Created for our Gifted Workshop Winter 2013

1. By Geoffrey Chaucer
William Carey University
Gifted Creativity Workshop
Saturday January 19, 2013

2.  The Canterbury Tales is the most
famous and critically acclaimed work
of Geoffrey Chaucer, a late-
fourteenth-century English poet.
 Chaucer’s original plan for The
Canterbury Tales was for each
character to tell four tales, two on the
way to Canterbury and two on the
way back.
 But, instead of 120 tales, the text
ends after twenty-four tales, and the
party is still on its way to Canterbury.

3.  Chaucer either planned to
revise the structure to stop the
work at twenty-four tales, or
else left it incomplete when he
died on October 25, 1400.
 William Caxton, England’s first
printer, published The
Canterbury Tales in the 1470s,
and it continued to enjoy a rich
printing history that never truly
faded.

4.  The pilgrims in The Canterbury Tales traveled to
the shrine of St. Thomas Becket.
 He was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 until
his murder in 1170.
 He engaged in conflict with Henry II of
England over the rights and privileges of the
Church and was murdered by followers of the
king in Canterbury Cathedral.
 Becket's tomb became one of the most
popular pilgrimage sites in England.

5. At the Tabard Inn, a
tavern in Southwark, near
London, the narrator joins
a company of twenty-nine
pilgrims. The pilgrims, like
the narrator, are traveling
to the shrine of the martyr
Saint Thomas Becket in
Canterbury.

7. Today we will introduce you to five of
the pilgrims. You will learn about them
and why they are traveling to the shrine.
 The Wife of Bath
 The Prioress
 The Monk
 The Merchant
 The Physician

8.  She is a seamstress by occupation
 She has been married five times
and had many other affairs in her
youth, making her well practiced in
the art of love.
 She takes pleasure in rich attire,
talking, and arguing.
 She is deaf in one ear and has a
gap between her front teeth, which
was considered attractive in
Chaucer’s time.

9.  Modest and quiet, the head
nun of her convent.
 She has exquisite taste and
dresses well.
 Her table manners are dainty
and she is charitable and
compassionate.
 She knows French (though
not the French of the court).

10.  Most monks of the Middle Ages
devoted their lives to “work and
prayer.”
 This Monk cares little for the
Rule.
 His devotion is to hunting and
eating.
 He is large, has a shiny face
and a shiny bald head, along
with bulging, darting eyes.
 He is loud, and well clad in
hunting boots and furs. His hood
is fastened with an expensive
gold clasp.

11.  He is arrogant and gives his
opinion on English trade
policies in a pompous manner.
 He has a forked beard and is
well dressed with fashionable
motley colored clothes, stylish
Flemish beaver hat and
expensive boots.
 He is a representative of the
rising middle classes.

12.  The Physician is one of the best in his
profession, for he knows the cause of
every disease or ailment and can cure
most of them.
 He was also highly trained in
astronomy.
 Though the Physician keeps himself in
perfect physical health, he devoted little
time to read the Bible.
 He had made a lot of money during the
plague and clung to it as if his very life
depended on it. He has an unhealthy
love of financial gain.

13.  We want you to create your own pilgrims to
join the caravan to journey with them to the
shrine.
 You have met up with them at the tavern
and will continue the rest of the way on the
journey together.
 Grab a partner and decide what type of
pilgrim you will be.

14.  You are your partner will decide on
what your pilgrims will look like, what
their profession will be.
 You will also create their background
story.
 Decide why your pilgrims are traveling
to the shrine.

15.  In the next station you will write your story.
 After that, you will get the chance to make
your costumes.
 Later you and your partner will create a
backdrop or background for your
characters.
 Finally you will perform your small plays for
the rest of the group!
Let’s get started!!!