Hello and welcome to classical stuff. You should know a podcast about the classical world education and other things That's what the stuff is for I am Thomas Magby, and I'm joined as always by AJ Hanenburg That's me is you indeed and granddaunson. Hello, and Guys, I actually have no idea what we're talking about today So I'm gonna pass this on over to AJ to take it from here Juan that afro is a sure his sort of the dark of March hath pursed to the world done bother to remain in switch liqueur of which For to engendered is the floor show off So today with his sweet a brief inspired half in every holds and heat the tender crop is Sorry, I'm done. Is that all you know?
I can keep going. How far do you how far is your whole job? Um, the tender crop is Shoot, I lost my little One's ever secretly sweet a brief inspired half every holds and teeth the tender crop is and the youngest on a half in the ram His hell of a corsy runner and small a foulies making melodia that sleep in all the night with openia So pricketh him nature and whore crudges then long and folk to goon on pilgrimages and polymers for to seek and strong Just strong days to burn a hallways cooth in sondry long days and specially from every shyer's ender of England to contrary They went the holy blissful martyr for to Seika that him that hoping when that they were Seika. That's all I got Right Made all that out some of you I don't know how you do that because I can't read Chaucer without doing it in a Scottish accent Yeah, I mean it's it's sort of like a singy songy time of voice.
Oh, why didn't that happen with you? So that's Irish I was just like oh well she's very sing songy. Yeah, okay Today we get to talk about Chaucer I I can't tell you guys how excited I am to be done with Cicero. Let me tell you Yeah, I mean I'm glad I did it I'm glad to be done with it And so today I get to talk about Chaucer and I thought going into Chaucer It was gonna be a little bit of a you know bit of a drag you guys dude Chaucer is fantastic Really?
Yeah, it's so fun And today I will be discussing Chaucer Chaucer's life and a little bit of the general prologue not much and then his first tale the night's Tale I and then we'll talk about how he moves on from the night's tail So you'll get you get the impression of the night's tail is let's decent classicism's romantic You know what well is there's all kinds of historical references It's what you expect when you go to the classics the next tale is not so much not so much that very different Is the Miller's tale is the Miller's no tears not the tales not so noble not yeah, it's far less Okay, so to let's start with the life of Chaucer not gentlemen when I say the word poet we talked a little bit about them last time What do you imagine when I say poet what comes to mind well educated well read they like no I know active life They're like they just surround and they think about poetry all day Okay, I think of like hold up in a corner Yeah a dark corner and then is spewing madness like a profit what are they wealthy no gosh no poor gosh no always poor right mm-hmm That was not Chaucer wait what Chaucer one of the greatest English poets of all time was not a poor man In fact, he was born to a rich family of vineyards guess what a vendor is is that wine they deal in wholesale wine cool And they live they own property on a road right next to the Thames So it was also where a whole bunch of other really wealthy people lived including a bunch of merchants And so his family was pretty stinking loaded all grown up and we don't know much about when exactly he was born he was born sometimes in the early 1340s like 1342 1343 and To a pretty crazy family his they had a lot of money and his aunt at one time or His char Chaucer's dad's aunt so his great aunt kidnapped Chaucer's dad what so to try to marry Chaucer to Or John Chaucer so Jeff Chaucer's dad to her daughter so that she could keep some of the property in her family and I know there was Max Boyz and stuff oh, but whose family hasn't been there yeah Exactly so he is born to this really wealthy family and we don't really hear much about Chaucer's early childhood when we first kind of Join up with him. He is in the house of Atreus. Oh, I remember this one hope not no really Elizabeth de Berg who is a countess Right and so he was kind of like a young page, right? We have records that she got him a birthday present, but or at Christmas present, but it wasn't very much it was like a kush ball It was something really unimpressive and he Jeffery Chaucer did eventually have kids this is for way later, but he had three He had two daughters Elizabeth and Agnes and his son Thomas Chaucer would eventually become one of the most influential people in the kingdom Wow, he was head butler to four kings top than his son was his son was and a close friend of John of Gaunt Oh, yeah, there you go.
Okay, so as young kid he worked in this Duchess's house the Elizabeth de Berg and then Eventually he would go off to war as he was learning as he was you know going to school There were three schools near his house one of them the one in St. Paul's had a bunch of classics right I had the Georgics by Dante and had the rape of Prossar Pina the Picaudian Ovid's Metamorphoses a bunch of Luke in He probably knew Homer indirectly not directly, but there was there was a lot of really nice copies of books in that particular school If that's where he happened to go did you say St. Paul's? Yeah, still exists St.
Paul's Cathedral. Yeah, it's huge Beautiful. No, but I mean like the school still exists. Really?
Okay, so he ended up going with King Edward to France to take what was the name of that town Graham? So he went with King Edward to take off with Elizabeth de Berg's husband When her husband went to war young Chaucer and Jeffrey Chaucer with him the hailstorm Yeah, he was there for all of it And in fact Jeffrey Chaucer was captured by the French and the king had to pay ransom to get Jeffrey Chaucer back. Well, I don't So all this I came I started reading this and I couldn't believe how well it dovetailed with everything you were saying and all of your podcasts But this is a real thing that was the time that Chaucer lived and he became invaluable to the king He actually became a messenger back and forth back to England as the king was in France And so he'd send Chaucer and Chaucer would say back and get messages and then see how back and he would kind of hang out and do that Cool and then after King Edward sort of returned he became a squire in the king's household which are an Esquire Which pretty much just means he's at court and he has to make himself useful, right? Which doesn't sound like much it sounds like cleaning the horses and stuff Right, but he actually ended up running a whole lot of missions overseas for the king as a king's envoy in 1366 So he would have been 24 24 25 some important things happened for him His dad died and he got married And then the the wife the person that he married was a daughter of Queen Philip one of Queen Philipas knights Mm-hmm.
