Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''
The Canterbury Tales
''The Canterbury Tales'' ( enm, Tales of Caunterbury) is a collection of twenty-four stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. It is widely regarded as Chaucer's ''Masterpiece, ...
''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He was the first writer to be buried in what has since come to be called
Poets' Corner
Poets' Corner is the name traditionally given to a section of the South Transept of Westminster Abbey in the City of Westminster, London because of the high number of poets, playwrights, and writers buried and commemorated there.
The first poe ...
, in
Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...
. Chaucer also gained fame as a philosopher and
astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, g ...
, composing the scientific ''
A Treatise on the Astrolabe
''A Treatise on the Astrolabe'' is a medieval instruction manual on the astrolabe by Geoffrey Chaucer. It describes both the form and the proper use of the instrument, and stands out as a prose technical work from a writer better known for poet ...
'' for his 10-year-old son Lewis. He maintained a career in the civil service as a
bureaucrat
A bureaucrat is a member of a bureaucracy and can compose the administration of any organization of any size, although the term usually connotes someone within an institution of government.
The term ''bureaucrat'' derives from "bureaucracy", ...
,
courtier
A courtier () is a person who attends the royal court of a monarch or other royalty. The earliest historical examples of courtiers were part of the retinues of rulers. Historically the court was the centre of government as well as the official r ...
, diplomat, and member of parliament.
Among Chaucer's many other works are ''
The Book of the Duchess
''The Book of the Duchess'', also known as ''The Deth of Blaunche'',
''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 1910. Accessed 11 March ...
'', ''
The House of Fame
''The House of Fame'' (''Hous of Fame'' in the original spelling) is a Middle English poem by Geoffrey Chaucer, probably written between 1374 and 1385, making it one of his earlier works. It was most likely written after ''The Book of the Duchess' ...
'', ''
The Legend of Good Women
''The Legend of Good Women'' is a poem in the form of a dream vision by Geoffrey Chaucer during the fourteenth century.
The poem is the third longest of Chaucer's works, after ''The Canterbury Tales'' and ''Troilus and Criseyde'', and is possib ...
'', and ''
Troilus and Criseyde
''Troilus and Criseyde'' () is an epic poem by Geoffrey Chaucer which re-tells in Middle English the tragic story of the lovers Troilus and Criseyde set against a backdrop of war during the siege of Troy. It was written in '' rime royale'' an ...
''. He is seen as crucial in legitimising the literary use of
Middle English
Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English p ...
when the dominant literary languages in England were still
Anglo-Norman French
Anglo-Norman, also known as Anglo-Norman French ( nrf, Anglo-Normaund) ( French: ), was a dialect of Old Norman French that was used in England and, to a lesser extent, elsewhere in Great Britain and Ireland during the Anglo-Norman period.
When ...
and
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
. Chaucer's contemporary
Thomas Hoccleve
Thomas Hoccleve or Occleve (1368 or 1369–1426) was an English poet and clerk, who became a key figure in 15th-century Middle English literature. His ''Regement of Princes or De Regimine Principum'' is a homily on virtues and vices, written for ...
hailed him as "the firste fyndere of our fair langage". Almost
two thousand English words are first attested to in Chaucerian manuscripts.
Life
Origin
![ChaucerArms Ancient](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/ChaucerArms_Ancient.svg)
Chaucer was born in London most likely in the early 1340s (by some accounts, including his monument, he was born in 1343), though the precise date and location remain unknown. The Chaucer family offers an extraordinary example of upward mobility. His great-grandfather was a tavern keeper, his grandfather worked as a purveyor of wines, and his father John Chaucer rose to become an important wine merchant with a royal appointment. Several previous generations of Geoffrey Chaucer's family had been
vintners
A winemaker or vintner is a person engaged in winemaking. They are generally employed by wineries or wine companies, where their work includes:
*Cooperating with viticulturists
*Monitoring the maturity of grapes to ensure their quality and to deter ...
and merchants in
Ipswich
Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...
. His family name is derived from the French ''chaucier'', once thought to mean 'shoemaker', but now known to mean a maker of hose or leggings.
In 1324, his father John Chaucer was kidnapped by an aunt in the hope of marrying the 12-year-old to her daughter in an attempt to keep the property in Ipswich. The aunt was imprisoned and fined £250, now equivalent to about £, which suggests that the family was financially secure.
John Chaucer married Agnes Copton, who inherited properties in 1349, including 24 shops in London from her uncle Hamo de Copton, who is described in a will dated 3 April 1354 and listed in the City Hustings Roll as "moneyer", said to be a
moneyer
A moneyer is a private individual who is officially permitted to mint money. Usually the rights to coin money are bestowed as a concession by a state or government. Moneyers have a long tradition, dating back at least to ancient Greece. They beca ...
at the
Tower of London
The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is separa ...
. In the City Hustings Roll 110, 5, Ric II, dated June 1380, Chaucer refers to himself as ''me Galfridum Chaucer, filium Johannis Chaucer, Vinetarii, Londonie'', which translates as: "Geoffrey Chaucer, son of the vintner John Chaucer, London".
Career
![Page of The Ellesmere Chaucer](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Page_of_The_Ellesmere_Chaucer.jpg)
While records concerning the lives of his contemporaries
William Langland
William Langland (; la, Willielmus de Langland; 1332 – c. 1386) is the presumed author of a work of Middle English alliterative verse generally known as ''Piers Plowman'', an allegory with a complex variety of religious themes. The poem tr ...
and the
Gawain Poet
The "Gawain Poet" (), or less commonly the "Pearl Poet",Andrew, M. "Theories of Authorship" (1997) in Brewer (ed). ''A Companion to the Gawain-poet'', Boydell & Brewer, p.23 (''fl.'' late 14th century) is the name given to the author of '' Sir ...
are practically non-existent, since Chaucer was a public servant his official life is very well documented, with nearly five hundred written items testifying to his career. The first of the "Chaucer Life Records" appears in 1357, in the household accounts of
Elizabeth de Burgh
Lady Elizabeth de Burgh (; ; c. 1289 – 27 October 1327) was the second wife and the only queen consort of King Robert the Bruce. Elizabeth was born sometime around 1289, probably in what is now County Down or County Antrim in Ulster, th ...
, the
Countess of Ulster, when he became the noblewoman's page through his father's connections, a common medieval form of apprenticeship for boys into knighthood or prestige appointments. The countess was married to
Lionel, Duke of Clarence
Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence, (; 29 November 133817 October 1368) was the third son, but the second son to survive infancy, of the English king Edward III and Philippa of Hainault. He was named after his birthplace, at Antwerp in the Duch ...
, the second surviving son of the king,
Edward III
Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377), also known as Edward of Windsor before his accession, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from January 1327 until his death in 1377. He is noted for his military success and for restoring r ...
, and the position brought the teenage Chaucer into the close court circle, where he was to remain for the rest of his life. He also worked as a courtier, a diplomat, and a civil servant, as well as working for the king from 1389 to 1391 as Clerk of the King's Works.
In 1359, the early stages of the
Hundred Years' War
The Hundred Years' War (; 1337–1453) was a series of armed conflicts between the kingdoms of Kingdom of England, England and Kingdom of France, France during the Late Middle Ages. It originated from disputed claims to the French Crown, ...
, Edward III invaded France and Chaucer travelled with
Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence
Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence, (; 29 November 133817 October 1368) was the third son, but the second son to survive infancy, of the English king Edward III and Philippa of Hainault. He was named after his birthplace, at Antwerp in the Duc ...
, Elizabeth's husband, as part of the
. In 1360, he was captured during the
siege of Rheims. Edward paid £16 for his ransom, a considerable sum , and Chaucer was released.
![ChaucerCrest EwelmeChurch Oxfordshire](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/ChaucerCrest_EwelmeChurch_Oxfordshire.png)
After this, Chaucer's life is uncertain, but he seems to have travelled in France, Spain, and
Flanders
Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, ...
, possibly as a messenger and perhaps even going on a
pilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...
to
Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, in northwestern Spain. The city has its origin in the shrine of Saint James the Great, now the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, as the destination of the Way of St ...
. Around 1366, Chaucer married
Philippa (de) Roet. She was a lady-in-waiting to Edward III's queen,
Philippa of Hainault
Philippa of Hainault (sometimes spelled Hainaut; Middle French: ''Philippe de Hainaut''; 24 June 1310 (or 1315) – 15 August 1369) was Queen of England as the wife and political adviser of King Edward III. She acted as regent in 1346,Strickla ...
, and a sister of
Katherine Swynford
Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster (born Katherine de Roet, – 10 May 1403), also spelled Katharine or Catherine, was the third wife of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, the fourth (but third surviving) son of King Edward III.
Daughter o ...
, who later (c. 1396) became the third wife of
John of Gaunt
John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster (6 March 1340 – 3 February 1399) was an English royal prince, military leader, and statesman. He was the fourth son (third to survive infancy as William of Hatfield died shortly after birth) of King Edward ...
. It is uncertain how many children Chaucer and Philippa had, but three or four are most commonly cited. His son,
Thomas Chaucer
Thomas Chaucer (c. 136718 November 1434) was an English courtier and politician. The son of the poet Geoffrey Chaucer and his wife Philippa Roet, Thomas was linked socially and by family to senior members of the English nobility, though h ...
, had an illustrious career, as
chief butler to four kings, envoy to France, and
Speaker of the House of Commons Speaker of the House of Commons is a political leadership position found in countries that have a House of Commons, where the membership of the body elects a speaker to lead its proceedings.
Systems that have such a position include:
* Speaker of ...
. Thomas's daughter,
Alice, married the
Duke of Suffolk
Duke of Suffolk is a title that has been created three times in the peerage of England.
