The Prioress's Tale
The Prioresss Tale follows The Shipmans Tale in Geoffrey Chaucers The Canterbury Tales. Because of fragmentation of the manuscripts, it is impossible to tell where it comes in ordinal sequence, the General Prologue names the prioress as Madame Eglantine, and describes her impeccable table manners and soft-hearted ways. Her portrait suggests she is likely in religious life as a means of advancement, given her aristocratic manners. She maintains a secular lifestyle, including keeping lap dogs that she privileges over other people and her story is of a child martyr killed by Jews, a common theme in Medieval Christianity, and much criticism focuses on the tales antisemitism. The story begins with an invocation to the Virgin Mary, sets the scene in Asia, a seven-year-old school-boy, son of a widow, is brought up to revere Mary. He teaches himself the first verse of the popular Medieval hymn Alma Redemptoris Mater, though he does not understand the words and he begins to sing it every day as he walks to school through the Jews street.
Satan, That hath in Jewes heart his waspes nest, incites the Jews to murder the child and his mother searches for him and eventually finds his body, which begins miraculously to sing the Alma Redemptoris. The Christians call in the provost of the city, who has the Jews drawn by wild horses, the boy continues to sing throughout his Requiem Mass until the holy abbot of the community asks him why he is able to sing. He replies that although his throat is cut, he has had a vision in which Mary laid a grain on his tongue, the abbot removes the grain and he dies. The story ends with a mention of Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln, the story is an example of a class of stories, popular at the time, known as the miracles of the Virgin such as those by Gautier de Coincy. It blends elements of story of a pious child killed by the enemies of the faith. Matthew Arnold cited a stanza from the tale as the best of Chaucers poetry and my throte is kut unto my nekke boon, Seyde this child, and as by wey of kynde I sholde have dyed, ye, longe tyme agon.
But Jesu Crist, as ye in bookes fynde, Wil that his glorie laste and be in mynde, And for the worship of his Mooder deere Yet may I synge O Alma loude, the tale is related to various blood libel stories common at the time. One likely influence for the tale was the infamous 1255 murder of a boy in Lincoln who became known as Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln, Chaucers attitude toward the tale is less clear. The Prioress French accent is a sign of social climbing, yet her speech is modelled after the Stratford-at-Bow school and she makes her oaths by Seint Loy, the patron of, among others, goldsmiths. Her overzealousness to her pet dogs and to mice killed in traps is perhaps misdirected in a nun and she wears a brooch bearing the Virgilian motto Amor vincit omnia —a dubious maxim for a nun—which perhaps takes the place of a rosary and further illustrates her fascination with courtly love. Thus her portrayal as a character is not wholly positive, in fact, the language and structure of her prologue and tale have led many literary critics to argue that Chaucer is mocking the Prioress.
The Jews were banished from England in 1290, one hundred years before the tale was written and this means that the Jews are an even more distant and unfocused evil quality than is usual in such stories
The Friar's Tale
The Friars Tale is a story in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, told by Huberd the Friar. The story centers around a corrupt summoner and his interactions with a demon and it is preceded by The Wife of Baths Tale and followed by The Summoners Tale. On the way to extort money from a widow, the Summoner encounters a yeoman who is apparently down on his luck, the two men swear brotherhood to each other and exchange the secrets of their respective trades, the Summoner recounting his various sins in a boastful manner. The yeoman reveals that he is actually a demon, to which the Summoner expresses minimal surprise—he enquires as to aspects of hell. During their travels, they come upon a carter whose horses have become temporarily stuck, frustrated, he says that the devil may take them. They proceed to the house of the widow, the Summoner claims he will do better than the demon and fabricates a court summons in order that the widow will have to bribe him to dismiss the case. He demands she give him her new pan in payment for an old debt, unlike the Miller and the Reeve who tell tales that irritate the other and do not get on for that reason, the Friar and the Summoner seem to have a longstanding hatred between them.