Can you fill up a little bit of pain? I'll choose married to Edward the third Yeah So he again is marrying important people that sort of have big names in this time and in 1367 is when he became you know an Esquire for the king and he would take these long trips one of them was 106 days out of England He took four trips in four years and one of them was to Italy and so he went to Genoa He got to know the Italians He got to go to Florence and get to know the language and all that sort of stuff Edward granted him in you know Rewarded for his service a pitcher of wine a day which was one gallon for life. What oh man I don't realize that was a thing that you could give. Wow.
Okay. Apparently. He's like a good one a day for this young man Buckle up for gout Well, I mean if you think about it, he's a vendor. He's no stranger to selling wine.
Oh, so he's gonna say I drink the gallon of wine a day for life He's gonna sell it. I think it's just nice to have Right, it's nice to have the option. That's like oh my goodness the best wine of the month club ever King that's good stuff That's good stuff and he collected that wine until the death of Edward the third Wow that should be a classical stuff podcast like Wine through the ages No, I'm just saying like it should be like if we had enough money to have an award That would be what we awarded one of our listeners a gallon of wine a day for life I think that's what the school should award us for being for best doing this. What should be is a gallon of wine per episode It's gonna be good And so every king that would come after Edward would be like yes Chaucer gallon of wine indeed and would sort of reaffirm this thing that he had until and that happened until the death of Edward living life at half speed podcast So after his time as an Esquire in the Kings court He was appointed sort of the overseer He was like head collector of taxes in harbor And so people the the furniture of the the wool trade was a really big thing and funded a lot of the wars And so his job was to collect the import and export taxes and In fact, he sort of didn't do that directly There were a bunch of people that would directly collect these taxes his job was to keep a separate record to check there So if say Graham you're a collector and you're down there and you're sort of shaving a few pennies off the side I as Chaucer could come and say like how much do you take what how you go to the guy and say how much did you just pay?
How much did you just pay taxes and make sure that everything was on the up and up and apparently he was really good at this job Because he did it for 12 years well and during this time He was he was at some of his busiest and was actually some of his more prolific He wrote a lot of things during this time Including a translation of Boethius's consolation philosophy. So he was familiar with Boethius if you look if you look back in our episodes listener You'll see that we did one on Boethius. It was short. Unfortunately, it's still worth the read of yours And it's with a live studio audience Sorry, yeah, and so that happened He was still sent on business for the king sometimes secret missions Sometimes to like set up for troops that needed to go overseas or even to sue I think one time possibly They don't know but for marriage to a princess man He is man of mystery international most interesting man in the world never tosser.
He lives through the peasants revolt that saw a lot of his friends killed Oh, it's a peasants revolt after the house. So how old was Chaucer when Richard third died? Oh, man I don't know when to which of the third I what was Chaucer born 42 43 1342. I can't remember I think it was I can't remember but the peasants revolt I think was like after the death of Edward Yeah, he saw several kings through his life And so in 1375 he headed to Kent and he was to be the ward of two Kentish heirs Mm-hmm His job was to take care of some kids I think and then he was elected the peace commission of Kent which now in America sounds like a Figurehead nothing job superman.
Yeah back Then it was a real job because if Kent was threatened it was his job to round up nights and defend the place So it was a real thing and Kent is on the closest point to the mainland so when the French invade they go It's Kent. Yeah, so he actually it was a real important job and then he was elected to Parliament in 1386 How about all of us you have the best parland stories at Edinburgh. Oh my gosh. I've told us in the podcast yet I don't know.
I doubt it Yeah, so when I visited London with some students We were traveling around and we're thinking it'd be really cool to go inside to the Parliament building So we walk up to this random policeman and we're like hey We know you're probably not doing tours is there any way we can get in and just see the building we're only here for a day And he's like well, you can't unless I have a group pass but I can get you a group pass And we're like all right and so he heads down the ramp and he comes back And he's like if you follow me he's the nicest policeman I've ever met he walks up to this little sign and he goes if you've got knives Explosives defensive sprays firearms, you know anything sharp and dangerous then pops this into building for you good if not then head On down the ramp. He's just the nicest guy ever. It wasn't you know, no knives. No, whatever He's like if you've got them then maybe go spend your time somewhere else And then we had our pictures taken and put on fancy lanyards and then they took everything I owned and I got to go sit and watch Parliament and it is the most British thing you could ever imagine sitting on the table is the scepter of the queen that represents the power You know the power of parliament and then there's all the other books and they actually say if I think someone's going to reference So study that study should be tabled for everyone to look at I think we'll table this for later I think that comes from British Parliament, and I think I saw the table.
