Lesson video

Hi, welcome to today's English lesson.

This is lesson 12, "The Canterbury Tales, The Knight's Tale".

And today we've reached the end of our series of Canterbury Tales, Knight's Tale's lessons.

And what we'll be doing today is going through a summary of the overall of "The Knight's Tale" before going into detail to think about how we write about language regarding love and the respect of courtly love in "The Knight's Tale".

Before we start, make sure you've got a pen and a paper to be able to get on with some note taking today or anything else to write with and to write on.

Also, if you've got any applications or notifications in the background then perhaps think about shutting those down so you're not distracted during the video.

If you'd like to do that, then pause the video and take a chance to do that now.

Okay, fantastic.

Let's make a start then.

So in the last lesson in the series, we came to the end of "The Knight's Tale".

And in this lesson, we're going to do a whistle stop tour through the entirety of the plot thinking about courtly love all the way through.

So let's make a start.

"The Knight's Tale" is one of the series of tales told during a pilgrimage that happens in Geoffrey Chaucer's mediaeval epic, "The Canterbury Tales".

It is a mediaeval romance of chivalry and courtly love.

If you're unfamiliar with those terms, it's probably worth going back into our earlier videos and spending a little bit of time refreshing and recapping your knowledge.

Let's start off with a gap fill exercise here.

Then in a second, you're going to look at these three sentences and copy them out in your note pad please, filling in the missing gaps.

If you could do that now, pause the video.

Okay, fantastic effort.

Let's see how you got on there then.

Sentence one, The Canterbury Tales is written during the mediaeval period.

We worked that out during the 13th century, "The Canterbury Tales" was written by Geoffrey Chaucer.

Statement two, "The Knight's Tale" is a tale of chivalry and courtly love.

Those two key terms that we keep returning to especially today, courtly love.

And sentence three, the code of chivalry.

The code of chivalry places religion, glory, and the honour of women above all else.

If you've got all three of those right then massive congratulations to you.

If not, then feel free to go back and check on your learning from earlier videos.

Let's move on with our recap.

So in our story, the Duke Theseus, we can see in the top left hand corner there was fighting in Thebes to get to king called Creon.

Two of Creon's knights Palamon and Arcite were injured despite fighting bravely.

Being a chivalrous knight, Theseus takes them back to Athens to heal them.

He saves their lives but at the same time, they are his enemies so he does imprison them in a tower with no hope of ransom.

While living in this tower together, the two brothers in arms both spy Emily.

Emily is a Hippolyta's sister, Hippolyta Theseus's wife.

Palamon first sees Emily and falls madly in love with her.

He feels the concept of courtly love.

That's a physical pain for an emotion that's so strong, it causes a pain like a blow to the heart.

Shortly after that, Arcite also sees Emily and feels exactly the same level of pain.

Unfortunately, courtly love places the concept of love above all else including altered loyalty which Palamon and Arcite previously sworn to each other as brothers in arms to help each other in all matters of love.

In this case, that did not include loving the same woman.

Checking our learning now, which of the following best describes what courtly love is? Is it option one, a loving literature that is overwhelming? Is it option two, a loving literature that is set in the mediaeval time period? Is it option three, a loving literature that involves chivalry or is it option four, a love in literature that involves suffering and drama? Pause the video now and check your answers.

Okay, I hope that wasn't too much of a challenge for you.

Which of the following best describes courtly love? It is of course option four, a love in literature that involves suffering and drama and none suffer more so than Palamon and Arcite.

Back to the story then.

What we have here is Palamon and Arcite trapped in prison.

Pirithous, a friend of Duke Theseus comes and begs for Arcite to be freed.

He does and returns to Thebes while poor Palamon remains in prison.

During this time period, Arcite suffers so much that he physically changes.

He doesn't eat and he doesn't sleep and his facial features, the way he speaks and his demeanour change completely.

It is at this point he's visited by the God Mercury who tells him to return to Athens and make himself happier.

He does return to Athens but not as Arcite but in disguise as Philostrate where no one recognises him because he's changed so much.

He then begins working for Emily and Duke Theseus as a chamberlain and becomes a highly regarded member of the household.

During this time period, seven years this takes, Palamon is trapped in prison throughout.

Palamon however after seven years escapes with the help of a friend from the tower.

At the same time, Philostrate who is Arcite in disguise don't forget decides that he's going to go out into the forest, out into a nearby grove and worship may.

While doing this, he complains about the fact that he is ruining his honour by pretending to be someone he is not.

At the same time as a labouring man, Philostrate not a lord like he is really, he cannot ever fall in love or be in love with Emily.

