Arts and Culture
Geoffrey Chaucer wrote during the reign of Richard II, who very much appreciated the arts and culture of the time. We see this in The Miller's Tale when Chaucer describes what is in Nicholas' bedroom.
His Almageste and books grere and smale,
His astrelabie longynge for his art,
Hise augrym stones layen faire apart
On shelves couched at his beddes heed"
Nicholas is described not by his valor in battle or honor in the court but instead it is mentioned at great lengths the many skills he has, including the fact that he is studying one of the many scholarly arts which were popular at that time. Chaucer then goes on to describe what Nicholas is wearing and his skills as a musician.
His presse ycovered with a faldyng reed,
And al above ther lay a gay sautrie
On which he made a nyghtes melodie
So swetely that al the chambre song,
And Angelus ad viriginem he song,
And after that he song The Kynges Noote;
Full often blessed was his myrie throte!
Again Nicholas is shown not as a brave knight but as a talented musician. He is shown to be very cultured as well as studied. Chaucer shows that Nicholas was skilled in the art of music, as he knew these certain songs which might have been quite popular at the time. What Nicholas wears could also be here to show that Nicholas wore clothes befitting his social class status. This focus on what a person could wear based on status was also important to Richard II.
Read more about this topic: The Miller's Tale
Famous quotes containing the words arts and, arts and/or culture:
“I too have arts and sorceries;
Illusion dwells forever with the wave.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Having a thirteen-year-old in the family is like having a general-admission ticket to the movies, radio and TV. You get to understand that the glittering new arts of our civilization are directed to the teen-agers, and by their suffrage they stand or fall.”
—Max Lerner (b. 1902)
“... there are some who, believing that all is for the best in the best of possible worlds, and that to-morrow is necessarily better than to-day, may think that if culture is a good thing we shall infallibly be found to have more of it that we had a generation since; and that if we can be shown not to have more of it, it can be shown not to be worth seeking.”
—Katharine Fullerton Gerould (1879–1944)