Oh wow the actual table that's been tabled Yeah, like if you're gonna table something I saw the table that was originally what were they like discussing badgers or something Yeah, so when I went the big problem in Parliament that day was badger culling okay because the badgers were killing a whole Much livestock they dig holes the livestock would fall in their leg would break and then you'd have to you know kill the livestock and so they were trying to figure out how to kill as many of these as they could and They I think that whatever program they were using wasn't humane they were poisoning them and it just didn't work out Well, it ended up killing all these badger y'all and so they were giving these speeches and this about badger And the the speaker of the house was a woman and she would put her glasses on to read and then take her glasses off to talk to everyone In Parliament and then put the glasses back on to read and then glasses off to speak to Parliament And then she's like the novel delegate from Kent or wherever she was coming from you'll understand She's had recent surgery and so she won't be standing as she addresses the floor and there was a little mark of tape he had to go and stay on the top of the floor and And and the woman comes up and she starts talking about her badger situation and in the middle of it She gets a phone call and she's like excuse me It's my important badger and she She's like it was not badger unfortunately No, and then she goes on and then a guy stands up and he was the one that's like I think if she's going to reference a study about Badger calling it should be put on the table for everyone's reverence and then I kid you not This is a real thing the British all do though like a rabble rabbit I'm like stop on the floor and bang their canes on the floor and and it's it is exactly what you imagine British Parliament to be It's so fun. It's probably what Chaucer did when he was there And then the woman takes off her glasses and she's like she answered her phone in the middle of her speech Let that not be an example to any of the rest of you The way that you conduct yourself on the floor everyone's like So if you get the chance to go check it out, I saw it again a couple years after that and it wasn't nearly as exciting So no badger no badger no promises that'll be as exciting as that but you know you might get lucky I got I feel like I did so anyway, he was in Parliament his wife died in 1387 So surely they're afterwards and then he got elected by King Richard to be King or clerk of the King's works Which again sounds like maybe I think your head But what it pretty much meant was that he was the superintendent of all the King's property got you so if a wall falls down Chaucer's got to put it back up And so he had to manage a bunch of craftsmen and tell them where to go and manage all the properties no big building projects happen during his tenure But he did get robbed twice walking around with all the payments for the guy Luckily, he didn't have to pay back the king. That was nice insurance or something Although he he did leave when he signed on his salary was supposed to be 3.5 times what he was making at the customs house So quite a jump up and pay when he left in 1397 There were still 87 pounds owed to Chaucer, which is 17 pounds more than they owed him for his entire tenure as clerk of the King's work So apparently they did not pay Chaucer and I can understand why he left He was then was elected deputy Forster for the second guy in money for troubles. Yeah, we'll talk about that on another episode of classical stuff So he he got elected deputy Forster, which again sounds like a figure head But back then it was like looking at watching over the oil rig, right?
That's that's where all the money's coming from The cattle get to grace there. That's where the King's deer are. It's it's a big source of income You can trap furs like there's wood coming from there and so it really really was an important position He eventually bought a house near Westminster and then died in 1400 and was buried in Westminster Abbey Which back then wouldn't have been as amazing as it is now It's an honor if you get anywhere near Westminster let alone get to be buried there But back then he was a member of the parish like he lived in that area and as a member of the parish being Very much makes sense, especially if he was a servant of the King Sure And so he got buried and the place where he was buried he was the first person in what's now called Poets Corner now I had I had Maggie look up who is now buried at Poets Corner because because of where Chaucer was a whole bunch of other poets have wanted to be buried Next to him in Westminster Abbey It's one of the reasons if you ever go to London you should absolutely go in Westminster Abbey, but who's buried there? So you just said Chaucer Charles Dickens is there please do it in a song form.
Do you want all of them? Just dig me the highlights. Yeah, yeah Where was I Tom's party is there? Dr.
Tom Johnson is there Roger Kipling Tom's part Richard Sheridan Edmond Spencer Alfred Tennyson and then their names of the top two but yeah Just a ton of folks they have a memorial to Shakespeare even though the more Shakespeare is buried in his hometown of Stratford Pawneevon so he's not there but just about everybody else that ever wrote important things in Britain is there yep Osterwild is not he's buried somewhere else. That's Ross Ross Anyway, so when I now when you think of Geoffrey Chaucer There's no possible way to think of him as the kind of poet you guys described a duffy dowdy Little he was a warrior. He traveled to Italy. He was well lived.
He did a gazillion jobs He knew the kings he worked in the house of a duchess. He had a wife He had a crazy family. He worked as a merchant. He did just about everything somebody could do He lived one of the most impressive lives which it's kind of just a treat to read about right?
He's he's an impressive guy. Yeah, he also invented some fun words one of which is Twitter. Really? Yeah, so it's his fault It's his fault.
We can blame him for Twitter. He's listening Jack You think Jack Dorsey listens to a podcast Job listens all the podcast. I'm sure that sounds about right. Okay.
Anyway, so he begins the Canterbury Tales Now the Canterbury Tales opens with what's called a general prologue and are which I was quoting from Which is what he was quoting from the very beginning and basically when spring comes around people tend to go on pilgrimage People wake up out of a cold dark winter and they want to stretch your legs and the birds are chirping and everything's happy And they want to go to Canterbury on a pilgrimage Basically like spring spring break now people want to go on a trip people want to go on holiday They start at Tabernan and he meets all of these crazy pilgrims at Tabernan And then they all decide to go together on their pilgrimage to Canterbury Even though they're sort of a motley ragtag crew of folks including a knight a miller a nun some other nuns of carpenter It's kind of like a reality TV show You get all these different kinds of people and you throw them in a pilgrimage and off they go It's like MTV's real world. It is I want to see if I can read you one of my favorite descriptions of a character I'll have to flip through what is it the kid that likes onions and leeks? He's the summoner the partner the summoner here it is so here here's one of the characters that he describes and I've been reading an old English and It's difficult but you get used to it after a while right you start to learn it all So if I read this in a Scottish accent, you'll have to forgive me and if you miss some of the words That's okay There's some words there that they use that we don't necessarily even anymore and I'll just read you a little bit of it So a summoner was there with us in that place that had a fire-read cherubin's face for sauceflem He was with iron narrow so sauceflem I look that up and it means pimply oh Accessively and narrow eyes. So that's why he has the fire red cherubin's face because he's sauceflem As who'd he was and letress as a sparrow with sca scaled brows black and piled beard of his visage children were afraid Yeah, that's like there was their noss quicksilver liturgy in my brimstone Boris sirus nor oil of tartar none Not only to into that wood cleanse and bite that time might help in of his welks white so all of those were different things They used to use for your sauce for medicine.