Sadly at the same time as fate would have it, Palamon overhears this conversation and he's angered by it.

The two break into a battle.

However, at the same time, Arcite still being a chivalrous knight realises that Palamon is weak and tired and hungry from having just escaped from prison.

He gives him the opportunity to rest and eat and the next day returns with arms, armour and weapons for the two of them to fight properly.

They fight viciously like animals.

Arcite you could imagine angry at having spent so long dishonouring himself in disguise to have Palamon come out and attack him is really upset.

Simultaneously Palamon really upset with Arcite who he feels is betrayed him on two levels here.

As Arcite had the opportunity to raise an army and come and take Emily and he hasn't used that opportunity.

An opportunity that Palamon himself would have taken.

Let's take an opportunity to check our learning here then.

So four true or false statements.

I'm going to read each to you and you need to decide which one's true and which one's false.

Statement A, in Thebes, Arcite suffered so much that his appearance physically changed.

True or false? Statement B, Palamon is upset that Arcite didn't return to rescue him.

Statement C, Palamon is upset Arcite wasted an opportunity that he would have taken.

And statement D, Palamon and Arcite didn't want to fight.

For each of them, you can put a T or a F depending on whether it's true or false.

Please make a decision now and pause the video.

Okay, let's see how we got on there then.

Statement A, in Thebes, Arcite suffered so much that his appearance physically changed.

We know this to be true.

He suffers so much for the longing of not seeing Emily that he changes and decides to disguise himself as Philostrate.

His physical appearance having changed so much that no one would recognise him.

Statement B, Palamon is upset that Arcite didn't return to rescue him.

This isn't the case is it.

Palamon was expecting Arcite to return with an army but to win Emily, not to rescue him.

Statement C then, Palamon is upset that Arcite wasted an opportunity that he would have taken.

This is true.

Palamon himself says that if it was he in Arcite's shoes then he would have raised an army and returned to take Emily as his prize.

And statement D finally, Palamon and Arcite don't want to fight.

Well, that's certainly not true.

They do, they want to slog it out like animals together so that there's eventually a winner who can come and take Emily.

So we have Palamon and Arcite here fighting like animals as we've said previously.

Along comes Duke Theseus out hunting as fate would have it and seize these two men.

He makes the decision that he does not want them to beat each other to death there and then in the woods.

He makes that decision for a very specific reason.

Having heard the betrayal of Palamon escaping from prison and Arcite pretending to be somebody else and working his way into his household, he wants to have them put to death.

However at this exact same time, the women at the party beg him not to.

And as a chivalrous knight who obeys honour of women above all else, he makes the decision to instead of killing them to put on a tournament.

That tournament is going to be the greatest tournament that anyone in the land has ever seen.

There'll be hundreds and hundreds of spectators there to see a huge, huge battle.

That battle will be so impressive because Theseus tells Arcite and Palamon to go away for 50 weeks and collect together a 100 nights each.

They're to bring them back in 50 weeks time where they will do battle for Emily's love.

The two knights return 50 weeks later and behold the amphitheatre that Theseus has created, the most beautiful building that they've ever seen.

The night before the tournament, Palamon goes to the Goddess Venus who has a shrine in the amphitheatre and he begs her to grant him Emily's love.

Arcite at the same time goes to the God Mars who also has a shrine in the amphitheatre and he begs him for victory during that battle in that tournament.

At the same time, Emily goes to the Goddess Diana who also has a shrine in the amphitheatre and she begs Diana, the goddess of chastity to allow her to remain a maiden forever.

And if she can't remain a maiden and must marry one of these men then to make their friendship reunited and fixed so they are no longer at odds with each other.

The next day, the tournament commences and the 100 knights versus 100 knights clash together.

Palamon and Arcite meeting battle.

Palamon fighting like a hungry lion and Arcite like a vengeful tiger and the two are evenly matched.

Duke Theseus eager to avoid any death in the tournament has decreed that all knights must try to avoid killing each other.

That if one sustains an injury, one that makes them withdraw from the fight then they cannot battle on, they must withdraw and take out themselves out of the battle.

If this should be Palamon or Arcite then the other will win the tournament, they'll win the heart of Emily.

Sadly for Palamon, this is exactly what happens.

King Emetreus, one of Arcite's loyal knights, attacks and injures Palamon.

Palamon is forced to withdraw.

The injured Palamon withdrawing sad, injured to his heart as well and is forced to give the win to Arcite.

Arcite wins the battle, the tournament, and indeed the heart of Emily.

Arcite then comes to receive his prize.

He rides on his horse up and down hearing the cheering crowd and waiting to claim his prize of Emily.

