The foul-mouthed Miller and the prim Prioress
Country Life UK|January 03, 2024
The pre-eminent poet of the English language, celebrated for his trailblazing literary wizardry, Chaucer's time 'is, and has always been, here and now', finds Matthew Dennison
Matthew Dennison
The foul-mouthed Miller and the prim Prioress

THAT Geoffrey Chaucer's 'drasty rhyming is nat worth a toord' (his 'dirty rhyming isn't worth a turd'), the Host's pungent dismissal in Chaucer's best-known, but incomplete poem The Canterbury Tales, is a verdict that, with good reason, posterity has ignored. More than six centuries after his death in 1400, Chaucer remains the best-loved and most-read surviving voice of medieval England. His claim to be a 'grete philosopher', profound in his understanding of human nature, is as persuasive now as when first articulated by 15th-century printer William Caxton. He has consistently been celebrated for his trailblazing literary wizardry, assimilating and reinventing diverse storytelling traditions: the writer, Caxton marvelled, who outstripped all others and 'enbelysshed, ornated, and made faire our englisshe', supplementing the language with words borrowed from Latin and French. Within a dozen years of his death, Chaucer was hailed as the first discoverer of English and the pre-eminent poet of our native tongue: 'The first fyndere of our faire langage.'

According to the narrator of The Manciple's Tale, a word is spoken or written and forth it goth'. Now, a new exhibition at Oxford's Bodleian Library charts Chaucer's life and 600 years of readers' responses to his work. Exhibits range from the oldest surviving Chaucer manuscript, the Hengwrt Chaucer of about 1400, to recent Chaucer-inspired writing by Windrush-generation poets. Clearly, the great man's words continue to go forth, crackling with life, to resonate forcefully with new generations. Described by fellow poet John Dryden in 1700 as 'the Father of English Poetry' (and, on account of his bawdy humour, as a rough diamond'), Chaucer emerges from the current exhibition as a towering figure, inspiring writers from Edmund Spenser to Zadie Smith, alongside calligraphers, illustrators, amateur and professional artists, film-makers and even puppeteers.

This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

MORE STORIES FROM COUNTRY LIFE UKView all
Save our family farms
Country Life UK

Save our family farms

IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.

time-read
1 min  |
November 27, 2024
A very good dog
Country Life UK

A very good dog

THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.

time-read
1 min  |
November 27, 2024
The great astral sneeze
Country Life UK

The great astral sneeze

Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why

time-read
3 mins  |
November 27, 2024
'What a good boy am I'
Country Life UK

'What a good boy am I'

We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton

time-read
3 mins  |
November 27, 2024
Forever a chorister
Country Life UK

Forever a chorister

The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death

time-read
4 mins  |
November 27, 2024
Best of British
Country Life UK

Best of British

In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.

time-read
3 mins  |
November 27, 2024
Old habits die hard
Country Life UK

Old habits die hard

Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves

time-read
4 mins  |
November 27, 2024
It takes the biscuit
Country Life UK

It takes the biscuit

Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them

time-read
3 mins  |
November 27, 2024
It's always darkest before the dawn
Country Life UK

It's always darkest before the dawn

After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat

time-read
4 mins  |
November 27, 2024
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
Country Life UK

Tarrying in the mulberry shade

On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.

time-read
3 mins  |
November 27, 2024