MINISTRY OF HIGHER AND SECONDARY SPECIAL

EDUCATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN

DENAU INSTITUTE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND PEDAGOGY

FACULTY OF PHILOLOGY DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE
AND LITERATURE

COURSE WORK

THEME: Chaucer - the first English poet to lay the way

for the coming epoch in literature Alfred the Great

Scientific supervisor : N.S.Oripova

Done by: Aytmatova Mastona

Group: 205

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 CONTENT

INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................…3

CHAPTER I. General information about Geoffrey Chaucer

1.1. The biography of GeoffreyChaucer.....................................................5

1.2. Geoffrey Chaucer and his development as a poet.............….............11

CHAPTER II.The Importance of Alfred the Great to English Literature

2.1. The role of King Alfred in literature....................................................18

2.2. Cultural depictions of Alfred the Great.............................................23

CONCLUSION.........................................................................................27

THE LIST OF USED LITERATURE..........................................................29

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 INTRODUCTION

Geoffrey Chaucer was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for The
Canterbury Tales. He has been called the "father of English literature", or,
alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He was the first writer to be buried in
what has since come to be called Poets' Corner, in Westminster Abbey. Chaucer also
gained fame as a philosopher and astronomer, composing the scientific A Treatise on
the Astrolabe for his 10-year-old son Lewis. He maintained a career in the civil
service as a bureaucrat, courtier, diplomat, and member of parliament.

Among Chaucer's many other works are The Book of the Duchess, The House of
Fame, The Legend of Good Women, and Troilus and Criseyde. He is seen as crucial
in legitimising the literary use of Middle English when the dominant literary
languages in England were still Anglo-Norman French and Latin. His
contemporary Thomas Hoccleve hailed Chaucer as "the firste fyndere of our fair
langage". Almost two thousand English words are first attested to in Chaucerian
manuscripts.The large number of surviving manuscripts of Chaucer's works is
testimony to the enduring interest in his poetry prior to the arrival of the printing
press. There are 83 surviving manuscripts of the Canterbury Tales (in whole or part)
alone, along with sixteen of Troilus and Criseyde, including the personal copy
of Henry IV. Given the ravages of time, it is likely that these surviving manuscripts
represent hundreds since lost.

Chaucer's original audience was a courtly one, and would have included women as
well as men of the upper social classes. Yet even before his death in 1400, Chaucer's
audience had begun to include members of the rising literate, middle and merchant
classes. This included many Lollard sympathisers who may well have been inclined to
read Chaucer as one of their own.

Lollards were particularly attracted to Chaucer's satirical writings about friars, priests,
and other church officials. In 1464, John Baron, a tenant farmer in Agmondesham
(Amersham in Buckinghamshire), was brought before John Chadworth, the Bishop of
Lincoln, on charges of being a Lollard heretic; he confessed to owning a "boke of the
Tales of Caunterburie" among other suspect volumes.

The poet Thomas Hoccleve, who may have met Chaucer and considered him his role
model, hailed Chaucer as "the firste fyndere of our fair langage". John
Lydgate referred to Chaucer within his own text The Fall of Princes as the "lodesterre

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… off our language". Around two centuries later, Sir Philip Sidney greatly
praised Troilus and Criseyde in his own Defence of Poesie. During the nineteenth
century and early twentieth century, Chaucer came to be viewed as a symbol of the
nation's poetic heritage.

Actuality of the theme of research. Necessary information is invaluable as they give

students opportunity to be aware of the king of poetry whose name is Geoffrey
Chaucer in English literature. Moreover, they illustrate meaningful and useful
language in real contexts for students. They also encourage and increase cooperation.
The aim of the research is investigation of the different types of beneficial
information about Geoffrey's writing styles and greatest works in English literature
which enable one to understand writing style of Stevenson and his famous
masterpieces easily to learn or teach Chaucer works. easily.

The tasks of the research:

- to show various information about the role of Chaucer and Alfred the Great in
English literature;
- to analyze each of the determined information;
- to identify the results of this investigation;
- to present the ideas and opinions of researchers about Alfred the Great;

The object of the research is to broad one’s horizon on this theme.

The subject of the research is to define the role and useful results of using
Chaucer's different writing styles in today’s globe especially classrooms.
Theoretical significance of the research is huge information which can be included
into the lectures on Alfred the Great and its role in English literature, a lot of various
information which can be used by students in their further professional life.

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The structure of the research. It consists of the following parts: Introduction, two
chapters, Conclusion and List of used literature.

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CHAPTER I. General information about Geoffrey Chaucer

1.1. The biography of Geoffrey Chaucer

Chaucer was born in London most likely in the early 1340s (by some accounts,
including his monument, he was born in 1343), though the precise date and location
remain unknown. The Chaucer family offers an extraordinary example of upward
mobility. His great-grandfather was a tavern keeper, his grandfather worked as a
purveyor of wines, and his father John Chaucer rose to become an important wine
merchant with a royal appointment. Several previous generations of Geoffrey
Chaucer's family had been vintners and merchants in Ipswich. His family name is
derived from the French chaucier, once thought to mean 'shoemaker', but now known
to mean a maker of hose or leggings.

In 1324, his father John Chaucer was kidnapped by an aunt in the hope of marrying
the 12-year-old to her daughter in an attempt to keep property in Ipswich. The aunt
was imprisoned and fined £250, now equivalent to about £200,000, which suggests
that the family was financially secure.

