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Technical Issues, multi-windowing.
This site was originally designed on a Macintosh using Safari.
Its construction was guided by a design philosophy that emphasizes
modularism and multi-windowing, and attempts to place and size windows
on the user's screen according to content. It attempts to forego scrolling,
and when that is impractical, to implement the scrolling through the use
of what in HTML parlance is known as inline frames.
These innovations work splendidly in the configuration they were built under,
but miserably in others, especially under Explorer and the many wonderful versions
of Windows that there are.
Firefox, with its forced use of tabs, is also not conducive to this approach.
(I could go on, and someday I will, but in the meantime, if any of these
design issues interest you, you might like to read my
Notes on Multi-Windowing Html
Thus some retrenching had to be done.)
I've tried to retain the original spirit of the design for those who
use the combination of OSX & Safari,
while presenting a flat version for less robust environments.
Still, I'm sure, problems will, and are, occuring.
Unfortunately I do not have access to even a small set of alternate configurations,
and thus would very very much like to hear from anyone experiencing problems.
You can email any comments to me at glipon @ innerlea.com.
(Please include the name and version of your OS and browser if you should respond.)
Apple Safari users running under OSX should minimalize the non-content area
of their browser windows by disabling all the various toolbars and such.
Doing so should allow them to experience the full grandeur of multi-windowing HTML design.
Toward Canterbury is an audio introduction to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.
It is built around forty minutes of recorded excerpts from the work
which I have deemed most accessible and interesting to the student new to Chaucer.
The integrated recording and text are in Middle English for two reasons.
First, because I believe that when the selections are chosen wisely, and the student has access to engaging, entertaining recordings of these selections, that the difficulties of Middle English are readily dissolved. After the student becomes accustomed to the strange spellings and the odd pronunciations he finds that the vocabulary is not that remote; and that most Middle English words, at least in Chaucer's lexicon, possess clear modern cognates. The truly obsolete words, as in this presentation, are easily annotated. The student who makes this leap to Chaucer ought then to experience a real sense of intellectual achievement, enjoyment, and growth; besides a deeper understanding of the English language and its roots; and an abiding appreciation for that cornerstone of English verse known as iambic pentameter. And this last, points him down an historical path towards Shakespeare.
Second, the Canterbury Tales is poetry, literary art, and mostly humorous and charming; and exceptionally entertaining, once the linguistic distance is overcome. I believe anyone who teaches it in translation is simply doomed to miss most of the art that resides there, and surely any sense of its immediacy. Indeed, once experienced in the original, in the form of well wrought, affective vocal performances, I doubt that anyone would see any point in studying them except in their original tongue, our original tongue, Middle English.
The selections have been arranged so as to present the most accessible and engaging excerpts first. This means reading
About the performances. I am not a medieval scholar and the recitals are probably not as historically accurate as they might be, but I think this is beside the point. The student, or teacher, who is interested in pursuing a closer study of the pronunciation of Middle English is in a better position to do so after having spent time listening to these recordings. Moreover this material is over six hundred years old and there is not even now a strong consensus on the issues of pronunciation, and unlikely ever shall be. What the novice student, or merely curious, is most likely to require, or desire, are interpretations that are affective and entertaining; and make the student want to read and hear more. These, at least, are the values I've strived for; and I pray that I've not done too great an injury to this incredibly vibrant, tuneful, and colorful work.
Annotating the Canterbury Tales presents two problems. Should words of common modern usage with archaic spelling, or which have obvious modern cognates be annotated or glossed? This can lead to a lot of annotation. The other issue is simply now much background information, historical or literary, should be presented. These issues are dealt with in the following way. First each section is divided up in subsection of four to twelve lines each. Thus every line and section is annotated to some degree. These sectional notes are accessible through multi-word highlighted links at the beginning of each subsection. Many individual words are also annotated. Their glosses are available merely by hovering the mouse above the highlighted word and waiting a moment. The gloss should then appear automatically in a very small window below the text. This eliminates the need for clicking and opening a new window. (If the cursor doesn't change into whatever cursor shape your system uses to indicate a link, then this hovering technique doesn't work. This is because the text area does not possess the focus. Clicking in any non-link area of the text area ought to give the text area the current focus, and hovering over a highlighted word should then yield the desired gloss.) If these links are clicked-on they will merely open the sectional note that contains them. The question of how much background information to present can be handled by recursive notes, i.e. notes within notes, links within links. Thus the reader is allowed to explore to whatever depth of erudition he desires.