Canterbury Tales as Mirror to English Society
The
Prologue to The Canterbury Tales is a wonderful commentaryتبصرہ
upon English life in the Middle Ages. Dryden has beautifully said that Chaucer
must have been a man of a most wonderful receptiveشاندار nature because he has taken into the
sphereدائرہ کار of
his Canterbury Tales the same manners and humours of the whole English nation
in his age. Not a single character is devoid ofمحروم it. Leguois says, "Chaucer,is truly
the social historian and analyzerتجزیہ نگار of England at the end of fourteenth
century.
What he has given is a direct transcriptionتحریری شکل of daily life, taken in the very act, and
in its most familiar aspects." The fact is that Chaucer had firsthand
knowledge of the current English society of his time. His keen observationمُشاہدہ, vast study, extensive وسیعtravel and variegatedتنوع والا experience in the service of the state had
acquaintedشناسا کر دیا him with the entire panorama of social
life of those days. And perhaps it was with the intention of describing his
unlimited knowledge of men and manners that he devisedایجاد کیا the plan of the Canterbury Tales which
surrounds every aspect of life in the fourteenth century England. The group of
pilgrims mentioned in the Prologue is itself an matchlessلاثانی picture of the Society of Chaucer's time.
There are some thirty persons belonging to the most different classes. There is
a Knightنواب
recently come from the foreign wars, a man who has fought in Prussia and in
Turkey, jousted in Tramisene, and been present at the storming of Alexandriaسکندریہ. He is a high-minded gentle-mannered,
knightly adventurer, type of the courteous, war loving chivalryبہادری and bravery which was passing rapidly
away. With him is his son, a young Squire, curly haired and gay, his short,
white-sleeved gown embroidered like a pasture having red-and-white flowers. He
is a paragon of the gifts and graces of brilliant youth.
The servant of them is
a Yeoman, in coat and hoof of a green, a sheaf of peacock-arrows under his
belt, a mighty bow in his hand, and a silver image of Saint Christopher upon
his breast. He is the type and representativeنمایندہ of that sturdy English yeomanry which with
its gray goose shafts humbled the pride of France at Crecy and Agincourt. There
is a whole group of ecclesiasticalچرچ کے مُتعلق figures, representing in their numbers and
variety the diverse activities of the medieval church. Most of them are satiricalتنقیدی portraits, in their worldliness and
materialismمادہ پرستی only too faithfully representative of the
ecclesiastical abuses against which Wycliffe struggled. First of all is Monk,
who cares only for hunting and good cheer.
His bald head shines like glass, his
bright eyes roll in his head. He rides a sleek brown palfrey, and has
"many a dainty نفیسhorse" in his stables. His sleeves are
nicely cut with fine fur at the wrists; his hood is fastened under his chin
with a gold love-knot. As a companion figure to the hunter Monk, Chaucer gives
us "Madame Eglantyne," the Prioress. She is a teacher of young ladies
who speaks French "after the school of Stratford-atte-bowe." is
exquisite in her table-manners, counterfeiting as well as she can the stately
behaviour of court.
Other
ecclesiasticsپادری
are there, hangers-on and caterpillars of the church. The Friar, intimateقریب with hospitableمہمان نواز franklins, innkeepers, and respectable
women, hates beggars and poor sick persons. The Summoner is a hateful person
with "fire-red cherubim face". The Pardoner "come from Rome all
note" has a bag full of pardons which he sells as relics of the holy
saints to overtusting people. Chaucer's treatment of these corrupted churchmen
is highly good-natured and tolerant. He never takes the tone of moral
humiliation against them.
Chaucer
paints the character of the Parson, poor in this world's goods, but "rich
of holy thought and work," with loving and reverentمودب touch. The Parson's brother travels with
hint—a Plowman, a "true swinker and a good", who helps his poor neighbours
without hire and loves them as himself. He makes us remind of Piers the
Plowman, in the wonderful Vision which is the antitype of Chaucer's work. A
crowd of other figures fill the panorama.
There is a shipman from the
west-country, a representative of those adventurousمُہم جو seamen, half merchant-sailors, half
smugglers and piratesسمندری ڈاکو, who had already made England's name a
terror on the seas and paved the way for her future naval and commercial
supremacyبرتری.
Here is a poor Clerk of Oxford, riding a horse as lean as a rake, and dressed
in old and threadbareپُرانا
cloakچوغہ,
who spends all that he can beg or borrow upon his studies. He typifies that
passion for learning which was already astir everywhere in Europe, and which
was awaking only the magic touch of the new-found classical literature to
blossom out into genuine thought and imagination. There is a Merchant, in a
Flemish beaver hat, on a high horse, concealing, with the grave importance of
his air, the fact that he is in debt.
There is a group of guild-members, in the
livery of their guild, all worthy to be aldermen; together with the merchant,
they represent the mercantile and manufacturing activity which was lifting
England rapidly to the rank of a great commercialکاروباری power. Then there is the Wife of Bath,
almost a modern feminist figure, conceived with masterly humor and realism, a
permanent human type. She has had "husbands five at church-door, "and
though" somdel deaf," hopes to live to wed several others. She rides
on an ambler, with spurs and scarlet hose on her feet, and on her head a hat as
broad as a buckler. These and a dozen other characters are all painted in vivid
colours and with a psychological truth which remind us of the portraits of the
Flemish painter, Van Eyck, Chaucer's contemporary.