The Friar is of one of the mendicant orders which traveled about preaching and making their livings by begging, part of the animosity between the two characters may be due to these orders of friars, which had been formed relatively recently, interfering with the work of the summoners. Once a friar had taken confession and given absolution to someone they could not be charged in a court with the same sin. The Friars tale has no original source like many of Chaucers tales but it is of a type which is common and always seems popular. Even in the prologue the friar begins by making some rude remarks about the summoner in general. The host reprimands him, saying he should be mindful of his social standing, the Summoner merely replies that he should say what he wants to say but that he will pay him back in skin. The tale itself continues in the denigration of summoners with its description of the work of a summoner. This includes bribery, extortion and a network of pimps, chaucer’s special manuscript words The Friars Tale – a plain-English retelling for non-scholars
Henry E. Huntington
Henry Edwards Huntington was an American railroad magnate and collector of art and rare books. Huntington settled in Los Angeles, where he owned the Pacific Electric Railway as well as real estate interests. In addition to being a businessman and art collector, Huntington was a booster for Los Angeles in the late 19th. Huntington held several positions working alongside his uncle with the Southern Pacific. He had four children with Mary Alice, Howard Edward, Clara Leonora, Elizabeth Vincent, and Marian Prentice, arabellas son Archer, from her prior marriage from which she was widowed, had earlier been adopted by Collis. In 1898, in competition with his uncles Southern Pacific, Huntington bought the narrow gauge. In 1901, Huntington formed the sprawling interurban, standard gauge Pacific Electric Railway, known as the Red Car system, centered at 6th, Huntington succeeded in this competition by providing passenger friendly streetcars on 24/7 schedules, which the railroads couldnt match. Connectivity to Downtown Los Angeles made such suburbs feasible, by 1910, the Huntington trolley systems stretched over approximately 1,300 miles of southern California.
In 1905 Huntington, A. Kingsley Macomber, and William R. Staats developed the Oak Knoll subdivision, the road was completed in February 1907. The property was donated to the city of Riverside by the heirs of Frank Miller. Huntington was a Life Member of the Sons of the Revolution in the State of California, Huntington retired from active business in 1916. In 1927 Henry E. Huntington died in Philadelphia while undergoing surgery and he and Arabella are buried, with a large monument, in the Gardens of the Huntington Library in San Marino, California. The Huntington Hotel was originally named Hotel Wentworth when it opened its doors on February 1,1907, financial problems and a disappointing first season forced the Hotel Wentworth to close its doors indefinitely. Henry Huntington purchased the Hotel Wentworth in 1911, renaming it the Huntington Hotel and it reopened in 1914, transformed into a beautiful winter resort. The 1920s were a time for the hotel, as Midwestern and Eastern entrepreneurs discovered Californias warm winter climate.
The hotels reputation for fine service began with general manager and owner Stephen W. Royce. By 1926, the hotels success prompted Royce to open the property year-round, the golden years ended with the stock market crash and the Great Depression of the late 1920s and early 1930s. However, by the end of the 1930s the hotel was back on solid ground, when World War II began, all reservations were cancelled and the hotel was rented to the Army for $3,000 a month
The Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales is a collection of 24 stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387–1400. In 1386, Chaucer became Controller of Customs and Justice of Peace and and it was during these years that Chaucer began working on his most famous text, The Canterbury Tales. The prize for this contest is a meal at the Tabard Inn at Southwark on their return. He uses the tales and descriptions of its characters to paint an ironic and critical portrait of English society at the time, Chaucers use of such a wide range of classes and types of people was without precedent in English. Although the characters are fictional, they offer a variety of insights into customs. Often, such insight leads to a variety of discussions and disagreements among people in the 14th century, the collection resembles The Decameron, which Chaucer may have read during his first diplomatic mission to Italy in 1372. It is unclear to what extent Chaucer was seminal in this evolution of literary preference, while Chaucer clearly states the addressees of many of his poems, the intended audience of The Canterbury Tales is more difficult to determine.
Chaucer was a courtier, leading some to believe that he was mainly a court poet who wrote exclusively for nobility, the Canterbury Tales is generally thought to have been incomplete at the end of Chaucers life. In the General Prologue, some thirty pilgrims are introduced, according to the Prologue, Chaucers intention was to write two stories from the perspective of each pilgrim on the way to and from their ultimate destination, St. Thomas Beckets shrine. Although perhaps incomplete, The Canterbury Tales is revered as one of the most important works in English literature, not only do readers find it entertaining, but it is open to a wide range of interpretations. The question of whether The Canterbury Tales is finished has not yet been answered, there are 83 known manuscripts of the work from the late medieval and early Renaissance periods, more than any other vernacular literary text with the exception of The Prick of Conscience. This is taken as evidence of the popularity during the century after Chaucers death.