John Chaucer married Agnes Copton, who inherited properties in 1349, including 24
shops in London from her uncle Hamo de Copton, who is described in a will dated 3
April 1354 and listed in the City Hustings Roll as "moneyer", said to be a moneyer at
the Tower of London. In the City Hustings Roll 110, 5, Ric II, dated June 1380,
Chaucer refers to himself as me Galfridum Chaucer, filium Johannis Chaucer,
Vinetarii, Londonie, which translates as: "Geoffrey Chaucer, son of the vintner John
Chaucer, London".

While records concerning the lives of his contemporaries William Langland and

the Pearl Poet are practically non-existent, since Chaucer was a public servant his
official life is very well documented, with nearly five hundred written items testifying
to his career. The first of the "Chaucer Life Records" appears in 1357, in the
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household accounts of Elizabeth de Burgh, the Countess of Ulster, when he became
the noblewoman's page through his father's connections, a common medieval form of
apprenticeship for boys into knighthood or prestige appointments. The countess was
married to Lionel, Duke of Clarence, the second surviving son of the king, Edward
III, and the position brought the teenage Chaucer into the close court circle, where he
was to remain for the rest of his life. He also worked as a courtier, a diplomat, and a
civil servant, as well as working for the king from 1389 to 1391 as Clerk of the King's
Works.

In 1359, the early stages of the Hundred Years' War, Edward III invaded France and
Chaucer travelled with Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence, Elizabeth's husband,
as part of the English army. In 1360, he was captured during the siege of Rheims.
Edward paid £16 for his ransom, a considerable sum equivalent to £11,783 in 2020,
and Chaucer was released.

After this, Chaucer's life is uncertain, but he seems to have travelled in France, Spain,
and Flanders, possibly as a messenger and perhaps even going on
a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. Around 1366, Chaucer married Philippa (de)
Roet. She was a lady-in-waiting to Edward III's queen, Philippa of Hainault, and a
sister of Katherine Swynford, who later (c. 1396) became the third wife of John of
Gaunt. It is uncertain how many children Chaucer and Philippa had, but three or four
are most commonly cited. His son, Thomas Chaucer, had an illustrious career,
as chief butler to four kings, envoy to France, and Speaker of the House of Commons.
Thomas's daughter, Alice, married the Duke of Suffolk. Thomas's great-grandson
(Geoffrey's great-great-grandson), John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, was the heir to the
throne designated by Richard III before he was deposed. Geoffrey's other children
probably included Elizabeth Chaucy, a nun at Barking Abbey, Agnes, an attendant
at Henry IV's coronation; and another son, Lewis Chaucer. Chaucer's "Treatise on the
Astrolabe" was written for Lewis. According to tradition, Chaucer studied law in

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the Inner Temple (an Inn of Court) at this time. He became a member of the royal
court of Edward III as a valet de chambre, yeoman, or esquire on 20 June 1367, a
position which could entail a wide variety of tasks. His wife also received a pension
for court employment. He travelled abroad many times, at least some of them in his
role as a valet. In 1368, he may have attended the wedding of Lionel of
Antwerp to Violante Visconti, daughter of Galeazzo II Visconti, in Milan. Two other
literary stars of the era were in attendance: Jean Froissart and Petrarch. Around this
time, Chaucer is believed to have written The Book of the Duchess in honour
of Blanche of Lancaster, the late wife of John of Gaunt, who died in 1369 of the
plague. Chaucer travelled to Picardy the next year as part of a military expedition; in
1373 he visited Genoa and Florence. Numerous scholars such as Skeat, Boitani, and
Rowland suggested that, on this Italian trip, he came into contact with Petrarch or
Boccaccio. They introduced him to medieval Italian poetry, the forms and stories of
which he would use later. The purposes of a voyage in 1377 are mysterious, as details
within the historical record conflict. Later documents suggest it was a mission, along
with Jean Froissart, to arrange a marriage between the future King Richard II and a
French princess, thereby ending the Hundred Years War. If this was the purpose of
their trip, they seem to have been unsuccessful, as no wedding occurred.

In 1378, Richard II sent Chaucer as an envoy (secret dispatch) to the Visconti and to
Sir John Hawkwood, English condottiere (mercenary leader) in Milan. It has been
speculated that it was Hawkwood on whom Chaucer based his character the Knight in
the Canterbury Tales, for a description matches that of a 14th-century condottiere.

A possible indication that his career as a writer was appreciated came when Edward
III granted Chaucer "a gallon of wine daily for the rest of his life" for some
unspecified task. This was an unusual grant, but given on a day of celebration, St
George's Day, 1374, when artistic endeavours were traditionally rewarded, it is
assumed to have been another early poetic work. It is not known which, if any, of

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Chaucer's extant works prompted the reward, but the suggestion of him as poet to a
king places him as a precursor to later poets laureate. Chaucer continued to collect the
liquid stipend until Richard II came to power, after which it was converted to a
monetary grant on 18 April 1378.

Chaucer obtained the very substantial job of comptroller of the customs for the port of
London, which he began on 8 June 1374. He must have been suited for the role as he
continued in it for twelve years, a long time in such a post at that time. His life goes
undocumented for much of the next ten years, but it is believed that he wrote (or
began) most of his famous works during this period. He was mentioned in law papers
of 4 May 1380, involved in the raptus (rape or seizure) of Cecilia Chaumpaigne. What
was meant is unclear, but the incident seems to have been resolved quickly with an
exchange of money in June 1380 and did not leave a stain on Chaucer's reputation. It
is not known if Chaucer was in the City of London at the time of the Peasants' Revolt,
but if he was, he would have seen its leaders pass almost directly under his apartment
window at Aldgate.

