ENGLISH 45A Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Double Negative, Geoffrey Chaucer, Pus
Document Summary
Chaucer the pilgrim (narrator) can be dense, very easily impressed by each of the other pilgrims. Well crude = could = past tense of can but also denoting knowledge or skill. Chaucer the poet leaves more ambiguous (ironic) descriptions for reader interpretation while. Chaucer the pilgrim leaves good descriptions and the word koude to describe them. In the story about the chef his best dish is blancmange (rice pudding) which looks a little like pus. He is described by chaucer the pilgrim as a good chef that can distinguish ale. He himself has pus oozing from his shin. The first eighteen lines of the general prologue is essentially one long cluster of subordinate clauses that explain the condition of spring. There is a constant zooming frame of reference reconfiguring the eye of the mind to look at different ways in which it is spring.
