The Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales ("Cerita-cerita Canterbury") adalah sebuah koleksi cerita yang ditulis oleh Geoffrey Chaucer pada abad ke-14 (dua dalam bentuk prosa atau gancaran dan yang lainnya dalam bentuk puisi atau syair). Cerita-cerita ini yang beberapa di antaranya adalah cerita asli dan yang lain tidak, terkandung dalam sebuah cerita bingkai dan diceritakan oleh para peziarah yang berada dalam perjalanan dari Southwark ke Canterbury untuk mengunjungi monumen Santo Thomas Becket di dekat Katedral Canterbury[1]. The Canterbury Tales ditulis dalam bahasa Inggris Pertengahan.
Daftar cerita
Tema-tema cerita ini sangatlah bervariasi dan meliputi banyak topik seperti cinta kerajaan, pengkhianatan dan kerakusan. Jenis-jenis genre cerita juga bervariasi dan meliputi cerita ksatria (romans), cerita cinta Bretagne (Breton lai), khotbah dan cerita fabel. Tokoh-tokoh cerita yang diperkenalkan di dalam General Prologue mengisahkan cerita-cerita yang penting ditilik dari sudut pandang budaya.
Cerita-cerita ini termasuk:
- The General Prologue ("Prolog Umum")
- The Knight's Tale ("Cerita sang ksatria")
- The Miller's Prologue and Tale ("Prolog dan cerita tukang kincir")
- The Reeve's Prologue and Tale ("Prolog dan cerita sang polisi")
- The Cook's Prologue and Tale ("Prolog dan cerita si koki")
- The Man of Law's Prologue and Tale ("Prolog dan cerita sang pengacara")
- The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale("Prolog dan cerita wanita dari Bath")
- The Friar's Prologue and Tale ("Prolog dan cerita sang bruder")
- The Summoner's Prologue and Tale ("Prolog dan cerita petugas pengadilan")
- The Clerk's Prologue and Tale ("Prolog dan cerita sang juru tulis")
- The Merchant's Prologue and Tale ("Prolog dan cerita sang pedagang")
- The Squire's Prologue and Tale ("Prolog dan cerita serdadu")
- The Franklin's Prologue and Tale ("Prolog dan cerita sang tuan tanah")
- The Physician's Tale ("Prolog dan cerita sang dokter")
- The Pardoner's Prologue and Tale ("Prolog dan cerita sang pengampun")
- The Shipman's Tale ("Prolog dan cerita sang pelayar")
- The Prioress' Prologue and Tale("Prolog dan cerita biarawati senior")
- Chaucer's Tale of Sir Topas ("Cerita Chaucer mengenai Sir Topas")
- The Tale of Melibee ("Cerita Melibee")
- The Monk's Prologue and Tale ("Prolog dan cerita sang biarawan")
- Chanticleer and the Fox ("Chanticleer dan si rubah")
- The Second Nun's Prologue and Tale ("Prolog dan cerita sang biarawati yang kedua")
- The Canon's Yeoman's Prologue and Tale ("Prolog dan cerita sang petani")
- The Manciple's Prologue and Tale ("Prolog dan cerita sang penjaga gedung")
- The Parson's Prologue and Tale ("Prolog dan cerita diakon")
- Chaucer's Retraction ("Pernyataan Chaucer")
Some of the tales are serious and others humorous; however, all are very precise in describing the traits and faults of human nature. Religious malpractice is a major theme as well as focusing on the division of the three estates. Most of the tales are interlinked with similar themes running through them and some are told in retaliation for other tales in the form of an argument. The work is incomplete, as it was originally intended that each character would tell four tales, two on the way to Canterbury and two on the return journey. This would have meant a possible one hundred and twenty tales which would have dwarfed the twenty-six tales actually written.
People have sought political overtones within the tales, particularly as Chaucer himself was a significant courtier and political figure at the time, close to the corridors of power. There are many hints at contemporary events, although few are proven, and the theme of marriage common in the tales is presumed to refer to several different marriages, most often those of John of Gaunt. Aside from Chaucer himself, Harry Bailly of the Tabard Inn was a real person and the Cook has been identified as quite likely to be Roger Knight de Ware, a contemporary London cook.
Catatan kaki
- ^ Monumen ini di kemudian hari dihancurkan oleh para iconoclasts ("perusak simbol") Protestan yang mentafsirkan perintah Henry VIII secara bebas untuk menyita aset biara-biara. Sekarang sebuah atraksi pariwisata bernama The Canterbury Tales bisa dikunjungi di Canterbury di St. Margets Street [1].