While still working as comptroller, Chaucer appears to have moved to Kent, being
appointed as one of the commissioners of peace for Kent, at a time when French
invasion was a possibility. He is thought to have started work on The Canterbury
Tales in the early 1380s. He also became a member of parliament for Kent in 1386,
and attended the 'Wonderful Parliament' that year. He appears to have been present at
most of the 71 days it sat, for which he was paid £24 9s. On 15 October that year, he
gave a deposition in the case of Scrope v. Grosvenor. There is no further reference
after this date to Philippa, Chaucer's wife, and she is presumed to have died in 1387.
He survived the political upheavals caused by the Lords Appellants, despite the fact
that Chaucer knew some of the men executed over the affair quite well.

On 12 July 1389, Chaucer was appointed the clerk of the king's works, a sort
of foreman organising most of the king's building projects. No major works were
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begun during his tenure, but he did conduct repairs on Westminster Palace, St.
George's Chapel, Windsor, continued building the wharf at the Tower of London, and
built the stands for a tournament held in 1390. It may have been a difficult job, but it
paid well: two shillings a day, more than three times his salary as a comptroller.
Chaucer was also appointed keeper of the lodge at the King's park in Feckenham
Forest in Worcestershire, which was a largely honorary appointment. In September
1390, records say that Chaucer was robbed and possibly injured while conducting the
business, and he stopped working in this capacity on 17 June 1391. He began as
Deputy Forester in the royal forest of Petherton Park in North Petherton, Somerset on
22 June. This was no sinecure, with maintenance an important part of the job,
although there were many opportunities to derive profit.

Richard II granted him an annual pension of 20 pounds in 1394 (equivalent to

£17,834 in 2020), and Chaucer's name fades from the historical record not long after
Richard's overthrow in 1399. The last few records of his life show his pension
renewed by the new king, and his taking a lease on a residence within the close of
Westminster Abbey on 24 December 1399.  Henry IV renewed the grants assigned by
Richard, but The Complaint of Chaucer to his Purse hints that the grants might not
have been paid. The last mention of Chaucer is on 5 June 1400 when some debts
owed to him were repaid.

Chaucer died of unknown causes on 25 October 1400, although the only evidence for
this date comes from the engraving on his tomb which was erected more than 100
years after his death. There is some speculation that he was murdered by enemies of
Richard II or even on the orders of his successor Henry IV, but the case is entirely
circumstantial. Chaucer was buried in Westminster Abbey in London, as was his right
owing to his status as a tenant of the Abbey's close. In 1556, his remains were
transferred to a more ornate tomb, making him the first writer interred in the area now
known as Poets' Corner.

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1.2. Geoffrey Chaucer and his development as a poet.

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Chaucer's attitudes toward the Church should not be confused with his attitudes
toward Christianity. He seems to have respected and admired Christians and to have
been one himself, though he also recognised that many people in the church were
venal and corrupt. He wrote in Canterbury Tales, "now I beg all those that listen to
this little treatise, or read it, that if there be anything in it that pleases them, they thank
our Lord Jesus Christ for it, from whom proceeds all understanding and goodness."
Chaucer's first major work was The Book of the Duchess, an elegy for Blanche of
Lancaster who died in 1368. Two other early works were Anelida and Arcite and The
House of Fame. He wrote many of his major works in a prolific period when he held
the job of customs comptroller for London (1374 to 1386). His Parlement of
Foules, The Legend of Good Women, and Troilus and Criseyde all date from this
time. It is believed that he started The Canterbury Tales in the 1380s.
Chaucer also translated Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy and The Romance of the
Rose by Guillaume de Lorris (extended by Jean de Meun). Eustache
Deschamps called himself a "nettle in Chaucer's garden of poetry". In 1385, Thomas
Usk made glowing mention of Chaucer, and John Gower also lauded him.
Chaucer's Treatise on the Astrolabe describes the form and use of the astrolabe in
detail and is sometimes cited as the first example of technical writing in the English
language, and it indicates that Chaucer was versed in science in addition to his literary
talents. The equatorie of the planetis is a scientific work similar to the Treatise and
sometimes ascribed to Chaucer because of its language and handwriting, an
identification which scholars no longer deem tenable.
Chaucer wrote in continental accentual-syllabic metre, a style which had developed in
English literature since around the 12th century as an alternative to
the alliterative Anglo-Saxon metre. Chaucer is known for metrical innovation,
inventing the rhyme royal, and he was one of the first English poets to use the five-
stress line, a decasyllabic cousin to the iambic pentametre, in his work, with only a
few anonymous short works using it before him. The arrangement of these five-stress
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lines into rhyming couplets, first seen in his The Legend of Good Women, was used
in much of his later work and became one of the standard poetic forms in English. His
early influence as a satirist is also important, with the common humorous device, the
funny accent of a regional dialect, apparently making its first appearance in The
Reeve's Tale.
The poetry of Chaucer, along with other writers of the era, is credited with helping to
standardise the London Dialect of the Middle English language from a combination of
the Kentish and Midlands dialects. This is probably overstated; the influence of the
court, chancery and bureaucracy – of which Chaucer was a part – remains a more
probable influence on the development of Standard English.
Modern English is somewhat distanced from the language of Chaucer's poems owing
to the effect of the Great Vowel Shift some time after his death. This change in
the pronunciation of English, still not fully understood, makes the reading of Chaucer
difficult for the modern audience.
The status of the final -e in Chaucer's verse is uncertain: it seems likely that during the
period of Chaucer's writing the final -e was dropping out of colloquial English and
that its use was somewhat irregular. It may have been a vestige of the Old
English dative singular suffix -e attached to most nouns. Chaucer's versification
suggests that the final -e is sometimes to be vocalised, and sometimes to be silent;
however, this remains a point on which there is disagreement. When it is vocalised,
most scholars pronounce it as a schwa.
Apart from the irregular spelling, much of the vocabulary is recognisable to the
modern reader. Chaucer is also recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary as the first
author to use many common English words in his writings. These words were
probably frequently used in the language at the time but Chaucer, with his ear for
common speech, is the earliest extant manuscript
source. Acceptable, alkali, altercation, amble, angrily, annex, annoyance, approaching

