What does courtesies mean in regards to the Canterbury Tales and medevil society?
370179
My guess is that you're looking for information on "courtesy," which in medieval society refers to the whole wad of behaviors that we'd associate with being a member of court: politeness, knightliness, treating a lady nobly, etc.  I don't have my copy of the Tales with me, but I believe the Knight is praised in the General Prologue for his courtesy, which in his case simply means that he knows how to behave like a knight. You might think of it as the non-fighting aspect of chivalry.
234586
Sparknotes:\nhttp://www.sparknotes.com/lit/canterbury/
364524
The class of yeomen; small freeholding farmers. \nA British volunteer cavalry force organized in 1761 to serve as a home guard and later incorporated into the Territorial Army. \n\n\nalso:  in CancerWEB's On-line Medical Dictionary
535803
maid around the house, chef in the kitchen, whore in bed, and a lady in public. but i don't think this is the one that you are looking for. is it about piety? and the is it about the social and home spheres? i had it in my woman's history class if the latter is what you are referring to, but i can't remember it.
436497
go to the SCA website. they are a group that recreats life in the middle ages. sca stands for society of/for creative achronisms ( or something like that)
1184789
What state or province are you in?\nIt could mean offering forged documents for sale. (Archaic usage. English common law.)
394129
Flirtacious.\n\nIt's a Get Your Knickers Off poem.\n\nHe wants to sleep with her, and tells her all the reasons why she should give in - ending with " the grave's a fine and private place// but none i think do there embrace"\n\nIt's a Seize the Day thing - let's do it now, we're a long time dead.\n\n\n\nWow, it says a lot about the standards of education if mine is the only answer after four days.\n\nDoes this help? Can tell you much more if you want
1121390
It is propaganda from the War of Independence, basically.\n\n If you live in the US, you are a citizen, in the UK you are just a "subject of The Crown".\n\nIn the US there is no class system (not that there is so much in the UK anymore, but there used to be)...\n\nFreedom means different things to different people at different times. For example, during the Cold War, people in the US had the right to freedom of speech, and in the Soviet Union they had freedom from hunger.\n\nThe brave bit? well thats just pure Hollywood
700551
I believe it refers to death.  The term is the title of a poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson, about dying.  You can read it at the url below.
752162
yes, i know alot about henvy VIII, like the previous answerer, i suggest you go and get a book and read all about it.\n\njust to get you started a bit...\n\nin henrys time people were often beheaded for minor crimes.\n\nsocial class difference includes things like eating roast swan and whole pigs for an evening meal for the upper classes and for the lower classes there was maybe some bread and whatever seasonal vegetable or game/meat was available.\n\nedward the 6th came after edward the 5th and was he the one who was really sickly?  or was that another one?.....you'll have to find out yourself dude!
85482
Actually it is the Regularis Concordia, and it was a set of monastic rules and canon set down in 972 and used throughout England after that time. It is commonly associated with the story of St Dunstan who, it is said, took part in the conference that created it.
151620
An officer formerly attached to a king's household, whose business it was to amuse the court by ludicrous actions and utterances, the absurdity being attested by his motley costume. The king himself being attired with dignity, it took the world some centuries to discover that his own conduct and decrees were sufficiently ridiculous for the amusement not only of his court but of all mankind. The jester was commonly called a fool, but the poets and romancers have ever delighted to represent him as a singularly wise and witty person. In the circus of to-day the melancholy ghost of the court fool effects the dejection of humbler audiences with the same jests wherewith in life he gloomed the marble hall, panged the patrician sense of humor and tapped the tank of royal tears.\n\nThe widow-queen of Portugal\nHad an audacious jester\nWho entered the confessional\nDisguised, and there confessed her.\n\n"Father," she said, "thine ear bend down —\nMy sins are more than scarlet:\nI love my fool — blaspheming clown,\nAnd common, base-born varlet."\n\n"Daughter," the mimic priest replied,\n"That sin, indeed, is awful:\nThe church's pardon is denied\nTo love that is unlawful.\n\n"But since thy stubborn heart will be\nFor him forever pleading,\nThou'dst better make him, by decree,\nA man of birth and breeding."\n\nShe made the fool a duke, in hope\nWith Heaven's taboo to palter;\nThen told a priest, who told the Pope,\nWho damned her from the altar!\n—Barel Dort
967086
There are two old stories that try to explain this. One tries to find it in the King James Version of the Bible; Job 5:19 has “He shall deliver thee in six troubles; yea, in seven shall no evil touch thee”, a couplet that makes no sense to us today and which doesn’t seem to link to any known use of the expression. The other story, more common and very widely believed, traces it back to a dispute between two of the ancient livery companies in the City of London.\n\nThese companies, trade guilds, grew up from the latter part of the twelfth century as associations to protect their members’ interests. (They were called livery companies because members had the right to wear a distinctive costume or livery.) There was a lot of squabbling with other guilds about precedence in the early days. One especially troublesome dispute concerned the Merchant Taylors Company, whose members were tailors, and the Skinners Company, whose members controlled the trade in furs. In 1484 the then Lord Mayor, Sir Robert Billesden, settled the dispute in a judgement of Solomon by ruling that the two companies should alternate between the sixth and seventh positions in successive years, a ruling still in force.Therefore the two companies were permanently at sixes and sevens with each other. \n\nHowever Geoffrey Chaucer uses it in a quote “to set the world on six and seven”)in his Troilus and Criseyde, dated about 1375. There are several other examples in the following century, which show that Chaucer was making use of an expression already well known (to the extent that he didn’t feel the need to explain it). The appearance in Chaucer was rather more than a century before the dispute between the guilds was settled, so can’t have been created as a result of it.\n\nWe can’t be absolutely sure of where the phrase comes from, but the most probable explanation is that it arose out of an old game of dice called hazard, in which one’s chances of winning were controlled by a set of rather arbitrary and complicated rules. It is thought that the expression was originally to set on cinque and sice (from the French numerals for five and six). These were apparently the most risky numbers to shoot for (“to set on”) and anyone who tried for them was considered careless or confused. Later, the number words shifted to their modern values as a result of folk etymology among individuals who knew no French and misheard the words. The link with the game (and the original French words) must by then have been severed, or perhaps it was a joke, as seven is an impossible number to throw with one die. The change may also be linked to the sum of the new numbers being thirteen, long considered unlucky.
745580
I am currently teaching 12th grade English which is British literature. There is a lot of religion thrown into the old Anglo-Saxon stories such as Beowulf. It helps the students to know the history of the period and how religion was involved. When you move on to the middle ages, religion is also involved. In reading The Canterbury Tales, you have to have some understanding of nuns, monks, priests, etc. Otherwise you miss out on something in the story. I believe that you can speak about religion in a historical context, but you should not put your religious beliefs or nonbeliefs on the students at any time.
186657
It means a near-equal companion to a reigning member of royalty. So Duke of Edinborough is a consort to Queen Elizabeth---he is her husband, but not quite her equal since there can only be one reigning monarch on the throne of England---and Queen Elizabeth is it.\n\nSometimes the term is also applied to diplomatic companions.
380650
what does this have to do with royalty?
1120818
The Canterbury Tales is chock full of medieval words, having been written in the middle ages. http://prodigi.bl.uk/treasures/caxton/search.asp\n\nOr, if you want some of the spellings modernized, with unfamiliar words defined, try http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2383