But the God Saturn, the grandfather of the gods, who had promised both Venus and Mars that they would both get what they wanted intervenes.

And is it at this point that he decides to ask Pluto, god of hell to raise up fire beneath Arcite's horse's hooves.

The horse frightened rears up and throws Arcite from its back.

Arcite is mortally injured.

His chest crushes on the pommel of his saddle and Arcite is mortally wounded.

Chance to check your learning now under the four true or false statements.

In a moment, you're going to pause the video and decide which of the four statements is true and which of them is false.

Statement A, Palamon wins the tournament but he's injured.

Statement B, Arcite wins the tournament but he's injured.

Statement C, the Knight is mortally wounded when he is thrown from his horse or statement D, the Knight is mortally wounded during combat.

Take a moment now to think about which is true or which is false.

You can write a T or a F depending on whether it's true or false and pause the video now.

Okay hopefully you found that relatively straightforward.

Let's see how you got on.

So statement A, Palamon wins the tournament but he's injured.

That is false.

Palamon did not win the tournament.

It was in fact Arcite that won the tournament and then he's later injured and we see that in statement B.

Arcite wins the tournament but he's injured.

He's thrown from his horse and has his chest crushed.

Statement C, the Knight is mortally wounded when he is thrown from his horse.

This is Arcite we're talking about here who won the tournament.

He is mortally wounded having his chest crushed as he's thrown from his horse, his horse having been frightened by the fires of Saturn.

And statement D, the Knight mortally wounded during combat.

No, this is not the case.

Palamon is injured during combat but it's not Arcite and he is not mortally wounded.

It is afterwards while celebrating his victory.

So while Arcite here is laying at death's door, he realises that he hasn't got long left and he calls Emily and Palamon along to him.

He tells Emily that he loves her, that he's always loved her but to a certain extent, he blames her for the conflict between him and Palamon and the reason behind his death that he saw coming.

At the same time, he talks to Palamon and says that he is a noble man.

Their friendship is renewed.

And he asks Emily as his dying wish to think kindly on Palamon and consider marrying Palamon in Arcite's place.

Okay opportunity to check your learning again now.

In a second, you're going to pause the video and answer the question what does Arcite ask Emily on his death bed? The answer is one of the four options on the screen and you're going to decide which one it is.

Is it option one? Arcite asks Emily to consider marrying Palamon.

Is it option two? Arcite asked Emily to never marry again.

Is it option three, Arcite asks Emily to live as a widower forever.

Or is it option four Arcite asked Emily to banish Palamon from Athens.

Pause the video and make your decision now.

Okay, let's see how you got on now.

What does Arcite ask Emily on his deathbed? It is option one.

Arcite asks Emily to consider marrying Palamon as he can no longer marry her as he's about to die.

And this is exactly what happens.

Palamon and Emily marry and live out their lives in happiness forevermore.

We see here that the gods and the prayers to the gods that happened earlier on within our plot have all to a certain extent come true.

Palamon if you remember asked Venus for Emily's hand for her love and this was granted albeit that it was granted once Arcite had died from falling from his horse.

Mars in the meantime was prayed to by Arcite and he asked for victory in the tournament and this was granted.

It was Arcite that won the tournament although he eventually died while claiming victory.

Emily herself asked Diana, the god of chastity to grant her maidenhood forevermore.

And this was not granted.

She did eventually marry Palamon although she seems fairly happy with that opportunity.

However, there was a second part to that prayer and she said she would marry the man who loved her the most as long as the friendship between Palamon and Arcite was fixed and that did happen.

The two men were loyal to each other by the end particularly Arcite who suggested that Emily should go ahead and marry Palamon, the man who loved her the most.

Chance to check your learning now then.

We've got three sentences here.

In a moment, you're going to pause the video and copy them out, completing them by filling in the gaps.

Pause the video now and complete those three sentences.

Okay, let's see how you got on there then.

Sentence one, Mars granted Arcite's prayer by granting him victory in the tournament.

This is exactly what happened, Arcite won the tournament.

Sentence two, Venus granted Palamon's prayer by having him marry Emily after Arcite's death.

This is also absolutely the case.

Palamon asked to win Emily.

He did not ask for victory in the tournament.

And that is what happened.

He eventually marries Emily after Arcite's death despite the fact that you did not win her in the tournament.

Sentence three here, Diana partly granted Emily's prayer by having Arcite and Palamon repair their friendship.

And this is what happened.

Simultaneously she married the man who loved her the most, the man who asked the gods for her love.

So that's the end of our plot to our story with Palamon and Emily living happily ever after.

Poor Arcite dead but having achieved victory in the greatest tournament that the land of Greece has ever seen.

