'Canterbury Tales' at Lyons discussion

A session entitled 'It Ain't English: Why We Say What We Say, and How It Got That Way,' will be held on April 25 at noon and again at 7 p.m. Lecturer/researcher Victor Harris will examine the evolution of the English language by examining Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer's most famous work that was written in the late 1380s, is a collection of stories of various kinds derived mainly from Italian and other European sources drawn together by the notion of a pilgrimage.

In the Middle Ages it was not uncommon for people of different social classes to join together as pilgrims as they would not elsewhere in life.

You will hear pilgrims tell stories to each other in an appropriate style for their characters after they have offered their own unique prologues (the Wife of Baths is particularly interesting and shows an almost proto- feminist attitude). Usually the tales are popular or well known stories to which Chaucer adds or removes details to suit his purpose.

There is a great mixture of serious and comical, sacred and profane here though it should be noted that the writer added a retraction at the end of his (in fact incomplete) Tales to reduce the chance of vengeance from God. This seems wise after the images of hot pokers going where hot pokers should certainly not go and other lewdness in 'The Miller's Tale' and elsewhere. The language is very different to our own in the sense that it has more French roots that English has now lost so it is advisable to think of the lines as being spoken with a French accent at the end of words and an Anglo-Saxon grit in their middles.

Subsequent meetings of this series will be held every two weeks through June 20 and will examine Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain, 1984 by George Orwell, and The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter. Meet at Lyons Community Center on 9 Manhattan St. Ext.; free and open to the public.

To pre-register, call Sharon Lubitow (946.3367), Andi Evangelist (946.9340).

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