Poetry Assignment 1

This document analyzes and compares the humor of Geoffrey Chaucer and Alexander Pope. It discusses how Chaucer used humor in The Canterbury Tales to portray characters in an amusing yet sympathetic way. His humor sprang from keen observation of individual quirks and peculiarities. The document also summarizes Pope's use of mock-epic elements in The Rape of the Lock to satirize and ridicule the vanities of 18th century high society. While Chaucer's humor aimed to improve characters, Pope's was more critical of social manners and behaviors of the time. Both drew upon first-hand experiences to effectively incorporate humor into their influential literary works.

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Poetry Assignment 1

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Saim Rauf
Sir Umer khan
ENG 3103
21 December 2015

Humour of Chaucer and Pope

Before dealing with the humour of Chaucer and Pope, I will like to commence my essay by
mentioning the definition of humour. `` Humour is the sympathetic appreciation of the comic, the
faculty which enables us to love while we laugh.`` Chaucer is called the first humorist of English
literature. No English literary work before him exposes humour in the modern sense. And
Chaucer is a greater humorist than Boccaccio. His humour is harmonious all pervasive and
intense as we find in Shakespeares plays. He paints all the characters in The Prologue in a
humorous manner.
The point of view of Chaucer is the same as of the humorist. He is a comic poet who wanders
gaily through life taking the notice of every trifle as he passes. He possesses the ability of
amused observation in a pre-eminent degree.

Chaucer through his humour points out those

enduring peculiarities, those little oddities and harmless weaknesses which give a character a
warm place in our affections. Chaucer's humour is essentially English. It is born of a strong
commonsense and a generous sympathy; and there are the qualities of the greatest English
humorists like Shakespeare and Fielding. R.K. Root terms Chaucer's humour as protean in its

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variety", ranging from broad farce and boisterous horseplay in the tales of the Miller and the
Summoner to the sly insinuations of Knight's Tale and the infinitely graceful burlesque of Sir
Thomas. Every intermediate stage between these extremes is represented, the most characteristic
mean between the two being found, perhaps, in the tales of the Nun's Priest.
In the Prologue, except in his handling of the Monk and the Friar, there is no sting in it. As
Legouis puts it ``Chaucer does not treat with disdain those whose foolishness he has fathomed,
nor does he turn away in disgust from the rascal whose tricks he has detected.`` Chaucer totally
falls within the domain of humour if humour can be defined as "the sympathetic appreciation of
the comic", i.e. the capacity which enables us to laughbut to laugh affectionately and
sympathetically, then Chaucer was indeed a great humorist. Chaucer makes us appreciate a
character even when laughing at it. Moreover, Chaucer invariably makes more fun of the
individual than of the institution to which he belongs. "Mockery," says Legouis, "either discreet
or uproarious never withered in him the gift of poetry."
Cazamian observes that Chaucer's humour springs from the rich fields of character. He derives
pleasure from the "quaintness of individuality". By his keen observation and insight, he detects
incongruities in men and women and presents before his readers in an amusing manner. Some of
the facts are quite trivial in themselves but become amusing in the way Chaucer tells them e.g.
the Squire's locks which look as if they were laid in the press, the hat of the Wife of Bath
weighing 19 lbs., the Reeve's thin legs, the Franklin's weakness for sharp sauce, etc.
Chaucer's humour in the Prologue derives from the fact that he is himself one of the pilgrims,
one of the original twenty-nine. He is both actor and spectator and both he and his audience
enjoy the antics which this clever arrangements enables him to perform. As pilgrim-narrator, he

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often discloses to his readers something about a character which none of the other pilgrims could
possibly know, but which adds something important to our impression of the person concerned.
For example, he reveals to the delight of the readers that the Merchant was in debt and the
Prioress sang the divine service intoning through the nose while she would not like to do so
outside her convent.
Chaucer's humour in the Prologue is also due to his unconventional descriptive style. He
deliberately departs from the artificial, lifeless forms of traditional portraiture and addresses
himself to strikingly realistic or lifelike portrayals which by their very realism of speech and
idiom make the incident or the object delightful.
Not least among the manifestations of Chaucer's humour is the quality of exaggeration. The
merry Friar with his twinkling eyes is the best beggar in his friary ; the Franklin has not his
equal; in all the world there was none like the Doctor of Physic; the Shipman had no peer from
'Hulle to Cartage'; and in cloth-making the Wife of Bath excelled even the matchless weavers of
Ypres and Ghent. Chaucer even does not spare himself and says:
My wit is short, ye may well understonde
To conclude, Chaucer's humour is one of the greatest assets of his poetic art. As ComptonRickett says, indeed for all his considerable power, pathos, his happy fancy, his lucid
imagination, it is as a great humorist that he lingers longest in our memories, with humour, rich,
profound and sane, devoid of spite and cynicism, irradiated by a genial kindliness and a
consummate knowledge of human nature.
Now we will deal with the humour of Alexander Pope. In 'The Rape of the Lock' Alexander Pope
(1688-1744) employs a mock-epic style to satirise the fashionable world and society of the elite

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of eighteenth-century England. His physical appearance, frequently ridiculed by his enemies,

undoubtedly gave an edge to Pope's satire (humour aimed at human weaknesses), but he was
always warmhearted and generous in his affection for his many friends.
The Rape of the Lock (1712) immediately made Pope famous as a poet. It was a long humorous
poem in the classical style (likeness to ancient Greek and Roman writing). Instead of treating the
subject of heroic deeds, though, the poem was about the attempt of a young man to get a lock of
hair from his beloved's head. It was based on a true event that happened to people he knew. Pope,
refashioned Virgil`s Aeneid or Homer`s Odyssey just for a lock of hair. In the rape of the lock,
he also seems to be making fun of the epic conventions. He portrays highly formal diction,
sacrifice to the god, catalogue of armies, battle scenes, descent into the underworld, the
intercession of the general, exhortation of the general to the troops, invocation of muse etc just
for the sake of a lock of hair and this thing forces the reader to laugh heartily.
The Rape of the Lock is a humorous indictment of the vanities and idleness of 18th-century high
society. The Rape of Lock has been used to mock the original situation to mock the original
trivial reaction to show that how ridiculous the reactions were. Basing his poem on a real
incident among families of his acquaintance, Pope intended his verses to cool hot tempers and to
encourage his friends to laugh at their own folly. Pope seems to be doing a number of things
through his poem by using his masterpiece as he can be seen ridiculing the shallowness and
useless frivolity in the upper class.
So we can see that in the case of Chaucer`s humour, we laugh at a person in such a way so that
he could improve himself rather than disgracing him but on the other hand the humour of Pope is
not that light. He is just criticizing the social manners and social behavior of the time and

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portrays society as vain and idle. The richness of the poem, in the case of Pope
however, reveals more than a straight forward satirical attack. Both of the writers
are the narrators of their sui generis literary productions. Both of these prolific
writers experienced the sources of their poems at a first hand and produced the
humour in their literary productions which is considered best of all times. Chaucer
was himself a part of the pilgrimage while Pope was called by the people in order to
resolve the conflict between the two families. So this proves that if you have
experienced some event at a first -hand then you don`t fail to portray it in your
artifact.