbols of
worldly pursuits as opposed to spiritual ones. The animals with which they are
associated, their way of dressing, the ornaments they wear, all point to fleshly
desires which representatives of the clergy should be working to subdue (rather
than let them manifest) during the medieval period, an age dominated by the
religious codes.
7. In medieval times, baths were controlled by civil authorities and they came to
signify the authority of the patriarchal world.
8. In Chaucers time, gentillesse means: noble birth, virtue and sexual pleasure.
9. As a matter of fact, Chaucers greatness lies in the use of language and in the
pilgrims portrayal. Critics consider that the latter is the climax of the poets art as
far as the characters stand for types illustrative of the age and are also highly
individualized.
10.The use of languages shows the structure of the medieval society of those times:
French was spoken by readers belonging particularly to the royal court and to the
aristocracy; Latin was the language of scholars, of the Church and of the legal
courts; English, slowly growing up, and gradually replacing the Anglo-Saxon
spoken by the people conquered by the Norman-French, was the language of the
people. Hence, the great importance given to the Midland dialect used by Chaucer
in his Canterbury Tales.

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The University Wits

Most of the playwrights belonging to this group had academic studies. As men
of letters, they endeavoured to adapt, to their native soil, the models of the Antiquity,
models which they studied at university. They innovated themes, characters, they
constructed, most often, a vigorous text out of interludes and chronicles. They added
the traits of their own personalities and they also used as varied sources for their
plays as possible: Latin, French, Italian.They ushered in William Shakespeare.
The representatives of the University Wits are: John Lyly, Christopher
Marlowe, Thomas Nashe, George Peele, Robert Greene, Thomas Lodge and Thomas
Kyd.
John Lily (1554 1606) concentrated on courtly behaviour and euphuistic
dialogue. He brought in the device of girls disguised as boys. Shakespeare employed
this type of plotting quite frequently. He also introduced etherealized fairies into
English drama and Shakespeare seized on this innovation.
George Peele (1557-1596) wrote chronicle plays, romantic comedies
characterized by freshness of outlook, high spirits and optimism (The Old Wives
Tale, 1590)
Robert Greene (1560-1592) is considered to be the great representative of
romantic comedy. He created the prototype of William Shakespeares lovely, spirited
women. He was considered the Homer of women because his heroines are
charming, virtuous and equal to a man in will and spirit. He considered the power of
love equal to the power of magic. Greene made a difference between white magic
(= love) and black magic (= witchcraft, or the Vice of the medieval plays). Greenes
plays excelled in plotting, subplotting, characterization and atmosphere, elements
which were borrowed by Shakespeare.
Thomas Kyd (1558 1594) wrote revenge tragedies. The Spanish Tragedie, or
Hieronimo Is Mad Againe (1586). Seneca was the source for this play bur Kyd outdid
his model. It is considered the best drama with a clear-sighted unity concentrated
upon a fathers revenge for his slaughtered son. The play also establishes strategies
such as feigned madness and the play-within-a-play.
Cristopher Marlowe (1564 - 1593) was born in Canterbury, as the son of a
shoemaker. He got his BA and MA from Cambridge. He was accused of atheistic
views, but before the authorities could question him, he was rather mysteriously
killed by his companions in a pub. Marlowe may have been the victim of a
conspiracy possibly because of his political activities as an agent of France.
His great dramatic achievements were:
a. his mighty line as Ben Jonson termed his blank verse, which gave eloquence
and grandeur to his plays;
b. his trumpeting from the stage of the Renaissance the lust for life;
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c. the Musess darling as Peele called him, he created grand Renaissance

