Every year since 2002, I've commemorated Chaucer Day by posting the entire text of Parliament of Fowls on my
college's intranet. Chaucer Day is that misunderstood holiday that gets its fair share of attention (good and bad) each February 14, yet somehow is never actually recognized. You ever wonder how the feast day for a Roman martyr turned into the Hallmark Holiday with its rituals of crass consumerism in the place of actual affection? While I can't speak for the disaster of the 2nd half of the 20th century, the first step was taken in good humor by Geoffrey Chaucer.
#So posting the poem itself every year on February 14 is a nice symbolic gesture, but at the same time, has very limited reach. I realistically understand that while a 700-line poem isn't particularly long in a book, on the college intranet its length is prohibitive. Furthermore, the reader would have to be comfortable enough in Middle English to stick it out without glosses.
The week before Chaucer Day this year, I had the idea of writing a companion for the poem to post on February 13, but that would have been unwieldy for both me and the reader. The natural solution, then, is to write and post that companion serially. That would give me enough time to write it without any undue burden, and would make it much easier to read, just a stanza at a time. If I average a stanza every 2-3 days, then the whole project will draw to a close just in time for Chaucer Day 2009, which seems like a very reachable goal.
So why, then, this blog?
@ I actually do have a broader point. I'm certainly an evangelist for Medieval Literature, none more so than the poetry of Chaucer. I've carried one of my two copies of the Riverside in my travels around the world, on any sort of public transportation, or just around campus back during my undergrad days. I even sleep with my copy!
< Over the winter, I went to a museum with three well-educated people, who found it very strange that I'd carry this large book around with me, and moreover that I'd read Chaucer on the subway. I suggested that if they'd ever read it, they'd understand, but their response caught me off guard: of course they'd read Chaucer. They read the General Prologue and the Knight's Tale in high school. Their takeaway from that experience is that Middle English poetry is impossible to read and extremely dull. They'd never met the Chaucer that I know and love, because they'd only read the notoriously baroque GP (which involves spending as much time in the glossary as in the poem itself) and a stylized romance that pales in comparison to its cousin, the Troilus. While those two works certainly have their strengths, they do not come across to the novice, who miss Chaucer's wit and emotional depth. It's a real shame that their teachers had them dive right in to treacherous waters rather than starting at the right place so they could wade into the deeper waters.
A shorter, humorous work like The Parliament is a much better place to start. If English teachers started there, students might actually enjoy it, and then from there go on to discover the Tales, or Langland, or Henryson, or the Pearl poet, or the mystery plays. It's a perfect gateway drug into Medieval literature, and disproves so many stereotypes and excuses people use to ignore the period as a whole. While my primary audience will be my college's alumni and students, there's no reason to lock the whole thing behind a passworded wall if I can prove my broader point.
And while I'm at it, it's worth rehabilitating February 14 from the mess it's become. It was started with large sense of irony (as we'll see as we work our way through the poem), and I can't imagine Chaucer being pleased with what his holiday looks like now. If anyone decides to forgo a pink card, overpriced candies, and an absurdly expensive meal for an evening of reading poetry together, I think they're better off.
% Like Chaucer in the Troilus I "God of Loves servantz serve."
There is one caveat that I've saved for the end: I am an amateur. While Medieval Literature was my concentration in college, it's been a little while, and my resources are limited. (I do have two different editions with the poem -- the Riverside and Derek Pearsall's anthology Chaucer to Spenser, but little access to secondary material.) I welcome both outright corrections and alternate interpretations. This is meant to be friends reading through a poem together; I in no way suggest definitive readings. Prof. C wasn't fond of my reading of the structure back in English 30, and if it's the reading I still like all these years later, then that shouldn't reflect badly on him or Larry Benson or Derek Pearsall or anyone other than me. Perhaps in one sense, that's the best reason for me to complete this exercise: it will force me to reassess this masterpiece of a poem in the closest way open to an amateur.
# Standard disclaimer, before you send me angry letters: I acknowledge that the premise -- that Chaucer is responsible for the first extant reference of Valentine's Day as a holiday of love -- isn't clear, and that the conclusion does not follow from that premise.
@ Actually, the real reason is that the archiving system on the intranet is quite poor, and this is a much easier way to keep track of it for people who may miss entries but want to catch up. But I stand by my comments on a better way to approach Medieval literature.
< I have a big bed. I like to keep useful books handy in space I'm not otherwise using.
% This may be why I'm still single.
Posts
