Sruthy Rose Mathew

1st Year, B.A. Hons. English

British Poetry and Drama
Dr Abraham
4th March 2020

The Age of Chaucher – G. K. Chesterton

Chesterton in Age of Chaucer highlights four essential parts of Chaucer's identity and
their complexities within the middle ages. His description of the era is in contrast to
the many other histories of it and is novel in the sense that he strays very far from its
description as the "Dark Ages". However, in his exercise to revise it, he adopts an
almost uncritical description of the middle ages, which include an apologist stance on
the papacy as well as a praise of the guild system vis-a-vis the growing capitalism in
Chesterton's own time.

The most significant part of the essay is his indiscriminate descriptions of the papacy.
He speaks of the depression after the crusades rather than the crusades themselves,
constantly dismisses the misgivings of the papacy by repeatedly mentioning that he
was "imprisoned by the French king", and perhaps most shockingly blames the black
death for the lack of honest priests.

Chesterton's writing is playful and feels as though he is speaking it. The words seem
to intonate themselves and appear to be narrative. For example, "The Popes might
make each other look foolish, or denounce each other as fools; but they did not
denounce the Faith as folly." This is an interesting approach to writing a biography
because, while it is entertaining and engaging, it distances the reader from the era
because it crafts out of it a story of sorts, and one finds themselves sweeping under the
rug some of the glaring prejudices and corruption that was rampant.