Yeah, you're so some quicksilver. So mercury No, yeah, they use mercury for just about everything back then and it really was a problem They had no idea though mad as a hacker and so the welks are like his swollen chunks on his face nor the knobs sitting on his cheeks Well loved he garlic onions and eke leaks So he means also and for to drink in strong wine read his blood Then would he speak and cry as he were would so would means mad or crazy and when that he well-drunken had the wine then would he speak No word but latin if you terms had heat two or three that he had learned out of some decree No wonder is he heard it all the day and eat you know And well how that a jay can clap and watch as well as can the pope so he's like he has no idea what this latin means But when he gets drunk all he speaks is Latin like a parrot right you can teach a parrot to say like Walter Like you can teach the pope to so anyway He's a summoner his job is to call people to court and you call them with latin and so all he knows is the latin terms Doesn't know they mean he's just memorized them to call people to come to court It's when he gets drunk He's just like spewing off all the little latin he knows But when you read from that book is it the same as what grandma's reciting at the beginning it is yes Yeah, that doesn't that doesn't mean like how Gran said no how do you understand that like it doesn't sound like Tells it's Middle English so for whatever yeah, you really do get used to it and like onions is spelled OY and OY and it's like OY and so it just looks like so if you get used to the spelling like any double O is hot like who would be hot But the one so age I you're eating French is a sparrow the Riverside Chaucer are they telling you this in the book like what certain words mean? Yeah, they have little I really recommend if you're gonna do the old English you buy the Riverside Chaucer It's a little expensive, but it has every Chaucer ever all pretty much everything you wrote and there's all these nice little footnotes They'll be understand and then there's even end notes to if you really want to dig deeper Oh, so it's really cool So he meets all these people at this end and they're kind of a moley ragtag crew And it behooves you to travel with a group because they're high women robbers, right? If you're traveling by yourself, you go get robbed So the more people you got in your party the safer you are so they're all there and the host of this little tabard in says man You guys are just a kick in the shorts like you're so fun And I like you so much and he toasts them all and they'll have a merry old time And he says if it's okay, I'd like to travel with you and take my own holiday We'll lock up this little in or my wife will take care of it and I will travel with you and we'll have ourselves a little contest And here's our little contest.
We're all gonna tell stories There's 30 of them. There's yeah, there's a bunch of them And so I think it was supposed to end up being around 100 stories or something like that 120 and Chaucer unfortunately died before he could write All of them, but he says we're gonna tell all stories and when we come back We're all gonna vote on which one was the best one and then we'll have to buy him dinner So we'll get a free dinner and that was the deal That's the premise for all of the Canterbury tales So it's like you're going on holiday And you just book a tour group and you get thrown in this tour group with all these different people from all around the world You're on the bus driving from Rome to Milan and yeah, you're just telling stories and you got the sauce fleam guy So first of all, why are sparrows considered so lecherous? That's what I want to know, but anyway, okay But he got all these wacky people the prologue is filled with just wonderful characters Yeah, there's there's a nun who doesn't dip her fingers in the sauce and never lets anything drop under her dress And she tries when animals get hurt and she she knows exactly how to look like she's having fun But she never has fun And there's this night and the night is the picture of chivalry, right? He's beautiful and wonderful and he's got this young boy who's just son Yeah, he's his son and son is acting as the squire and it says he can't even sleep because he's just feeling so romantic all the time And he's like he's got a right poems and plays the car and he goes outside and he's just so full of like Yeah, and he just can't handle himself and he's got this big big long flowing beautiful hair He's kind of like the surfer guy that plays the guitar that every girl loves and he's got this noble dad who's fought in all these wars Oh, it's so great So the first person to tell her story is the night and that's what I'm gonna sort of walk you through today So the story opens with Theseus returning to Athens from a war in which he Conquered the reign of feminine, which is like the I think it was the Amazon's he was fighting so feminine Right, it's all all the people that he beat and then he comes back with his brand-new queen Eppolita and Here's his little narrative I would have told you how fully the manor how one in was the reign of feminine by Theseus and by his chivalry and of the great But I for the nuns between betwixt and Athens and Amazon's and how a siege was a polita and fair hardy queen of Scythia and of the Thece that was at her wedding and of the tempest at her home coming but all that thing I might as now for bear I have got what a large field to air and wake up in the oxen in my plow basically the story's gonna be long So I'm not gonna waste time there and as Theseus came back there are four women dressed all in black in high And they stopped Theseus and Theseus says what folk been ye that at my homecoming perturbin so my feast with crying Have you so great envy of my honor that thus complain and cry or who have yamas boden or offended and tell of me if it may Be amended and why that you've been clothed thus in black and it turns out the women had lost their husbands in the siege of their town And that the the guy who besieged it wouldn't release their bodies to be burnt or buried on right crayon right crayon with the guy Who took over I think it was this is these years we've been here Thebes yeah, so it's thebes and so all those folks are dead and so listener if you are confused go back and listen to our Podcasts three episodes on this at the set colonist at the king and and take me so he gives him the big hug He him thought that his heart would break when he saw him so pitious and so mad and will him wear it of so great a state And his in his arms he him all up and and him comforteth in full good intent So he's like oh you poor old ladies And so he grabs them all and gives them all hug and then decides to go and conquer king crayon and take it all back And so he does he goes and he just dumps all over the town and takes it back and turns out that there's two little fellows That aren't quite dead and they're of noble blood and I forget where they're from Anyway, so he doesn't want them to die so he grabs him and he nurses him back to health But he says look you guys have to be locked in a tower forever with no hope of being salvaged So that's your punishment I saved your life But in a tower you go so these two brothers pilemon and arceda or our arcede are locked in a tower by themselves And then it happens to be may and so this girl Emily rises up and she's like it's just so stinking beautiful out Night I've got to do some observance of may right just like the people going on pilgrimage Right, so she stands up and she's like I've just got to do it I gotta go pick some flowers and I got a weave in a little headband and I gotta go out and I got a sing And so she gets real fast outside.