beings;
d. his sensing the tragic grandeur of life
e. his central characters in all his plays are towering figures who desire to wrestle
with every experience;
f. his great sense of theatre.
In Tamburlaine the Great (Part I, II, 1587/1588), a Fall of Princes tragedy,
Marlowe created the prototype of the Renaissance audacious villain, of the selfish
being. The hero-villain is carried from humble origins through incredible triumphs to
equal fall, thus fulfilling the medieval Wheel of Fortune theme.
The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus (1589) is a one-man tragedy. Doctor
Faustus is the prototype of the Renaissance mans exceeding his limits:vaulting
ambition for complete intellectual knowledge, bounding achievement and incredible
failure this is the pattern of Faustuss grand tragedy. Fuastus is a scholar, proud,
arrogant, but also a man of courage, a man of the Renaissance in his resolution and
striving after infinite knowledge, love of beauty, pleasure and power. He struggles
against his despair, his conflicting feelings, a struggle which gives him his tragic
grandeur. It is the medieval theme of the fight between spirit and body, which has
The Tragical Historie of Doctor Faustus as the first grand, remarkable artistic
achievement. From the medieval Everyman to Marlowes Doctor Faustus there is a
journey which transforms the horizontality of ones search into the verticality of the
selfs quest. The beauty of the play lies in the beauty of the text as well:theme, form,
structure and language all merge towards the poetic drama of a soul in quest of
perfection. Another strange quality of the play is given by the blending of medieval
elements (the allegorical portraits of the seven sins) with modern ideas (the
exploration of the inner self).
The three major themes (Faustuss longing for the infinite; the heros excessive
drives; the contract between man and devil) have their corresponding images (the
image of the flight/Icarus and his fall; the metaphor of the food with feasting
imagery/ the verb to glut being the pivot of this isotopy; the metaphor of the blood).
The language is a powerfully dramatic expression of the loss of Faustuss soul.
Rhythm, diction, pauses, blank verse = iambic pentameter, all merge towards the
inner conflicts of the individual.
The structure of the play develops within a very strict time scheme which makes
Faustuss struggle more tragic (Time proving to be the greatest enemy in the end).
Antithesis (low vs high life, irony and comedy, morality and modern elements) plays
its part in foregrounding the characters inner traits.
The Jew of Malta (1591) is another Fall of Princes tragedy. Its major theme is
the conflict between the wealthy Jew, Barabas, the hostile Christian community and
the Turks. Barabas strives after the material possessions because they alone can make
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him be respected in a hostile Christian community and they alone can give him
power. He achieves grandeur by the audacity and might of his ambition. The play
also reminds of Kyds revenge tragedy and it constituted the model for Shakespeares
The Merchant of Venice.
Christopher Marlowe was also a great lyrical poet (The Passionate Shepherd
to his Love, Hero and Leander, characterized by erotic sensuality) and a translator
of Ovid.
Notes
1. Christmas, New Years festivities, Easter, Midsummer offered the frame for
the developing of dramatic productions, as the people conceived of the
struggle of life and death, or of winter and spring as a cycle leading towards
the death and resurrection of a hero. On the other hand, the drama of ancient
Greece and Rome, banned by the Christians because of its pagan and worldly
associations, underwent a process of revival. If, in the beginning, the church
was felt as the cause of destruction for the theatrical performances, starting
with the 13th century it became itself the creator of the modern drama.
Bibliography
1. Barnet, S., Berman, M., Burto, W. (ed.by) (1976): A Dictionary of Literary Terms,
Constable, London.
2. Brunel, P. (1992): Companion to Literary Myths, Heroes and Archetypes, Routledge,
London and New York.
3. Chesterton, G.K (1962):Chaucer, Faber and Faber, London.
4. Coote, St.(1986): Chaucer: The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, Penguin Books, London.
5. Easthope, Antony (1990):Poetry as Discourse, Routledge, London.
6. Holmes, George (ed.by)(1995):The Oxford Illustrated History of Medieval Europe, OUP,
Oxford & New York.
7. Levichi, Leon (1985):Istoria literaturii engleze i americane, vol.I, Ed.Dacia, Cluj-Napoca.
8. Prvu, Sorin (1988):American Fiction, Varia(Middle English Literature), Al.I.Cuza Univ.
Press, Iai.

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