The Writer’s Guild

By Lauren, Ashley, and Matthew

Introduction

Geoffrey Chaucer

Sir Thomas More

William Shakespeare

François Rabelais

Pléiade

Conclusion

Geoffrey Chaucer

• Geoffrey Chaucer was born in 1340, London, England.

• Public servant to Countess Elizabeth of Ulster, fought in Hundred Years' War in France.

• After returning, Chaucer joined the Royal Service, travelling everywhere in Europe!

• He was granted 20 marks for his pension by the King, which was a definite perk of the job.

• In 1366, he married Philippa Roet.

• By 1368 he was made an esquire of King Edward the Third, and when the Queen died, Roet's position was elevated and so was Chaucer’s, as her spouse.

• Then, in 1380, Geoff went and wrote one of his best-known works - the Parliament of Fouls. It was a study of Christian love and it’s inauthenticity, and incorporated irony and sarcasm.

• Canterbury Tales are his most famous works. Despite their questionable chronology, the rhythm of his language and his wit make Chaucer's Tales a win.

Geoffrey Chaucer Continued

• Treatise of the Astrolabe, the Legend of Good Women and Troilus and Criseyde.

• After his wife died he had to work in public services. In his later life he was Clerk of the Works and later a gardener.

• He died on October 25th, 1400. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, his grave being the center of Poet's Corner, a place where other poets were later buried.

• Great poet; funny, witty, and satirical, qualities that shone through in his poems.

• Fluent in many different languages, such as Old English, French, Italian, and Spanish.

• Aware how different cultures conducted themselves. Believed we should emulate those that were great before us.

• Did this very thing with his own great works, although creating some new techniques that would label him as one of the greats.

• He saw the world as a good place, and wrote his works to try and make it better.

Sir Thomas More

• Lived from February 7, 1478, to July 6, 1535.

• Attended St. Anthony’s School and worked for the archbishop of Canterbury.

• Accepted into Oxford University where he studied literature, but returned home to practice law when he was 16, until he became a full member 5 years later.

• Decided to become a monk in 1503, but abandoned the monk life a year after joining.

• More produced many significant works in the following time period, including:

• History of King Richard III, Defence of the Seven Sacraments, and Utopia

• He also worked with the King, as his treasurer, intelligent confidant, and even a speaker person in the House of Commons.

• His relationship took a turn for the worst in 1527, when More did not agree with King Henry’s plans of divorce to his first wife and retired from his House of Commons position due to the King’s anger.

Sir Thomas More Continued

• More’s absence at the King’s second wife’s coronation, an alliance with an enemy of the King, and More’s refusal to allow the King to be the Supreme Head of the English Church found him guilty of treason in late April, 1534.

• A year later, he was beheaded. He became a Saint 400 years later in 1935.

• Stood up for his beliefs and refused some of the King’s wishes because of religion - his last words were “The King’s good servant, but God’s first.”

• Showed the common people that they could stand up to the head of power.

• He also affected worldview through his creation of the utopian genre, which would help spread ideas and help revolutionize fictional literature.

• Believed that the world could be a great place, but that it could use some improvements, which is why he founded the utopian genre. He also most likely thought that people should stand up for their beliefs.

William Shakespeare

~Early Years

William Shakespeare first recorded date of existence that we still possess is April 26, 1564. William was the Third kid in his family and had 5 siblings. William was married Nov. 28 1582, and then later had 3 children in 1583 and twins in 1585.

~Accomplishments

William Shakespeare wrote a lot of plays from 1597 onward. But for these plays he needed a theatre which was later called the Globe, so for 440 Pounds he bought a large amount of rel estate and performed his plays there. After a while the land he bought had its value raised a lot and the land made him 60 Pounds every year.

~Death

William Shakespeare Died April 5, 1616. When he died he left the majority of his possessions to his eldest daughter Susanna. A long time after his death he was doubted for the authorship of his plays. Later on in the 1900s Authorship returned to William Shakespeare.

~What He is Today

Today William Shakespeare is a renowned author throughout the world, and probably one of the best. His plays are still used in modern day and have a lot of meaning to society.