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, arbitration, armless, army, arrogant, arsenic, arc, artillery and aspect are just some of
almost two thousand English words first attested in Chaucer.
Widespread knowledge of Chaucer's works is attested by the many poets who
imitated or responded to his writing. John Lydgate was one of the earliest poets to
write continuations of Chaucer's unfinished Tales while Robert Henryson's Testament
of Cresseid completes the story of Cressida left unfinished in his Troilus and
Criseyde. Many of the manuscripts of Chaucer's works contain material from these
poets and later appreciations by the Romantic era poets were shaped by their failure to
distinguish the later "additions" from original Chaucer.
Writers of the 17th and 18th centuries, such as John Dryden, admired Chaucer for his
stories, but not for his rhythm and rhyme, as few critics could then read Middle
English and the text had been butchered by printers, leaving a somewhat unadmirable
mess.  It was not until the late 19th century that the official Chaucerian canon,
accepted today, was decided upon, largely as a result of Walter William Skeat's work.
Roughly seventy-five years after Chaucer's death, The Canterbury Tales was selected
by William Caxton to be one of the first books to be printed in England.
Chaucer is sometimes considered the source of the English vernacular tradition. His
achievement for the language can be seen as part of a general historical trend towards
the creation of a vernacular literature, after the example of Dante, in many parts of
Europe. A parallel trend in Chaucer's own lifetime was underway in Scotland through
the work of his slightly earlier contemporary, John Barbour, and was likely to have
been even more general, as is evidenced by the example of the Pearl Poet in the north
of England.
Although Chaucer's language is much closer to Modern English than the text
of Beowulf, such that (unlike that of Beowulf) a Modern English-speaker with a large
vocabulary of archaic words may understand it, it differs enough that most
publications modernise his idiom.

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The first recorded association of Valentine's Day with romantic love is believed to be
in Chaucer's Parliament of Fowls (1382), a dream vision portraying a parliament for
birds to choose their mates. Honouring the first anniversary of the engagement of
fifteen-year-old King Richard II of England to fifteen-year-old Anne of Bohemia:

For this was on seynt Volantynys day

Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese his make
Of euery kynde that men thinke may
And that so heuge a noyse gan they make
That erthe & eyr & tre & euery lake
So ful was that onethe was there space
For me to stonde, so ful was al the place.

The following is a sample from the prologue of The Summoner's Tale that compares
Chaucer's text to a modern translation:

Original Text

This frere bosteth that he knoweth helle ,

And God it woot , that it is litel wonder ;
Freres and feendes been but lyte asonder .
For , pardee , ye han ofte tyme herd telle
How that a frere ravyshed was to helle
In spirit ones by a visioun ;
And as an angel ladde hym up and doun ,
To shewen hym the peynes that the were ,
In al the place saugh he nat a frere ;
Of oother folk he saugh ynowe in wo.
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Unto this angel spak the frere tho :
Now , sire , quod he , han freres swich a grace
That noon of hem shal come to this place ?
Yis , quod this aungel , many a millioun !
And unto sathanas he ladde hym doun .
-And now hath sathanas , -seith he , -a tayl
Brodder than of a carryk is the sayl.
Hold up thy tayl ,
thou sathanas ! -quod he ;
-shewe forth thyn ers , and lat the frere se
Where is the nest of freres in this place !
And er that half a furlong wey of space ,
Right so as bees out swarmen from an hyve
Out of the develes ers ther gonne dryve,
Right so as bees out swarmen from an hyve ,
Out of the develes ers ther gonne dryve
Twenty thousand freres on a route , And thurghout helle swarmed al aboute ,
And comen agayn as faste as they may gon ,
And in his ers they crepten everychon.
He clapte his tayl agayn and lay ful stille .

Modern Translation

This friar boasts that he knows hell ,

And God knows that it is little wonder;
Friars and fiends are seldom far apart.
For , by God , you have ofttimes heard tell
How a friar was taken to hell
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In spirit , once by a vision ;
And as an angel led him up and down,
To show him the pains that were there,
In all the place he saw not a friar;
Of other folk he saw enough in woe.
Unto this angel spoke the friar thus:
" Now sir " , said he , " Have friars such a grace
That none of them come to this place?
" Yes " , said the angel , " many a million !
" And unto Satan the angel led him down .
" And now Satan has " , he said , " a tail ,
Broader than a galleon's sail .
Hold up your tail , Satan ! " said he .
" Show forth your arse , and let the friar see
Where the nest of friars is in this place !
"And before half a furlong of space ,
Just as bees swarm out from a hive ,
Out of the devil's arse there were driven
Twenty thousand friars on a rout ,
And throughout hell swarmed all about ,
And came again as fast as they could go ,
Andevery one crept into his arse .
He shut his tail again and lay very still .

Many of the manuscripts of Chaucer's works contain material from these poets and
later appreciations by the Romantic era poets were shaped by their failure to
distinguish the later "additions" from original Chaucer.

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Writers of the 17th and 18th centuries, such as John Dryden, admired Chaucer for his
stories, but not for his rhythm and rhyme, as few critics could then read Middle
English and the text had been butchered by printers, leaving a somewhat unadmirable
mess.
It was not until the late 19th century that the official Chaucerian canon, accepted
today, was decided upon, largely as a result of Walter William Skeat's work. Roughly
seventy-five years after Chaucer's death, The Canterbury Tales was selected
by William Caxton to be one of the first books to be printed in England.