Fifty-five of these manuscripts are thought to have been complete at one time, even the earliest surviving manuscripts are not Chaucers originals, the oldest being MS Peniarth 392 D, compiled by a scribe shortly after Chaucers death. The most beautiful of the manuscripts of the tales is the Ellesmere Manuscript, the first version of The Canterbury Tales to be published in print was William Caxtons 1478 edition. Only 10 copies of this edition are known to exist, including one held by the British Library, since this print edition was created from a now-lost manuscript, it is counted as among the 83 manuscripts. In 2004, Professor Linne Mooney claimed that she was able to identify the scrivener who worked for Chaucer as an Adam Pinkhurst. No authorial, arguably complete version of the Tales exists and no consensus has been reached regarding the order in which Chaucer intended the stories to be placed and manuscript clues have been adduced to support the two most popular modern methods of ordering the tales.
Some scholarly editions divide the Tales into ten Fragments, between Fragments, the connection is less obvious
The Cook's Tale
Geoffrey Chaucer presumably never finished The Cooks Tale and it breaks off after 58 lines, although some scholars argue that Chaucer deliberately left the tale unfinished. The story starts telling of an apprentice named Perkyn who is fond of drinking and dancing, Perkyn is released by his master and moves in with a friend who loves to drink, and whose wife is a prostitute. The tale continues the general trend of the preceding tales—the Knights, the Millers. In 25 of The Canterbury Tales MSS the Cooks unfinished tale is followed by the anonymous Tale of Gamelyn, Skeat argued instead that Chaucer intended the tale for the Yeoman, who would presumably be more interested in a tale of country life. The Host calls upon the Cook for another tale, but he is too drunk and, after he falls from his horse and is helped back up, the Manciple tells a tale. The Cook starts by cog on the Reeves tale and then, after a reference to Solomon, the host invites the cook to tell his tale. Chaucer’s special manuscript words Read The Cooks Tale with interlinear translation Modern Translation of The Cooks Tale, the Tale of Gamelyn, From the Harleian Ms.
No.7334 The Cooks Tale – a plain-English retelling for non-scholars
Sotheby's
Sothebys /ˈsʌðəbiz/ is a British multinational corporation headquartered in New York City. One of the worlds largest brokers of fine and decorative art, real estate, the company’s services range from corporate art services to private sales. Sothebys is the fourth oldest auction house in continuous operation. As of December 2011, the company had 1,446 employees worldwide and it is the worlds largest art business with global sales in 2011 totalling $5.8 billion. Sothebys was established on 11 March 1744 in London, the American holding company was initially incorporated in August 1983 in Michigan. In June 2006, Sothebys Holdings, Inc. reincorporated in the State of Delaware and was renamed Sothebys, in July 2016, Chinese insurance giant Taikang Life became Sothebys largest shareholder. Three Swedish auction houses are older and Sothebys great rival in London and New York. The current business dates back to 1804, when two of the partners of the business left to set up their own book dealership. After Baker’s death in 1778, his estate was divided between Leigh and John Sotheby, George Leigh died unmarried in 1816, but not before endeavouring to secure his succession by recruiting Samuel E Leigh into the business.
Under the Sotheby family, the house extended its activities to auctioning prints, medals. John Wilkinson, Sothebys Senior Accountant, became the company’s new CEO, the business did not seek to auction fine arts in general until much later, their first major success in this field being the sale of a Frans Hals painting for nine thousand guineas as late as 1913. In 1917, Sothebys relocated from 13 Wellington Street to 34-35 New Bond Street and they soon came to rival Christies as leaders of the London auction market, which had become the most important for art. In 1955, Sothebys opened an office at Bowling Green, New York City, in 1964, Sothebys purchased Parke-Bernet, the largest auctioneer of fine art in the United States. In the following year, Sothebys moved to 980 Madison Avenue, Sothebys became a U. K. public company in 1977. The auction house closed its Madison Avenue galleries at East 76th Street, the Los Angeles galleries were sold and auctions of West Coast material moved to New York.