William Shakespeare Continued

• Shakespeare was a member of the Anglican Church which was just being established. But he may have been secretly Catholic.

• We don’t really know what Shakespeare thought of the environment.

• William Shakespeare spoke Old English, and not many other languages.

• William Shakespeare was very rich and had a high status in his community.

François Rabelais

• François Rabelais was born in 1494, near Chinon, Indre-et-Loire.

• His mother was a homemaker, his father a lawyer.

• He later left a Franciscan monastery to study at 2 universities.

• In 1532, he moved to Lyon, to work as a physician at a hospital, Hôtel-Dieu.

• He used his spare time (that must be limited) to write funny pamphlets which displayed his own take on the way things were run, and on humanism.

• Using the pseudonym Alcofribas Naiser, Rabelais published the Pantagruel series, a collection of books about a giant father and son, and their friends.

• While his books were amusing, they were nonconformist. The Sordonne and the Roman Catholic Church were angry about this and did not want his books to be published.

François Rabelais Continued

• With the help of his friends, the du Bellays he convinced King François the First to allow him to continue to publish his collection.

• There was the concept that man could act of his own free will, which was not at all normal. People usually thought that a religious power pulled them out of bed, allowed them to eat and drink. Rabelais suggested that people rose out of bed because they felt like it, and ate because they were hungry, and drank because they were thirsty.

• François then travelled with the du Bellay family to Rome. He died 1553, in Paris, France.

• François Rabelais's legacy lived on, numerous esteemed authors calling him, "the best" and, "the founder of an entire art". He was one of the few to write about mystical creatures like giants, and brought humanism to a much greater spotlight than it had ever been in before.

• Believed, religiously, that naturally men were inclined away from sin, and that men acted of their own free will – not common at all. In his books, he described life as laidback and with ups and downs because of our own faults and successes. The common folk believed that life was about gaining honor, taking glory, and being directed by some religious power.

La Pléiade

• Made up of Jean Dorat, Rémy Belleau, Étienne Jodelle, Joachim du Bellay, Jean-Antoine de Baïf, Pontus de Tyard, and their leader, Pierre de Ronsard.

• French writers of the Renaissance times• Derived their name from a group of seven poets who

lived in the Alexandrian cities between 200 and 300 B.C. • Their goal was to demonstrate how French literature

could be just as exquisite as classical literature, and that French could also be expressed in poetry.

• These aims have all been printed in Défence et illustration de la langue Francoise, which conveys their enthusiasm towards enriching the use of French language in literature.

• Accomplished this through utilizing more French vocabulary, both new words and old.

La Pléiade

• Also expanded in the area of poetry, by introducing versions of verses that had not been used before in French literature. The most significant of these was called the alexandrine verse, which has 12 syllables in each line, and rhyming couplets.

• Some of the first people to make a mark in the history of literature in the French Renaissance.

• Helped spread the Renaissance through other languages and audiences.

• Also helped to transfer knowledge and philosophies throughout different demographics, which would certainly affect worldviews.

• As a group, they believed that French literature could be just as successful as other languages, and that French poetry could also be a popular form of literature.

Conclusion

• In conclusion, writers have greatly impacted the growth of the Renaissance by sharing and spreading new ideas throughout the world, and making sure that their personal views were heard.

• The stories they wrote were the basis of new inventions and thoughts in those times. Geoffrey Chaucer, Thomas More, William Shakespeare, Francois Rabelais, and the Pleiade each contributed to the society in their own unique way. 

Sources

• http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/exhibns/chaucer/influences.html

• http://www.biography.com/people/geoffrey-chaucer-9245691

• http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/487941/Francois-Rabelais

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Rabelais

• http://www.pleiade.org/pleiades_04.html

• http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/464546/La-Pleiade

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Pl%C3%A9iade

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance_literature

• Sir Thomas More. [Internet]. 2014. The Biography.com website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/thomas-more-9414278 [Accessed 17 Oct 2014].

• http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/t/thomasmore383285.html#Wj0w9cJzLVyeOq3o.99

• http://www.shmoop.com/utopia-more/

• http://www.shmoop.com/william-shakespeare/

• http://www.biography.com/people/william-shakespeare-9480323