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CHAPTER II. The Importance of Alfred the Great to English Literature

2.1. The role of King Alfred in literature

King Alfred is the only king in English history to be deemed worthy of the title of ’the
Great’. There are reasons for that and these reasons lie not only in his campaigns
against the Vikings and the establishing of the navy but also much deeper, in the
reforms Alfred passed in his lands that enabled the populace to educate themselves.

The roots of his actions are set in his visits to Rome (in 853 and 855) where he
learned much and saw even more but aforemost, the concept of a centralized state,
and that was his wish to create in England also.

Alfred’s first literary endeavour was the gathering and writing of the legal code. He
first set up gathering the ancient Anglo-Saxon laws of Mercia, Wessex and Kent and
from those he wrote his own code that became the law in the lands that he ruled. He
also wrote a lenghty prologue to the code and that was a show of power and wisdom.
This was the beginning of the first phase of educating his people.

He next continued with translating various Latin books to English for the commoners
to be able to learn from them – he selected specifically such books that were useful by
nature. Amongst his translations are Gregory the Great's ’Pastoral Care’,
Boethius's ’Consolation of Philosophy’, St. Augustine's ’Soliloquies’, and the first
fifty psalms of the Psalter. Also, at the direction of Alfred were translated
Gregory's ’Dialogues’, Orosius's ’Histories against the Pagans’, and
Bede's ’Ecclesiastical History’.

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The actual greatness of Alfred also shows in his decisions – he gathered to his court a
number of intellectuals and was ready to help them in their work. Secondly, he also
established schools by which the children of his courtiers and nobles, plus a number
of commoner children, were educated. This opened up the way for more people who
could write and read and therefore were egligible for the ruling of the land. Alfred
also hoped to have an administration who could use the code as a reference and would
not need to ask for help from professional writers. This enabled the governmental
system to work more efficiently.

His biographer, Asser, has written that Alfred’s sole purpose was to make it possible
for the youth, born of free men, to learn until such time when they can read English.
This, and his other actions, for example the concept of kingship he created and the
common English law he imposed, may be seen as his steps towards creating an
’English’ culture.

Alfred’s achievements are well said in the following passage:

Before his time reading and writing in Anglo-Saxon Britain was reserved to the
clergy, and even there it was low-level in many cases. Alfred's program to boost up
learning began a renaissance within the Anglo-Saxon world, which increased culture
in many forms.

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Literate nobility means that much more business will be arranged in writing, like
charters, writs and laws. The number of administrative written sources from before
Alfred's age are really few and far between. After him, their numbers soar up. More
business arranged by official documents can be a basis for a stronger state.’

However, some of the recent researchers have thought that Alfred’s actual aim was
not to simply educate everyone but also to get a better grasp on the loyality of the
people by giving them the ideas that such governing is demaned and necessary and
that it will work no other way. This view also relies on that that Arthur demanded that
his clerks would learn to read and write lest they be left without work.

Even with such views on King Alfred, people can’t leave aside that King Alfred’s
quest to bring reading and writing closer to the people was a good and fruitful one
which benefitted the entire English nation (or rather, the people who would one day
make up the English nation).

Alfred the Great (849-899) was the most famous of the Anglo-Saxon kings. Despite
overwhelming odds he successfully defended his kingdom, Wessex, against
the Vikings. He also introduced wide-ranging reforms including defence measures,
reform of the law and of coinage.

He was a keen champion of education and translated important texts from Latin into
English.

Known as a just and fair ruler, Alfred is the only English King to have earned the title
‘the Great’.

A weak and sickly child with four older brothers, Alfred was an unlikely king.
However from his youth he proved to be brave and intelligent, a man who valued
wisdom and knowledge and saw himself as part of a wider Christian community. He

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was inspired by his early trips to Rome and developed a view of kingship based on
firm moral and religious grounds.

Fierce Viking attacks threatened to destroy the Anglo-Saxon world into which Alfred

had been born. By 870 the ancient kingdoms of Northumbria, East
Anglia and Mercia had fallen to the Vikings, their kings replaced by puppet leaders
who were loyal to their Viking overlords. As the last independent Anglo-Saxon
kingdom, Wessex was under constant attack. Alfred and his brother King
Aethelred were engaged in almost continuous warfare. Although they won some
victories they were at times driven back into the heart of their land and forced to rely
on guerrilla tactics.

A fierce and brave warrior, Alfred is described as charging at his enemies like a wild
boar. In 871 Aethelred died from his injuries and Alfred became king. Alfred’s
personal qualities enabled him to rally his people and inspired them to continue their
struggles even when the odds seemed overwhelming. Alfred proved himself to be a
clear-sighted tactician, a valiant and insightful leader, courageous, but willing to deal
with his enemies in order to buy more time for Wessex. By converting Guthrum and
adopting him as a foster son he effectively neutralised one of his most dangerous
enemies.

One of Alfred’s greatest innovations lay in the system of burhs or fortified garrisons
that he established as part of his defences. Provisioned by the surrounding
countryside, these well-defended settlements attracted merchants and craftsmen.
Careful town planning laid the basis for later development and growth. Alfred
introduced a rota system into the military which meant that farms and fields were not
neglected during time of war and could continue to supply the army with provisions.
Alfred also recognised the importance of a strong navy in preventing Viking attacks
on the land. He built large warships and brought in foreign craftsmen to supply
expertise where necessary. He also reissued coins with a higher silver content and a
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new design in order to restore faith in the economy. Taxation and a written system of
laws, together with a keen sense of justice, enabled him to carry out his reforms.

