Medieval Literature Class
Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his half cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open ye
(So priketh hem nature in hir corages),
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,
To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;
And specially fram every shires ende
Of Engelond to Caunterbury they wende,
The hooly blisful martir for to seke,
That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.
Bifil that in that seson on a day,
In Southwerk at the Tabard as I lay
Redy to wenden on my pilgrymage
To Canterbury with ful devout corage,
At nyght was come into that hostelrye
Wel nyne and twenty in a compaignye
Of sondry folk, by aventure yfalle
In felaweshipe, and pilgrimes were they alle,
That toward Caunterbury wolden ryde.
The chambres and the stables weren wyde,
And wel we weren esed atte beste.
And shortly, whan the sonne was to reste,
So hadde I spoken with hem everichon
That I was of hir felaweshipe anon,
And made forward erly for to ryse,
To take oure wey ther as I yow devyse.
Critical Discussion
You might consider its syntax, or sentence construction. The first sentence is very remarkable, being 18 lines long. If you think about its basic structure, you will see that the main verb ('longen') only appears at 12, suspended for a full 11 lines. Those first 11 lines are made up principally of two subordinate clauses (adverbial clauses of time), each introduced by the subordinating conjunction 'whan'. Each of these subordinate clauses has further subordinate clauses, and the second heightens the effect of suspending the main verb by piling on further co-ordinate clauses, each introduced by 'and'. When we turn to the rest of the passage, we notice that the sentences are shorter, and that the main verbs ('bifil', 'weren', 'weren esed', 'hadde spoken') are not held back in so spectacular a way as 'longen' is, if at all.
Already we have noticed something very different between two sections of this passage. A tip: stylistic effect is often achieved by contrast. If examination of one feature of a passage suggests the existence of a powerful contrast, keep this in mind to see if the contrast holds for other aspects of style.
The potential contrast between lines 1-18 on the one hand and lines 19-34 on the other suggests that we should focus attention on that very long sentence, by way of defining its features in such a way to press the contrast. How might we work our way into that sentence? Go back to our first observation about syntax: because so much depends on the final arrival of the main clause ('Thanne longen...'), it might be worth pausing over that point of articulation. Are there other stylistic differences between the subordinate clauses (lines 1-11) and the main clause (lines 12-18)?
©James Simpson 2000