Taken as a whole the
dramatis personae of the Prologue represent the complete range of English
society in the fourteenth century, with exception of the highest aristocracy
and the lowest order of villains or serfs. Apart from the men and their manners,
the Prologue also throws light on contemporary clothing, food and occupations.
Almost every character whether man or woman is in a typical dress and other
personal array. Many of the pilgrims are conspicuously واضح طور پر armed, others carry small items of
equipmentسامان,
like a silken purse or a pouch or a pair of sharp spurs or a musical instrument. Chaucer uses the details of dressing and
other outfit not only to describe the pilgrim's appearance but also to throw
further light on his or her character.
Thus the Wife of Bath, with her desire
to be the first wife in her parish, becomes even more amusingly provincial when
we read of her heavy Sunday-best cover chiefs which were at least twenty years
out of fashion by the time Chaucer was writing. The brooch of the Prioress
bearing the motto Amor Vinci: annia indicates that this nun has a
character vacillating ڈگمگانا
between secularدُنیاوی
and divine love. Chaucer's description of the pilgrimsزائرین and their food varies a great deal. We
mere hear that the Knight on his campaigns had often "the bond bigonne,"
that the Squire "cart before his fader" at the table, and that the Prioress
had beautiful table manners, never slobbered, and liked to feed her little dogs
on bread and milk. The Monk loved hunting and apparantly ate venison and game.
His special dish was a roast fat swan, a delicacyنزاکت usually eaten only by kings, Abbots, and such
folk. We are not told that the Friar had any especially favourite dish, but instead
of minglingملنا جُلنا with the poor, like St. Francis, he loved
taverns and tapsters, and all "sellers of vitaille." The Summoner
loved garlicادرک,
onions, leeks, and strong blood-red wine. This cheerful taste no doubt
accounted for his bad, incurable complexion.
The Cleric of Oxford quite frankly
preferred books to food, and economized in order to add to his library. But the
Franklin was a real epicureلزیز کھانوں کا شوقین. Franklin s’ bread and ale were always
first class, and his house was never without baked meats of both fish and
flesh. He stored meat and drink in his house, and he had all seasonable
dainties provided, partridges, breamتازہ مھچلی, pike, with suitable sauces. He kept
practically open house, and was severeسخت with his cook if the flavouringذایقہ of his dishes was not absolutely to his
taste. The Cook who accompanied the party was the sort of man employed by a
City company or at an Innسرائے
of Court or by an innkeeper. He was an expert, and could boil chickens and marrow
bones, and cook well-flavoured tarts.
He appreciated London ale, and could
mast, seethe, boil, and fry and was a successful maker of meat-pies and
blanc-mange. The list of the Cook's capabilities gives us a good idea of the
scope of entertainmentتواضع
possible for people of comfortable means, and a good deal of this variety could
be gained at biggish inns on well-known highways and in large towns. Of
contemporaryہم عصر crafts, trades and professions, being so
variously represented, we gain much valuable knowledge from the Prologue. As it
has been already pointed out, only the royal court and the higher nobility are
not represented as they would not join a common pilgrimage then. A critic has
remarked that sometimes the picturesqueتصویری similes which Chaucer uses to explain a
point reveal glimpses of fourteenth-century life.
They also show how much
closer town and country were at that time. There are word-pictures involving,
for example animals and flowers, or tools and instruments used on the land, all
of which would be perfectly familiar even to the cultured members of Chaucer's
audience in the heart of London. Moreover, details of county pursuits like
forestry or farming show that Chaucer himself was as much at home in the
country as among the trades and professions of the town.
It
needs be underlined here that Chaucer has made a direct transcription from
common life; and, since ordinary things and common people are the most representativeنمائندہ, he has provided an valuable document for
those who wish to call up the social life of the time. But Chaucer does not
attempt to historical contemporary events, nor concern himself with politics or
public questions. He lived in stirring time; he had fought under Edward III in
the wars with France; he had seen England devastated by the Black Death; he had
seen the Peasants' Revoltبغاوت.
It was a time of unrest both at home and abroad. The English Court was divided
into factions دھڑوں "by the struggles between the great
nobles who surrounded the King. The Church was being attacked by Wycliffe and
his followers for her abuses misrule.
The contemporary poems of Lang-land and
of Gower are MI of political satire upon the social evils of their times. But
the poet Chaucer, like his pilgrims, is more interested in his own concerns and
in his neighbours than in the King and his favourites, in wars, or in civil and
religious questions. His characters, like the majority of people in all time,
are wrappedاُلجھا ہونا up in their own affairs, and untroubled by
the storms around them, except insofar as their private interests are touched.
Nevertheless, they are distinctiveنمایاں of their time and country. The Yeoman with
his great bow and well-trimmed arrows calls up the English archers who played
so redoubtable a part at Crecy and at Poictiers. The Knight stands for the
finest chivalry of the Crusades. Above all the clergy are characteristic of
their time. Here, Chaucer painted from the life, are the actual men whose vices
and corruption Wycliffe and his followers denounced so vehemently.
Finally,
it must be borne in mind that as a painter of his society Chaucer acts more as
a poet and artist than as a chronicler. His treatment of English men and
manners of the fourteenth Century is not as a social reformer but as a tolerant
humanist and his attitude of toleration carries more conviction than the
denunciation of a moralist.
No comments:
Post a Comment