One of Alfred’s deepest regrets was the loss of knowledge which had resulted from
the Viking destruction of the monasteries and the fall in literacy rates that had
followed. He believed that all English freemen should be literate and that the clergy
should be schooled in Latin. Alfred himself learned Latin when middle-aged in order
to undertake the translation of important classical texts into English. He imported
scholars from overseas and set up a school at court.

Alfred had a keen eye for posterity (what people in the future would think about him).
He asked Bishop Asser to write his biography and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles were
commenced during his reign.

Alfred’s sense of history and his own historic destiny were fundamental to the
development of the English monarchy. His reforms helped to transform the society in
which he lived and laid the foundations of the English state. His grandson Athelstan,
building on Alfred’s successes, was recognised as the King of all Britain.

 2.2. Cultural depictions of Alfred the Great

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Alfred the Great was an Anglo-Saxon king (871 – 899) of Wessex, an Anglo-Saxon
kingdom that existed from 519 to 927 south of the river Thames in England. In the
late 9th century, the Vikings had overrun most of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms that
constituted England at the time. Alfred's reign has become regarded as pivotal in the
eventual unification of England, after he famously defended Wessex and southern
England against the Viking invasions, winning a decisive victory at the Battle of
Edington in 878.

Most of what we know about the historical Alfred comes his biography Life of King
Alfred written, during Alfred reign by his direction, in 893 by a Welsh monk Asser. It
was not until the English Reformation in the sixteenth century, that Alfred was first
given the epithet "the Great" when he was seen as the ideal Christian sovereign. Over
600 years after his life, that Alfred began to inspired many artistic and cultural works
from the sixteenth century onwards, with a height in the Victorian Period, when the
cult of Alfred developed into a significant cultural force in literature, the visual arts,
and national consciousness. The lists and images on this page cover depictions or
references to Alfred in a wide range of media, including works of art, literature,
histories and plays all usually favourably or heroically; and educational
establishments named in his honour. Also listed are more recent representations of
Alfred in popular culture including - film, television, modern historical fiction and
video games.Alfred was the youngest son of King Athelwulf of Wessex, his father
died when he was young and three of Alfred's brothers ruled and died in battle before
he ascended to the throne in 871. Alfred spent his first seven years of his reign
battling the Viking forces, until with Wessex (the last of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms)
half overrun he decisively defeated the Great Heathen Army at the Battle of
Edington in 878AD; subsequently the Vikings settled towards the east side of
England. Following this, it is recorded that, Alfred reorganised national military

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service, improved Wessex's defence by building a ring of 33 'burhs' (fortified
settlements) and designed and built a small fleet of longship, to protect against further
Viking threats. From this base, his daughter Athelflad  and son Edward the
Elder began the conquest of the rest of England from Viking control. As Alfred's
reign was pivotal it has often been regarded as the first in the lists of English
monarchs.

Alfred gathered advisers from across England, Wales and Francia to his court
including a Welsh monk and scholar named Asser. Alfred's positive image was
perhaps overemphasised by Asser who Alfred commissioned to write his
biography The Life of King Alfred, the first for an English ruler. (The manuscript
survives in only one copy, which was part of the Cotton library). Asser portrays his
king 'as the embodiment of the ideal, but practical, Christian ruler'. Alfred's reign is
notable for a rebirth of learning, several works were translated from Latin into Old
English, with some credited to Alfred himself, works that were considered "most
necessary for all men to know", he made education reforms (including advocacy of
education in the English language rather than in Latin) and he established schools to
provide education for future priests and secular administrators, so that they might be
better in their legal judgements. Alfred issued a new law code and commissioned
the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle a collection of annals in Old English that recorded the
historical events in England up until 1154.

Asser presents Alfred as saintly, however Alfred was never canonised (in 1441 Henry
VI of England attempted unsuccessfully to have him canonized by Pope Eugene IV),
so in later catholic medieval England artists turned to the royal Anglo-Saxon saints
such as Saint Edmund the Martyr and Saint Edward the Confessor, for inspiration as
subjects. (Though venerated at times in the Catholic Church, the current "Roman
Martyrology" does not mention Alfred.) While he was not venerated in art, the

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medieval historians William of Malmesbury, Matthew Paris and Geoffrey of
Monmouth further reinforced Alfred's favourable image of a pious Christian ruler.

In the Sixteenth century Alfred became the ideal symbolic champion for the
rising English Protestant church during the English Reformation. Alfred encouraged
the use of English rather than Latin in education, and his translations were viewed as
untainted by the later Roman Catholic influences. Archbishop Matthew
Parker published an edition of Asser's Life of Alfred in 1574. It was at this time, over
600 years after his death, Alfred was first given the epithet "the Great". The
designation was maintained by those who admired Alfred's perceived patriotism, his
undoubted success against barbarism, promotion of education, and establishment of
the rule of law. The comparatively greater amount of written information from his
reign, including his law code and Asser's account of Alfred's thoughts on law,
education and administration helped. The historical Alfred evolved into the
increasingly popular legendary Alfred. The Anglican Communion venerated him as a
Christian hero, with a feast day or commemoration on 26 October, and he is often
found depicted in stained glass in Church of England parish churches. He became the
ideal unthreatening example of a ruler when discussing the ideal monarch and the
roles of monarchy in a modern state, at the same time Eighteenth-century British
royals like Frederick, Prince of Wales were able to draw upon Alfred's popularity in
creating their own royal images. The cult of King Alfred the Great increased until by
the reign of Victoria, Alfred was perceived as founder of the English nation and an
archetypal symbol of the nation's perception of itself. He has been seen as a heroic
figure, who centuries after his death inspired many artistic and cultural works. During
this period, the name ‘Alfred’ became a popular Christian name, with Queen Victoria
in 1844 naming her second son Prince Alfred. In 1870, Edward Augustus
Freeman called Alfred the Great ‘the most perfect character in history'. 'Alfredophilia'
and 'Alfredomania', found expression in religious, legal, political and historical