The dukedom was first created for William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk, William de la Pole, who had already been elevated to the ranks of earl and marquess ...
. Thomas's great-grandson (Geoffrey's great-great-grandson),
John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln
John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln (c. 1460 – 16 June 1487) was a leading figure in the Yorkist aristocracy during the Wars of the Roses.
After the death of his uncle Richard III, de la Pole was reconciled with the new Tudor regime, but two year ...
, was the heir to the throne designated by
Richard III
Richard III (2 October 145222 August 1485) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat and death at the Battl ...
before he was deposed. Geoffrey's other children probably included Elizabeth Chaucy, a nun at
Barking Abbey
Barking Abbey is a former royal monastery located in Barking, in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. It has been described as having been "one of the most important nunneries in the country".
Originally established in the 7th century, fr ...
, Agnes, an attendant at
Henry IV's coronation; and another son, Lewis Chaucer. Chaucer's "Treatise on the Astrolabe" was written for Lewis.
According to tradition, Chaucer studied law in the
Inner Temple
The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wal ...
(an
Inn of Court
The Inns of Court in London are the professional associations for barristers in England and Wales. There are four Inns of Court – Gray's Inn, Lincoln's Inn, Inner Temple and Middle Temple.
All barristers must belong to one of them. They ha ...
) at this time. He became a member of the royal court of Edward III as a ''
valet de chambre
''Valet de chambre'' (), or ''varlet de chambre'', was a court appointment introduced in the late Middle Ages, common from the 14th century onwards. Royal households had many persons appointed at any time. While some valets simply waited on t ...
'',
yeoman
Yeoman is a noun originally referring either to one who owns and cultivates land or to the middle ranks of servants in an English royal or noble household. The term was first documented in mid-14th-century England. The 14th century also witn ...
, or
esquire
Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title.
In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentlema ...
on 20 June 1367, a position which could entail a wide variety of tasks. His wife also received a pension for court employment. He travelled abroad many times, at least some of them in his role as a valet. In 1368, he may have attended the wedding of
Lionel of Antwerp
Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence, (; 29 November 133817 October 1368) was the third son, but the second son to survive infancy, of the English king Edward III and Philippa of Hainault. He was named after his birthplace, at Antwerp in the Duc ...
to
Violante Visconti
Violante (Jolantha) Visconti (1354 – November 1386) was the second of two children of Galeazzo II Visconti, Lord of Milan and Pavia, and Bianca of Savoy. Her father gave to her the provinces of Alba, Mondovì, Kenites, Cherasco, and Demonte as ...
, daughter of
Galeazzo II Visconti
Galeazzo II Visconti ( – 4 August 1378) was a member of the Visconti dynasty and a ruler of Milan, Italy. His most notable military campaigns were against Pope Gregory XI, around 1367. These battles fought between the papacy and the Viscon ...
, in
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
. Two other literary stars of the era were in attendance:
Jean Froissart
Jean Froissart ( Old and Middle French: '' Jehan'', – ) (also John Froissart) was a French-speaking medieval author and court historian from the Low Countries who wrote several works, including ''Chronicles'' and ''Meliador'', a long Arthuria ...
and
Petrarch
Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists.
Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited w ...
. Around this time, Chaucer is believed to have written ''
The Book of the Duchess
''The Book of the Duchess'', also known as ''The Deth of Blaunche'',
''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 1910. Accessed 11 March ...
'' in honour of
Blanche of Lancaster
Blanche of Lancaster (25 March 1342 – 12 September 1368) was a member of the English royal House of Plantagenet and the daughter of the kingdom's wealthiest and most powerful peer, Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster. She was the first w ...
, the late wife of John of Gaunt, who died in 1369 of the plague.
Chaucer travelled to
Picardy
Picardy (; Picard and french: Picardie, , ) is a historical territory and a former administrative region of France. Since 1 January 2016, it has been part of the new region of Hauts-de-France. It is located in the northern part of France.
Hi ...
the next year as part of a military expedition; in 1373 he visited
Genoa
Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...
and
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
. Numerous scholars such as Skeat, Boitani, and Rowland suggested that, on this Italian trip,
he came into contact with Petrarch or Boccaccio. They introduced him to
medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...
Italian poetry
Italian poetry is a category of Italian literature. Italian poetry has its origins in the thirteenth century and has heavily influenced the poetic traditions of many European languages, including that of English.
Features
* Italian prosody is a ...
, the forms and stories of which he would use later. The purposes of a voyage in 1377 are mysterious, as details within the historical record conflict. Later documents suggest it was a mission, along with Jean Froissart, to arrange a marriage between the future King
Richard II
Richard II (6 January 1367 – ), also known as Richard of Bordeaux, was King of England from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. He was the son of Edward the Black Prince, Prince of Wales, and Joan, Countess of Kent. Richard's father died ...
and a French princess, thereby ending the
Hundred Years' War
The Hundred Years' War (; 1337–1453) was a series of armed conflicts between the kingdoms of Kingdom of England, England and Kingdom of France, France during the Late Middle Ages. It originated from disputed claims to the French Crown, ...
. If this was the purpose of their trip, they seem to have been unsuccessful, as no wedding occurred.
In 1378, Richard II sent Chaucer as an envoy (secret dispatch) to the Visconti and to Sir
John Hawkwood
Sir John Hawkwood ( 1323 – 17 March 1394) was an English soldier who served as a mercenary leader or '' condottiero'' in Italy. As his name was difficult to pronounce for non-English-speaking contemporaries, there are many variations of it in ...
, English
condottiere
''Condottieri'' (; singular ''condottiero'' or ''condottiere'') were Italian captains in command of mercenary companies during the Middle Ages and of multinational armies during the early modern period. They notably served popes and other Europe ...
(mercenary leader) in
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
. It has been speculated that it was Hawkwood on whom Chaucer based his character the Knight in the ''Canterbury Tales'', for a description matches that of a 14th-century
condottiere
''Condottieri'' (; singular ''condottiero'' or ''condottiere'') were Italian captains in command of mercenary companies during the Middle Ages and of multinational armies during the early modern period. They notably served popes and other Europe ...
.
![Geoffrey Chaucer](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Geoffrey_Chaucer.jpeg)
A possible indication that his career as a writer was appreciated came when
Edward III
Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377), also known as Edward of Windsor before his accession, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from January 1327 until his death in 1377. He is noted for his military success and for restoring r ...
granted Chaucer "a gallon of wine daily for the rest of his life" for some unspecified task. This was an unusual grant, but given on a day of celebration,
St George's Day
Saint George's Day is the feast day of Saint George, celebrated by Christian churches, countries, and cities of which he is the patron saint, including Bulgaria, England, Georgia, Portugal, Romania, Cáceres, Alcoy, Aragon and Catalonia.
Sa ...
, 1374, when artistic endeavours were traditionally rewarded, it is assumed to have been another early poetic work. It is not known which, if any, of Chaucer's extant works prompted the reward, but the suggestion of him as poet to a king places him as a precursor to later
poets laureate. Chaucer continued to collect the liquid stipend until Richard II came to power, after which it was converted to a monetary grant on 18 April 1378.
Chaucer obtained the very substantial job of
comptroller
A comptroller (pronounced either the same as ''controller'' or as ) is a management-level position responsible for supervising the quality of accounting and financial reporting of an organization. A financial comptroller is a senior-level executi ...
of the customs for the port of London, which he began on 8 June 1374. He must have been suited for the role as he continued in it for twelve years, a long time in such a post at that time. His life goes undocumented for much of the next ten years, but it is believed that he wrote (or began) most of his famous works during this period.
On 16 October 1379 Thomas Staundon filed a legal action against his former servant Cecily Chaumpaigne and Chaucer, accusing Chaucer of unlawfully employing Chaumpaigne before her term of service was completed, which violated the
Statute of Labourers
The Statute of Labourers was a law created by the English parliament under King Edward III in 1351 in response to a labour shortage, which aimed at regulating the labour force by prohibiting requesting or offering a wage higher than pre-Plague st ...
. Though eight court documents dated between October 1379 and July 1380 survive from the action, the case was never prosecuted and no details survive about Chaumpaigne's service or how she came to leave Staundon's employ for Chaucer's.
It is not known if Chaucer was in the City of London at the time of the
Peasants' Revolt
The Peasants' Revolt, also named Wat Tyler's Rebellion or the Great Rising, was a major uprising across large parts of England in 1381. The revolt had various causes, including the socio-economic and political tensions generated by the Black ...
, but if he was, he would have seen its leaders pass almost directly under his apartment window at
Aldgate
Aldgate () was a gate in the former defensive wall around the City of London. It gives its name to Aldgate High Street, the first stretch of the A11 road, which included the site of the former gate.
The area of Aldgate, the most common use of ...
.
While still working as comptroller, Chaucer appears to have moved to
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
, being appointed as one of the commissioners of peace for Kent, at a time when French invasion was a possibility. He is thought to have started work on ''
The Canterbury Tales
''The Canterbury Tales'' ( enm, Tales of Caunterbury) is a collection of twenty-four stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. It is widely regarded as Chaucer's ''Masterpiece, ...
'' in the early 1380s. He also became a member of parliament for Kent in 1386, and attended the '
Wonderful Parliament
The Wonderful Parliament was a session of the English parliament held from October to November 1386 in Westminster Abbey. Originally called to address King Richard II's need for money, it quickly refocused on pressing for the reform of his adm ...
