Lesson Overview 

This assignment is very different than the others.  Rather than being a long-term project, it is designed to be completed (and performed) in one class period (Block Scheduling would certainly help).  Students have read, for homework, a short couple of paragraphs about Geoffrey Chaucer's retraction (where the church made him "take back" all of those things that he said about the corruption of the church) before he died.  And they have also read a much longer book excerpt from John Gardner's The Life of Chaucer - about the death of the great poet.  Like Gardner's Grendel - his tale of Chaucer is told from a modern perspective - thereby giving the students more ammunition in the idea of this very old literature - not being that far removed from our own time - our own lives.

The students will then take their new knowledge - get into groups - and by the end of the period put on a short play that illustrates what they've learned and talked about with their group.  Here is the opening of the handout.  The complete handout can be found below.

You and your group are going to be putting on a play based on the death of Chaucer. Before you do anything else choose a timekeeper who will hound the rest of you into getting this 5-10 minute play done before the bell rings.
      Your primary (perhaps – only perhaps because you may want to rely on your text books and other works as well) source document will be your handout on Chaucer’s Retraction and the excerpt from The Life and Times of Chaucer (John Gardner).  Your play should be above all creative, thoughtful, and bring in as many of the issues we’ve discussed about Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, The Middle Ages (he died at what was really the ending of the Middle Ages in England), the Shaper, others that have gone before him in English Literature, etc.
What happens (and the dialogue) of the play are up to you – but you should begin with the following premise – Chaucer is laying on his bed dying and sees visitors both real and imagined.  Use that as your starting point.  Write dialogue between Chaucer (he can say it from his bed or you could have another person playing a “well” or imagined Chaucer who gets up and engages his visitors.  Also don’t be afraid to include any other nonpeople type hallucinations (see Gardner).

Thoughts on the Lesson 

It is a lot to get this all done in one class period - but perhaps the nature of it makes that valuable.  Gardner argues that Chaucer would never have retracted voluntarily and it was only the threat of damnation that made him try to erase all the incredible good that he had done for literature.