In the following year, a group of investors purchased and privatized Sothebys, Sothebys was initially incorporated as Sothebys Holdings, Inc. in Michigan in August 1983. Taubman took Sothebys public in 1988, listing the shares on the New York Stock Exchange. In June 2006, Sothebys Holdings, Inc. reincorporated in the State of Delaware and was renamed Sothebys shortly after, with private transactions constituting an essential and increasingly profitable business segment, through the years Sothebys has bought art galleries and helped dealers finance purchases
Huntington Library
In addition to the library, the institution houses an extensive art collection with a focus in 18th and 19th-century European art and 17th to mid-20th-century American art. The property includes approximately 120 acres of specialized botanical landscaped gardens, most notably the Japanese Garden, the Desert Garden, as a landowner and visionary, Henry Edwards Huntington, played a major role in the growth of southern California. Huntington was born in 1850, in Oneonta, New York, in 1892, Huntington relocated to San Francisco with his first wife, Mary Alice Prentice, and their four children. He was one of the founders of the City of San Marino, before his death in 1927, Huntington amassed far and away the greatest group of 18th-century British portraits ever assembled by any one man. In accordance with Huntingtons will, the collection, worth $50 million, was opened to the public in 1928. On October 17,1985, a fire erupted in a shaft of the Huntington Art Gallery. After a year-long, $1 million refurbishing project, the Huntington Gallery reopened in 1986, with its artworks cleaned of soot and stains.
Most of the funds for the cleanup and refurbishing of the Georgian mansion and its artworks came from donations from the Michael J. Connell Foundation and individuals. Both the Federal art-supporting establishment of the National Endowment for the Arts, the Library building was designed in 1920, by the southern California architect Myron Hunt in the Mediterranean Revival style. Hunts previous commissions for Mr. and Mrs. Huntington included the Huntingtons residence in San Marino in 1909, and the Huntington Hotel in 1914. The library contains a collection of rare books and manuscripts, concentrated in the fields of British and American history, art. Spanning from the 11th century to the present, the librarys holdings contain 7 million items, over 400,000 rare books, and over a million photographs and other ephemera. Highlights include one of 11 vellum copies of the Gutenberg Bible known to exist,1410, and letters and manuscripts by George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and Abraham Lincoln.
The Librarys Main Exhibition Hall showcases some of the most outstanding rare books and manuscripts in the collection, the Dibner Hall of the History of Science is a permanent exhibition on the history of science with a focus on astronomy, natural history and light. Use of the collection for research is restricted to qualified scholars, generally requiring a degree or at least candidacy for the PhD. Through a rigorous program, the institution awards approximately 150 grants to scholars in the fields of history, art. Through the Huntington Library Press, the produces the Huntington Library Quarterly. Scholarly pursuits lead to best-selling books, Pulitzer prizes, acclaimed documentary films, the Huntington hosts numerous scholarly events, lectures and workshops
General Prologue
The General Prologue is the first part of Chaucers The Canterbury Tales. The frame story of the poem, as set out in the 858 lines of Middle English which make up the General Prologue, is of a religious pilgrimage. The narrator, Geoffrey Chaucer, is in The Tabard Inn in Southwark, where he meets a group of folk who are all on the way to Canterbury. The setting is April, and the prologue starts by singing the praises of that month whose rains and warm western wind restore life and fertility to the earth and its inhabitants. This abundance of life, the narrator says, prompts people to go on pilgrimages, in England, at the end of the section, the Host proposes the story-telling contest, each pilgrim will tell two stories on the way to Canterbury and two on the way back. Whoever tells the best story, with the best sentence and moost solaas is to be given a free meal, General Prologue The Knights Tale The Millers Tale The Reeves Tale The Cooks Tale The Man of Laws Tale The Tale of Gamelyn intended by Chaucer for The Cooks Tale.
