the Canterbury Tales 赏析.pptVIP

Knighthood It is around the time of the Norman Conquest that the term began to indicate socio-economic rank. However, rising inflation in the late twelfth century that raised rents drastically combined with the rising cost of equipment---war-horse, armor, weapons--- and increasingly made knighthood a very expensive career. Faced with declining numbers of fighting men, in 1292 Edward I made knighthood compulsory for any man who owned land worth at least 40 pounds per year. The wealthy wanted to be known as rich and powerful enough to be able to afford knighthood. Kings promoted this ideal by founding special orders and by passing laws to limit the wearing of silks, furs, and gold to knights. A complex chivalric code developed to govern proper knightly behavior. Chivalric Virtue fidelity, honour, generosity, courtesy Did you notice the contrast between the conventional image of a knight with that of this Knight? In this context, Chaucer’s presentation of the knight is complex. On the surface, the knight is described as a worthy man who practices chivalry and displays the qualities of fidelity, good reputation, generosity, and refined manner. Yet everything about the knight sets him against the romantic chivalric ideal of his time. His dress is shabby and lacking in the trappings usually associated with a knight in shining armor, trappings that provided an important social clue to a person’s rank. He is also lacking a coat of arms and familial estates. Chaucer appears to attribute this to the knight’s extreme humility, but the martial portion of the knight’s description underlines his position as out of step with his supposed social class. Chaucer does not mention the main European conflict of his time, the Hundred Years War with France. Instead, the knight has fought against only non-christians around the world, maintaining a version of the Crusades. The places he has fought in particular brand him as a mercenary. Russia and Prussia, for instance, were prime gr