Geoffrey chaucer short life

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' Revoltbut if he was, he would have seen its leaders pass almost directly under his apartment window at Aldgate. While still working as comptroller, Chaucer appears to have moved to Kentbeing 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 s. He also became a member of parliament for Kent in and attended the ' Wonderful Parliament ' that year. She is presumed to have died in He survived the political upheavals caused by the Lords Appellantsdespite the fact that Chaucer knew some of the men executed over the affair quite well.

On 12 JulyChaucer was appointed the clerk of the king's worksa sort of foreman organising most of the king's building projects. George's Chapel, Windsorcontinued building the wharf at the Tower of London and built the stands for a tournament held in It may have been a difficult job, but it paid two shillings a day, more than three times his salary as a comptroller.

Geoffrey chaucer short life: Chaucer's Life. Geoffrey Chaucer

Chaucer was also appointed keeper of the lodge at the King's Park in Feckenham Forest in Worcestershirewhich was a largely honorary appointment. In Septemberrecords say that Chaucer was robbed and possibly injured while conducting the business, and he stopped working in this capacity on 17 June 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 The last mention of Chaucer is on 5 Junewhen some debts owed to him were repaid.

Chaucer died of unknown causes on 25 Octoberalthough the only evidence for this date comes from the engraving on his tomb, which was erected more than years after his death. There is some speculation [ 42 ] 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. Inhis remains were transferred to a more ornate tomb, making him the first writer interred in the area now known as Poets' Corner. Near the end of their lives, Lancaster and Chaucer became brothers-in-law when Lancaster married Katherine Swynford de Roet in ; she was the sister of Philippa de Roet, whom Chaucer had married in 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 geoffrey chaucer short life 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. Chaucer's short poem Fortunebelieved to have been written in the s, is also thought to refer to Lancaster. Fortunein 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, Chaucer retorts, "My frend maystow nat reven, blind goddesse" 50 and orders her to take away those who merely pretend to be his friends.

The three princes are believed to represent the dukes of Lancaster, Yorkand Gloucesterand a portion of line 76 "as three of you or tweyne" is thought to refer to the ordinance of 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.

Chaucer respected and admired Christians and was one himself, as 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. Chaucer's first major work was The Book of the Duchessan elegy for Blanche of Lancaster, who died in He wrote many of his major works in a prolific period when he worked as customs comptroller for London to It is believed that he started The Canterbury Tales in the s.

Eustache Deschamps called himself a "nettle in Chaucer's garden of poetry". Chaucer's Treatise on the Astrolabe describes the form and use of the astrolabe in detail and is sometimes cited as the first example of technical writing in the English language. It indicates that Chaucer was versed in science in addition to his literary talents.

Chaucer wrote in continental accentual-syllabic metrea style which had developed in English literature since around the 12th century as an alternative to the alliterative Anglo-Saxon metre. His early influence as a satirist is also important, with the common humorous device, the funny accent of a regional dialectapparently making its first appearance in The Reeve's Tale.

The poetry of Chaucer, along with other writers of the era, is credited with helping to standardise the London Dialect of the Middle English language from a combination of the Kentish and Midlands dialects. Modern English is somewhat distanced from the language of Chaucer's poems owing to the effect of the Great Vowel Shift sometime after his death.

Geoffrey chaucer short life: Geoffrey Chaucer was an

This change in the pronunciation 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 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. Most scholars pronounce it as a schwa when it is vocalised. Besides the irregular spelling, much of the vocabulary is recognisable to the modern reader.

Chaucer is also recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary 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 was the earliest extant manuscript source with his ear for common speech. Acceptablealkalialtercationambleangrilyannexannoyanceapproachingarbitrationarmlessarmyarrogantarsenicarcartillery and aspect are just some of almost two thousand English words first attested in Chaucer.

Widespread knowledge of Chaucer's works is attested by the many poets who imitated or responded to his writing.

Geoffrey chaucer short life: Biography. Geoffrey Chaucer's early life

John Lydgate was one of the earliest poets to write continuations of Chaucer's unfinished Tales. Many of the manuscripts of Chaucer's works contain material from these poets, and later appreciations by the Romantic era poets were shaped by their failure to distinguish the later "additions" from the original Chaucer. Writers of the 17th and 18th centuries, such as John Drydenadmired 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.

Roughly seventy-five years after Chaucer's death, The Canterbury Tales was selected by William Caxton as one of the first books to be printed in England. 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 literatureafter the example of Dantein many parts of Europe.

A parallel trend in Chaucer's lifetime was underway in Scotland through the work of his slightly earlier contemporary, John Barbour. Barbour's work was likely to have been even more general, as is evidenced by the example of the Pearl Poet in the north of England. Although Chaucer's language is much closer to Modern English than the text of Beowulfsuch that unlike that of Beowulf a Modern English speaker with an extensive vocabulary of archaic words may understand it, it differs enough that most publications modernise his idiom.

The first recorded association of Valentine's Day with romantic love is believed to be in Chaucer's Parlement of Foulesa dream vision portraying a parliament for birds to choose their mates. The poet Thomas Hocclevewho may have met Chaucer and considered him his role model, hailed Chaucer as "the firste fyndere of our fair langage". Chesterton writing, "among the great canonical English authors, Chaucer and Dickens have the most in common.

