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.

Works

Chaucer's first major work The Book of the Duchess was an elegy for Blanche of Lancaster. It may not have been commissioned by her husband John of Gaunt, but he did grant Chaucer a £10 annuity on 13 June 1374. Two other early works were Anelida and Arcite and The House of Fame. It is usually acknowledged that Chaucer wrote poetry as a diversion from his job as customs comptroller and he produced many works in this prolific period. His Parlement of Foules, The Legend of Good Women and Troilus and Criseyde all date from this time. He is best known as the writer of The Canterbury Tales, a collection of stories (told by fictional pilgrims on the road to the cathedral at Canterbury) that would help to shape English literature.

Related Topics:
The Book of the Duchess - Elegy - Blanche of Lancaster - John of Gaunt - 13 June - 1374 - Anelida and Arcite - House of Fame - Parlement of Foules - The Legend of Good Women - Troilus and Criseyde - The Canterbury Tales - Pilgrim - Cathedral - Canterbury - English literature

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It is the variety of stories the pilgrims tell and the varied characters who are engaged in the pilgrimage which sets it apart from other literature of the period. The way in which the pilgrims seem to choose stories suited to their station in medieval life, and tell them in a way consistent with their own personalities, has rarely been surpassed. The many jobs Chaucer held in medieval society; page, soldier, messenger, valet, bureaucrat, foreman and administrator probably exposed him to many of the types of people he depicted in the Tales. He was able to ape their speech, satirise their manners and still offer them popular literature.

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Chaucer's works are sometimes grouped into, first a French period, then an Italian period and finally an English period, with Chaucer being influenced by those countries' literatures in turn. Certainly Troilus and Criseyde is a middle period work with its reliance on the forms of Italian poetry, the most highly regarded poetry at that time. In addition, its use of a classical subject and its elaborate, courtly language sets it apart as one of his most complete and well-formed works. However, it is The Canterbury Tales, wherein he focuses on English subjects, with bawdy jokes and respected figures often being undercut with humour, that has cemented his reputation.

Related Topics:
Troilus and Criseyde - Classical

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Chaucer also translated such important works as Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy and The Romance of the Rose by Guillaume de Lorris (extended by Jean de Meun). However, while many scholars maintain that Chaucer did indeed translate part of the text of The Romance of the Rose as Roman de la Rose, others claim that this has been effectively disproved. Many of his other works were very loose translations of, or simply based on, works from continental Europe. It is in this role that Chaucer receives some of his earliest critical praise. Eustache Deschamps wrote a ballade on the great translator and called himself a "nettle in Chaucer's garden of poetry". In 1385 Thomas Usk made glowing mention of Chaucer, and John Gower, Chaucer's main poetic rival of the time, also lauded him. This reference was later edited out of Gower's Confessio amantis and it has been suggested by some that this was because of ill feeling between them, but it is likely due simply to stylistic concerns.

Related Topics:
Translated - Boethius - Consolation of Philosophy - The Romance of the Rose - Guillaume de Lorris - Roman de la Rose - Eustache Deschamps - Ballade - 1385 - Thomas Usk - John Gower - Confessio amantis

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One other significant work of Chaucer's is his Treatise on the Astrolabe, possibly for his own son, that describes the form and use of that instrument in detail. Although much of the text may have come from other sources, the treatise indicates that Chaucer was versed in science in addition to his literary talents. Another scientific work discovered in 1952, Equatorie of the Planetis, has similar language and handwriting compared to some considered to be Chaucer's and it continues many of the ideas from the Astrolabe. The attribution of this work to Chaucer is still uncertain.

Related Topics:
Treatise on the Astrolabe - That instrument - 1952

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