Geoffrey Chaucer

by abdo Wed Apr 06, 2011 2:41 pm

Geoffrey
Chaucer

.

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Geoffrey Chaucer
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] Portrait of Chaucer from the 17th century.
Born	c. 1343 [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Died	25 October 1400(1400-10-25) (aged 56-57)
Resting place	[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Occupation	Author, poet, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Language	[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Influences[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] · [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Geoffrey Chaucer ( Geoffrey Chaucer Clip_image005

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]; c. 1343 – 25 October 1400), known as
the Father of English
literature, is widely considered the greatest English [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] of the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and was the
first poet to have been buried in Poet's
Corner of Westminster
Abbey . While he achieved fame during his lifetime as an [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.],
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
and [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], composing
a scientific treatise on the astrolabe for his ten year-old son Lewis, Chaucer
also maintained an active career in the civil service as a [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.],
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
and [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. Among his
many works, which include The Book of the
Duchess, the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.],
he is best loved today for [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].
Chaucer is a crucial figure in developing the legitimacy of the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], at a
time when the dominant literary languages in England were [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
and [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].

Life

Chaucer
as a pilgrim from the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Chaucer was born in London sometime around
1343, though the date and location of his birth are not known for certain. His
father and grandfather were both London [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]; several
previous generations had been merchants in [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. His name is derived
from the French chausseur, meaning shoemaker.^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]} In 1324
John Chaucer, Geoffrey's father, was kidnapped by an aunt in the hope of
marrying the twelve-year-old boy to her daughter in an attempt to keep property
in Ipswich. The aunt was imprisoned and the
£250 fine levied suggests that the family was financially secure - bourgeois,
if not elite.^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}
John married Agnes Copton, who, in 1349, inherited properties including 24
shops in London from her uncle, Hamo de Copton,
who is described as the "[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]"
at the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].

While records concerning the
lives of his contemporary poets, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and
the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] 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 [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], the Countess
of Ulster, when he became the noblewoman's page through his father's
connections.^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}
He also worked as a courtier, a diplomat, and a civil servant, as well as
working for the king, collecting and inventorying scrap metal.

In 1359, in the early stages
of the Hundred
Years' War, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] invaded France and Chaucer
travelled with Lionel
of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence, Elizabeth's husband, as part of the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. In 1360, he was captured
during the siege of [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].
Edward paid £16 for his ransom,^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]} a
considerable sum, and Chaucer was released.

After this, Chaucer's life is
uncertain, but he seems to have travelled in France,
Spain, and [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], possibly as a
messenger and perhaps even going on a pilgrimage to Santiago de
Compostela. Around 1366, Chaucer married [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. She was a lady-in-waiting to
Edward III's queen, Philippa
of Hainault, and a sister of [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.],
who later (ca. 1396) became the third wife of John of
Gaunt. It is uncertain how many children Chaucer and Philippa had, but
three or four are most commonly cited. His son, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], had an
illustrious career, as [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] to four kings, envoy to
France, and [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].
Thomas' daughter, Alice, married the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. Thomas'
great-grandson (Geoffrey's great-great-grandson), [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.],
was the heir to the throne designated by [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] before he was deposed.
Geoffrey's other children probably included Elizabeth Chaucy, a nun at [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]} Agnes, an
attendant at [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]'s coronation; and another son, Lewis
Chaucer.

Chaucer probably studied law
in the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] (an
Inn of
Court) at this time. He became a member of the royal court of Edward III as
a [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], or [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] 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
to Violante, daughter of [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.],
in [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. Two other literary
stars of the era were in attendance: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. Around this time,
Chaucer is believed to have written The Book of the
Duchess in honour of [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.],
the late wife of John of Gaunt, who died in 1369.

Chaucer travelled to [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] the next year as part
of a military expedition, and visited [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] in 1373. Numerous
scholars such as Skeat, Boitani, and Rowland^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]} suggested
that, on this Italian trip, he came into
contact with Petrarch or Boccaccio. They introduced him to [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], the
forms and stories of which he would use later.^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]} 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 [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and a French princess, thereby
ending the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. 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 [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], English [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
(mercenary leader) in [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].
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
fourteenth-century condottiere.

