Impact of Norman Conquest on England: William the Conqueror to Canterbury Tales, Schemi e mappe concettuali di Inglese

Scarica Impact of Norman Conquest on England: William the Conqueror to Canterbury Tales e più Schemi e mappe concettuali in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! Historical context Norman conquest William Duke of Normandy was crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day 1066. He had the Domesday book written as a record of his new conquest. The Plantagenets After anarchy King Henry II came to throne and he made 3 reforms: 1. Applied a tax named Scutage 2. Payed professional soldiers 3. Introduced travelling royal judges 4. Established that the church was under the king Becket refused to accept the religious reform so he got killed by the king’s knights. Chaucer lived through the reigns of three kings of England, Edward III, Richard II and Henry IV. Consequences of the invasion  Members of english high clergy were replaced by french or italian churchmen.  French barons became vassals of the king  Was developed the “Domesday Book”  Normans replaced english language with french in government while english was talked in everyday speech. Thomas Becket He was an administrator of the church who was friend with the King Henry II, becoming Archbishop of Canterbury. But later he got very ascetic and he defended the rights of the church against the King, so he escaped in France and got back to England. But he hadn’t changed his behaviors so 4 knights sent by the court killed him. After that pilgrims started to visit his tomb. Pestilence It probably started in China in the 1330s. In 1347 in the Crimea during the attack of Caffa, a Genoese trading settlement on the Black Sea, Mongol forces catapulted corpses infected with the plague into the town. Italian merchants took the plague from Caffa to Sicily in October 1347. In 1348 the Black Death arrived in Britain, where it spread all over the country. Causes of spreading Busy trade routes and ships carried the plague quickly from one place to another. The populations of Europe were generally not in a strong state of health thanks to bad harvests and continual warfare. Doctors did not have the know-how to prevent or treat infectious diseases. Towns were dirty and rife with germs. Towns were infested with rats and fleas. The plague lived in the fleas which lived on black rats. Medieval Cures for the plague Vinegar and water treatment Put in bed, washed with vinegar and rose water. Lancing the buboes Cut the swelling, apply natural elements where the body is cut open. Bleeding Veins leading to the heart should be cut open and apply natural ointment on them. Diet Eat bread, fruit and vegetables instead of meat, cheese and fish. Sanitation The roads should be cleaned and waste, bodies and clothes should be burnt. Pestilence medicine A medicine made of egg shells, marigold and good ale, to be drank everyday. Witchcraft Drink your own urine twice a day and place a live hen next to swellings. Plague doctors They wore a black large hat, red glasses, a beak with herbs and spices in it, coat covered with wax to stay safe from infected and used a wooden cane to keep distances. Compositions Ballad A ballad is an anonymous poem that isn’t written but oral. It was danced and song. That’s why it changed from generation to generation. It’s composed by stanzas (strofe) and lines (versi). There are also refrains (ritornelli) which repeats. In ballads there were always dialogues. Ballads have no moral aims and tell a dramatic story as a series of rapid flashes. The language is simple and is a mixture of narration and dialogue. The narrator don’t speak in first person and doesn’t comment. There are also supernatural characters and elements. There are ballads of magic, border ballads, of love and of outlaws. “The twa sisters” The song tells the tale of a girl drowned by her jealous sister.It has many versions of the ending. 4 lines stanzas. “Lord Randal” It’s one of the most important ballads. It’s a dialogue between Randal and his mother. He has been hunting in the forest where he met his true-love who gave him poisoned food. He is telling his mother his testament to his family and to his killer. 4 lines stanzas with many refrains. “La belle dame sans merci” This is a romantic ballad where the meeting between a knight and a beautiful lady becomes a metaphor of illness and danger of false love. 4 lines stanzas Modern ballads “Eleanor Rigby” collects rice in the church where there was a wedding. Father McKenzie is writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear. The main theme in the song is the loneliness that both Eleanore and Father McKenzie suffer. It describes characters specifically. “Blowin 'in the wind” tells of the consequences of the war, especially the victims and the rights they should have. The piece is built on a series of questions, the answers of which, as the title says, fly in the wind. “I Lived” is a tribute to strength and life. The wish expressed by the song is to live life intensely every day, to fully enjoy all that life has to offer us, for better or for worse, without fear. They all have tragic themes, use rhymes and repetitions. “A hard rain’s gonna fall” refers to Lord Randall ballad. They both have many repetitions and refrains which are questions. Then it’s a dialogue just like Lord Randall. Narrative poem A narrative poems tells a story in verse and contains narrative elements like the time and the place (settings), description of characters and the use of a narrator often in first person. It has entertainment and instruction aims, so it has morals. Boccaccio and Chaucer’s works “Decameron” VS “The Canterbury Tales” Similarities  Frame story technique  Male and female characters  There’s a prologue Differences  The narrative context is different  In “Decameron” characters have to follow rules in telling the tales  “Decameron” is written in prose, “The Canterbury Tales” in verse  “Decameron” tells about many different themes, “The Canterbury Tales” tells about a few recurrent themes  Boccaccio is just a narrator, Chaucer is also a character  In “Decameron” there are noble only characters