Can we have fun? Yes, exactly so she goes outside and she's singing like an angel It says and as an angel heavenishly she soon and so she's getting flowers and white and red and she's making a garland for her heat And and then these two brothers are standing up there looking out the window of their tower and Palamon is the first to see her he cast his eye upon Emily Amelia and there with all he blamed and cried ah As though he stung in we're into the heart so I guess done it happens and with that cry our c-day a non upstart and said cousin Mine what aylithy that art so pale and deadly on to see why cried it's thou who have to be done offense for God's love Take and all patience our prison for it may none other be fortune have given us this adversity Some wick aspect or some disposition of Saturn by some constellation have given us though We had it sworn so stood the heaven that we were born and must endure it this is short and plain So he's like brother. I see a crying. That's a bummer.
You just got to deal with it It's we're imprisoned and that's what the stars have said for us. Palamon answered not bra it's lady Palamon answered and said again cousin for sooth of this opinion thou has to vain imagination this prison caused me not For to cry but I was hurt right now through mine I into mine heart that will my bane be good the fairness of that lady that I see yawned in the garden Roman to and fro is cause Of all my crying and my woe. I'm not whether she be woman or goddess But Venus is it soothely as I guess and so he points out he's like dude I'm not feeling bad about the prison. It's this pop a down there and then our seat a sees and And with that sight here beauty hurt him So that if that palamon was wounded sore our seat is hurt as much as he or more Oh, and with a sigh he said pitiously the fresh beauty sleeth me suddenly So he's he's like just dead over her the same and they actually start fighting and palamon is like dude I saw her first and our seat is argument back is yeah But you didn't even know if she was a human who said she was Venus so I loved her first with real human love So I know she's creaturely so I saw our first and they pretty much say We're blood brothers and he's like I don't care.
We're blood brothers I'm a hate you we're enemies from now on because they both won't give up on her So but it doesn't really matter. They're both stuck in prison It's not a big deal until a buddy of palamans had that new thesis from when he was young Parotheus duke parotheus sous for palamon's release. He comes to theses and says hey, I know that kid He's a really good kid. Can you let him go for me?
And so theses says okay, I'll let him go But he has to be exiled from my town. So so sorry Our seat is the one that gets exiled so our seat it comes out of the prison and is exiled and so he's not allowed anymore palamon is left in the tower and This is what it says about how our seat a feels after he's let out how great a sorrow suffers now our seat a the deep He feeleth through his heart's might he weepeth waileth cryeth pitiously to sling himself He waited privily he said alas that day that I was born now is my prison worse than before and now is me shape He turnedly to dwell not in purgatory, but in hell alas that ever now knew I parotheus for else had I dwelled with theses He fettered in his prison evermore and basically he's like I wish I was still up there so I could see my girl every day I Mean the heart wants what it wants And then the funny thing is that up in the tower palamon is feeling the same thing a last quote He our seat to mind cousin of all our strife godwoot the fruit is thine that walk us now in thieves at large and of my woe Thy give us little charge Thou masts and now has wisdom and manhood assembling all the folk of our kindred and make a war so sharp on this city that By some adventure or some treaty thou mayest have hired a lady into wife for whom that I most needs lose my life So basically he's like he's free and he can get it all together and come get her back I have to look at her every day and our seat is like I don't even get a seer anymore and I'll never come back So the night ends part one by asking who has it worse our seat a or palamon palamon Totally has it works in a tower. Yeah, I'm gonna see taking that he can like it's the quote He just read but he can gather an army and attack the city and write her letter or that Letter yeah, you're on to something there. Yeah, how long is it way worse?
It's right at home sent to her like hey I was in power to saw you. I can't be in your town, but I love it over here because she also has no idea that either Them exists. Yeah, she has she has never met seen or heard from them It's just beautiful beautiful flowers flowers anything, but we don't also know she's already married her she was a youngling right? She was like a young lass.
Yeah, okay. Yeah, something palamon has it worse. Yeah, you're right our seat They didn't have it worse although he sure thought he did so I think it was over a period of time But basically he was so depressed that he got worse and worse and worse and looked grosser and grosser and grosser And we just spend his time in the night time just going like Just moaning and then eventually in a dream mercury comes so we have mercury. We got a messenger, right?
What's the name of Greece? Hermes Hermes so Hermes comes and says bro as bro. It's time time to go back to theses town, right? You gotta you gotta go and he wakes up and he's like no that'll never work until he sees a Reflection of his own likeness and he's like oh Terrible so he fears like I look so terrible.
I don't look like the same person There you go changes his hair a little bit changes his clothes puts on a cloak and then heads back Oh, and gets himself into theses house as a servant and he's such a good servant He's so good at it and he he renames himself Philistrate and so he's like I'm mine. I'm still a straight and they all let him in and eventually so good at it But he becomes a squire to theses himself real so he's in on the town and then one night Palamon through the inner workings of a friend. He escapes. Oh good So he is fleeing with terror from his thing and he decides if he finds a little grove And he decides to stay in that grove that night So he's hiding in that grove and then philistrate our friend our seat a hmm comes and he pretty much says man What a beautiful day?
I'm gonna go get myself some greenery and make me a wreath So he goes off this all young man. Yeah, it's all young man. I was recently freed wood Yes, apparently the night didn't have many devices other than reeds to get people outside So people are just building reeds all the time. So our seat a sink they're beautiful.