The large geoffrey chaucer short life 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 Criseydeincluding the personal copy of Henry IV.

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 inChaucer's audience had begun to include members of the rising literate, middle and merchant classes. This included many Lollard sympathisers who may well have been inclined to read Chaucer as one of their own.

Geoffrey chaucer short life: Geoffrey Chaucer (born c. /43, London?,

Lollards were particularly attracted to Chaucer's satirical writings about friars, priests, and other church officials. InJohn Baron, a tenant farmer in Agmondesham Amersham in Buckinghamshirewas brought before John Chadworththe Bishop of Lincolnon charges of being a Lollard heretic; he confessed to owning a "boke of the Tales of Caunterburie" among other suspect volumes.

The first English printer, William Caxton, was responsible for the first two folio editions of The Canterbury Tales published in and Both Caxton editions carry the equivalent of manuscript authority. Caxton's edition was reprinted by his successor, Wynkyn de Wordebut this edition has no independent authority. Richard Pynsonthe King's Printer 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 's a mere six years later. Thynne had a successful career from the s until his death in 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 no doubt that this was the first comprehensive view of Chaucer's work. The Workes of Geffray Chaucer, published inwas the first edition of Chaucer's collected works.

Thynne's editions of Chaucer's Works in and were the first significant contributions to the existence of a widely recognised Chaucerian canon. 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.

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 regarding presentation, prestige and success in print.

These editions certainly established Chaucer's reputation, but they also began the complicated geoffrey chaucer short life 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 is that beginning with Thynne's editions, it began to include medieval texts that made Chaucer appear as a proto-Protestant Lollard, primarily the Testament of Love and The Plowman's Tale.

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 poem follows a narrator who is taken on a surreal journey to the House of Fame, where he observes the fickle nature of human praise and fame.

In this work, Chaucer demonstrates his ability to create psychologically complex characters and a layered narrative that addresses themes of love, loyalty, fate, and human vulnerability. The Legend of Good Women is a collection of stories written in the s or early s, celebrating virtuous women from history and mythology who suffered for love.

Each tale portrays a female figure, from Cleopatra to Dido, whose devotion and fidelity are highlighted. This work is notable for its exploration of female virtue and fidelity, although modern critics often debate whether Chaucer intended these portrayals to be genuine or subtly ironic. Written in the late s and s, the collection is structured around a frame narrative in which a group of pilgrims journeying to the shrine of Thomas Becket at Canterbury agree to each tell stories to pass the time.

Each pilgrim represents a different social class, occupation, and personality, creating a broad, dynamic tapestry of English society. The tales themselves cover a range of genres, including romance, comedy, tragedy, and moral fables, and each reflects the unique worldview of the teller. Through The Canterbury TalesChaucer brings to life a diverse cast of characters, offering both humorous and critical perspectives on human nature and societal norms.

His use of Middle English in this work was instrumental in legitimizing the language as a vehicle for sophisticated literary expression. His works helped establish English as a language of literature, proving its versatility and expressive potential. By introducing new words and adapting others, Chaucer expanded the English vocabulary significantly.

It is estimated that nearly two thousand words appear in English for the first time in his manuscripts. Geoffrey Chaucer played a key role in establishing English as a legitimate literary language, competing with Anglo-Norman French and Latin. In the final years of his life, Chaucer continued to write and work within the royal court, although details about his later geoffrey chaucer short life and activities remain unclear.

Critic J. Bennet interpreted the Parliament of Fouls as a study of Christian love. It had been identified as peppered with Neo-Platonic ideas inspired by the likes of poets Cicero and Jean De Meun, among others. The poem uses allegory, and incorporates elements of irony and satire as it points to the inauthentic quality of courtly love. Chaucer was well acquainted with the theme firsthand—during his service to the court and his marriage of convenience to a woman whose social standing served to elevate his own.

Chaucer is believed to have written the poem Troilus and Criseyde sometime in the mids. Troilus and Criseyde is a narrative poem that retells the tragic love story of Troilus and Criseyde in the context of the Trojan War. Chaucer wrote the poem using rime royal, a technique he originated. Rime royal involves rhyming stanzas consisting of seven lines apiece.

The period of time over which Chaucer penned The Legend of Good Women is uncertain, although most scholars do agree that Chaucer seems to have abandoned it before its completion. In writing The Legend of Good WomenChaucer played with another new and innovative format: The poem comprises a series of shorter narratives, along with the use of iambic pentameter couplets seen for the first time in English.

Initially Chaucer had planned for each of his characters to tell four stories a piece. In was released from a court case against him by a lady named Cecilia Chaumpayne. In February he was granted the great privilege of nominating a permanent deputies in these duties, perhaps through the patronage of Queen Anne, wife of Richard II. In Chaucer was elected a Knight of the Shire of Kent a member of the House of Commonsduring which time he was probably living in Greenwich.

That year Philippa Chaucer was admitted to the fraternity of Lincoln Cathedral. In Philippa Chaucer disappears from the records and his presumed to have died. They had been married for more than twenty years.