Chaucer and MoreMs. Stanley

Geoffrey Chaucer

Was the first writer to show that English could be a respectable literary language.› Most texts at the time were written in Latin.

Chaucer was born between 1340 and 1343.› His family was not noble, but they were well

off.› Their money was from wine and leather

trades.

His parent placed him in the household of Prince Lionel’s wife to serve as an attendant. › An attendant was a highly sought after

position. It introduced people to the customs of the upper class.

› This is where Chaucer met Lionel’s younger brother John of Gaunt, who became his lifelong patron.

When he was a teenager he joined the king’s army, and fought in the hundreds year war.› During the war Chaucer was captured.› The king himself contributed to his

ransom. After this he became a royal

messenger.

His earliest writing was an English translation of The Romance of the Rose.

His first IMPORTANT original work was The Book of the Duchess.› This was a poem written for his friend

John’s first wife who died of the Plague.

In 1377 Edward III dies and his son Richard II comes to the throne. › Richard was just a boy at this time.

Chaucer wrote The Parliament of Fowls to commemorate Richard’s wedding to Anne of Bohemia in 1382.

4 years later Chaucer was made a knight of the Shire and a member of Parliament.

1399 power shifted from Richard to his cousin Henry IV.

Henry was the son of Chaucer’s friend Chaucer died in 1400. He was buried in Westminster Abbey. Thus starting the famous Poet’s

Conner.

The End

For two decades before his death Chaucer had worked on his most famous work The Canterbury Tales.

The Canterbury Tales are a collection of verse and prose tales.

At the time of his death the tale was left unfinished.

Each story in the tale is told by a different character while they are traveling to Canterbury.

The Canterbury Tales is a frame story.› A frame story is a story with in a story.