English 4260: Chaucer Midterm Exam Preview

English 4260: Chaucer Midterm Exam

I. Identify five of the following terms in a few sentences, and indicate their relevance to the Chaucer texts we’ve studied so far this semester. (30%)

demande d’amour Heroides occupatio

Ellesmere MS hortus conclusus rhyme royal

fragment prosimetrum wheel of Fortune

De miseria condicionis humane

II. Identify FIVE of the following passages in three or four sentences. Be sure to name the work from which the passage is drawn, note the speaker and the situation, and describe the significance of the passage in its context—its thematic or literary or philosophical or generic or structural importance (40%).

And therfore every gentil wight I preye,

For Goddes love, demeth nat that I seye

Of yvel entente, but for I moot reherce

Hir tales alle, be they bettre or werse, Miller’s Prologue 3171-3180

Or elles falsen some of my mateere.

And therfore, whoso list it nat yheere,

Turne over the leef and chese another tale;

For he shal fynde ynowe, grete and smale,

Of storial thyng that toucheth gentilesse,

And eek moralitee and hoolynesse.

Thorgh me men gon into that blysful place

Of hertes hele and dedly woundes cure;

Thorgh me men gon unto the wel of grace, PF 126-33

There grene and lusty May shal evere endure.

This is the way to al good aventure.

Be glad, thow redere, and thy sorwe of-caste;

Al open am I--passe in, and sped thee faste!

In al this world, to seken up and doun,

So evene, withouten variacioun,

Ther nere swiche compaignyes tweye, Knight’s Tale 2587-2594

For ther was noon so wys that koude seye

That any hadde of oother avauntage

Of worthynesse, ne of estaat, ne age,

So evene were they chosen, for to gesse.

And in two renges faire they hem dresse.

The cause of this mistake is that people think that the totality of their knowledge depends on the nature and capacity to be known of the objects of knowledge. But this is all wrong. Everything that is known is comprehended not according to its own nature, but according to the ability to know of those who do the knowing.

Boethius Consolation of Philosophy Book 5

Jalous he was, and heeld her narwe in cage,

For she was wylde and yong, and he was old,

And demed himself been lik a cokewold.

He knew nat Catoun, for his wit was rude, Miller’s Tale 3224-3232

That bad man sholde wedde his similitude.

Men sholden wedden after hire estate,

For youthe and elde is often at debaat.

But sith that he was fallen in the snare,

He moste endure, as oother folk, his care.

Loo the ook, that hath so long a norisshynge

From tyme that it first bigynneth to sprynge,

And hath so long a lif, as we may see,

Yet at the laste wasted is the tree.

Considereth eek how that the harde stoon Knight’s Tale 3017-3026

Under oure feet, on which we trede and goon,

Yet wasteth it as it lyth by the weye.

The brode ryver somtyme wexeth dreye;

The grete tounes se we wane and wende.

Thanne may ye se that al this thyng hath ende.

Or elles, sire, for that this man is nyce,

He may translate a thyng in no malyce,

But for he useth bokes for to make,

And take non hed of what matere he take, LGW G Prol 340-47

Therfore he wrote the Rose and ek Crisseyde

Of innocence, and nyste what he seyde.

Or hym was boden make thilke tweye

Of som persone, and durste it not withseye…

And I seyde his opinion was good.
What sholde he studie and make hymselven wood,
Upon a book in cloystre alwey to poure,
Or swynken with his handes, and laboure,
As Austyn bit? How shal the world be served? General Prologue 183-192
Lat Austyn have his swynk to hym reserved!
Therfore he was a prikasour aright:
Grehoundes he hadde as swift as fowel in flight;
Of prikyng and of huntyng for the hare
Was al his lust, for no cost wolde he spare.