Canterbury Tales

by Geoffrey Chaucer, England, (1340-1400)

حكايات كانتربري
كانتربرى هي مجموعة قصص شعرية من تأليف جيفري تشوسر وبدأها (1387) ووافته المنية دون أن يتمها، وهي مجموعة من القصص يسردها الشاعر على لسان عدد من الحجاج إلى ضريح القديس توماس في كانتربري.
وتظهر شخصية كل من هؤلاء الحجاج واضحة جلية من خلال القصة التي يرويها. وتصور لنا هذه (الحكايات) الحياة والمجتمع الإنجليزي في القرون الوسطى أبدع تصوير.
ولقد جمع جيفري تشوسر في فنه بين صدق الوصف ورحابة الخيال بحيث أصبحت (حكايات كانتربرى) من روائع الأدب العالمي. ويذكر انها كتبت بالإنكليزية المتوسطة بلهجة اهل لندن مما يجعلها أكثر مقاربة للإنكليزية الحديثة.
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حكايات كانتربري مجموعة من القصص ألفها الشاعر الإنجليزي جفري تشوسر. ويرى الباحثون في اللغة أن هذا القصص هو أشهر ما كُتب في اللغة الإنجليزية الوسيطة. وهي نوع من اللغة الإنجليزية كان شائع الاستعمال من نحو عام 1100 إلى عام 1485م.
ظل تشوسر يؤلف حكايات كانتربري من نحو عام 1386م حتى وفاته عام 1400م. ولم يكمل العمل تمامًا، ولكن خطة الحكايات مسجلة في مقدمة الكتاب. وكان تشوسر قد جمع 29 زائرًا في حانة تابارد في ساوثوارك، وعبر معهم نهر التايمز في لندن للذهاب إلى كانتربري. وقد وافق كل زائر على أن يحكي حكايتين في رحلة الذهاب وحكايتين في رحلة العودة.
لم يكتب تشوسر إلا 24 حكاية، منها أربع لم تكتمل. وتقول الرواية إن الزوَّار بلغوا مشارف كانتربري في اليوم الرابع. ولم يذكر أي شيء عن رحلة العودة. ويرى الكثير من النقاد أن هذه الرحلة ذات الاتجاه الواحد تمثل خطة تشوسر الحقيقية، وهي الرحلة التي يقوم بها الإنسان وترمز إلى الرحلة من الحياة الدنيا إلى الآخرة.
قدم تشوسر الزوار للقارئ في مقدمة الكتاب، فالفارس، والكاهن، والحارث، وهم صور متتالية للطبقات الثلاث في القرون الوسطى: الأرستقراطية، والكهنوت (رجال الدين النصراني) والعمال. أما بقية الزوار فقد اختارهم الشاعر من الطبقة الوسطى في المجتمع الإنجليزي أوائل القرن الرابع عشر الميلادي، وقد وصف تشوسر مظهر الزوار وحياتهم الخاصة وصفًا دقيقًا. وتبرز أساليب الزوار القصصية والموضوعات المختلفة من خلال قصصهم. ومعظم القصص ما هي إلا مرآة لشخصيات الزوار أنفسهم. فمثلاً نرى الراهبة تحكي قصة عن أحد القديسين، وقد وضع الشاعر بعض القصص في مجموعات توضح وجهات نظر مختلفة عن موضوع معين. وتدور معظم القصص حول الحب والزواج والوفاق الأسري.
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The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of the 14th century. The tales (mostly written in verse although some are in prose) are presented as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together on a journey from Southwark to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. The prize for this contest is a free meal at the Tabard Inn at Southwark on their return.
After a long list of works written earlier in his career, including Troilus and Criseyde, House of Fame, and Parliament of Fowls, the Canterbury Tales was Chaucer's magnum opus. He uses the tales and the descriptions of its characters to paint an ironic and critical portrait of English society at the time, and particularly of the Church. Structurally, the collection resembles The Decameron, which Chaucer may have read during his first diplomatic mission to Italy in 1372.
It is sometimes argued that the greatest contribution that this work made to English literature was in popularizing the literary use of the vernacular, English, rather than French or Latin. English had, however, been used as a literary language for centuries before Chaucer's life, and several of Chaucer's contemporaries—John Gower, William Langland, and the Pearl Poet—also wrote major literary works in English. It is unclear to what extent Chaucer was responsible for starting a trend rather than simply being part of it. Also, while Chaucer clearly states the addressees of many of his poems (the Book of the Duchess is believed to have been written for John of Gaunt on the occasion of his wife's death in 1368), the intended audience of The Canterbury Tales is more difficult to determine. Chaucer was a courtier, leading some to believe that he was mainly a court poet who wrote exclusively for nobility.

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The Canterbury Tales", compiled in the late fourteenth century, is an incisive portrait, infused with Chaucer's wry wit and vibrant, poetical language. He evokes a spectrum of colourful characters, from the bawdy Wife of Bath to the gallant Knight, the fastidious Prioress and the burly, drunken Miller. As they wend their way from Southwark to Canterbury, tales are told to pass the time, and the stories are as diverse as the narrators, encompassing themes such as adultery, revenge, courtly love, lechery, avarice and penitence. As humorous today as when it was written over six centuries ago, "The Canterbury Tales" remains one of the most popular and enjoyable of the classic works of literature

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Chaucer's most celebrated work, The Canterbury Tales (c.1387), in which a group of pilgrims entertain each other with stories on the road to Canterbury, is a masterpiece of narration, description, and character portrayal. The tellers and their tales are as fresh and vivid today as they were six centuries ago.

The three Oxford Guides to Chaucer are written by scholars of international repute, with the purpose of summarizing what is known about his works and offering interpretations based on recent advances in both historical knowledge and theoretical understanding. They will provide readers at every level with new interpretations and ideas, with essential and up-to-date information on such matters as dating and sources and with analyses of thematic issues, structure, style rhetoric and generic relations brought right up-to-date for this second paperback edition. Helen Cooper's volume on The Canterbury Tales tackles these matters both for the whole work and for each individual Tale. It also includes a survey of literary responses to the Tales over the two centuries following Chaucer's death. The book is perhaps the most comprehensive single-volume guide to the Tales yet produced, bringing together a wide range of disparate material and providing a readable commentry on all aspects of the work. It combines the comprehensive coverage of a reference book with the coherence of a critical account and since its first publication in 1989, has established itself as a standard work on the Tales.

is a major part of England's literary heritage. From the exuberant Wife of Bath's Arthurian legend to the Miller's worldly, ribald farce, these tales can be taken as a mirror of fourteenth-century London. Incorporating every style of medieval narrative - bawdy anecdote, allegorical fable and courtly romance - the tales encompass a blend of universal human themes. Ackroyd's retelling is a highly readable, prose version in modern English, using expletive and avoiding euphemism, making the Tales much more accessible to a new generation of readers. The edition also includes an introduction by Ackroyd, detailing some of the historical background to Chaucer and the Tales, and why he has been inspired to translate them for a new generation of readers.