They're functional They they add a pop color to your house. I don't blame him. It's a beautiful day So he goes out there and he sings a little bit and then he sits down and he says alas that day that I was born How long Juno through thy cruelty will tell where in the city and he pretty much just complains and says a few Key things like and of the city first was crown king of his lineage Am I and of his offspring by very linked line of the stock royal and now I'm so katif and so thrall that he that is my mortal enemy I serve him as his squire poorly and yet do you know me well more shame for I dare not be know my own name But there is I was want to be height our seat a now height I philistrate not worth a mite and basically how to he is I didn't think anybody was in the grove But guess who's hiding the grove? Palamon right so Palamon sees this guy who looks so different and he says what you're the dude and Basically pops out of his bush cuz he was terrified before right he thought he was gonna get found out And he says our seat a false traitor wicked Wow now art hunted that love us my lady So for whom that I have all his this pain and whoa and art my blood and to my counsel sworn basically like I don't have any Weapons but buckle up because we're gonna fight and our city says I don't want to fight yet because you know You look like a mess and I look like a mess and none of us have weapons So here's we're gonna do I'm gonna go get two full battle dresses and I will come back here tomorrow same place You pick whichever battle dress you want I'll take the worst one and I'll still kill you and so remember Emily has no idea These two bros exactly right so he does he goes he gets all of the stuff and then he brings it on back sets it before him They get dressed up and they start hacking each other to pieces mama happens that Theseus is out on a little hunting party that No, he's not this is actually not a proper walk He's a he's under so if he sees this out hunting and he sees these two dressed up nights going at it And by the way when the medieval's and what a lot of people used to write about especially medieval time used to write about previous Errors it would usually contain a lot of stuff from their era I mean they hadn't necessarily seen Greece in what it looks like they didn't necessarily know the history and so they figure Well, they do nights like we do nights sure often so they're nice and they're fighting and theses goes whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa Whoa my dudes dudes nobody better swing another sword because I will kill either of you Right if I see anybody swing a sword and he says you this is illegal what you guys are doing There's no judge here You're not doing the list like you should if this is an actual thing you should do it and so Palomones be tough.
He says this is thy mortal food. It's spelled F. Oh, it's my favorite part of the whole story I'm your food. So this is my mortal food.
I pity though Yeah, this is our seat a that from thy lawn is banish it on his heat from which he has deserved to be did For this is he that came into thy gate and said that he was called Philistrate thus Hath he japed the full many a year or played a joke on me He japed you japed you good and thou has made him thy chief squire and this is he that loveth Emily for sith the day has come that I shall die I make plainly my confession that I am Filch woeful palomon that hath thy prison broken wickedly basically I broke out prison I am thy mortal food and and in my that loveth so hoot Emily the bright So I like it. I just love her so hot that I will die present in her sight Wherefore I act deep in my jois and slay my fellow in the same wise for both hand We deserve to be slain. He's like kill us both and he says kill me first as long as he dies Then he's like or you know, you know, you you gotta also kill him first I do he actually makes that little qualifying statement and so thesesia says well fine I said you guys work it out of jail and you're out of jail and I said you can come back So you both deserved death so he hauls them all back throws him in prison and the ladies of the court lose the dang minds Because they're fighting for their fight and for love and they're good-looking young gentlemen I mean now philustrate has gained a little more flesh on his bones and so they're looking good and the girls just fall apart And they're like, please these these don't kill them. They're so noble and all this stuff and so theses goes fine I won't kill them great.
We'll we'll leave them and it's power love Thomas. Good. That's what the story is really about Mm-hmm. Yeah, and he's like here's what we'll do.
How about this in 50 weeks? Well fernaner, which means give or take. I think it means far or near right in 50 weeks fernaner Seriously you have you have got to read this in the old English It's just full of gems right fernaner. So and this day 50 weeks fernaner average of you shall bring it 100 nights armed for love up at all rights.
So he says you guys go back to your town each of you get a hundred nights Someone said donson you in a 50 weeks. You got to come back with like a hundred guys, right? If I don't think I could find a hundred guys ready to throw down. That's two a week.
I got you bro. I got you right here What's gonna happen is we will be fighting about the conversation we had last time about whether our can be moral Yeah, okay, so anyway, they're both supposed to get a hundred nights bring him back He is going to build them a new lists right like a kajoustin fight This is awesome a little arena and he says you will come back and then you will fight to the death wow and whoever doesn't die He'll get to Mary Emily. This is like a very like bro thing to do It's like two guys are fighting their playing this game. They're like, you know, I saw I love her No, I love her and the guys like whoa guys stop if we're gonna do this.
We're doing this, right? So you go back you get under guys It's like how every competition when you're living with your roommates your bro roommates I know it's great gets big it's like you can arm wrestle to see you isn't gonna do the dishes or Set up this like entire weekend long tournament elaborate arm wrestling thing So he so that's what happens they travel back to their hometown and they start collecting nights and they and in that Emily has no idea. I think it's by Emily is she finds out that they were fighting over her because she knows what's going on Okay, right and so flattering so these just decrees this I don't know They were like angled deep in their own blood and they hacked each other to pieces already apparently she's okay with it Right, she's part of the reason they're still well female listeners if you email us a classical stuff Would you want to young handsome nights fighting over your love and you know one of them will die one of them will die? Yeah, I feel as important that does feel like a good qualifier We'll see Emily's for dinner though Thomas for dinner for dinner boys Well, we'll see Emily's opinion in a second so he builds this beautiful new lists and it's you guys It's nice one of the qualities that it says is that you can sit and you don't even have to see the fellows head in front of you because there's actual Wow you guys there's bleachers Wow, so he builds this really cool cathedral in fact in on the different ends of it the different entrances He builds these little temples to some deities So on the east he built a temple to Venus on the west he built a temple to Mars and to the north he built a temple to Diane and each of them and Chaucer spends time describing each of these and it talks about Venus's principal dwelling and it shows what is shown on the wall With all the garden and the lustiness and here here's a little bit of it So not was for it and forgotten the porter idleness knew Narcissus the fair of your gone New yet the folly of King Solomon Not yet the great strength of Hercules the enchantment of Medea and Cersei's knee of turnis with the hardy fight fierce courage the rich cresis Cateph in service so names all these people but the funny thing is that none of those were really successful Narcissus loved himself and wasted way to nothing King Solomon was brought to folly by his many wives Hercules was killed by his lover Medea and Cersei's tried to keep their love by magic and turnis was brought to a fateful fight with a Nius because he loved Lavinia and eventually he lost cresis was a different guy I that's that name.