' that year. He appears to have been present at most of the 71 days it sat, for which he was paid £24 9s. On 15 October that year, he gave a deposition in the case of ''
Scrope v. Grosvenor
''Scrope v Grosvenor'' (1389) was an early intellectual property lawsuit, specifically regarding the law of arms. One of the earliest heraldic cases brought in England, the case resulted from two different knights in King Richard II's servi ...
''.
There is no further reference after this date to Philippa, Chaucer's wife, and she is presumed to have died in 1387. He survived the political upheavals caused by the
Lords Appellant
The Lords Appellant were a group of nobles in the reign of King Richard II, who, in 1388, sought to impeach some five of the King's favourites in order to restrain what was seen as tyrannical and capricious rule. The word ''appellant'' — still u ...
s, despite the fact that Chaucer knew some of the men executed over the affair quite well.
On 12 July 1389, Chaucer was appointed the
clerk of the king's works, a sort of
foreman
__NOTOC__
A foreman, forewoman or foreperson is a supervisor, often in a manual trade or industry.
Foreman may specifically refer to:
*Construction foreman, the worker or tradesman who is in charge of a construction crew
* Jury foreman, a head j ...
organising most of the king's building projects. No major works were begun during his tenure, but he did conduct repairs on
Westminster Palace
The Palace of Westminster serves as the meeting place for both the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Informally known as the Houses of Parli ...
,
St. George's Chapel, Windsor
St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in England is a castle chapel built in the late-medieval Perpendicular Gothic style. It is both a Royal Peculiar (a church under the direct jurisdiction of the monarch) and the Chapel of the Order of the Gart ...
, continued building the wharf at the
Tower of London
The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is separa ...
, and built the stands for a tournament held in 1390. It may have been a difficult job, but it paid well: two
shilling
The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence o ...
s a day, more than three times his salary as a comptroller. Chaucer was also appointed keeper of the lodge at the King's park in
Feckenham Forest
Feckenham Forest was a royal forest, centred on the village of Feckenham, covering large parts of Worcestershire and west Warwickshire. It was not entirely wooded, nor entirely the property of the King. Rather, the King had legal rights over game ...
in
Worcestershire
Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...
, which was a largely honorary appointment.
Later life
In September 1390, records say that Chaucer was robbed and possibly injured while conducting the business, and he stopped working in this capacity on 17 June 1391. He began as Deputy Forester in the royal forest of
Petherton Park
Petherton Park (also known as North Petherton Park or Newton Park) was a Deer park around North Petherton within the English county of Somerset.
The origins are unclear but the area was part of an earlier Royal Forest stretching from the River ...
in
North Petherton
North Petherton is a small town and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated on the edge of the eastern foothills of the Quantocks, and close to the edge of the Somerset Levels.
The town has a population of 6,730 as of 2014. The parish includ ...
, Somerset on 22 June. This was no sinecure, with maintenance an important part of the job, although there were many opportunities to derive profit.
Richard II granted him an annual pension of 20 pounds in 1394 (), and Chaucer's name fades from the historical record not long after Richard's overthrow in 1399. The last few records of his life show his pension renewed by the new king, and his taking a lease on a residence within the
close of Westminster Abbey on 24 December 1399.
Henry IV renewed the grants assigned by Richard, but ''The Complaint of Chaucer to his Purse'' hints that the grants might not have been paid. The last mention of Chaucer is on 5 June 1400 when some debts owed to him were repaid.
Chaucer died of unknown causes on 25 October 1400, although the only evidence for this date comes from the engraving on his tomb which was erected more than 100 years after his death. There is some speculation that he was murdered by enemies of Richard II or even on the orders of his successor Henry IV, but the case is entirely circumstantial. Chaucer was buried in Westminster Abbey in London, as was his right owing to his status as a tenant of the Abbey's close. In 1556, his remains were transferred to a more ornate tomb, making him the first writer interred in the area now known as
Poets' Corner
Poets' Corner is the name traditionally given to a section of the South Transept of Westminster Abbey in the City of Westminster, London because of the high number of poets, playwrights, and writers buried and commemorated there.
The first poe ...
.
Relationship to John of Gaunt
Chaucer was a close friend of
John of Gaunt
John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster (6 March 1340 – 3 February 1399) was an English royal prince, military leader, and statesman. He was the fourth son (third to survive infancy as William of Hatfield died shortly after birth) of King Edward ...
, the wealthy
Duke of Lancaster
The Dukedom of Lancaster is an English peerage merged into the crown. It was created three times in the Middle Ages, but finally merged in the Crown when Henry V succeeded to the throne in 1413. Despite the extinction of the dukedom the title h ...
and father of
Henry IV, and he served under Lancaster's patronage. Near the end of their lives, Lancaster and Chaucer became brothers-in-law when Lancaster married
Katherine Swynford
Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster (born Katherine de Roet, – 10 May 1403), also spelled Katharine or Catherine, was the third wife of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, the fourth (but third surviving) son of King Edward III.
Daughter o ...
(de Roet) in 1396; she was the sister of
Philippa (Pan) de Roet, whom Chaucer had married in 1366.
Chaucer's ''
Book of the Duchess
''The Book of the Duchess'', also known as ''The Deth of Blaunche'',
''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 1910. Accessed 11 March ...
'' (also known as the ''Deeth of Blaunche the Duchesse'') was written in commemoration of
Blanche of Lancaster
Blanche of Lancaster (25 March 1342 – 12 September 1368) was a member of the English royal House of Plantagenet and the daughter of the kingdom's wealthiest and most powerful peer, Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster. She was the first w ...
, John of Gaunt's first wife. The poem refers to John and Blanche in allegory as the narrator relates the tale of "A long castel with walles white/Be Seynt Johan, on a ryche hil" (1318–1319) who is mourning grievously after the death of his love, "And goode faire White she het/That was my lady name ryght" (948–949). The phrase "long castel" is a reference to Lancaster (also called "Loncastel" and "Longcastell"), "walles white" is thought to be an oblique reference to Blanche, "Seynt Johan" was John of Gaunt's name-saint, and "ryche hil" is a reference to Richmond. These references reveal the identity of the grieving black knight of the poem as John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster and Earl of Richmond. "White" is the English translation of the French word "blanche", implying that the white lady was
Blanche of Lancaster
Blanche of Lancaster (25 March 1342 – 12 September 1368) was a member of the English royal House of Plantagenet and the daughter of the kingdom's wealthiest and most powerful peer, Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster. She was the first w ...
.
Poem ''Fortune''
Chaucer's short poem ''Fortune'', believed to have been written in the 1390s, is also thought to refer to Lancaster.
"Chaucer as narrator" openly defies ''
Fortune
Fortune may refer to:
General
* Fortuna or Fortune, the Roman goddess of luck
* Luck
* Wealth
* Fortune, a prediction made in fortune-telling
* Fortune, in a fortune cookie
Arts and entertainment Film and television
* ''The Fortune'' (1931 film) ...
'', proclaiming that he has learned who his enemies are through her tyranny and deceit, and declares "my suffisaunce" (15) and that "over himself hath the maystrye" (14).
''Fortune'', in turn, does not understand Chaucer's harsh words to her for she believes that she has been kind to him, claims that he does not know what she has in store for him in the future, but most importantly, "And eek thou hast thy beste frend alyve" (32, 40, 48). Chaucer retorts, "My frend maystow nat reven, blind goddesse" (50) and orders her to take away those who merely pretend to be his friends.
''Fortune'' turns her attention to three princes whom she implores to relieve Chaucer of his pain and "Preyeth his beste frend of his noblesse/That to som beter estat he may atteyne" (78–79). The three princes are believed to represent the dukes of Lancaster,
York
York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
, and
Gloucester
Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...
, and a portion of line 76 ("as three of you or tweyne") is thought to refer to the ordinance of 1390 which specified that no royal gift could be authorised without the consent of at least two of the three dukes.
Most conspicuous in this short poem is the number of references to Chaucer's "beste frend". ''Fortune'' states three times in her response to the plaintiff, "And also, you still have your best friend alive" (32, 40, 48); she also refers to his "beste frend" in the envoy when appealing to his "noblesse" to help Chaucer to a higher estate. The narrator makes a fifth reference when he rails at ''Fortune'' that she shall not take his friend from him.
Religious beliefs
Chaucer's attitudes toward the Church should not be confused with his attitudes toward Christianity. He seems to have respected and admired Christians and to have been one himself, though he also recognised that many people in the church were venal and corrupt. He wrote in ''Canterbury Tales'', "now I beg all those that listen to this little treatise, or read it, that if there be anything in it that pleases them, they thank our Lord Jesus Christ for it, from whom proceeds all understanding and goodness."
Literary works
Chaucer's first major work was ''
The Book of the Duchess
''The Book of the Duchess'', also known as ''The Deth of Blaunche'',
''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 1910. Accessed 11 March ...
'', an elegy for
Blanche of Lancaster
Blanche of Lancaster (25 March 1342 – 12 September 1368) was a member of the English royal House of Plantagenet and the daughter of the kingdom's wealthiest and most powerful peer, Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster. She was the first w ...
who died in 1368. Two other early works were ''
Anelida and Arcite
''Anelida and Arcite'' is a 357-line English poem by Geoffrey Chaucer. It tells the story of Anelida, queen of Armenia and her wooing by false Arcite from Thebes, Greece.
Although relatively short, it is a poem with a complex structure, with a ...
'' and ''
The House of Fame
''The House of Fame'' (''Hous of Fame'' in the original spelling) is a Middle English poem by Geoffrey Chaucer, probably written between 1374 and 1385, making it one of his earlier works. It was most likely written after ''The Book of the Duchess' ...