These are introduced in the order of their rank in accordance with the three medieval social estates and these characters, while seemingly realistically described, are representative of their estates and models with which the others in the same estate can be compared and contrasted. The structure of the General Prologue is linked with the narrative style of the tales. As the narrative voice has been under scrutiny for some time. Though fierce debate has taken place on both sides, it should be noted that most contemporary scholars believe that the narrator is meant to be degree of Chaucer himself. Some scholars, like William W. Lawrence, claim that the narrator is Geoffrey Chaucer in person, while others, like Marchette Chute for instance, contest that the narrator is instead a literary creation like the other pilgrims in the tales. Manly attempted to identify pilgrims with real 14th century people, in some instances such as Summoner and Friar, he attempts localization to a small geographic area.
The Man of Law is identified as Thomas Pynchbek who was chief baron of the exchequer, sir John Bussy was an associate of Pynchbek. He is identified as the Franklin, the Pembroke estates near Baldeswelle supplied the portrait for the unnamed Reeve. The following is the first 18 lines of the General Prologue, the text was written in a dialect associated with London and spellings associated with the then-emergent Chancery Standard
Walter William Skeat
Walter William Skeat, FBA, was the pre-eminent English philologist of his time, and was instrumental in developing English as a higher education subject in the United Kingdom. Skeat was born in London and educated at Kings College School, Highgate School, in 1860 Skeat was ordained an Anglican deacon and became a curate in December 1860 at East Dereham, where he served during the year 1861 and most of 1862. In 1862–1863 he was a curate at Godalming, in October 1864 he returned to Cambridge as a mathematical lecturer, remaining in this capacity until 1871. In 1878 he was elected Elrington and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Cambridge, Skeat was the founder and only president of the English Dialect Society from 1873 to 1896. The societys purpose was to collect materials for the publication of the English Dialect Dictionary and his son was the anthropologist Walter William Skeat. His grandsons include the noted palaeographer T. C, Skeat and the stained glass painter Francis Skeat. In pure philology, Skeats principal achievement is his Etymological English Dictionary, while preparing the dictionary he wrote hundreds of short articles on word origins for the London-based journal Notes and Queries.
He coined the term ghost word and was an expert in this treacherous. Skeat was a pioneer of place-name studies, major publications in this field include, A Concise Dictionary of Middle English, in conjunction with A. L. Mayhew A Glossary of Tudor and Stuart Words with A. L. He published an edition of The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer in 1894–97, Skeat edited numerous other works for the Early English Text Society, including the Bruce of John Barbour, Pierce the Ploughmans Crede, and the romances of Havelok the Dane and William of Palerne. For the Scottish Text Society he edited The Kingis Quair, and he published an edition of Chatterton, Skeat issued an edition of Chaucer in one volume for general readers, and a separate edition of his Treatise on the Astrolabe, with a learned commentary. According to A. J. Wyatt, Skeat was not a great teacher and he left the teaching to those who had learned from him---i. e. Wyatt himself and Israel Gollancz---his teaching was episodic. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Hugh, ed.
Skeat. Works by Walter William Skeat at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Walter William Skeat at Internet Archive A Moeso-Gothic glossary Cornell University Library Historical Monographs Collection, Walter William Skeat at Find a Grave
The Second Nun's Tale
The Second Nuns Tale, originally written in late Middle English, is part of Geoffrey Chaucers The Canterbury Tales, which was a collection of 24 stories telling of various people. Told by a nun concerned only with matters, The Second Nuns Tale tells the story of Saint Cecilia. The hagiography was a popular format during the life of Chaucer. Like many of the tales told by the pilgrims, The Second Nuns Tale incorporates elements from Dante, the Invocation to Mary is a nine paragraph portion of the prologue telling of the origin of the name of Cecilia. The Invocation has been argued to draw from other sources in terms of its composure. A virgin maiden, Cecilia, is to be wedded to a man Valerian, Cecilia asks Valerian to swear not to betray her if she tells her secret, that she has an angel that watches over her, with Christianity being a crime at the time. From there Valerian is skeptical and Cecilia asks him to embark on a journey to see Saint Urban, Valerian found Urban who purged him of sin and when Valerian returned he saw Cecilia with an angel.