26
writing, and in poetry, drama, music, and prose, and in sculpture, painting, engraving,
and book-illustration. History has been kind to Alfred, he was not titled Great in his
own historical period, but in 2002 he was still ranked number 14 in the BBC's poll of
the 100 Greatest Britons

Artistic images of King Alfred began to flourish mainly from 18th to the early 20th
century. In 1734–1735 Alfred's bust was included as one of the Whig historical
champions in ‘The Temple of British Worthies’, in the English landscape gardens of
Stowe House created by William Kent. Representations of Alfred proliferated, with
Alfred often depicted as the archetypical symbol of the English nation: as a heroic
military commander, a wise scholar and upholder of justice. Those who could not
own sculpture or high art could possess a decorative image of 'England's Darling' in
the fashionable genre of History painting, amongst which the most common examples
were Alfred disguised in the Danish camp and Alfred burning the peasant woman's
cakes.

Although Chaucer's works had long been admired, serious scholarly work on his
legacy did not begin until the late 18th century, when Thomas Tyrwhitt edited The
Canterbury Tales, and it did not become an established academic discipline until the
19th century. Scholars such as Frederick James Furnivall, who founded the Chaucer
Society in 1868, pioneered the establishment of diplomatic editions of Chaucer's
major texts, along with careful accounts of Chaucer's language and prosody. Walter
William Skeat, who like Furnivall was closely associated with the Oxford English
Dictionary, established the base text of all of Chaucer's works with his edition,
published by Oxford University Press. Later editions by John H. Fisher and Larry D.
Benson offered further refinements, along with critical commentary and
bibliographies.
With the textual issues largely addressed, if not resolved, attention turned to the
questions of Chaucer's themes, structure, and audience. The Chaucer Review was
founded in 1966 and has maintained its position as the pre-eminent journal of Chaucer
studies. In 1994, literary critic Harold Bloom placed Chaucer among the greatest
Western writers of all time, and in 1997 expounded on William Shakespeare's debt to
the author.
Major works

27
 Translation of Roman de la Rose, possibly extant as The Romaunt of the Rose

 The Book of the Duchess

 The House of Fame
 Anelida and Arcite
 Parlement of Foules
 Translation of Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy as Boece
 Troilus and Criseyde
 The Legend of Good Women
 The Canterbury Tales
 A Treatise on the Astrolabe

Poems of doubtful authorship

Against Women Unconstant

 A Balade of Complaint
 Complaynt D'Amours
 Merciles Beaute
 The Equatorie of the Planets – A rough translation of a Latin work derived from an
Arab work of the same title. It is a description of the construction and use of
a planetary equatorium, which was used in calculating planetary orbits and positions
(at the time it was believed the sun orbited the Earth). The similar Treatise on the
Astrolabe, not usually doubted as Chaucer's work, in addition to Chaucer's name as a
gloss to the manuscript are the main pieces of evidence for the ascription to Chaucer.
However, the evidence Chaucer wrote such a work is questionable, and as such is not
included in The Riverside Chaucer. If Chaucer did not compose this work, it was
probably written by a contemporary.
Works presumed lost
Of the Wreched Engendrynge of Mankynde, possible translation of Innocent III's De
miseria conditionis humanae

 Origenes upon the Maudeleyne

 The Book of the Leoun – "The Book of the Lion" is mentioned in Chaucer's retraction.
It has been speculated that it may have been a redaction of Guillaume de Machaut's
'Dit dou lyon,' a story about courtly love (a subject about which Chaucer frequently
wrote).
Spurious works
The Pilgrim's Tale – written in the 16th century with many Chaucerian allusions

28
 The Plowman's Tale or The Complaint of the Ploughman – a Lollard satire later
appropriated as a Protestant text
 Pierce the Ploughman's Crede – a Lollard satire later appropriated by Protestants
 The Ploughman's Tale – its body is largely a version of Thomas Hoccleve's "Item de
Beata Virgine"[72]
 "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" – frequently attributed to Chaucer, but actually a
translation by Richard Roos of Alain Chartier's poem[73]
 The Testament of Love – actually by Thomas Usk
 Jack Upland – a Lollard satire
 The Floure and the Leafe – a 15th-century allegory
Derived works
God Spede the Plough – Borrows twelve stanzas of Chaucer's Monk's Tale

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 CONCLUSION

To sum up, Chaucer in some ways inaugurated English poetry at the time when
English was considered a vernacular in England and French and Latin reigned.
Chaucer was just not a first-rate literary artist; he was the pivotal figure in English
literature who encompassed earlier traditions, genres and novelty in forms and literary
content with his ingenious innovations. John Dart has called Chaucer the father of
English

poetry due to his exceptional contributions to the English language. Similarly,

Matthew Arnold has remarked, “with him is born our real poetry.” Chaucer was the
first English poet who gave full expression to the new hopes and aspirations of the
people of his time. He was a realist who found fitting subjects for his poetry not in
gods and heroes of a Golden age but in life that unfolded before his eyes. He mixed
freely with humanity and expressed its aspirations and concerns in his poetry with full
sincerity. Chaucer’s realism is truly discernible in his mammoth work The Canterbury
Tales in which he has painted the truthful picture of the 14th-century life through a
group of pilgrims. By introducing pilgrims from different classes and giving an
analysis of their manners, virtues and follies, clothes and habits, Chaucer didn’t just
give voice to the tendencies of his age but he also added new dimensions to the act of
literary characterisation.
Another remarkable aspect of Chaucer’s work is his humour which is delightful and
stimulating. Before Chaucer, English humour was synonymous with buffoonery and
horseplay, but he refined and raised it to the standards of literary humour which were
kind and patronising as in the case of the clerk of Oxenford and semi-farcical in the
case of Wife of Bath. By his remarkable observation ofinconsistencies in conduct and
power of selecting what is typical in manners, Chaucer also paved the path for
satirists of the forthcoming generations.
Chaucer is known for his metrical innovations. He invented Rhyme Royal stanza

