English 4260: Chaucer                 Final Exam Preview

I. Seven or eight of these terms will appear on the midterm, where you will be asked to identify five or six of them in a sentence or two, and to indicate their relevance to the Chaucer texts we’ve studied. (±30%)

rash promise

regulars, seculars, mendicants

St. Hugh of Lincoln

Albertanus of Brescia

tail-rhyme romance

sermon joyeux

4th Lateran Council

CAIM

Cecily Champain

Adversus Jovinianum

affective piety

beast fable

cupiditas

De casibus virorum illustrium

narracio

floating fragment

Fürstenspiegel

hagiography

humours

“the lover’s gift regained”

II. There will be a selection of passages drawn from our reading (CT from WB through Parson), which you will be asked to identify (text, speaker, situation) and comment upon (significance). (±40%)

III. You will be asked to write one essay (±30%). There are three potential essay topics that you should begin thinking about:

(a) interruptions in the Canterbury Tales and their possible non-dramatic or extra-dramatic significance (i.e., explanations that go beyond one pilgrim being mad at another)

(b) Chaucer’s treatment of marriage in tales generally not considered part of the “Marriage Group” (i.e., not WB, Clerk, Merchant, Franklin)

(c) the topic of lordship in the Canterbury Tales (or Chaucer’s poetry generally)