''. He wrote many of his major works in a prolific period when he held the job of customs comptroller for London (1374 to 1386). His ''
Parlement of Foules
The ''Parlement of Foules'' (modernized: ''Parliament of Fowls''), also called the ''Parlement of Briddes'' (''Parliament of Birds'') or the ''Assemble of Foules'' (''Assembly of Fowls''), is a poem by Geoffrey Chaucer (1343?–1400) made up ...
'', ''
The Legend of Good Women
''The Legend of Good Women'' is a poem in the form of a dream vision by Geoffrey Chaucer during the fourteenth century.
The poem is the third longest of Chaucer's works, after ''The Canterbury Tales'' and ''Troilus and Criseyde'', and is possib ...
'', and ''
Troilus and Criseyde
''Troilus and Criseyde'' () is an epic poem by Geoffrey Chaucer which re-tells in Middle English the tragic story of the lovers Troilus and Criseyde set against a backdrop of war during the siege of Troy. It was written in '' rime royale'' an ...
'' all date from this time. It is believed that he started ''
The Canterbury Tales
''The Canterbury Tales'' ( enm, Tales of Caunterbury) is a collection of twenty-four stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. It is widely regarded as Chaucer's ''Masterpiece, ...
'' in the 1380s.
Chaucer also translated
Boethius
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, commonly known as Boethius (; Latin: ''Boetius''; 480 – 524 AD), was a Roman senator, consul, ''magister officiorum'', historian, and philosopher of the Early Middle Ages. He was a central figure in the tr ...
' ''
Consolation of Philosophy
''On the Consolation of Philosophy'' ('' la, De consolatione philosophiae'')'','' often titled as ''The Consolation of Philosophy'' or simply the ''Consolation,'' is a philosophical work by the Roman statesman Boethius. Written in 523 while he ...
'' and ''
The Romance of the Rose'' by
Guillaume de Lorris
Guillaume de Lorris (c. 1200c. 1240) was a French scholar and poet from Lorris. He was the author of the first section of the ''Roman de la Rose''. Little is known about him, other than that he wrote the earlier section of the poem around 1230, ...
(extended by Jean de Meun).
Eustache Deschamps
Eustache Deschamps (13461406 or 1407) was a French poet, byname Morel, in French "Nightshade".
Life and career
Deschamps was born in Vertus. He received lessons in versification from Guillaume de Machaut and later studied law at Orleans Univers ...
called himself a "nettle in Chaucer's garden of poetry". In 1385,
Thomas Usk
Thomas Usk (died 4 March 1388) was appointed the under- sheriff of London by Richard II in 1387. His service in this role was brief and he was hanged in the following year.
His life
Born in London, Usk was a petty bureaucrat, scrivener, and a ...
made glowing mention of Chaucer, and
John Gower
John Gower (; c. 1330 – October 1408) was an English poet, a contemporary of William Langland and the Pearl Poet, and a personal friend of Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civ ...
also lauded him.
Chaucer's ''
Treatise on the Astrolabe
''A Treatise on the Astrolabe'' is a medieval instruction manual on the astrolabe by Geoffrey Chaucer. It describes both the form and the proper use of the instrument, and stands out as a prose technical work from a writer better known for poet ...
'' describes the form and use of the
astrolabe
An astrolabe ( grc, ἀστρολάβος ; ar, ٱلأَسْطُرلاب ; persian, ستارهیاب ) is an ancient astronomical instrument that was a handheld model of the universe. Its various functions also make it an elaborate inclin ...
in detail and is sometimes cited as the first example of technical writing in the English language, and it indicates that Chaucer was versed in science in addition to his literary talents. ''
The equatorie of the planetis'' is a scientific work similar to the ''Treatise'' and sometimes ascribed to Chaucer because of its language and handwriting, an identification which scholars no longer deem tenable.
Influence
Linguistic
![Chaucer Hoccleve](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/Chaucer_Hoccleve.png)
Chaucer wrote in continental
accentual-syllabic metre, a style which had developed in English literature since around the 12th century as an alternative to the
alliterative
Alliteration is the conspicuous repetition of initial consonant sounds of nearby words in a phrase, often used as a literary device. A familiar example is "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers". Alliteration is used poetically in various ...
Anglo-Saxon
metre
The metre (British spelling) or meter (American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its pref ...
. Chaucer is known for metrical innovation, inventing the
rhyme royal
Rhyme royal (or rime royal) is a rhyming stanza form that was introduced to English poetry by Geoffrey Chaucer. The form enjoyed significant success in the fifteenth century and into the sixteenth century. It has had a more subdued but continuing ...
, and he was one of the first English poets to use the five-stress line, a decasyllabic cousin to the
iambic pentametre, in his work, with only a few anonymous short works using it before him. The arrangement of these five-stress lines into rhyming
couplet
A couplet is a pair of successive lines of metre in poetry. A couplet usually consists of two successive lines that rhyme and have the same metre. A couplet may be formal (closed) or run-on (open). In a formal (or closed) couplet, each of the ...
s, first seen in his ''
The Legend of Good Women
''The Legend of Good Women'' is a poem in the form of a dream vision by Geoffrey Chaucer during the fourteenth century.
The poem is the third longest of Chaucer's works, after ''The Canterbury Tales'' and ''Troilus and Criseyde'', and is possib ...
'', 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
The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of Linguistics, linguistic phenomena:
One usage refers to a variety (linguisti ...
, apparently making its first appearance in ''
The Reeve's Tale
"The Reeve's Tale" is the third story told in Geoffrey Chaucer's '' The Canterbury Tales''. The reeve, named Oswald in the text, is the manager of a large estate who reaped incredible profits for his master and himself. He is described in the ...
''.
The poetry of Chaucer, along with other writers of the era, is credited with helping to standardise the London Dialect of the
Middle English
Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English p ...
language from a combination of the Kentish and Midlands dialects. This is probably overstated; the influence of the court,
chancery and bureaucracy – of which Chaucer was a part – remains a more probable influence on the development of
Standard English
In an English-speaking country, Standard English (SE) is the variety of English that has undergone substantial regularisation and is associated with formal schooling, language assessment, and official print publications, such as public service a ...
.
Modern English is somewhat distanced from the language of Chaucer's poems owing to the effect of the
Great Vowel Shift
The Great Vowel Shift was a series of changes in the pronunciation of the English language that took place primarily between 1400 and 1700, beginning in southern England and today having influenced effectively all dialects of English. Through ...
some time after his death. This change in the
pronunciation
Pronunciation is the way in which a word or a language is spoken. This may refer to generally agreed-upon sequences of sounds used in speaking a given word or language in a specific dialect ("correct pronunciation") or simply the way a particular ...
of English, still not fully understood, makes the reading of Chaucer difficult for the modern audience.
The status of the final ''-e'' in Chaucer's verse is uncertain: it seems likely that during the period of Chaucer's writing the final ''-e'' was dropping out of colloquial English and that its use was somewhat irregular. It may have been a vestige of the
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
dative singular suffix ''-e'' attached to most nouns. Chaucer's versification suggests that the final ''-e'' is sometimes to be vocalised, and sometimes to be silent; however, this remains a point on which there is disagreement. When it is vocalised, most scholars pronounce it as a
schwa
In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa (, rarely or ; sometimes spelled shwa) is a vowel sound denoted by the IPA symbol , placed in the central position of the vowel chart. In English and some other languages, it rep ...
.
Apart from the irregular spelling, much of the vocabulary is recognisable to the modern reader. Chaucer is also recorded in the ''
Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a com ...
'' as the first author to use many common English words in his writings. These words were probably frequently used in the language at the time but Chaucer, with his ear for common speech, is the earliest extant manuscript source. ''Acceptable'', ''alkali'', ''altercation'', ''amble'', ''angrily'', ''annex'', ''annoyance'', ''approaching'', ''arbitration'', ''armless'', ''army'', ''arrogant'', ''arsenic'', ''arc'', ''artillery'' and ''aspect'' are just some of almost two thousand
English words first attested in Chaucer
English words first attested in Chaucer, or special manuscript words of Chaucer, are a set of about two thousand English words whose first use found in existing manuscripts is credited to Geoffrey Chaucer.Cannon, pp. 231–233 This does not necess ...
.
Literary
![William Blake - Geoffrey Chaucer - Manchester City Gallery - Tempera on canvas c 1800](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/William_Blake_-_Geoffrey_Chaucer_-_Manchester_City_Gallery_-_Tempera_on_canvas_c_1800.jpg)
Widespread knowledge of Chaucer's works is attested by the many poets who imitated or responded to his writing.
John Lydgate
John Lydgate of Bury (c. 1370 – c. 1451) was an English monk and poet, born in Lidgate, near Haverhill, Suffolk, England.
Lydgate's poetic output is prodigious, amounting, at a conservative count, to about 145,000 lines. He explored and est ...
was one of the earliest poets to write continuations of Chaucer's unfinished ''Tales'' while
Robert Henryson
Robert Henryson (Middle Scots: Robert Henrysoun) was a poet who flourished in Scotland in the period c. 1460–1500. Counted among the Scots ''makars'', he lived in the royal burgh of Dunfermline and is a distinctive voice in the Northern Renai ...
's ''Testament of Cresseid'' completes the story of
Cressida
Cressida (; also Criseida, Cresseid or Criseyde) is a character who appears in many Medieval and Renaissance retellings of the story of the Trojan War. She is a Trojan woman, the daughter of Calchas, a Greek seer. She falls in love with Troilus, ...
left unfinished in his ''Troilus and Criseyde''. Many of the manuscripts of Chaucer's works contain material from these poets and later appreciations by the
Romantic era
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
poets were shaped by their failure to distinguish the later "additions" from original Chaucer.
Writers of the 17th and 18th centuries, such as
John Dryden
''
John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate.