30
pattern which is a seven lined stanza in iambic pentameter with a rhyme scheme of
ababbcc. He was also one of the first to use blank verse for his poetry with only a few
anonymous short works using it before him. Chaucer is also recorded in the oxford
english dictionary as the first author to use many common english words in his
writings. These words were probably frequently used in the language at the time, but
chaucer with his ear for common speech, is the earliest masuscript source.

Turning to Alfred, I can say that first, he helped the development of The Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle or simply The Chronicle which was the first true specimen of Anglo-Saxon
prose. Second, he initiated and encouraged the English translations of certain great
Latin works. Third, he himself wrote and thereby contributed to the growth of Anglo-
Saxon prose. As well as Alfred the Great (849-899) was the most famous of the
Anglo-Saxon kings. Despite overwhelming odds he successfully defended his
kingdom, Wessex, against the Vikings. He also introduced wide-ranging reforms
including defence measures, reform of the law and of coinage. Prose was written in
Latin before the reign of King Alfred (reigned 871–99), who worked to revitalize
English culture after the devastating Danish invasions ended. As hardly anyone could
read Latin, Alfred translated or had translated the most important Latin texts. He also
encouraged writing in the vernacular.

31
The list of used literature

1. Morley, Henry (1890) English Writers: an attempt towards a history of English

literature. London: Cassell & Co.; Vol. V. p. 106

2. The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer: Romaunt of the rose. Minor poems.
Clarendon Press. 1894. pp. 13, 14

3. Skeat, W. W., ed. The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer. Oxford: Clarendon

Press, 1899; Vol. I, pp. 11–12

4. Gassner, John; Quinn, Edward (1969). "England: middle ages". The Reader's

Encyclopedia of World Drama. London: Methuen. pp. 203–04. 

5. Scholes, Percy (1970). The Oxford Companion to Music (tenth ed.). Oxford

University Press. p129

6. William Harmon and C. Hugh Holman, A Handbook to Literature. (Upper Saddle

River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1986), pp. 452–53, 502.

7. John Dryden, Major Works, ed. by Keith Walker, (Oxford: Oxford University

Press, 1987), p. 37.

8.  Power, Eileen (1988). Medieval English Nunneries, c. 1275 to 1535. Biblo &

Tannen Publishers. p. 19. 

9. Derek Brewer (1992). Chaucer and His World. Boydell & Brewer Ltd. pp. 18–19. 

10. The Oxford Companion to English Literature (1996). p. 546.

11. The Oxford Companion to English Literature (1996), p. 418.

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12. Yorke, Barbara (1999). "Alfred the Great: The Most Perfect Man in History?".
History Today. p58

13. Rossignol, Rosalyn. Chaucer A to Z: The Essential Reference to his Life and

Works. New York: 1999, pp. 72–73 and 75–77.

14. Cuddon, J.A. (1999). Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. London:
Penguin Books. p. 523.

15. A Glossary of Literary Terms, M.H. Abrams. (Fort Worth, Texas: Harcourt Brace,
1999, pp. 165–66.

16. J. A. Cuddon, A Dictionary of Literary Terms. (London: Penguin, 1999), p. 514.

17.  "Revenge Tragedy" in A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory, ed.
JA Cuddon (London: Penguin Books, 1999), pp. 744–46.

18.  Holt Literature and Language Arts. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. 2003. p. 113. 

19. J. Buchan, Crowded with Genius (London: Harper Collins, 2003), p. 163.

20.Horspool, David (2006). Why Alfred Burned the Cakes. London: Profile

Books. p63

21. Coulton, G. G. (2006). Chaucer and His England. Kessinger Publishing. p. 74. 

22.  Hatch, Mary Jo (2009). The Three Faces of Leadership: Manager, Artist, Priest.
John Wiley & Sons. p. 47.

23. Robert DeMaria, Jr., Heesok Chang, Samantha Zacher, eds, A Companion to
British Literature, Volume 2: Early Modern Literature, 1450–1660, John Wiley &
Sons, 2013, p. 41.

24. Schwebel, Leah (2014). "The Legend of Thebes and Literary Patricide in Chaucer,
Boccaccio, and Statius". Studies in the Age of Chaucer. 36: p. 139–68.
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25.  Coates, Richard, ed. (2016). "Chaucer". p.760

26. Echard, Sian; Rouse, Robert (2017). The Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature in

Britain, 4 Volume Set. John Wiley & Sons. p405

27.  Marion Turner (9 April 2019). Chaucer: A European Life. Princeton University

Press. p. 26.

28.  Briggs, Keith (June 2019). "The Malins in Chaucer's Ipswich Ancestry". pp. 201–
202. 

29.  The Oxford Companion to English Literature, p. 1106.

Internet resource:

http://https://www.britannica.com/biography/Geoffrey-Chaucer

http://https://writersinspire.org/content/king-alfred-great

http://https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-
9780199846719/obo-9780199846719-0020.xml

http://https://www.theschoolrun.com/homework-help/alfred-great

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