Geoffrey Chaucer (134301499): Medieval English writer sometimes referred to as the father of English literature. His most famous work is The Canterbury Tales, but he also wrote many other works. You can find out more about Chaucer and his world at this exhibit created by the University of Glasgow.
The Canterbury Tales: Chaucer’s great work. It tells the tale of pilgrims on their way to Canterbury. Along the way, the pilgrims tell tales that provide insight into life (and ideas of human nature) in medieval England. You can read sections of the work at this The Canterbury Tales website. You can see images of some of the original works here.
Chantecleer: A rooster and a character in a medieval tale known as the Chantecleer (or Chanticleer) and the Fox. The story is incorporated into the Nun’s Tale in the The Canterbury Tales.
Jacques Le Goff (1924-2014) French historian who specialized in medieval history. He wrote extensively on changing conceptions of time in medieval Europe, particularly the shift from conceptions of time based on Church or religious (ecclesiastical) time to ones shaped by commercial and secular interests (merchant time).
Puritan (discipline): E.P. Thompson is drawing here on the work of the German sociologist Max Weber who theorized the historical emergence of a Puritan work ethic. The work ethic, according to Weber, developed as a logical corollary to Puritan beliefs and especially the doctrines of John Calvin and his idea of predestination. This religious world view, according to Weber, helped to promote certain forms work discipline and living in the world that enabled believers to manage some of the anxieties surrounding their final fate. For Weber, these forms of work and discipline became socially general (i.e. they became adopted by most within European society even if they were not Calvinists).
Bourgeois: E.P. Thompson uses the term in a Marxian sense in which the bourgeoisie are defined by their relation to capital. Members of the bourgeoisie own the means of production; they are capitalists. Bourgeois is the adjective to refer characteristics of that class and their culture.
Faustus (or Doctor Faustus or Faust): An early English tragedy by Christopher Marlowe and the main character in the play that bears his name. The main intrigue in the play surrounds the character Faustus who signs a pact with Mephistopheles (the devil) in which he agrees to signs over his soul at some later date in exchange for worldly fame and fortune in the present. The Faustus/Faust tale has appeared in many different forms, most famously in Johann von Goethe‘s novel, Faust, and Charles Gounod’s opera, Faust.
Sidereal Time: A way of measuring time by the movement of the celestial bodies, namely stars.
Isaac Newton (1642-1726/7): English astronomer, mathematician, and physicist. He is best known for his laws of motion and gravity and as a key figure in the early modern Scientific Revolution.
Tristram Shandy: Early modern character in the English novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterme. The novel was published in nine volumes between 1759-1761. The volumes recount the humorous tales of Tristram Shandy’s life.