Mark Steel's "Lectures" on Geoffrey Chaucer No.1

I don't agree that reading Chaucer in the original language is that off-putting - but I take Mark's point. I like his fun approach to Chaucer and if it gets people interested - so be it!

The Canterbury Tales - the RSC version

Around a year ago the Royal Shakespeare Company completed a tour of their two part version of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. The link below has brief, filmed interviews of the director and assistant directors. The download below is a useful learning pack produced by the RSC on Chaucer and the Tales. The learning pack is a colourfully presented mixture of the accessible and the academic in which the RSC seem to excel. It includes some excellent contextual information on Chaucer and it's a good read for anyone studying this author and his texts.

http://www.rsc.org.uk/content/3370.aspx

For the learning pack
> Download pdf...

Chaucer - the historical context: Henry IV 1399-1413

Geoffrey Chaucer did not live long after John of Gaunt and his newphew, Richard II, died. Geoffrey was probably murdered around 1400 somewhere near Westminster Abbey, having taken refuge there a short time before. The new regime was one of fear and as Chaucer was not liked by Henry IV and the Church "his days", as the saying goes, "were numbered".

Chaucer - the historical context of Richard II (1377-99)

Although this video focuses on the king and less on social history it still conveys a sense of how unsettled people were during the time Chaucer wrote his "Canterbury Tales". You can also get a sense of why Chaucer set out to satirise various types of people in his Tales. (BTW, John of Gaunt, Richard II's uncle, was Chaucer's main source of patronage and protection during this period.)

Useful notes for Chaucer's "The Merchant's Tale"

These are succinct notes for the Tale and should prove useful for planning and writing essays.

http://faculty.goucher.edu/eng330/chaucermerchant.htm