I think is changed a little bit So it's actually Croesus. He's the same guy that's all in one of the great kings of Athens went and said he was talking to him cresis was incredibly rich and he's like who you think is the luckiest man you've ever heard of and You know he names only names a bunch of other people and he goes But don't you consider me lucky and he goes I don't know you aren't dead yet Right and then his fortune reversed and Croesus ended up losing everything he had and then eventually being burned You know burned to death and so it's it's talking about like love as it is horrible and then horrible reversals of fortune Isn't that a strange thing to put on temple to Venus right it's odd And then goes on or tells us something about the story in that right with the king who made the temple right we can talk about that in A minute how am I gonna time Thomas don't okay. Okay. Okay, so the temple of Mars is a little bit different and basically It's just horrible and awful all the way through It's like people hacked to pieces and it has embodiments of madness complaint outcry outrage and and the statue It looking grim sits on a cart and then below it is like a dog eating a man or a wolf eating a man It is it is a horrifying place to be not cool at all For Diane it it has a whole bunch of other people that went through horrible things It says in this it's it's Dane which is actually Daphne who was pursued by Apollo and she met more fives than to a laurel tree and then At Atlanta another guy that went through some horrible things Action who saw Diana naked and then she turned him into a deer And he got torn apart by his own dogs.
So nothing is good. I'm just chapels Right nothing is super happier fun and before the battle right they come back with their nights right the hundred nights Palamon has recruited none other than like her guess the great founder of Sparta as one of his nights Wow, if you're gonna get somebody yeah, he's that he's that boy. Wow. Yeah He's he's the dude right and then our seata got amitrius a king of India and it talks about all their splendor and all the nights that They brought back cool and then each of they have a feast and then each of them prays Palamon goes to the Venus and praised at the statue of Venus and after he's done praying that he'll get the girl Venus a statue Kind of goes mama wiggles around and he's like ah my prayers answer So cool our seat a goes and prays to Mars and gives a big sacrifice and then Mars says the statue kind of goes Victory and he's like oh, yes sweet my prayers have been answered that worked.
I had no idea rumbles and then he was Emily went and prayed to Diane and prayed for chastity. Oh, no She's gonna turn to a tree so she said chaste goddess well was so that I desired to been a maiden all my life There you go Never will I be in the love no wife? I am thou woosed yet of thy company a maid and love hunting and venery and to walk in the woods wild and not to Be with child not will I know company of man now help me lady Sith yume and can for those three forms of thou hasten thee basically I don't want to I don't want to do it and you know happens to her There's a little little idol goes Actually kind of shows up and says that sorry that's summer You're gonna have to worry Mary one of them and I can't tell you which and then she bails Oh, no, we're kind of worried to issue the company of men Yeah, and so we actually get go up into the gods at the end of the third part and Cronus pretty much says Venus I got you you're gonna win this right because there's everyone's pretty much said yes except for Diane And he has to choose sides so he says Venus you win so we go in with this knowing that Palamon is probably gonna take the prize So right so the day comes and theses goes back on his word a little bit You know what I don't know if I want 200 dead people to take care of so let's do there Yes, seriously how about no loss of life no pole acts no short knife into the list You can have no sword with a biting point You can do any of these things basically the way that someone gets out and I kid you not is that the other side has to take them Overpower them and then drag them to a stake. That's on the other that's all behind them.
Let's go you guys It's medieval capture the flag. It's like a person you pummeled. Yeah, you pummeled them And then go and drag them to the stake and if you get dragged to the stake by force you're out That's way better than I'm actually killing each other. Yeah, this is oh my goodness This is like a house game.
We should I know it's even classical. Yeah guys sold. Yes, okay I mean I saw you do noodle hockey. They can't be more violent But I think it's a little more a little more modest modestly the best yeah, okay, so they do it and they start fighting and eventually palamon stabs our seat But at the same moment he gets pummeled and he's getting dragged back to the stake so Like her guess sees it happen comes over knocks and dudes over but isn't there in time and palamon gets dragged to the stake No, and he's out was out.