Let's look back now at what courtly love actually means.

Courtly love is a love in literature which includes suffering and drama.

We learned that very often within our series of lessons.

In mediaeval literature, love is given more importance than anything else.

For courtly love, it is more important than loyalty, than oaths and to men, honour.

Courtly love suggests that falling in love can cause suffering and be physically painful.

Courtly love would mean prizing love above all else including loyalty, vows, and friendship.

Another tradition of courtly love is that when love is not fulfilled, it can be so painful that the lover is physically transformed.

Their physical appearance and even their voice actually changes.

We saw this with Arcite who changed his physical appearance and voice so much that he could pass himself off as being Philostrate.

So how is courtly love presented in "The Knight's Tale"? While Palamon feels a physical pain when he sees Emily for the first time from the tower.

He says, "I was wounded lately through the eye down to my heart." The strength of Palamon's love here feels like a physical blow.

And this is a key concept of courtly love, the feeling of physical pain because of the intensity of the feeling of love.

Simultaneously Arcite prizes love above all else including honour and his oath of loyalty.

He says to Palamon, "It's each man for himself and not for other.

Love if you like for I love and I shall." When he sees Emily for the first time from the window, Arcite here prizes love so highly, he will break his loyal oath to his brother in arms. This is another key expectation from courtly love that love is positioned higher than the chivalry code, than loyalty, than honour.

It's priced above all else.

Equally when Arcite is banished from Athens, the physical suffering he undergoes changes his appearance.

And so changed was he that no man could know him by his words or voice whoever heard.

Here Arcite's suffering for love is so strong, it alters his appearance.

He changes the person that he looks like.

He even changes so much that he can pass himself off as Philostrate and return to the place where he was banished on pain of death.

Here we have three key examples of what courtly love is capable of.

Firstly, that Palamon feels a physical pain when he sees Emily, so strong is the emotion that he feels.

Secondly, that Arcite prizes love so highly, the courtly love he feels is so strong that he will honour that and price it above loyalty, honour, and the chivalric code.

Thirdly, Arcite feels such pain and suffering when he cannot see Emily.

His courtly love is so strong that he physically wastes away and changes his physical appearance so that he can pass as another man.

Final chance to check your learning before our main activity here then, another clause activity.

There's three sentences that I'd like you to copy out in a moment when you pause the video and complete them by filling in the gaps.

Pause the video now and complete those three sentences.

Okay, fantastic effort there.

Let's see how you got on.

So sentence one, courtly love causes Palamon physical pain when he first sees Emily.

Sentence two, courtly love causes Arcite to break his sworn oath loyalty.

In sentence three, courtly love causes Arcite's physical appearance to change due to his suffering.

All three of these are key aspects of courtly love and the strength of the emotion of love that is felt by these knights.

Firstly, Palamon's physical pain in seeing Emily he's emotionally so strong.

Secondly, Arcite breaking his oath of loyalty because he prizes love so highly.

And finally, Arcite's change of physical appearance.

So strong is the suffering he feels at the loss of that love.

Now we've worked ever so hard during not only this lesson but the entire series together and I'm hoping at this point you've really, truly understood the story of Arcite and Palamon and their battle with courtly love.

In a second, we're going to move on to our main activity, thinking about how courtly love is presented within "The Knight's Tale".

So we're going to think about how to build a paragraph here.

The question we're answering is how is courtly love presented in "The Knight's Tale"? What we'll do is start off by making a key point.

In "The Knight's Tale", courtly love is presented as a strong emotion that can cause physical pain to the person feeling it.

Here we can see a point being made that is clearly in reference to Palamon's physical pain when he first sees Emily.

We back this up by providing evidence.

We see this when Palamon sees Emily for the first time and says I was wounded lately through the eye down to my heart.

Here we've used a quotation to back up the point that we're making and to provide evidence that proves our point.

We then move on to explain how that quotation shows the point that we were making.

Here we see that Palamon compares the feeling of love to a physical wound that has caused him pain from his eye to his heart.

This emphasises the strength of his love.

So what we ultimately have here is a paragraph that makes perfect sense.

In "The Knight's Tale", courtly love is presented as a strong emotion that can cause physical pain to the person feeling it.

We see this when Palamon sees Emily for the first time and says, "I was wounded lately through the eye down to my heart." Here we see that Palamon compares the feeling of love to a physical wound that has caused him pain from his eye to his heart.

This emphasises the strength of his love.

What we see here is a well crafted paragraph that explains the point about courtly love, uses a quotation to back up the evidence and then explains how that quotation does exactly what we said in the main point.

