Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343 – October 25, 1400) was an English author, poet, philosopher, bureaucrat (courtier), and diplomat. Chaucer is best known as the author of The Canterbury Tales. He is sometimes credited with being the first author to demonstrate the artistic legitimacy of the vernacular English language, rather than French or Latin.

Influence

In the history of English literature, Chaucer is considered the introducer of continental accentual-syllabic metre as an alternative to the alliterative Anglo-Saxon metre. He was one of the first English poets to use the five-stress line, the iambic pentameter, in his work, with only a few anonymous short works using it before him. And the arrangement of these five-stress line into rhyming couplets was first seen in his The Legend of Good Women, was used in much of his later work and became one of the standard poetic forms in English. His early influence as a satirist is also important with the common humorous device, the funny accent of a regional dialect, apparently making its first appearance in The Reeve's Tale.

Related Topics:
Metre - Alliterative - Anglo-Saxon metre - Iambic pentameter - Couplet - The Legend of Good Women - Regional dialect - The Reeve's Tale

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

He also helped to standardise the southern accent (London area) of the Middle English language and through the influence of the bureaucracy of Chancery, of which Chaucer was a part, this would become Standard English. Modern English is somewhat distanced from the language of Chaucer's poems due to the effect of the Great Vowel Shift some time after his death. This change in pronunciation of English, still not fully understood, leaves the reading of Chaucer for modern audiences difficult and the matter of whether to pronounce the final -e is still uncertain. Apart from the irregular spelling much of the vocabulary is recognisable to the modern reader with Chaucer being the first author to use many common English words in his writings. Acceptable, alkali, altercation, amble, angrily, annex, annoyance, approaching, arbitration, armless, army, arrogant, arsenic, arc, artillery and aspect are just some of those from the first letter of the alphabet.

Related Topics:
Middle English - Chancery - Standard English - Modern English - Great Vowel Shift - Pronunciation

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Chaucer's early popularity is attested by the many poets who imitated his works. John Lydgate was one of earliest imitators who wrote a continuation to the Tales. Many of the manuscripts contain works from these admiring poets and the later romantic era poets' appreciation of Chaucer was coloured by their not knowing which of the works were genuine. It was not until the late 19th century that the official Chaucerian canon, accepted today, was decided upon. One hundred and fifty years after his death, The Canterbury Tales was selected by William Caxton to be one of the first books to be printed in England.

Related Topics:
Chaucer - John Lydgate - Romantic era - 19th century - William Caxton

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A building has been named in his honour at the United Kingdom Civil Service College.

Related Topics:
United Kingdom - Civil Service College

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~