I am going to suggest that reading some in Middle English, in the original, with Chaucer is a good idea. It is a dialect of Middle English that is a great deal more like our own than others, especially Gawain in the Green Knight, and there are references that are used even to this day, for example, the April is alluded to in TS Eliot.
A few readers will be motivated to read all of it in Middle English, and all will see that there is a reason why Chaucer was the greatest Middle English poet in a world where even the literate had very little text to chew on because it was the era of copy rather than publish.
And every few years you will get a polyglot who understands that this is a dialect worth grabbing onto.
I am familiar with Dante, so I was able to make some connections with The Book of the Duchess, but I'm not familiar with Boccaccio at all. I'm finding that I'm not only reading Chaucer for the first time, but I'm also coming into contact for the first time with the authors/works that inspired him. Essentially learning a whole new language/world that I don't currently have much of a frame of reference for!
When you talked about the different classes of pilgrims all coming together, it reminded me of what Dr. McLaughlin said in class last week, about the "law of right order:" it was proper for the Knight to tell his tale first, but the others were surprised when the Miller volunteered to go next.
I am going to suggest that reading some in Middle English, in the original, with Chaucer is a good idea. It is a dialect of Middle English that is a great deal more like our own than others, especially Gawain in the Green Knight, and there are references that are used even to this day, for example, the April is alluded to in TS Eliot.
A few readers will be motivated to read all of it in Middle English, and all will see that there is a reason why Chaucer was the greatest Middle English poet in a world where even the literate had very little text to chew on because it was the era of copy rather than publish.
And every few years you will get a polyglot who understands that this is a dialect worth grabbing onto.
Yes, I have suggested to those following along that a well-glossed Middle English edition like The Norton Chaucer will be ideal for this read-along.
I am familiar with Dante, so I was able to make some connections with The Book of the Duchess, but I'm not familiar with Boccaccio at all. I'm finding that I'm not only reading Chaucer for the first time, but I'm also coming into contact for the first time with the authors/works that inspired him. Essentially learning a whole new language/world that I don't currently have much of a frame of reference for!
When you talked about the different classes of pilgrims all coming together, it reminded me of what Dr. McLaughlin said in class last week, about the "law of right order:" it was proper for the Knight to tell his tale first, but the others were surprised when the Miller volunteered to go next.
Yes, and we will be discussing the Miller's disruption of order for sure when we get to his Prologue and Tale.
I got a taste of the Tales in high school , which is hardly surprising. What was great was that it was a very mixed class and everyone liked it.
If he’s taught well, he tends to go over well.