He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the per ...
, admired Chaucer for his stories, but not for his rhythm and rhyme, as few critics could then read Middle English and the text had been butchered by printers, leaving a somewhat unadmirable mess. It was not until the late 19th century that the official Chaucerian canon, accepted today, was decided upon, largely as a result of
Walter William Skeat
Walter William Skeat, (21 November 18356 October 1912) was a British philologist and Anglican deacon. The pre-eminent British philologist of his time, he was instrumental in developing the English language as a higher education subject in th ...
's work. Roughly seventy-five years after Chaucer's death, ''The Canterbury Tales'' was selected by
William Caxton
William Caxton ( – ) was an English merchant, diplomat and writer. He is thought to be the first person to introduce a printing press into England, in 1476, and as a printer (publisher), printer to be the first English retailer of printed boo ...
to be one of the first books to be printed in England.
English
Chaucer is sometimes considered the source of the English vernacular tradition. His achievement for the language can be seen as part of a general historical trend towards the creation of a
vernacular literature
Vernacular literature is literature written in the vernacular—the speech of the "common people".
In the European tradition, this effectively means literature not written in Latin nor Koine Greek. In this context, vernacular literature appeared ...
, after the example of
Dante
Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: '' ...
, in many parts of Europe. A parallel trend in Chaucer's own lifetime was underway in Scotland through the work of his slightly earlier contemporary,
John Barbour John Barbour may refer to:
* John Barbour (poet) (1316–1395), Scottish poet
* John Barbour (MP for New Shoreham), MP for New Shoreham 1368-1382
* John Barbour (footballer) (1890–1916), Scottish footballer
* John S. Barbour (1790–1855), U. ...
, and was likely to have been even more general, as is evidenced by the example of the
Pearl Poet
The "Gawain Poet" (), or less commonly the "Pearl Poet",Andrew, M. "Theories of Authorship" (1997) in Brewer (ed). ''A Companion to the Gawain-poet'', Boydell & Brewer, p.23 (''fl.'' late 14th century) is the name given to the author of ''Sir ...
in the north of England.
Although Chaucer's language is much closer to Modern English than the text of ''
Beowulf
''Beowulf'' (; ang, Bēowulf ) is an Old English epic poem in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and most often translated works of Old English literature. The ...
'', such that (unlike that of ''Beowulf'') a Modern English-speaker with a large vocabulary of archaic words may understand it, it differs enough that most publications modernise his idiom. The following is a sample from the prologue of ''
The Summoner's Tale
"The Summoner's Tale" is one of ''The Canterbury Tales'' by Geoffrey Chaucer.
The tale is a fierce counterpunch to the preceding tale by The Friar, who had delivered an attack on summoners. Summoners were officials in ecclesiastical courts who d ...
'' that compares Chaucer's text to a modern translation:
:
Valentine's Day and romance
The first recorded association of
Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring one or two early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine and, throu ...
with romantic love is believed to be in Chaucer's ''
Parliament of Fowls
The ''Parlement of Foules'' (modernized: ''Parliament of Fowls''), also called the ''Parlement of Briddes'' (''Parliament of Birds'') or the ''Assemble of Foules'' (''Assembly of Fowls''), is a poem by Geoffrey Chaucer (1343?–1400) made up ...
'' (1382), a
dream vision
A dream vision or ''visio'' is a literary device in which a dream or vision is recounted as having revealed knowledge or a truth that is not available to the dreamer or visionary in a normal waking state. While dreams occur frequently throughout ...
portraying a parliament for birds to choose their mates.
[Oruch, Jack B.,]
St. Valentine, Chaucer, and Spring in February
, ''Speculum'', 56 (1981): 534–65. Oruch's survey of the literature finds no association between Valentine and romance prior to Chaucer. He concludes that Chaucer is likely to be "the original mythmaker in this instance.
Honouring the first anniversary of the engagement of fifteen-year-old King
Richard II of England
Richard II (6 January 1367 – ), also known as Richard of Bordeaux, was King of England from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. He was the son of Edward the Black Prince, Prince of Wales, and Joan, Countess of Kent. Richard's father die ...
to fifteen-year-old
Anne of Bohemia
Anne of Bohemia (11 May 1366 – 7 June 1394), also known as Anne of Luxembourg, was Queen of England as the first wife of King Richard II. A member of the House of Luxembourg, she was the eldest daughter of Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor and ...
:
For this was on seynt Volantynys day
Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese his make
Of euery kynde that men thinke may
And that so heuge a noyse gan they make
That erthe & eyr & tre & euery lake
So ful was that onethe was there space
For me to stonde, so ful was al the place.
Critical reception
Early criticism
The poet
Thomas Hoccleve
Thomas Hoccleve or Occleve (1368 or 1369–1426) was an English poet and clerk, who became a key figure in 15th-century Middle English literature. His ''Regement of Princes or De Regimine Principum'' is a homily on virtues and vices, written for ...
, who may have met Chaucer and considered him his role model, hailed Chaucer as "the firste fyndere of our fair langage".
John Lydgate
John Lydgate of Bury (c. 1370 – c. 1451) was an English monk and poet, born in Lidgate, near Haverhill, Suffolk, England.
Lydgate's poetic output is prodigious, amounting, at a conservative count, to about 145,000 lines. He explored and est ...
referred to Chaucer within his own text ''The Fall of Princes'' as the "lodesterre (guiding principle) … off our language". Around two centuries later, Sir
Philip Sidney
Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek language, Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philip ...
greatly praised ''Troilus and Criseyde'' in his own ''Defence of Poesie''. During the nineteenth and early twentieth century, Chaucer came to be viewed as a symbol of the nation's poetic heritage.
In
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
' 1850 novel ''David Copperfield'', the Victorian era author echoed Chaucer's use of
Luke 23:34 from ''
Troilus and Criseyde
''Troilus and Criseyde'' () is an epic poem by Geoffrey Chaucer which re-tells in Middle English the tragic story of the lovers Troilus and Criseyde set against a backdrop of war during the siege of Troy. It was written in '' rime royale'' an ...
'' (Dickens held a copy in his library among other works of Chaucer), with
G. K. Chesterton writing, "among the great
canonical
The adjective canonical is applied in many contexts to mean "according to the canon" the standard, rule or primary source that is accepted as authoritative for the body of knowledge or literature in that context. In mathematics, "canonical example ...
English authors, Chaucer and Dickens have the most in common."
Manuscripts and audience
The large number of surviving manuscripts of Chaucer's works is testimony to the enduring interest in his poetry prior to the arrival of the printing press. There are 83 surviving manuscripts of the Canterbury Tales (in whole or part) alone, along with sixteen of ''Troilus and Criseyde'', including the personal copy of
Henry IV. Given the ravages of time, it is likely that these surviving manuscripts represent hundreds since lost.
Chaucer's original audience was a courtly one, and would have included women as well as men of the upper social classes. Yet even before his death in 1400, Chaucer's audience had begun to include members of the rising literate, middle and merchant classes. This included many
Lollard
Lollardy, also known as Lollardism or the Lollard movement, was a proto-Protestant Christian religious movement that existed from the mid-14th century until the 16th-century English Reformation. It was initially led by John Wycliffe, a Catholic ...
sympathisers who may well have been inclined to read Chaucer as one of their own.
Lollards were particularly attracted to Chaucer's satirical writings about friars, priests, and other church officials. In 1464, John Baron, a tenant farmer in Agmondesham (
Amersham
Amersham ( ) is a market town and civil parish within the unitary authority of Buckinghamshire, England, in the Chiltern Hills, northwest of central London, from Aylesbury and from High Wycombe. Amersham is part of the London commuter belt.
...
in
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...
), was brought before
John Chadworth, the
Bishop of Lincoln
The Bishop of Lincoln is the ordinary (diocesan bishop) of the Church of England Diocese of Lincoln in the Province of Canterbury.
The present diocese covers the county of Lincolnshire and the unitary authority areas of North Lincolnshire and ...
, on charges of being a Lollard heretic; he confessed to owning a "boke of the Tales of Caunterburie" among other suspect volumes.
Printed editions
William Caxton
William Caxton ( – ) was an English merchant, diplomat and writer. He is thought to be the first person to introduce a printing press into England, in 1476, and as a printer (publisher), printer to be the first English retailer of printed boo ...
, the first English printer, was responsible for the first two
folio
The term "folio" (), has three interconnected but distinct meanings in the world of books and printing: first, it is a term for a common method of arranging sheets of paper into book form, folding the sheet only once, and a term for a book ma ...
editions of ''The Canterbury Tales'' which were published in 1478 and 1483. Caxton's second printing, by his own account, came about because a customer complained that the printed text differed from a manuscript he knew; Caxton obligingly used the man's manuscript as his source. Both Caxton editions carry the equivalent of manuscript authority. Caxton's edition was reprinted by his successor,
Wynkyn de Worde
Wynkyn de Worde (died 1534) was a printer and publisher in London known for his work with William Caxton, and is recognised as the first to popularise the products of the printing press in England.
Name
Wynkyn de Worde was a German immigr ...
, but this edition has no independent authority.
Richard Pynson
Richard Pynson (c. 1449 – c. 1529) was one of the first printers of English books. Born in Normandy, he moved to London, where he became one of the leading printers of the generation following William Caxton. His books were printed to a high ...
, the
King's Printer
The King's Printer (known as the Queen's Printer during the reign of a female monarch) is typically a bureau of the national, state, or provincial government responsible for producing official documents issued by the King-in-Council, Ministers o ...
under Henry VIII for about twenty years, was the first to collect and sell something that resembled an edition of the collected works of Chaucer; however, in the process, he introduced five previously printed texts that are now known not to be Chaucer's. (The collection is actually three separately printed texts, or collections of texts, bound together as one volume.)