Right, onto an opportunity for you to have a go then.

Again we look at the question, how is courtly love presented in "The Knight's Tale"? And this time you're going to have a go at building that paragraph using those sentence starters to try to come up with your own idea.

This time, we'll be looking at the concept of Arcite physically changing his appearance due to courtly love.

Let's start.

Firstly, you're going to make a point.

Here, we've done this for you.

In "The Knight's Tale", courtly love is presented as a strong emotion that can cause so much suffering, it can physically alter the appearance of the lover.

You can feel free to copy this out word for word once you've paused the video.

The second part then provide evidence.

We've given you a sentence starter here.

We can see this when Arcite is banished to Thebes, Chaucer writes, here you need to add a quotation.

If you haven't got that quotation written down in your notes, then feel free to go back in the video a little way where we explore the quotations that are used from the text that show that Arcite physically changes when he's banished to Thebes.

Lastly, once you have that quotation, you're going to explain how it shows how courtly love is being presented.

This shows that, here you're going to explain what the quotation that you've just used shows about Arcite's change of appearance as a result of courtly love.

Think about everything you've learned and use this to build on and create a really impressive paragraph.

Pause the video now and give it some serious thoughts.

Okay, I hope you've really made a decent go at this and let's see what your sentence could have looked like.

So we started with that same sentence opening.

In "The Knight's Tale", courtly love is presented as a strong emotion that can cause so much suffering, it can physically alter the appearance of the lover.

The quotation was this.

We can see this when Arcite's banished to Thebes.

Chaucer writes, "And so changed was he that no man could know him by his words of voice, whoever heard." We looked at this quotation earlier.

And finally, we need to explain the statement.

This shows the Arcite had suffered so much as a result of courtly love that his physical appearance and even his voice was completely altered.

Now don't worry if you've not got exactly what's written on this slide as long as you've got the general gist, some of the keywords and you understand what's happening here when Arcite physically changes due to courtly love then we're in the right area.

Now you've worked ever so hard here.

So what we're going to offer now is the opportunity to challenge yourself slightly more.

You can complete this activity during the video when you pause in a second or alternatively you can do it as part of your review work once the video and the series is finished.

I'm going to ask you to try to answer the following question as part of your review work.

In your opinion, which example of courtly love shows the power of love most? In your answer, you should include the examples that we see of courtly love and which of those examples shows the strongest effect of courtly love.

Now don't forget those examples that we've covered today.

We've covered the physical suffering, the physical pain caused by courtly love.

We've covered the idea that courtly love is so important that it would cause somebody to break it off even a knight to a sworn brother.

And finally, we looked at the idea that courtly love, suffering could be so extreme that it would physically change the love for themselves.

Have a go at this challenge task now or later during your review task.

Okay, now we've reached the end of our lesson here.

Lesson 12, "The Canterbury Tales, The Knight's Tale" and indeed the series of "The Knight's Tale".

We've spent 12 lessons talking through the plot, the key aspects of chivalry and courtly love and we've spent a lot of time talking about Arcite, Palamon and their love for Emily.

I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have and you've learned a lot about the story.

Now when we're over in a second, don't think that that's the end of your learning.

There's always an opportunity for you to go back and review what you've learned so far.

I wanted you to do a couple of key things.

Firstly, go back through your notes and pick a new piece of vocabulary.

It might be from this lesson, it might be from one of the earlier lessons if you've been involved in those as well.

Choose that piece of vocabulary, remind yourself about what it means.

Secondly, review the plot from today's lesson.

Now last lesson in lesson 11, we came to the end of our plot but today we've summarised the whole plot so far and that will be a really good place to start to review the entirety of the plot.

And finally, don't forget those key exercises to complete whether it is the sentence expansion activity looking at how to write about courtly love or whether it's that challenge activity that I've just given you.

Make sure that you have a go at those.

And as we've reached the end of our time with "The Knight's Tale", I'd really like you to take some of that work that you've done, ask a parent or a carer to take a photograph of it if you can and share it on one of our social media platforms. If you can, make sure that you email it to your teacher back at school.

I know that they would love to see the work that you've been doing so far as much as I would.

And I'd love to see that work in particular if you could get a parent or carer to share it to our Twitter tag with the tag @OakNational and the hashtag LearnwithOak.

That will give me an everybody else working for Oak National the chance to look and see exactly what you've been getting up to.

Now I hope you've enjoyed your time with "The Knight's Tale", there's still plenty of other learning to do around "The Canterbury Tales".

Don't forget, we've got a whole host of other pilgrims there for you to learn with.

But until then, I might see you next time.

And don't forget, keep reviewing that learning.