Geoffrey Chaucer and Giovanni Boccaccio

1. Striking similarities Decameron - Canterbury Tales

2. Vernacular language: Middle English (Chaucer) and Florentine dialect (Boccaccio)

3. Prologue describes society

4. Frame and novel structure

5. Chaucer writes in a non-polite/rude language

6. Knight's Tale - "Il Teseida"The Knight's Tale

7. Courtly love and ancient mythology

8. Merchant's Tale - "Lydia and Phyrrus"

9. Franklin's Tale -"Il Filocolo" and "A garden in January"

10. Not a Canterbury novel, but

11. Troilus

12. Based on "Il Filostrato" and Ancient mythology

13. Differences

14. Various social classes

15. Chaucer: yes, more creative!

16. Boccaccio - prose Chaucer - verse (heroic couplet - rhyming iambic pentameters)

17. Boccaccio: no

18. VS. Miller's Tale

19. Frame: introducing historical contest and character. Novel: each character tells a story

20. 14th century

21. Griselda (Clerck's Novel)

22. Italian Trecento

22.1. Francis Petrarch

22.2. Dante Alighieri

22.3. Giovanni Boccaccio

23. Chaucer: more character, less written novels Boccaccio: less character, more written novels

24. Similar novels