There is a likely connection between Pynson's product and
William Thynne
William Thynne (died 10 August 1546) was an English courtier and editor of Geoffrey Chaucer's works.
Life
Thynne's family bore the alternative surname of Botfield or Boteville, and he is sometimes called "Thynne ''alias'' Boteville". In 1524 he w ...
's a mere six years later. Thynne had a successful career from the 1520s until his death in 1546, as chief clerk of the kitchen of Henry VIII, one of the masters of the royal household. He spent years comparing various versions of Chaucer's works, and selected 41 pieces for publication. While there were questions over the authorship of some of the material, there is not doubt this was the first comprehensive view of Chaucer's work. ''The Workes of Geffray Chaucer,'' published in 1532, was the first edition of Chaucer's collected works. Thynne's editions of ''Chaucer's Works'' in 1532 and 1542 were the first major contributions to the existence of a widely recognised Chaucerian
canon
Canon or Canons may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base
* Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture
** Western ca ...
. Thynne represents his edition as a book sponsored by and supportive of the king who is praised in the preface by
Sir Brian Tuke. Thynne's canon brought the number of apocryphal works associated with Chaucer to a total of 28, even if that was not his intention.
As with Pynson, once included in the ''Works'',
pseudepigraphic
Pseudepigrapha (also anglicized as "pseudepigraph" or "pseudepigraphs") are falsely attributed works, texts whose claimed author is not the true author, or a work whose real author attributed it to a figure of the past.Bauckham, Richard; "Pseu ...
texts stayed with those works, regardless of their first editor's intentions.
![Chaucer knight](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Chaucer_knight.jpg)
In the 16th and 17th centuries, Chaucer was printed more than any other English author, and he was the first author to have his works collected in comprehensive single-volume editions in which a Chaucer canon began to cohere. Some scholars contend that 16th-century editions of Chaucer's ''Works'' set the precedent for all other English authors in terms of presentation, prestige and success in print. These editions certainly established Chaucer's reputation, but they also began the complicated process of reconstructing and frequently inventing Chaucer's biography and the canonical list of works which were attributed to him.
Probably the most significant aspect of the growing
apocrypha
Apocrypha are works, usually written, of unknown authorship or of doubtful origin. The word ''apocryphal'' (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to writings which were kept secret because they were the vehicles of esoteric knowledge considered ...
is that, beginning with Thynne's editions, it began to include medieval texts that made Chaucer appear as a
proto-Protestant
Proto-Protestantism, also called pre-Protestantism, refers to individuals and movements that propagated ideas similar to Protestantism before 1517, which historians usually regard as the starting year for the Reformation era. The relationship be ...
Lollard
Lollardy, also known as Lollardism or the Lollard movement, was a proto-Protestant Christian religious movement that existed from the mid-14th century until the 16th-century English Reformation. It was initially led by John Wycliffe, a Catholic ...
, primarily the ''Testament of Love'' and ''
The Plowman's Tale
There are two pseudo-Chaucerian texts called "The Plowman's Tale".
In the mid-15th century a rhyme royal "Plowman's Tale" was added to the text of '' The Canterbury Tales'' in the Christ Church MS. This tale is actually an orthodox Roman Catholi ...
''. As "Chaucerian" works that were not considered apocryphal until the late 19th century, these medieval texts enjoyed a new life, with English Protestants carrying on the earlier Lollard project of appropriating existing texts and authors who seemed sympathetic—or malleable enough to be construed as sympathetic—to their cause. The official Chaucer of the early printed volumes of his ''Works'' was construed as a proto-Protestant as the same was done, concurrently, with
William Langland
William Langland (; la, Willielmus de Langland; 1332 – c. 1386) is the presumed author of a work of Middle English alliterative verse generally known as ''Piers Plowman'', an allegory with a complex variety of religious themes. The poem tr ...
and ''
Piers Plowman
''Piers Plowman'' (written 1370–86; possibly ) or ''Visio Willelmi de Petro Ploughman'' (''William's Vision of Piers Plowman'') is a Middle English allegorical narrative poem by William Langland. It is written in un-rhymed, alliterative v ...
''.
The famous ''Plowman's Tale'' did not enter Thynne's ''Works'' until the second, 1542, edition. Its entry was surely facilitated by Thynne's inclusion of
Thomas Usk
Thomas Usk (died 4 March 1388) was appointed the under- sheriff of London by Richard II in 1387. His service in this role was brief and he was hanged in the following year.
His life
Born in London, Usk was a petty bureaucrat, scrivener, and a ...
's ''Testament of Love'' in the first edition. The ''Testament of Love'' imitates, borrows from, and thus resembles Usk's contemporary, Chaucer. (''Testament of Love'' also appears to borrow from ''Piers Plowman''.)
Since the ''Testament of Love'' mentions its author's part in a failed plot (book 1, chapter 6), his imprisonment, and (perhaps) a recantation of (possibly Lollard) heresy, all this was associated with Chaucer. (Usk himself was executed as a traitor in 1388.)
John Foxe
John Foxe (1516/1517 – 18 April 1587), an English historian and martyrologist, was the author of '' Actes and Monuments'' (otherwise ''Foxe's Book of Martyrs''), telling of Christian martyrs throughout Western history, but particularly the su ...
took this recantation of heresy as a defence of the true faith, calling Chaucer a "right Wiclevian" and (erroneously) identifying him as a schoolmate and close friend of
John Wycliffe
John Wycliffe (; also spelled Wyclif, Wickliffe, and other variants; 1328 – 31 December 1384) was an English scholastic philosopher, theologian, biblical translator, reformer, Catholic priest, and a seminary professor at the University of O ...
at
Merton College, Oxford
Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is one of the Colleges of Oxford University, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the ...
. (
Thomas Speght
Thomas Speght (died 1621) was an English schoolmaster and editor of Geoffrey Chaucer.
Life
He was from a Yorkshire family, and matriculated as a sizar of Peterhouse, Cambridge in 1566, graduating B.A. in 1570, and M.A. in 1573. At Cambridge he was ...
is careful to highlight these facts in his editions and his "Life of Chaucer".) No other sources for the ''Testament of Love'' exist—there is only Thynne's construction of whatever manuscript sources he had.
John Stow
John Stow (''also'' Stowe; 1524/25 – 5 April 1605) was an English historian and antiquarian. He wrote a series of chronicles of English history, published from 1565 onwards under such titles as ''The Summarie of Englyshe Chronicles'', ''The C ...
(1525–1605) was an antiquarian and also a chronicler. His edition of Chaucer's ''Works'' in 1561
brought the apocrypha to more than 50 titles. More were added in the 17th century, and they remained as late as 1810, well after
Thomas Tyrwhitt
Thomas Tyrwhitt (; 27 March 173015 August 1786) was an English classical scholar and critic.
Life
He was born in London, where he also died. He was educated at Eton College and Queen's College, Oxford. He was elected a fellow of Merton College ...
pared the canon down in his 1775 edition. The compilation and printing of Chaucer's works was, from its beginning, a political enterprise, since it was intended to establish an
English national identity
A national identity of the English as the people or ethnic group dominant in England dates to the Anglo-Saxon period. The establishing of a single English ethnic identity dates to at least AD 731, as exemplified in Bede's ''Ecclesiastical Histor ...
and history that grounded and authorised the Tudor monarchy and church. What was added to Chaucer often helped represent him favourably to Protestant England.
![Chaucer 1602](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/Chaucer_1602.jpg)
In his 1598 edition of the ''Works'', Speght (probably taking cues from Foxe) made good use of Usk's account of his political intrigue and imprisonment in the ''Testament of Love'' to assemble a largely fictional "Life of Our Learned English Poet, Geffrey Chaucer". Speght's "Life" presents readers with an erstwhile radical in troubled times much like their own, a proto-Protestant who eventually came round to the king's views on religion. Speght states, "In the second year of Richard the second, the King tooke Geffrey Chaucer and his lands into his protection. The occasion wherof no doubt was some daunger and trouble whereinto he was fallen by favouring some rash attempt of the common people." Under the discussion of Chaucer's friends, namely John of Gaunt, Speght further explains:
::Yet it seemeth that
haucerwas in some trouble in the daies of King Richard the second, as it may appeare in the Testament of Loue: where hee doth greatly complaine of his owne rashnesse in following the multitude, and of their hatred against him for bewraying their purpose. And in that complaint which he maketh to his empty purse, I do find a written copy, which I had of Iohn Stow (whose library hath helped many writers) wherein ten times more is adioined, then is in print. Where he maketh great lamentation for his wrongfull imprisonment, wishing death to end his daies: which in my iudgement doth greatly accord with that in the Testament of Loue. Moreouer we find it thus in Record.
Later, in "The
Argument
An argument is a statement or group of statements called premises intended to determine the degree of truth or acceptability of another statement called conclusion. Arguments can be studied from three main perspectives: the logical, the dialectic ...
" to the ''Testament of Love'', Speght adds:
::Chaucer did compile this booke as a comfort to himselfe after great griefs conceiued for some rash attempts of the commons, with whome he had ioyned, and thereby was in feare to loose the fauour of his best friends.
Speght is also the source of the famous tale of Chaucer being fined for beating a
Franciscan
The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...
friar
A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders founded in the twelfth or thirteenth century; the term distinguishes the mendicants' itinerant apostolic character, exercised broadly under the jurisdiction of a superior general, from the ol ...
in
Fleet Street
Fleet Street is a major street mostly in the City of London. It runs west to east from Temple Bar at the boundary with the City of Westminster to Ludgate Circus at the site of the London Wall and the River Fleet from which the street was na ...
