Hofisch-ritterlich Dichtung und sozialhistorische Realitat bei Chaucer

Description: Medieval courtly literature must be seen as a reflection of the chivalric ideal. The chivalric ideal in England was less integrated than on the Continent because it was the ideal of an alien Norman aristocracy. Native English landowners were reluctant to become knights. With the evolution of Parliament, they took the battle of knights of the shire, which connoted administrative not warlike activity.; Chaucer's poetry shows tension between the ideals of chivalry and a pragmatic commonsense. The confrontation with the chivalric ideal is implicit in BD. In PF it becomes explicit in the contrast between chivalric excess and common sense. The tragedy of TC results when Troilus' chivalric idealism prevents him from behaving rationally. CT presents various aspects of the confrontation between chivalry and common sense.