Geoffrey Chaucer was born in 1343 in London. His family were merchants in Ipswichfor several generations. His name is derived from the “Chausseur” which means a shoemaker.Geoffrey Chaucer was an English author, poet, philosopher, bureaucrat, courtier and diplomat.
He is best remembered for his frame narrativeThe Canterbury Tales. He called as the father of English literature. Chaucer is credited by some scholars with being the first author to demonstrate the artistic legitimacy of the vernacular English language. There are no details of Chaucer's early life and education. Because of his contemporary poets, William Langland and The Pearl Poet, his life is well documented
Chaucer's first major work The Book of the Duchess(1369 - 1374) was an elegy for Blanche of Lancaster (who died in 1369). Two other early works by Chaucer were Anelida and Arcite and The House of Fame. Chaucer wrote many of his major works in a prolific period when he held the job of customs comproller for London (1374 to 1386) such as Parlement of Foules, The Legend of Good Women and Troilus and Criseyde. Chaucer is best known as the writer of The Canterbury Tales in the early 1380s, which is a collection of stories told by fictional pilgrims on the road to the cathedral at Canterbury.
The Canterbury Tales contrasts with other literature of the period in the naturalism of its narrative, the variety of stories the pilgrims tell and the varied characters who are engaged in the pilgrimage. Many of the stories narrated by the pilgrims seem to fit their individual characters and social standing, although some of the stories seem ill-fitting to their narrators, perhaps as a result of the incomplete state of the work. Chaucer described on real life for his cast of pilgrims. He could depict many types of people in the Tales because of his experience in many jobs before, in medieval society—page, soldier, messenger, valet, bureaucrat, foreman and administrator. He was able to expose their speech and satirise their manners to become popular literature among peoples.
Chaucer's works are sometimes devided into a French period, an Italian period and an English period. Chaucer being influenced by those countries' literatures. Certainly Troilus and Criseyde is a middle period work with its reliance on the forms of Italian poetry, little known in England at the time, but to which Chaucer was probably exposed during his frequent trips abroad on court business. 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. In Troilus and Criseyde Chaucer draws heavily on his source, Bocaccio, and on the late Latin philosopher Boethius. However, it is The Canterbury Tales, where he focused on English subjects, with jokes and respected figures often being undercut with humour, that has covered his reputation.
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 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.
The Canterbury Tales contrasts with other literature of the period in the naturalism of its narrative, the variety of stories the pilgrims tell and the varied characters who are engaged in the pilgrimage. Many of the stories narrated by the pilgrims seem to fit their individual characters and social standing, although some of the stories seem ill-fitting to their narrators, perhaps as a result of the incomplete state of the work. Chaucer described on real life for his cast of pilgrims. He could depict many types of people in the Tales because of his experience in many jobs before, in medieval society—page, soldier, messenger, valet, bureaucrat, foreman and administrator. He was able to expose their speech and satirise their manners to become popular literature among peoples.
Chaucer's works are sometimes devided into a French period, an Italian period and an English period. Chaucer being influenced by those countries' literatures. Certainly Troilus and Criseyde is a middle period work with its reliance on the forms of Italian poetry, little known in England at the time, but to which Chaucer was probably exposed during his frequent trips abroad on court business. 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. In Troilus and Criseyde Chaucer draws heavily on his source, Bocaccio, and on the late Latin philosopher Boethius. However, it is The Canterbury Tales, where he focused on English subjects, with jokes and respected figures often being undercut with humour, that has covered his reputation.
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 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.
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