Chaucer's Yeomen

A detailed Summary of Chaucer's Yeomen

Servant, Assistant, Yeoman, and Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer is a poet who lived in the 1340's, during which he wrote one of his most famous works, The Canterbury Tales. In particular, he had written about two Yeomen. His birth is unknown, but his life was well known because he lived and experienced a lot during fourteenth century England such as being a member of Parliament, a soldier, and a servant to the king (a yeoman). He learns of different types of people or professions within that society and hierarchy, such as the clergy, the nobles, laborers, etc. These experiences that he lived through, give him an opinionated view of any of these particular groups or professions, aiding him in writing the tales. There are not much physical or written items that shine a light as to what England was like during the fourteenth century. Chaucer's work helped make a better understanding of what it was like during that time, especially through the contents of the Canterbury Tales. Although only twenty-four of the projected one-hundred and twenty four tales were completed, these finished tales are known to provide one of the best contemporary pictures of fourteenth century England. In these tales Chaucer was able to write about twenty-

Lumiansky, R.M. Of Sondry Folk The Dramatic Principle in the Canterbury Tales. United States of America: First Paperback Printing, 1980.

Living through a lot in England during the fourteenth century, Chaucer was able to describe a lot from a little. He is able to illustrate a lot about the two yeomen with the time that he lived and the books that he wrote. Living as an actual yeoman under King Edward III, gives him more to write based on servitude of a yeoman or yeowoman. The description of the two yeomen give a prime example as a little of a whole contemporary picture that Chaucer helped give through his works of the Canterbury Tales.

And in his hand he bore a mighty bow.

During this era and still today, the title of "yeoman" was given to different people for individual reasons. Volume 12 of the Oxford English Dictionary defines a yeoman as, "A servant or attendant in a royal or noble household, usually of superior grade, ranking between a sergeant and a groom [...] an attendant or assistant to an official; an inferior officer who has charge of the stores in a particular department; a man holding a small landed estate [...] a commoner or countryman of respectable standing (Yeoman 41)." Chaucer was known to be a yeoman in 1367 to King Edward III. Halliday expresses that Chaucer was a yeoman, stating, "Certainly he was in the King's service in 1367, when Edward III awarded his 'dilectus vallectus' (26)." Already known to have been a yeoman, Chaucer's background experience makes way to the incorporation of Yeomen in The Canterbury Tales.

Come up with it, it slides away so fast;

We never can, in spite of all we swore

Harvard Chaucer Page, The, 8 pages, Harvard University, 14 November, 2001 .

In The Canterbury Tales, a few differences can be identified between these tow individually separate yeomen. These yeomen can easily be distinguished from how they partook in the tales. One obvious difference is that one yeoman, the squire's yeoman, was introduced and described in the prologue to the tales, and so, is with the other pilgrims from the beginning of the journey. The other yeoman is not introduced in the prologue. As stated earlier, the canon and his yeoman join the pilgrims on their way to Canterbury, and so, are known as joining the pilgrims after they departed from the Tabard I

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1593
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English