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A
19th century depiction of Chaucer

A possible indication that
his career as a writer was appreciated came when [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] 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, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.],
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 [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
of the Customs for the port
of London, which he began
on 8 June 1374.^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}
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. He was mentioned in law papers of 4 May 1380,
involved in the raptus of Cecilia Chaumpaigne. What raptus means
is unclear, but the incident seems to have been resolved quickly and did not
leave a stain on Chaucer's reputation. It is not known if Chaucer was in the
city of London
at the time of the Peasants'
Revolt, but if he was, he would have seen its leaders pass almost directly
under his apartment window at [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}

While still working as
comptroller, Chaucer appears to have moved to [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], 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 in the early 1380s. He also became a [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
for Kent
in 1386. 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 [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], despite the fact that Chaucer
knew some of the men executed over the affair quite well.

On 12 July 1389, Chaucer was
appointed the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], a sort of [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] organising most of the king's building
projects.^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}
No major works were begun during his tenure, but he did conduct repairs on [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], continue
building the wharf at the Tower
of London, and build the stands for a tournament held in 1390. It may have
been a difficult job, but it paid well: two [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] 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 [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.],
which was a largely honorary appointment.^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}

In September 1390, records
say that he was robbed, and possibly injured, while conducting the business,
and it was shortly after, on 17 June 1391, that he stopped working in this
capacity. Almost immediately, on 22 June, he began as deputy forester in the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] of [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. This was no [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], with maintenance an
important part of the job, although there were many opportunities to derive
profit. He was granted an annual pension of twenty pounds by Richard II in
1394.^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}
It is believed that Chaucer stopped work on the Canterbury Tales
sometime towards the end of this decade.

Not long after the overthrow
of his patron, Richard II, in 1399, Chaucer's name fades from the historical
record. The last few records of his life show his pension renewed by the new
king, and his taking of a lease on a residence within the close of [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] on
24 December 1399.^{[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]}
Although [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] renewed the grants assigned to Chaucer
by Richard, Chaucer's own 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 monies owed to him were paid.

He is believed to have died of
unknown causes on 25 October 1400, but there is no firm evidence for this date,
as it comes from the engraving on his tomb, erected more than one hundred years
after his death. There is some speculation—most recently in [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]' book Who
Murdered Chaucer? : A Medieval Mystery—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 [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] 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 Chaucer the first writer interred in
the area now known as Poets'
Corner.

Works

Chaucer's first major work, The Book of the
Duchess, was an elegy for [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
(who died in 1369). It is possible that this work was commissioned by her
husband John of Gaunt, as he granted Chaucer a £10 annuity on 13 June 1374.
This would seem to place the writing of The Book of the Duchess between
the years 1369 and 1374. Two other early works by Chaucer were [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
and The House of
Fame. Chaucer wrote many of his major works in a prolific period when
he held the job of customs comptroller for London (1374 to 1386). His [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.],
The Legend
of Good Women and [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
all date from this time. Also it is believed that he started work on [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
in the early 1380s. Chaucer is best known as the writer of [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.],
which is a collection of stories told by fictional pilgrims on the road to the
cathedral at [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.];
these tales would help to shape English literature.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
contrasts with other literature of the period in the naturalism of its
narrative, the variety of stories the pilgrims tell and the varied characters
who are engaged in the pilgrimage. Many of the stories narrated by the pilgrims
seem to fit their individual characters and social standing, although some of
the stories seem ill-fitting to their narrators, perhaps as a result of the
incomplete state of the work. Chaucer drew on real life for his cast of
pilgrims: the innkeeper shares the name of a contemporary keeper of an inn in
Southwark, and real-life identities for the Wife of Bath, the Merchant, the Man
of Law and the Student have been suggested. The many jobs that Chaucer held in
medieval society—page, soldier, messenger, valet, bureaucrat, foreman and
administrator—probably exposed him to many of the types of people he depicted
in the Tales. He was able to shape their speech and satirise their
manners in what was to become popular literature among people of the same
types.

Chaucer's works are sometimes
grouped into first a French period, then an Italian period and finally an
English period, with Chaucer being influenced by those countries' literatures
in turn. Certainly [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
is a middle period work with its reliance on the forms of Italian poetry,
little known in England
at the time, but to which Chaucer was probably exposed during his frequent
trips abroad on court business. In addition, its use of a [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] subject and its elaborate, courtly
language sets it apart as one of his most complete and well-formed works. In Troilus
and Criseyde Chaucer draws heavily on his source, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], and on the late Latin philosopher [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. However, it is The
Canterbury Tales, wherein he focuses on English subjects, with bawdy jokes
and respected figures often being undercut with humour, that has cemented his
reputation.

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

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