Chaucer: the first english poet
geoffrey chaucer was a soldier and a diplomat, a courtier and a poet. these days he seems to be treated mostly as a playwright. five of his not-for-the-children canterbury tales are currently roistering around the stage of the newly revitalized young vic theatre.
another canterbury tales, the musical version which was a long-running success, is being revived at another london theatre.
chaucer’s 20 surviving tales are lusty stories supposedly told by pilgrims whiling away the miles as they trek to the shrine of thomas a’becket in canterbury cathedral. they’re the fist true poems in english, and these days collaborators flock to give chaucer a helping hand in climbing the footlights.
so at the young vic an actor robed as the local vicar shakes hands with ar-riving patrons, welcoming them to the annual geoffrey chaucer storytelling compe-tition.
the contest is held on the tented vicarage lawn. the vicar turns host and in-troduces the ‘finalists’, who step forward one by one and tell their chosen tales. la-dies of the parish serve mulled wine and mince pies to the audience between stories.
each of the five selected tales, acted by a versatile cast of seven, bears the mark of inventive direction. the knight’s tale is acted almost in slow motion to convey the haunting flavor of courtly romantic love. the cook’s tale becomes a short and simple song.
the others, however – the reeve’s tale, the wife of bath’s tale and the mil-ler’s tale – are rough and ready knockabout, an innocent celebration of what critics labelled ‘classically sanctioned dirt’.
earthy old chaucer probably would recognize little of it. there was no eng-lish theatre when chaucer was born about 1340, and no english-language literature either. for him to write in english was revolutionary.
no one knows when chaucer began the canterbury tales, but he worked on them for a quarter-century. they were still unfinished when he died in 1400, to be buried in westminster abbey as the first occupant of what we now call poet’s cor-ner.
(gregory jensen)

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