|
|
|
Review
| Chaucer's England, by Diana Childress. North Haven, CT: Linnett, 2000. 137 + xvii pp. $25.00, hardcover.
|
| Intended for high school students, this clearly-written work is an excellent introduction to the Canterbury Tales and their social and historical context. Childress opens with a chronology both of key political events in fourteenth-century England and the known details of Chaucer's life before describing the landscape of fourteenth-century England, its connections with Scotland, Ireland, and (most importantly) France, and England's linguistic heritage and monetary system. Chapter two discusses the social hierarchy of medieval England and the three estates, "those who pray, those who fight, and those who work," which is nicely laid out in a table [22]. The important role of the Church in everyday life in fourteenth-century England is clearly explained, as is the great power of the nobility (including knights and squires), especially in Parliament. Childress points out that despite their significant political importance, nobles are under-represented in the Canterbury Tales, because they would have gone on pilgrimage with their own retinues and not as part of the socially diverse group depicted by Chaucer. She also describes the broad spectrum of wealth and power (or lack thereof) that comprised the Third Estate, from the wealthiest urban officials to landless peasants on the margins of society. These ideas are developed in the chapters that follow. |
1
|
|
Childress uses Gower, Langland, and the Oxford theologian John Wyclif to illustrate the struggles for power between church and state and the widespread criticism of the Church that began in earnest in England with Henry II's quarrel with Thomas Becket (not "Thomas à Becket" [35]) and uses the social mobility of Chaucer's own family to demonstrate how the lines demarcating the second and third estates became "blurred by change" in the fourteenth century [43]. This is followed by a chapter which discusses how the problems created by religious strife and social mobility were exacerbated by foreign warfare, domestic rebellion, and the Black Death. |
2
|
|
Childress's observation that "Chaucer's writings show a keen interest in the scientific knowledge of his age" [62] provides the framework for chapter five, which examines scientific inquiry in the fourteenth century, most notably medicine, astronomy, and astrology, and the roles they played in Chaucer's works. The final two chapters concentrate on daily life in the fourteenth century and will help students picture life in Chaucer's England. Exploring such topics as trade and industry, food production and consumption, housing, and clothing, and how these indicated peoples' role and rank in society, they help make Chaucer more accessible to twenty-first-century students. Given the nature of the surviving historical sources, it is not surprising that Childress concentrates on the nobility and the wealthiest townspeople, a very small segment of fourteenth-century English society. Her brief account of non-elite peasant life means that she does not provide a well-rounded depiction of daily life in Chaucer's England, a point teachers may want to make clear to their students. Family life, inheritance, love, and marriage are treated in the final chapter, as are education and amusements. Here Childress provides helpful background information on important themes in the Canterbury Tales, comparing the provocative arguments on marriage presented by the Wife of Bath with the conventional medieval view of marriage espoused by the Parson. |
3
|
|
The twenty-three black-and-white illustrations help readers visualize life in fourteenth-century England. They are well-incorporated into the text and are made more useful by the descriptive captions which add valuable context for the reader. Also included is a map of places mentioned by Chaucer [10–11], a table showing the male heirs of both Edward I of England and Philip III of France [48], and interesting side-bars on a wide variety of topics, including horses, Parliament, and measuring time. Childress concludes with a three-page bibliography of the works she consulted that are most accessible to the general reader, followed by a short list of translated texts by Chaucer's contemporaries, as well as historical novels, videocassettes, and films of varying degrees of utility for classroom use. There is a detailed index but not a glossary of unfamiliar words, which is to be regretted. |
4
|
| | |
| Butler University, Indianapolis |
J.M.B. Porter |
|
Content in the History Cooperative database is intended for personal, noncommercial use only. You may not reproduce, publish, distribute, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale of, modify, create derivative works from, display, or in any way exploit the History Cooperative database in whole or in part without the written permission of the copyright holder.
|