, as well as a fictitious
coat of arms
A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...
and
family tree
A family tree, also called a genealogy or a pedigree chart, is a chart representing family relationships in a conventional tree structure. More detailed family trees, used in medicine and social work, are known as genograms.
Representations of ...
. Ironically – and perhaps consciously so – an introductory, apologetic letter in Speght's edition from
Francis Beaumont
Francis Beaumont ( ; 1584 – 6 March 1616) was a dramatist in the English Renaissance theatre, most famous for his collaborations with John Fletcher.
Beaumont's life
Beaumont was the son of Sir Francis Beaumont of Grace Dieu, near Thrin ...
defends the unseemly, "low", and bawdy bits in Chaucer from an elite, classicist position.
Francis Thynne noted some of these inconsistencies in his ''Animadversions'', insisting that Chaucer was not a commoner, and he objected to the friar-beating story. Yet Thynne himself underscores Chaucer's support for popular religious reform, associating Chaucer's views with his father William Thynne's attempts to include ''The Plowman's Tale'' and ''The Pilgrim's Tale'' in the 1532 and 1542 ''Works''.
The myth of the Protestant Chaucer continues to have a lasting impact on a large body of Chaucerian scholarship. Though it is extremely rare for a modern scholar to suggest Chaucer supported a religious movement that did not exist until more than a century after his death, the predominance of this thinking for so many centuries left it for granted that Chaucer was at least hostile toward Catholicism. This assumption forms a large part of many critical approaches to Chaucer's works, including neo-Marxism.
Alongside Chaucer's ''Works'', the most impressive literary monument of the period is
John Foxe
John Foxe (1516/1517 – 18 April 1587), an English historian and martyrologist, was the author of '' Actes and Monuments'' (otherwise ''Foxe's Book of Martyrs''), telling of Christian martyrs throughout Western history, but particularly the su ...
's ''
Acts and Monuments...''. As with the Chaucer editions, it was critically significant to English Protestant identity and included Chaucer in its project. Foxe's Chaucer both derived from and contributed to the printed editions of Chaucer's ''Works'', particularly the pseudepigrapha. ''Jack Upland'' was first printed in Foxe's ''Acts and Monuments'', and then it appeared in Speght's edition of Chaucer's ''Works''.
Speght's "Life of Chaucer" echoes Foxe's own account, which is itself dependent upon the earlier editions that added the ''Testament of Love'' and ''The Plowman's Tale'' to their pages. Like Speght's Chaucer, Foxe's Chaucer was also a shrewd (or lucky) political survivor. In his 1563 edition, Foxe "thought it not out of season … to couple … some mention of Geoffrey Chaucer" with a discussion of
John Colet
John Colet (January 1467 – 16 September 1519) was an English Catholic priest and educational pioneer.
John Colet was an English scholar, Renaissance humanist, theologian, member of the Worshipful Company of Mercers, and Dean of St Paul's Cat ...
, a possible source for
John Skelton John Skelton may refer to:
*John Skelton (poet) (c.1460–1529), English poet.
* John de Skelton, MP for Cumberland (UK Parliament constituency)
*John Skelton (died 1439), MP for Cumberland (UK Parliament constituency)
*John Skelton (American footb ...
's character
Colin Clout
''The Shepheardes Calender'' was Edmund Spenser's first major poetic work, published in 1579. In emulation of Virgil's first work, the ''Eclogues'', Spenser wrote this series of pastorals at the commencement of his career. However, Spenser's ...
.
Probably referring to the 1542
Act for the Advancement of True Religion
The Act for the Advancement of True Religion (''34 & 35 Henry VIII, c. 1'') was an Act passed by the Parliament of England on 12 May 1543. It restricted the reading of the Bible to clerics, noblemen, the gentry and richer merchants. Women below ...
, Foxe said that he
"marvel to consider … how the bishops, condemning and abolishing all manner of English books and treatises which might bring the people to any light of knowledge, did yet authorise the works of Chaucer to remain still and to be occupied; who, no doubt, saw into religion as much almost as even we do now, and uttereth in his works no less, and seemeth to be a right Wicklevian, or else there never was any. And that, all his works almost, if they be thoroughly advised, will testify (albeit done in mirth, and covertly); and especially the latter end of his third book of the Testament of Love … Wherein, except a man be altogether blind, he may espy him at the full: although in the same book (as in all others he useth to do), under shadows covertly, as under a visor, he suborneth truth in such sort, as both privily she may profit the godly-minded, and yet not be espied of the crafty adversary. And therefore the bishops, belike, taking his works but for jests and toys, in condemning other books, yet permitted his books to be read."
![Chaucer1721](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/Chaucer1721.jpg)
It is significant, too, that Foxe's discussion of Chaucer leads into his history of "The Reformation of the Church of Christ in the Time of Martin Luther" when "Printing, being opened, incontinently ministered unto the church the instruments and tools of learning and knowledge; which were good books and authors, which before lay hid and unknown. The science of printing being found, immediately followed the grace of God; which stirred up good wits aptly to conceive the light of knowledge and judgment: by which light darkness began to be espied, and ignorance to be detected; truth from error, religion from superstition, to be discerned."
Foxe downplays Chaucer's bawdy and amorous writing, insisting that it all testifies to his piety. Material that is troubling is deemed metaphoric, while the more forthright satire (which Foxe prefers) is taken literally.
John Urry produced the first edition of the complete works of Chaucer in a Latin font, published posthumously in 1721. Included were several tales, according to the editors, for the first time printed, a biography of Chaucer, a glossary of old English words, and testimonials of author writers concerning Chaucer dating back to the 16th century. According to A. S. G Edwards,
"This was the first collected edition of Chaucer to be printed in roman type. The life of Chaucer prefixed to the volume was the work of the Reverend John Dart
John Dart (died 1730) was an English lawyer and cleric, known as an antiquary and man of letters.
Life
Initially an attorney, but not successful in the profession, Dart obtained a title for holy orders. In 1728, he was presented by the master ...
, corrected and revised by Timothy Thomas. The glossary appended was also mainly compiled by Thomas. The text of Urry's edition has often been criticised by subsequent editors for its frequent conjectural emendations, mainly to make it conform to his sense of Chaucer's metre. The justice of such criticisms should not obscure his achievement. His is the first edition of Chaucer for nearly a hundred and fifty years to consult any manuscripts and is the first since that of William Thynne in 1534 to seek systematically to assemble a substantial number of manuscripts to establish his text. It is also the first edition to offer descriptions of the manuscripts of Chaucer's works, and the first to print texts of 'Gamelyn' and 'The Tale of Beryn', works ascribed to, but not by, Chaucer."
Modern scholarship
![Canterbury Holland Chaucer statue](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/Canterbury_Holland_Chaucer_statue.jpg)
Although Chaucer's works had long been admired, serious scholarly work on his legacy did not begin until the late 18th century, when
Thomas Tyrwhitt
Thomas Tyrwhitt (; 27 March 173015 August 1786) was an English classical scholar and critic.
Life
He was born in London, where he also died. He was educated at Eton College and Queen's College, Oxford. He was elected a fellow of Merton College ...
edited ''The Canterbury Tales'', and it did not become an established academic discipline until the 19th century.
Scholars such as
Frederick James Furnivall
Frederick James Furnivall (4 February 1825 – 2 July 1910) was an English philologist, best known as one of the co-creators of the ''New English Dictionary''. He founded a number of learned societies on early English literature and made pione ...
, who founded the Chaucer Society in 1868, pioneered the establishment of diplomatic editions of Chaucer's major texts, along with careful accounts of Chaucer's language and prosody.
Walter William Skeat
Walter William Skeat, (21 November 18356 October 1912) was a British philologist and Anglican deacon. The pre-eminent British philologist of his time, he was instrumental in developing the English language as a higher education subject in th ...
, who like Furnivall was closely associated with the ''
Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a com ...
'', established the base text of all of Chaucer's works with his edition, published by Oxford University Press. Later editions by John H. Fisher and Larry D. Benson offered further refinements, along with critical commentary and bibliographies.
With the textual issues largely addressed, if not resolved, attention turned to the questions of Chaucer's themes, structure, and audience. The Chaucer Research Project at the University of Chicago began in 1924. The ''Chaucer Review'' was founded in 1966 and has maintained its position as the pre-eminent journal of Chaucer studies. In 1994, literary critic
Harold Bloom
Harold Bloom (July 11, 1930 – October 14, 2019) was an American literary critic and the Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. In 2017, Bloom was described as "probably the most famous literary critic in the English-speaking wor ...
placed Chaucer among the
greatest Western writers of all time, and in 1997 expounded on
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
's debt to the author.
List of works
The following major works are in rough chronological order but scholars still debate the dating of most of Chaucer's output and works made up from a collection of stories may have been compiled over a long period.
Major works
*Translation of ''
Roman de la Rose
''Le Roman de la Rose'' (''The Romance of the Rose'') is a medieval poem written in Old French and presented as an allegorical dream vision. As poetry, ''The Romance of the Rose'' is a notable instance of courtly literature, purporting to provid ...
'', possibly extant as ''
The Romaunt of the Rose
''The Romaunt of the Rose'' (''The Romaunt'') is a partial translation into Middle English of the French allegorical poem, '' Le Roman de la Rose'' (''Le Roman''). Originally believed to be the work of Chaucer, ''the Romaunt'' inspired controver ...
''
*''
The Book of the Duchess
''The Book of the Duchess'', also known as ''The Deth of Blaunche'',
''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 1910. Accessed 11 March ...