This angel gave Valerian a single wish, of which Valerian answered to give his brother, Tiberuce appeared and accepted the word of Christ. Valerian Then took Tiburce to Urban, who had condemned to die by the state. Almachuius, the prefect, seizes the martyrs and orders them to abandon their faith or be sentenced to the death, the executioners were converted to Christianity. Both Tiburce and Valerian still come forward for the execution are a show of faith, Almachius orders her dead by a boiling bath, due to her faith Cecilia sits safely in the bath. Almachius orders the executioner to strike thee strikes on her but her head does not fall off, eventually 3 days later, after preaching even in her partially decapitated state, she ascended to heaven and Saint Urban buried her other saints. The Second Nun’s Tale explains the story of a noble lady named Cecilia. A young maiden named Cecilia, from her cradle onward, was devoted to her faith in Christ. However, if he protects Cecilia “in clean love”, the angel would love him, when Valerian asked to see the angel, Cecilia told him that he must “go forth to the Appian Way, ” and get baptized by Saint Urban.
After his baptism, during which he saw God who appeared as an old man in white garments, Valerian returned home. The angel gifted him and Cecilia with two crowns of lilies and roses, and asked that they guard the crowns with “a pure body and unspotted thought. ”The lilies and roses from the crown were fetched by the angel from Paradise. Valerian asked his brother, Tiburce, to come and accept God and know the truth, the angel agreed and called his brother to come
Edith Rickert
Edith Rickert was an influential medieval scholar at the University of Chicago, whose foundational work includes the Chaucer Life-Records and the eight-volume Text of the Canterbury Tales. Rickerts name and achievements are inextricably linked with those of John M. Manly, however, was eclipsed by Manlys shadow and is only now beginning to receive her the recognition she deserves. Manly, John M. & Edith Rickert eds, the Text of the Canterbury Tales, studied on the basis of all known manuscripts, with the aid of Mabel Dean, Helen McIntosh and Others. With a chapter on illuminations by Margaret Rickert,8 vols, new York, Page & Company Rickert, The Greedy Goroo. New York, Doran & Company, Edith, Out of the Cypress Swamp. Edited by Clair C. Olson and Martin M. Crow, oxford University Press, Columbia Univ. Kane, John M. Manly and Edith Rickert, in, Paul G. Ruggiers, ed. Editing Chaucer, Roy Vance, The Manly-Rickert Text of the Canterbury Tales. Scala, Scandalous Assumptions, Edith Rickert and the Chicago Chaucer Project, in, Medieval Feminist Forum, Elizabeth, Miss Rickert of Vassar and Edith Rickert at the University of Chicago, in, Women Medievalists and the Academy, ed.
Jane Chance. Madison, WI, University of Wisconsin Press, pp. 127–45, Sylvia, Editing as Palinode, The Invention of Love and the Text of the Canterbury Tales, in, Exemplaria 16,2, 457–76. University of Chicago Centennial Catalogues Works by Edith Rickert at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Edith Rickert at Internet Archive
The Shipman's Tale
The Shipmans Tale is one of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. It is in the form of a fabliau and tells the story of a merchant, his avaricious wife and her lover. Although similar stories can be found in Boccaccios Decameron, a frequent source for Chaucers tales, the story is a retelling of a folk tale. The tale tells of a merchant whose wife enjoys revelry and socialising, a young monk, who is very close friends with the merchant, comes to stay with them. After confessing that she not love her husband, the wife asks the monk for one hundred franks to pay her debts. When the merchant asks his wife about the money she says it is spent, instead of giving her husband the money back she says she will repay the debt in bed. Apart from a criticism of the clergy, a theme of Chaucers. Also the similar tales often end with both the wife and husband being conned but the addition of the wife, in turn, conning her husband seems to be Chaucers own embellishment. As the wife is tallying her debt in bed the story ends on a pun that we should all, God willing.
In the line he moot us clothe, and he moot us array, the changes give some insight into Chaucers development of the tales and the connections between them. In the BBC1 adaptation of The Shipmans Tale, the setting is an Indian family in modern England, the monks role is played by the merchants business partner who has come from India to set up a shop in England. The wife, beset by problems, sleeps with this man. The business partner breaks up with the wife, and she, feeling jilted, the merchant subsequently sends the other man back to India with a warning, and at the end he reaches across the bed to touch his wifes hand, a hint of possible reconciliation
The Summoner from the Ellesmere Manuscript