Yeah guys wasn't palamon supposed to win the sweet reversal of fortunes Fortune so our seat goes up and he's like I have won my fair fair made MLI and her her mind has changed real fast about the whole the whole not Dude's seen a gladiatorial combat wool, you know quick and hard of any made here you go This fears our seat a half of his helmet on and on a coarser for to show his face He pricketh and long the large place longing upward upon his MLI and she again him cast a free glitch I for women and this is in parentheses for women as to speak in common they follow in all the favor for Which is no, you know sexism so yeah, so she's like hey He wins so I like him and he likes her and so it all kind of goes awesome But the moment that happens Pluto at the request of Saturn sends sort of a weird Foundering for the horse the horse begins to fall over jumps and then our sight hits the pommel on the saddle to his head And busts his head all to pieces. Wow and falls on the ground is all messed up Is it I well he's sick and he's in real bad shape and so they try absolutely everything they can there's actually a crazy list here of all the crazy medieval Stuff that they did like the clotted the clotted blood for any leech craft corrupteth And in his beak eloft and neither vain blood nor ventacing nor drink of herbs may been his helping the virtue explosive So laxative or animal for silk virtue klep natural basically they tried everything they could laxatives bleeding Yeah, and so the ending of this is and certainly their nature will not work farewell physic or doctor go bear the manager Wow, it's not gonna work. He's gonna die. So where it's gonna do it and he ends up like being a real bad shape And so he calls palamon and he calls Emily and they're all messed up And he's like I love you brother and Emily remember him that I'm gone good wife They died wow and they have this they're feeling really terrible I was definitely and and there's a wise a wise a wise father of Theseus says as this is sort of going on He says right as their died never man quote He that he and lived in earth in some degree right so their lived never man He said in all this world that sometime he in a date This world is but a thoroughfare full of woe and we've been pilgrims passing to infrow Deeth is an end of every worldly sore basically every man that dies has lived to some degree and every man that lives is gonna die It's one of the coolest things little quotes in the book cool.
All right, and then he dies And they decide to have the funeral. Can you guess where they had the funeral right in the cool palisade? No in the temple say they had it in the glade where the two oh first fought and so Emily is just fallen to pieces poor palamon Is falling pieces and we get this big speech from Theseus. How are we doing on time there?
Maybe? 52 minutes, all right, I gotta wrap this up So I can't go too far into it But basically he talks about the first mover the cause above right which comes from Aristotle basically if everything we see is an effect There has to be something to start the whole thing moving and that's the first cause and in this since they're Pre-Christian right the night is talking about Theseus and a bunch of Greeks He says they they stick that to Saturn right Saturn is the first move of the first cause but basically he is the eternal thing and we have only a part of that eternal beginning and so we are corruptible and basically everything that lived will Eventually have to die it's this crazy commentary on the constancy of God and and the eternality of him on our temporal stuff And basically says there is a structure to everything which is weird because what we see is reverse crazy reversals of fortune right a lot of criticism in this book has been about How he weds all this imperfection to this perfect structure and that seems to be the notion here right there They can't tell whether he's making a commentary on what what the fourteen hundred night was thinking of of all this chivalry and how ridiculous that was and how It was better to be constant or maybe how everything was supposed to be constant But the world never works that way there's people who kind of go on both sides There's also thoughts that Palamon our cite represent different things the learned in the unlearned or different aspects even of Obvious weirdly enough so there's a lot of back and forth I prefer to think that it's just seems to be the view of ancient man and would be an appropriate thing to say to funeral And so our cite dies and Palamon goes home leaves without him alive and then years pass and Thesis invites our cite back And says he he brings up Emily he says lean me your home. He brings you back. He brings back Palamon Oh, he's okay, because our cite is dead So yeah, our cite is gone Palamon went home and invites Palamon back to the palace and has Emily in attendance And he says lean me your hond for this is our court.
Let's see now of your womanly pity He is a king's brother son party and though he were a poor bachelor Cineas served you so many a year and had for you so great adversity It must be considered leave with me for gentle mercy ought to pass and write then said he thus the Palamon tonight I throw their kneadeth little sermoning to make you a sense of this thing come near and take your lady by the Hond and then they get married and so it didn't happen right away And I met them at death of a brother and several years passing But he did come back and they lived happily ever after so the gods were right he did win right but no way He thought it was right around about way yeah, but it was a bummer and then so there's after that follows the millers program Prologue before the millers tail and the millers tail is not as a roof Yeah, so everyone's like yeah, and it's happily in the millers half drunk on their trip already in the morning And he's like I'll tell you guys a crazy tale and then shots for himself is like if you're a sensitive reader You might want to move ahead and pick another tale if you decide not to Can't say I didn't warn you I could you not if you were thinking the night's tale is how all of Chaucer's Canterbury tail It is not even close. I'm enjoying this so mentally. I cannot recommend it So you are gonna talk about the miller's tail next I will probably skip the miller's tail because it is not we're gonna lose our Thing on lighting. Yeah, we'll no longer have clean lyrics I'll probably skip the miller's tail, but there's there are bunch of other Chaucer's tales to come I hope you guys are enjoying it I wish we could have gotten a little bit of criticism about it, but I mean it's good.
It's not yeah It's I'm sad for I mean they shouldn't have This is what happens when you escalate like bro games someone gets hurt Someone gets a pommel to the head Well, RC day was also kind of wedded to the warrior side Right love and war always sort of come together and he was all about war and having seen war himself Chaucer was never a huge fan And so he sides with the side of love him who would choose Venus as his I am woman rather than Mars than Mars right? RC day was like I will go pray to the god of the world rather On that is of love. Yeah, right? Yeah, it seems like it makes more sense to pray to the god of war that they were going to fight If you're going to fight but the fight is for love sure and this is the night who's been in all these different battles This is the story he chooses to tell.
Yeah, it's one about battle in ancient stuff And it's he's supposed to be sort of in the in the group of pilgrims. Mm-hmm. The picture of upstanding chivalry and wonderfulness And then he gets juxtaposed directly with the miller who is the opposite. Yeah, all right This has been classical stuff.
Thank you all for listening. You can find us online at classical stuff net You can email us at classical stuff at veritasacademy.net. You can find us on Twitter at kliscollstuff C-L-S-S-C-A-L stuff and I think that's everything that's it. We have no mistakes we have no quotes So I think that's gonna be the end of the episode.
Thanks everyone for listening. Wait, I was gonna say if you ever find yourself in the same situation. Uh-huh Like you don't have to kill each other. I mean, just you know, try each other to stick.
There you go. That's the best solution is play open for the other guy Okay, I'm gonna solve it. All right. Thanks everyone for listening.
Bye. Bye