''
*''
The House of Fame
''The House of Fame'' (''Hous of Fame'' in the original spelling) is a Middle English poem by Geoffrey Chaucer, probably written between 1374 and 1385, making it one of his earlier works. It was most likely written after ''The Book of the Duchess' ...
''
*''
Anelida and Arcite
''Anelida and Arcite'' is a 357-line English poem by Geoffrey Chaucer. It tells the story of Anelida, queen of Armenia and her wooing by false Arcite from Thebes, Greece.
Although relatively short, it is a poem with a complex structure, with a ...
''
*''
Parlement of Foules
The ''Parlement of Foules'' (modernized: ''Parliament of Fowls''), also called the ''Parlement of Briddes'' (''Parliament of Birds'') or the ''Assemble of Foules'' (''Assembly of Fowls''), is a poem by Geoffrey Chaucer (1343?–1400) made up ...
''
*Translation of
Boethius
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, commonly known as Boethius (; Latin: ''Boetius''; 480 – 524 AD), was a Roman senator, consul, ''magister officiorum'', historian, and philosopher of the Early Middle Ages. He was a central figure in the tr ...
' ''
Consolation of Philosophy
''On the Consolation of Philosophy'' ('' la, De consolatione philosophiae'')'','' often titled as ''The Consolation of Philosophy'' or simply the ''Consolation,'' is a philosophical work by the Roman statesman Boethius. Written in 523 while he ...
'' as ''
Boece
Hector Boece (; also spelled Boyce or Boise; 1465–1536), known in Latin as Hector Boecius or Boethius, was a Scottish philosopher and historian, and the first Principal of King's College in Aberdeen, a predecessor of the University of Abe ...
''
*''
Troilus and Criseyde
''Troilus and Criseyde'' () is an epic poem by Geoffrey Chaucer which re-tells in Middle English the tragic story of the lovers Troilus and Criseyde set against a backdrop of war during the siege of Troy. It was written in '' rime royale'' an ...
''
*''
The Legend of Good Women
''The Legend of Good Women'' is a poem in the form of a dream vision by Geoffrey Chaucer during the fourteenth century.
The poem is the third longest of Chaucer's works, after ''The Canterbury Tales'' and ''Troilus and Criseyde'', and is possib ...
''
*''
The Canterbury Tales
''The Canterbury Tales'' ( enm, Tales of Caunterbury) is a collection of twenty-four stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. It is widely regarded as Chaucer's ''Masterpiece, ...
''
*''
A Treatise on the Astrolabe
''A Treatise on the Astrolabe'' is a medieval instruction manual on the astrolabe by Geoffrey Chaucer. It describes both the form and the proper use of the instrument, and stands out as a prose technical work from a writer better known for poet ...
''
Short poems
*''An ABC''
*''Chaucers Wordes unto Adam, His Owne Scriveyn'' (disputed)
*''The Complaint unto Pity''
*''The Complaint of Chaucer to his Purse''
*''
The Complaint of Mars''
*''The Complaint of Venus''
*''A Complaint to His Lady''
*''The Former Age''
*''Fortune''
*''Gentilesse''
*''Lak of Stedfastnesse''
*''Lenvoy de Chaucer a Scogan''
*''Lenvoy de Chaucer a Bukton''
*''Proverbs''
![Balade to Rosemounde](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Balade_to_Rosemounde.jpg)
*''Balade to Rosemounde''
*''Truth''
*''Womanly Noblesse''
Poems of doubtful authorship
*''Against Women Unconstant''
*''A Balade of Complaint''
*''Complaynt D'Amours''
*''Merciles Beaute''
*''The Equatorie of the Planets'' – A rough translation of a Latin work derived from an Arab work of the same title. It is a description of the construction and use of a
planetary equatorium, which was used in calculating planetary orbits and positions (at the time it was believed the sun orbited the Earth). The similar ''
Treatise on the Astrolabe
''A Treatise on the Astrolabe'' is a medieval instruction manual on the astrolabe by Geoffrey Chaucer. It describes both the form and the proper use of the instrument, and stands out as a prose technical work from a writer better known for poet ...
'', not usually doubted as Chaucer's work, in addition to Chaucer's name as a gloss to the manuscript are the main pieces of evidence for the ascription to Chaucer. However, the evidence Chaucer wrote such a work is questionable, and as such is not included in ''The Riverside Chaucer''. If Chaucer did not compose this work, it was probably written by a contemporary.
Works presumed lost
*''Of the Wreched Engendrynge of Mankynde'', possible translation of
Innocent III
Pope Innocent III ( la, Innocentius III; 1160 or 1161 – 16 July 1216), born Lotario dei Conti di Segni (anglicized as Lothar of Segni), was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 8 January 1198 to his death in 16 J ...
's ''De miseria conditionis humanae''
*''Origenes upon the Maudeleyne''
*''The Book of the Leoun'' – "The Book of the Lion" is mentioned in Chaucer's retraction. It has been speculated that it may have been a redaction of
Guillaume de Machaut
Guillaume de Machaut (, ; also Machau and Machault; – April 1377) was a French composer and poet who was the central figure of the style in late medieval music. His dominance of the genre is such that modern musicologists use his death to ...
's 'Dit dou lyon,' a story about courtly love (a subject about which Chaucer frequently wrote).
Spurious works
*''
The Pilgrim's Tale
''The Pilgrim's Tale'' is an English anti-monastic poem. It was probably written ca. 1536–38, since it makes references to events in 1534 and 1536 – e.g. the Lincolnshire Rebellion – and borrows from The Plowman's Tale and the 1532 text b ...
'' – written in the 16th century with many Chaucerian allusions
*''
The Plowman's Tale
There are two pseudo-Chaucerian texts called "The Plowman's Tale".
In the mid-15th century a rhyme royal "Plowman's Tale" was added to the text of '' The Canterbury Tales'' in the Christ Church MS. This tale is actually an orthodox Roman Catholi ...
'' or ''The Complaint of the Ploughman'' – a
Lollard
Lollardy, also known as Lollardism or the Lollard movement, was a proto-Protestant Christian religious movement that existed from the mid-14th century until the 16th-century English Reformation. It was initially led by John Wycliffe, a Catholic ...
satire later appropriated as a Protestant text
*''
Pierce the Ploughman's Crede'' – a Lollard satire later appropriated by Protestants
*''The Ploughman's Tale'' – its body is largely a version of
Thomas Hoccleve
Thomas Hoccleve or Occleve (1368 or 1369–1426) was an English poet and clerk, who became a key figure in 15th-century Middle English literature. His ''Regement of Princes or De Regimine Principum'' is a homily on virtues and vices, written for ...
's "Item de Beata Virgine"
*"La Belle Dame Sans Merci" – frequently attributed to Chaucer, but actually a translation by Richard Roos of
Alain Chartier's poem
*''The Testament of Love'' – actually by
Thomas Usk
Thomas Usk (died 4 March 1388) was appointed the under- sheriff of London by Richard II in 1387. His service in this role was brief and he was hanged in the following year.
His life
Born in London, Usk was a petty bureaucrat, scrivener, and a ...
*''
Jack Upland'' – a Lollard satire
*''
The Floure and the Leafe
''The Floure and the Leafe'' is an anonymous Middle English allegorical poem in 595 lines of rhyme royal, written around 1470. During the 17th, 18th, and most of the 19th century it was mistakenly believed to be the work of Geoffrey Chaucer, and ...
'' – a 15th-century allegory
Derived works
*''
God Spede the Plough
"God Spede the Plough" (original: "God spede þe plouȝ: & sende us kǫꝛne Inolk") is the name of an early 16th-century manuscript poem which borrows twelve stanzas from Geoffrey Chaucer's ''Monk's Tale''.
It is a short, satirical complaint, ...
'' – Borrows twelve stanzas of Chaucer's ''Monk's Tale''
See also
*
Chaucer (surname)
*
Middle English literature
The term Middle English literature refers to the literature written in the form of the English language known as Middle English, from the late 12th century until the 1470s. During this time the Chancery Standard, a form of London-based English b ...
*
Poet-diplomat
Poet-diplomats are poets who have also served their countries as diplomats. The best known poet-diplomats are perhaps Geoffrey Chaucer and Thomas Wyatt; the category also includes recipients of the Nobel Prize in Literature: Ivo Andrić, Gabriel ...
Notes
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
Fruoco, Jonathan (2020).
Chaucer's Polyphony. The Modern in Medieval Poetry'. Berlin-Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, De Gruyter. .
*Fruoco, Jonathan, ed. and transl. (2021). ''Le Livre de la Duchesse: oeuvres complètes (Tome I)''. Paris: Classiques Garnier, ISBN 978-2406119999.
*
*
*''Life-records of Chaucer.'' London: Published for the Chaucer Society by K. Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., 1875-1900.
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
Chaucer Bibliography Online*
*
*
Educational institutions
by
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
, including interlinear translation of ''The Canterbury Tales''
Caxton's Chaucer– Complete digitised texts of Caxton's two earliest editions of ''The Canterbury Tales'' from the British Library
Caxton's Canterbury Tales: The British Library CopiesAn online edition with complete transcriptions and images captured by the HUMI Project
Chaucer Metapage– Project in addition to the 33rd International Congress of Medieval Studies
(Descriptions of books with images, University of Glasgow Library)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chaucer, Geoffrey
1343 births
1400 deaths
14th-century English writers
Burials at Westminster Abbey
The Canterbury Tales
English Catholic poets
English civil servants
English translators
English MPs 1386
Middle English poets
People from the City of London
Writers from London
14th-century English poets
Medieval orientalists
14th-century translators
Medieval English writers