Chaucerian thuggin'

    Believe it or not, this is the best rap of The Canterbury Tales that we could find in the entire vast land of internet that is completely faithful to Chaucer's writing. These dudes are clearly academics, hence the brutal attempts at dressing and acting hip-hop. However, it is really cool to see how Chaucer's verse can be adapted to our modern structure of music. Their pronunciation of Chaucer is great and no one can deny their fresh Beastie Boy flow.



    Of course, there are other approaches to the Chaucer rap that might be better for teaching a classroom of kids the plot of certain tales (rather than focusing on pronunciation). Here is a good modernized rap adaptation of the Pardoner's Tale:

NAKED CHAUCER!

    The 2001 film, A Knight's Tale, follows William Thatcher — a peasant who disguises himself as a noble knight in order to compete as a jouster — and his crew of followers, which includes a writer named Geoffrey Chaucer. Yes, it is thee Chaucer.
     One of Chaucer's final lines in the film is, "I think I'm going to have to write some of this story down," so it's logical to assume the director intended to use the film's narrative as a hypothetical inspiration for Chaucer's "Knight's Tale" or The Canterbury Tales. In fact, in the DVD's special features, the director includes a featurette about the character and how he was hoping to explore the influences behind Chaucer's own writings.
    These influences, however, are kind of sparse or stretched for a few of reasons.
    First, the plot of the film is in no way parallel to Chaucer's "Knight's Tale," so it hardly serves as the hypothetical influence for Chaucer's plot — although it could be argued that the character's general distaste towards nobility and the film's over-the-top courtly love theme influenced Chaucer's satire of the knight.
    Second, while the characters of the summoner and the pardoner are in the film, and Chaucer states about them, "I will eviscerate you in fiction — every last pimple, every last character flaw. I was naked for a day, you will be naked for eternity," Chaucer's hatred for the two stems from a personal relationship and not a social commentary. It might have been a legitimate theory, except, by giving Chaucer a gambling addiction through which the summoner and pardoner take advantage of him, the director undermines the social statements made about the Church in The Canterbury Tales.
    Third, Chaucer's relationship with his wife in the film is excellent and he woos her with cheesy courtly love whisperings — I am under the impression that Chaucer and his wife did not have the greatest relationship and that Chaucer did not like the courtly love tradition.
    Nevertheless, the film is great at providing a funny perspective on Chaucer the writer. It really plays up the comedic abilities of Chaucer, shows his ability to make fun of everything and everyone, shows his great ability to speak publicly, and shows his ability to influence people with his words. In the special features the director refers to his character as the "original sportscaster" and compares Chaucer to Don King.
    It even explores his hypocrisy in criticizing the summoner and the pardoner, as he is presented as one who will write anything for money just as they will sell religious relics for money; he writes "paintings of nobility" AKA fraudulent birth papers without any moral contemplation and states, "For a penny, I'll write anything you want."
    The best aspect, however, is his advocacy for equality. He tries to argue that Thatcher, born a peasant, should still be able to be a knight. This is a major theme in the The Canterbury Tales — the removal of social hierarchies — and it translates well into the character in the film.
    Finally, he is nude three times in the movie and it is hilarious; nothing is more funny than a pasty, skinny white man with a tiny butt.

Here's a clip from the movie in which Chaucer speaks to large crowds: