geoffrey chaucer biography summary

Geoffrey Chaucer

(1343-1400)

Who Was Geoffrey Chaucer?

In 1357, Geoffrey Chaucer became a public servant to Countess Elizabeth of Ulster and continued in that capacity with the British court throughout his lifetime. The Canterbury Tales became his best known and most acclaimed work. He died October 25, 1400, in London, England, and was the first to be buried in Westminster Abbey’s Poet’s Corner.

Poet Geoffrey Chaucer was born circa 1340, most likely at his parents’ house on Thames Street in London, England. Chaucer’s family was of the bourgeois class, descended from an affluent family who made their money in the London wine trade. According to some sources, Chaucer’s father, John, carried on the family wine business.

Geoffrey Chaucer is believed to have attended the St. Paul’s Cathedral School, where he probably first became acquainted with the influential writing of Virgil and Ovid.

In 1357, Chaucer became a public servant to Countess Elizabeth of Ulster, the Duke of Clarence’s wife, for which he was paid a small stipend—enough to pay for his food and clothing. In 1359, the teenage Chaucer went off to fight in the Hundred Years’ War in France, and at Rethel he was captured for ransom. Thanks to Chaucer’s royal connections, King Edward III helped pay his ransom. After Chaucer’s release, he joined the Royal Service, traveling throughout France, Spain and Italy on diplomatic missions throughout the early to mid-1360s. For his services, King Edward granted Chaucer a pension of 20 marks.

In 1366, Chaucer married Philippa Roet, the daughter of Sir Payne Roet, and the marriage conveniently helped further Chaucer’s career in the English court.

Public Service

By 1368, King Edward III had made Chaucer one of his esquires. When the queen died in 1369, it served to strengthen Philippa’s position and subsequently Chaucer’s as well. From 1370 to 1373, he went abroad again and fulfilled diplomatic missions in Florence and Genoa, helping establish an English port in Genoa. He also spent time familiarizing himself with the work of Italian poets Dante and Petrarch along the way. By the time he returned, he and Philippa were prospering, and he was rewarded for his diplomatic activities with an appointment as Comptroller of Customs, a lucrative position. Meanwhile, Philippa and Chaucer were also granted generous pensions by John of Gaunt, the first duke of Lancaster.

In 1377 and 1388, Chaucer engaged in yet more diplomatic missions, with the objectives of finding a French wife for Richard II and securing military aid in Italy. Busy with his duties, Chaucer had little time to devote to writing poetry, his true passion. In 1385 he petitioned for temporary leave. For the next four years he lived in Kent but worked as a justice of the peace and later a Parliament member, rather than focusing on his writing.

When Philippa passed away in 1387, Chaucer stopped sharing in her royal annuities and suffered financial hardship. He needed to keep working in public service to earn a living and pay off his growing accumulation of debt.

Major Works: 'The Canterbury Tales'

The precise dates of many of Chaucer’s written works are difficult to pin down with certainty, but one thing is clear: His major works have retained their relevancy even in the college classroom of today.

Chaucer’s body of best-known works includes the Parliament of Fouls , otherwise known as the Parlement of Foules , in the Middle English spelling. Some historians of Chaucer’s work assert that it was written in 1380, during marriage negotiations between Richard and Anne of Bohemia. Critic J.A.W. 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 mid-1380s. 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.

Troilus and Criseyde is broadly considered one of Chaucer’s greatest works, and has a reputation for being more complete and self-contained than most of Chaucer’s writing, his famed The Canterbury Tales being no exception.

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. The queen mentioned in the work is believed to be Richard II’s wife, Anne of Bohemia. Chaucer’s mention of the real-life royal palaces Eltham and Sheen serve to support this theory. In writing The Legend of Good Women , Chaucer 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).

The Canterbury Tales is by far Chaucer’s best known and most acclaimed work. Initially Chaucer had planned for each of his characters to tell four stories a piece. The first two stories would be set as the character was on his/her way to Canterbury, and the second two were to take place as the character was heading home. Apparently, Chaucer’s goal of writing 120 stories was an overly ambitious one. In actuality, The Canterbury Tales is made up of only 24 tales and rather abruptly ends before its characters even make it to Canterbury. The tales are fragmented and varied in order, and scholars continue to debate whether the tales were published in their correct order. Despite its erratic qualities, The Canterbury Tales continues to be acknowledged for the beautiful rhythm of Chaucer’s language and his characteristic use of clever, satirical wit.

A Treatise on the Astrolabe is one of Chaucer’s nonfiction works. It is an essay about the astrolabe, a tool used by astronomers and explorers to locate the positions of the sun, moon and planets. Chaucer planned to write the essay in five parts but ultimately only completed the first two. Today it is one of the oldest surviving works that explain how to use a complex scientific tool, and is thought to do so with admirable clarity.

From 1389 to 1391, after Richard II had ascended to the throne, Chaucer held a draining and dangerous position as Clerk of the Works. He was robbed by highwaymen twice while on the job, which only served to further compound his financial worries. To make matters even worse, Chaucer had stopped receiving his pension. Chaucer eventually resigned the position for a lower but less stressful appointment as sub-forester, or gardener, at the King’s park in Somersetshire.

When Richard II was deposed in 1399, his cousin and successor, Henry IV, took pity on Chaucer and reinstated Chaucer’s former pension. With the money, Chaucer was able to lease an apartment in the garden of St. Mary’s Chapel in Westminster, where he lived modestly for the rest of his days.

The legendary 14th century English poet Geoffrey Chaucer died October 25, 1400 in London, England. He died of unknown causes and was 60 years old at the time. Chaucer was buried in Westminster Abbey. His gravestone became the center of what was to be called Poet’s Corner, a spot where such famous British writers as Robert Browning and Charles Dickens were later honored and interred.

QUICK FACTS

• Name: Geoffrey Chaucer
• Birth Year: 1343
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: English poet Geoffrey Chaucer wrote the unfinished work, 'The Canterbury Tales.' It is considered one of the greatest poetic works in English.
• Fiction and Poetry
• Death Year: 1400
• Death date: October 25, 1400
• Death City: London
• Death Country: United Kingdom

CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: Geoffrey Chaucer Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/authors-writers/geoffrey-chaucer
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• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: May 26, 2021
• Original Published Date: April 2, 2014

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• The Canterbury Tales

Geoffrey Chaucer

• Literature Notes
• Geoffrey Chaucer Biography
• About The Canterbury Tales
• Character List
• Summary and Analysis
• The Prologue
• The Knight's Tale
• The Miller's Prologue and Tale
• The Reeve's Prologue and Tale
• The Cook's Prologue and Tale
• The Man of Law's Prologue and Tale
• The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale
• The Friar's Prologue and Tale
• The Summoner's Prologue and Tale
• The Clerk's Prologue and Tale
• The Merchant's Prologue and Tale
• The Squire's Prologue and Tale
• The Franklin's Prologue and Tale
• The Physician's Tale
• The Pardoner's Prologue and Tale
• The Shipman's Tale
• The Prioress' Prologue And Tale
• Chaucer's Tale of Sir Topas
• The Tale of Melibee
• The Monk's Tale
• The Nun's Priest's Tale
• The Second Nun's Prologue and Tale
• The Canon's Yeoman's Prologue and Tale
• The Manciple's Prologue and Tale
• The Parson's Prologue and Tale
• Chaucer's Retraction
• Character Analysis
• Harry Bailey, the Host
• The Wife of Bath
• The Pardoner
• Character Map
• Critical Essays
• The Sovereignty of Marriage versus the Wife's Obedience
• The Old Man and the Young Wife
• The Trickster Tricked
• Full Glossary for The Canterbury Tales
• Essay Questions
• Practice Projects
• Cite this Literature Note

Personal Background

Geoffrey Chaucer occupies a unique position in the Middle Ages. He was born a commoner, but through his intellect and astute judgments of human character, he moved freely among the aristocracy. Although very little is definitely known about the details of his life, Chaucer was probably born shortly after 1340. Although the family name (from French "Chaussier") suggests that the family originally made shoes, Chaucer's father, John, was a prosperous wine merchant.

Both Chaucer's father and grandfather had minor standing at court, and Geoffrey Chaucer's own name appears in the household accounts of Elizabeth, Countess of Ulster and wife to Prince Lionel. As a household servant, Chaucer probably accompanied Elizabeth on her many journeys, and he may have attended her at such dazzling entertainment as the Feast of St. George given by King Edward in 1358 for the king of France, the queen of Scotland, the king of Cyprus, and a large array of other important people. Chaucer's acquaintance with John of Gaunt (fourth son of Edward III and ancestor of Henry IV, V, and VI), who greatly influenced the poet, may date from Christmas 1357, when John was a guest of Elizabeth in Yorkshire.

Chaucer had a high-born wife, Philippa, whom he probably married as early as 1366. Chaucer may also have had a daughter, Elizabeth, and two sons, "little Lewis" (for whom he composed the Astrolabe, a prose work on the use of that instrument of an astronomer) and Thomas.

Chaucer was one of the most learned men of his time. He made numerous translations of prose and verse, including Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy , saints' legends, sermons, French poetry by Machaut and Deschamps, and Latin and Italian poetry by Ovid, Virgil, Boccaccio, and Petrarch. He also shows a wide knowledge of medicine and physiognomy, astronomy and astrology, jurisprudence, alchemy, and early physics. His knowledge of alchemy was so thorough that, even into the seventeenth century, some alchemists themselves considered him a "master" of the science — not a pseudo-science in Chaucer's time.

According to the legend on his tomb in Westminster Abbey, the poet died on October 25, 1400.

Public Positions and Service

During 1359 to 1360, Chaucer served with the English army in France and was taken prisoner near Reims. He was released for ransom — toward which Edward himself contributed sixteen pounds — and returned to England. Later that same year, Chaucer traveled back to France, carrying royal letters, apparently entering the service of Edward as the king's servant and sometimes emissary.

Although he again served with the English army in France in 1369, by 1370 Chaucer was traveling abroad on a diplomatic mission for the king. Having been commissioned to negotiate with the Genoese on the choice of an English commercial port, Chaucer took his first known journey to Italy in December of 1372 and remained there until May 1373. He probably gained his knowledge of Italian poetry and painting during his visits to Genoa and Florence.

Chaucer's high standing continued during the reign of Richard, who became king in 1377. Throughout most of 1377 and 1378, his public services were performed chiefly in England. Chaucer received various appointments, including justice of the peace in Kent (1385), Clerk of the King's Works (1389), and, after his term as Clerk of the King's Works (sometime after 1390), deputy forester of the royal forest of North Petherton in Somerset. During this time, he was also was elected Knight of the Shire (1386) and served in Parliament.

Chaucer continued to receive royal gifts, including a new annuity of twenty pounds, a scarlet robe trimmed with fur, and, after 1397, an annual butt of wine (104 gallons). When Henry IV was crowned, he renewed Richard's grants and gave Chaucer an additional annuity of forty marks. Throughout his public career, Chaucer came into contact with most of the important men of London as well as with many of the great men of the Continent. We have records of his frequent dealings with the chief merchants of the city, with the so-called Lollard knights (followers of Wyclif, to whom John of Gaunt gave protection), and with the king's most important ambassadors and officials.

Payments to the poet during the last years of his life were apparently irregular, and his various "begging poems" — "Complaint to his Purse," for instance — together with records of advances which he drew from the royal Exchequer, have sometimes been taken as evidence that Chaucer died poor; but this is by no means certain. At any event, Geoffrey Chaucer's son Thomas took over Geoffrey Chaucer's new house in the garden of Westminster Abbey and remained in high court favor after Chaucer's death.

Chaucer's Work

Chaucer has presented caricatures of himself again and again — in such early poems as The Book of the Duchess, The Parliment of Fowles, Troilus and Criseyde, The House of Fame, and The Legend of Good Women, and also in his masterpiece, The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer's narrators are, of course, not the "real" Chaucer — except in certain physical respects — but the various caricatures have much in common with one another and certainly reveal, either directly or indirectly, what Chaucer valued in a man.

With the exception of the Troilus narrator, a very complicated and special case, all Chaucer's narrators are bookish, fat, nearsighted, comically pretentious, slightly self-righteous, and apparently — because of a fundamental lack of sensitivity and refinement — thoroughly unsuccessful in the chief art of medieval heroes: love. We may be fairly sure that the spiritual and psychological qualities in these caricatures are not exactly Chaucer's. Chaucer's actual lack of pretentiousness, self-righteousness, and vulgarity lies at the heart of our response to the comic self-portraits in which he claims for himself these defects.

The ultimate effect of Chaucer's poetry is moral, but it is inadequate to describe Chaucer as a moralist, much less as a satirist. He is a genial observer of mankind, a storyteller, as well as a satirist, one whose satire is usually without real bite. He is also a reformer, but he is foremost a celebrator of life who comments shrewdly on human absurdities while being, at the same time, a lover of mankind.

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• Life of Chaucer

For a brief chronology of Chaucer's life and times, click here .

Geoffrey Chaucer led a busy official life, as an esquire of the royal court, as the comptroller of the customs for the port of London, as a participant in important diplomatic missions, and in a variety of other official duties. All this is richly recorded in literally hundreds of documents (see Martin Crow and Clair C. Olson,  Chaucer Life Records  (Austin, 1966)). But such documents tell us little about Chaucer the man and poet. Nor does Chaucer himself tell us all that much. He is a lively presence in his works, and every reader comes to feel that he knows Chaucer very well. Perhaps we do. There is a certain consistency in the character of Chaucer as he appears in his works, and occasional biographical passages, such as this from The House of Fame , seem to ring true:         "Wherfore, as I seyde, ywys,         Jupiter considereth this,         And also, beau sir, other thynges:         That is, that thou hast no tydynges         Of Loves folk yf they be glade,         Ne of noght elles that God made;         And noght oonly fro fer contree         That ther no tydynge cometh to thee,         But of thy verray neyghebores,         That duellen almost at thy dores,         Thou herist neyther that ne this;         For when thy labour doon al ys,         And hast mad alle thy rekenynges,         In stede of reste and newe thynges         Thou goost hom to thy hous anoon,         And, also domb as any stoon,         Thou sittest at another book         Tyl fully daswed ys thy look;         And lyvest thus as an heremyte,         Although thyn abstynence ys lyte."         (House of Fame, 641-60) This has the ring of truth, and yet we can never be sure how much is true and how much a role that Chaucer adopts for his poetic self. The only non-fictionalized scrap of autobiography that we have from Chaucer is the record of his deposition in the Scrope-Grosvener Trial . It reveals Chaucer as a curious and sociable character, rather like the man who scurried about meeting and talking to all the nine and twenty pilgrims that gathered at the Tabard. By the 1380's Chaucer had earned wide admiration for his work, and a number of contemporaries mention Chaucer and his poetry. Naturally enough, they describe Chaucer's works rather than Chaucer the man. A biography of Chaucer therefore depends on some extrapolation and the exercise of good judgement, not always apparent in works of this genre. For a good brief life of Chaucer see that by Martin Crow and Virginia Leland in The Riverside Chaucer , pp. xv-xxvi, and, slightly altered, in The Canterbury Tales Complete pp. xiii-xxv. For an excellent full treatment see Derek A. Pearsall,  The Life of Geoffrey Chaucer: A critical biography   (Oxford, 1992) [PR 1905.P43 1992].       For a bibliography of critical and scholarly works on Chaucer's life, click here .

• A Brief Chronology of Chaucer's Life and Times

The Chaucer Heritage Trust

Promoting the Life and Works of Geoffrey Chaucer

The Life of Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer is widely regarded as England’s greatest medieval poet and has been called the father of the English language. Despite a great deal of scholarship, the exact details of Chaucer’s life are far from clear. The following provides an introduction to some of the key known moments in Chaucer’s life.

Geoffrey Chaucer was born in London c. 1340 to John Chaucer, a London wine merchant, and his wife Agnes. John and Agnes owned a house on Upper Thames Street which stands today between London Bridge and Monument Stations. John Chaucer supplied wine to King Edward III’s court and through this royal contact the young Geoffrey was employed in the household of Elizabeth de Burgh, Countess of Ulster and wife of Lionel, a son of Edward III. In April 1357 he was granted a set of clothes and 2 s . 6 d . – suggesting he may have been a page in the household. Nonetheless, even at a young age Chaucer was in an excellent position to observe people from across the social spectrum.

In 1359 (probably not yet twenty years old), Chaucer joined the army of Edward III for Edward III’s invasion of France, just one of many campaigns of what would be known as the Hundred Years War. During the campaign Chaucer was taken prisoner and released only upon payment of a ransom – £16 of which was paid by the king himself. One might easily imagine that without his royal patronage the life of Geoffrey Chaucer might have been eventful but brief.

Career                                                                                                                                                           

In October 1368 Prince Lionel died, at which point it seems Chaucer moved into the service of his younger brother, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. In autumn 1369 Gaunt’s wife, Blanche of Lancaster, died, possibly of plague. Chaucer wrote the poem ‘The deth of Blaunche the Duchess’ (The Book of the Duchess) in her honour.

In the 1370s and 80s Chaucer traveled widely on diplomatic missions for the king, especially in Italy. Chaucer’s good service of the crown brought him a variety of rewards. In April 1374 Edward III rewarded Chaucer, at the St George’s day celebrations at Windsor Castle, with a grant for a pitcher of wine a day from the king’s butler. In May that year Chaucer took the lease of a house in Aldgate from the Corporation of London (which he gave to a friend in 1386 ). In June that year Chaucer was appointed Comptroller of Wool Customs in London, and a few weeks later John of Gaunt granted him a life pension of £10 per year.  In 1375 Chaucer received lands in Kent from the crown for three years, during which time they brought him over £100. In 1377 and 1378 Chaucer on diplomatic missions to France and Italy, which brought him great rewards. At this time Chaucer appointed John Gower, a poet and friend, to act as his agent in his absence. In 1380 was released from a court case against him by a lady named Cecilia Chaumpayne.

In 1382 Chaucer was appointed Comptroller of Petty Customs in London, while still retaining the Comptrollership of Wool Customs. In February 1385 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 1386 Chaucer was elected a Knight of the Shire of Kent (a member of the House of Commons), during which time he was probably living in Greenwich. That year Philippa Chaucer was admitted to the fraternity of Lincoln Cathedral. In 1387 Philippa Chaucer disappears from the records and his presumed to have died. They had been married for more than twenty years.

In 1390 Chaucer was appointed clerk of the works at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. He was also put on a commission to repair the banks of the river Thames between Woolwich and Greenwich. In 1391 Chaucer lost his appointment as clerk of the works; the same year he composed Treatise of the Astrolabe for his son Lewis.

In 1394 Chaucer was awarded £20 a year for life by King Richard II. In October 1398 he was granted a tun of wine each year for life. In 1399 Henry IV doubled Chaucer’s pension of 20 marks a year (£13 6s. 8 d .) in addition to the grant of £20 a year of 1394 . The same year Chaucer took a long lease on a house in the garden of the Chapel of St Mary, Westminster.

Death and Burial

Chaucer died in 1400 , perhaps in his new home at Westminster, leaving his greatest work The Canterbury Tales unfinished. The Tales begin in The Tabard Inn in Southwark. The likely location of the inn is marked today by a blue plaque.

Chaucer was buried in Westminster abbey, in likelihood because of his years of faithful service to the crown, rather than for his fame as a writer. Nonetheless, Chaucer’s tomb became the first in Poet’s Corner where writers including Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling and Alfred Tennyson have since been interred.

Poems & Poets

Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer was born between the years 1340-1345, the son of John and Agnes (de Copton) Chaucer. Chaucer was descended from two generations of wealthy vintners who had everything but a title and in 1357 Chaucer began pursuing a position at court. As a squire in the court of Elizabeth, Countess of Ulster, the wife of Lionel, Earl of Ulster (later Duke of Clarence), Chaucer would have served as a gentleman’s gentleman—essentially a butler. A young man in this position would be in service to the aristocrats of the court who required diversions as well as domestic help. The way must have opened quickly for Chaucer, who could both tell stories and compose songs. The countess was French, so French poets such as Guillaume de Machaut and Eustache Deschamps provided an early inspiration, and Chaucer’s earliest poems, The Book of the Duchess and The Parliament of Birds , rest on a heavy French base. At this time, Chaucer made the acquaintance of the man who would most deeply influence his political career: John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. Chaucer and Gaunt married the daughters of the French Knight Sir Paon de Roet—Gaunt in order to legitimize his sons by the Roet’s daughter, who had been his mistress for some time (all the English kings after Henry VI came from this line), and Chaucer to enter the world of the aristocracy. Of all the Canterbury pilgrims (and there is a “Chaucer”), the one who most closely approximates his situation is the social-climbing Franklin, a man heartily concerned with the gentility of his son. Chaucer’s own son, Thomas, became one of the richest men in London, and his great-grandson (who died on the battlefield) was named heir apparent to the throne of England. Although Chaucer was close to Gaunt, he was always on the fringes of the world of courtly political intrigue of this time, a period Shakespeare dramatized in Richard II.

Known as the first English author, Chaucer wrote in English at a time when Latin was considered the grammatica , or language which would not change, and most of the upper-class English spoke French. Chaucer himself often used French translations of Latin texts; that he chose the language of the lower-class Saxons rather than Norman nobility has perplexed readers and scholars for centuries. As Sir Walter Scott pointed out, the Saxon language can name only barnyard animals on the hoof. If one fed a domestic animal, they used its Saxon name, sheep ; but if one ate it, they likely called it by its French name, mouton , which soon became mutton . This linguistic distinction was a class distinction in Chaucer’s England: if one raised a farm animal, one was a Saxon and called it by its English name; if one were rich enough to eat it, one named it in French: calf/veau (veal); chicken/poulet (pullet); pig/porc (pork) . Chaucer did not try, however, to impress his relatives with his French, but began to develop English into a highly flexible literary language.

Chaucer wrote many works, some of which like The Canterbury Tales (circa 1375-1400) he never finished. He pioneered many recognizably “modern” novelistic techniques, including psychologically complex characters: many claim that Troilus and Criseyde is the first English novel because of the way its main characters are always operating at two levels of response, verbal and intellectual. All of Chaucer’s works are sophisticated meditations on language and artifice. Moving out of a medieval world view in which allegory reigned, Chaucer developed a model of language and fiction premised on concealment rather than communication or theological interpretation. Indeed, Chaucer misrepresents himself in his early works, creating self-portraits in The Book of the Duchess (circa 1368-1369) and The House of Fame (circa 1378-1381) as an innocent, overweight bookworm far from the canny businessman and social climber he actually was.

Chaucer’s first major work, The Book of the Duchess , is an elegy on the death of Blanche, John of Gaunt’s first wife. The poem, though filled with traditional French flourishes, develops its originality around the relationship between the narrator, a fictionalized version of the poet, and the mourner, the Man in Black, who represents Gaunt. Chaucer uses a naïve narrator in both The Book of the Duchess and The House of Fame, which employs a comic version of the guide-narrator relationship of Dante and Virgil in the Commedia . The talkative Eagle guides the naive “Chaucer” just as the naive Dante is guided by the gossipy Virgil. The Eagle takes “Chaucer” to the House of Fame (Rumor), which is even more the house of tales. Here Chaucer makes a case for the preeminence of story, an idea that he explored to great effect in The Canterbury Tales . The inhabitants of the House of Fame are asked whether they want to be great lovers or to be remembered as great lovers, and all choose the latter: the story is more important than the reality.

Dating Chaucer’s works is difficult but scholars generally assume that his dream-vision poem The Parliament of Birds (circa 1378-1381), which is less obviously tied to source texts or events, is his third work because it marks a shift in form: he begins to use the seven-line pentameter stanza that he would use in Troilus and Criseyde (circa 1382-1386). The Parliament of Birds is an indictment of courtly love staged as an allegory with birds corresponding to social classes: the hunting birds (eagles, hawks) represent the nobles, the worm eaters (cuckoos) represent the bourgeois, the water fowl are the merchants, and the seed eaters (turtledoves) are the landed farming interests. Each class is given a distinctive voice. In The Parliament of Birds Chaucer examined themes that will pervade his later work: the conflict between Nature and courtly love will permeate Troilus and Criseyde and the experimentation with different voices for all the characters and social classes of birds presages The Canterbury Tales .

By 1374 Chaucer was firmly involved in domestic politics and was granted the important post of controller of customs taxes on hides, skins, and wool. Chaucer had to keep the records himself as well as oversee the collectors. These were prosperous times for Chaucer; his wife had gotten a large annuity, and they were living rent free in a house above the city gate at Aldgate. After visits to Genoa and Florence in 1372-1373 and to Lombardy in 1378, Chaucer developed an interest in Italian language and literature, which influenced his poem Troilus and Criseyde . Chaucer retold the medieval romance of doomed lovers, setting his epic poem against the backdrop of the siege of Troy. The poem takes its story line from Giovanni Boccaccio’s Il Filostrato (1335-1340), but its inspiration from Dante’s love for Beatrice as told in the Convito (1307) and from Petrarch’s love for Laura as manifested in the sonnets.

In the poem, Chaucer is presenting a case for ennobling passion which fits with the French romances he had read in his youth; only in Troilus and Criseyde this romance takes a particularly Italian turn. The poem analyzes the artifices of love as well as the complex motivations of lovers. Both Dante and Petrarch begin by seeing love as artifice and then show how love breaks free of that artifice. Petrarch’s rime (poems) to Laura are in two groups divided by a simple fact, her death. The sonnets in “Vita di ma donna Laura” are artificial, conventional poems filled with such tropes as oxymoron, antithesis, hyperbole, and conceit. The style was so conventional that the French poets had a verb, Petrarquizer , to write like Petrarch. The sonnets change radically after Laura’s death, as the artifices fall away in his attempt to re-create the true Laura. The same change occurs in Troilus after the absence of Criseyde. Through his trials Troilus learns, as have Dante and Petrarch before him, that loving a real woman is the only real love.

Chaucer most famous work, The Canterbury Tales, also has similarities with Italian literature: the unfinished poem draws on the technique of the frame tale as practiced by Boccaccio in The Decameron (1349-1351), though it’s not clear that Chaucer knew The Decameron in its entirety. The pretext for storytelling in Boccaccio is a plague in Florence which sends a group of ten nobles to the country to escape the Black Death. For each of ten days, they each tell a tale. Each day’s tales are grouped around a common topic or narrative subject. The tales, all one hundred of them, are completed; the plague ends in Florence; and the nobles return to the city.

The Canterbury Tales innovates on this model in significant ways. Far from being noble, Chaucer’s tale-tellers run the spectrum of the middle class, from the Knight to the Pardoner and the Summoner. And the tales are not told in the order that might be expected—from highest-ranking pilgrim to lowest. Instead, each character uses his tale as a weapon or tool to get back at or even with the previous tale-teller. Once the Miller has established the principle of “quiting,” each tale generates the next. The Reeve, who takes offense because “The Miller’s Tale” is about a cuckolded carpenter (the Reeve had been a carpenter in his youth), tells a tale about a cuckolded miller, who also gets beaten up after his daughter is deflowered. As in many of the tales, subtle distinctions of class become the focal point of the story.

Chaucer’s refusal to let his tale end conventionally is typical of the way he handles familiar stories. He wants to have it both ways, and he reminds the reader of this constantly. In “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale,” for example, he argues both against an allegorical reading of the tale, “My tale is of a cok,” and for it, “Taketh the fruyt, and lat the chaf be stille.” At work in many of these tales is an important Chaucerian device: a false syllogism based on the movement from the specific to the general back to the specific again, although the specific now occupies a new moral ground. Almost every time Chaucer offers a list of examples, he is playing with this disparity between the general and the specific. As Chaucer worked against the impossibility of finishing The Canterbury Tales according to the original plan—120 tales, four told by each of thirty pilgrims (in the Middle Ages, which had many systems based on twelve, 120 was as round a number as the 100 of The Decameron )—he began to consider the nature of finishing an act of storytelling. In The Canterbury Tales , in addition to several unfinished tales (the Cook’s, the Squire’s), there are two tales that are interrupted by other pilgrims: Chaucer’s own “Tale of Sir Thopas” and “The Monk’s Tale.” In handling these tales, Chaucer moves into issues, particularly that of closure, that are now important to narratology and literary theory. Put another way, Chaucer worries both about what a story can mean and what a story can be. In considering the ramifications of an invented teller telling about other invented tellers telling stories whose main purpose is to get back (“quite”) at other tellers, Chaucer finds himself with a new conception of fiction, one that is recognizably modern and even postmodern.

There is much speculation as to why Chaucer left The Canterbury Tales unfinished. One theory is that he left off writing them in the mid 1390s, some five or six years before his death. It is possible that the enormousness of the task overwhelmed him. He had been working on The Canterbury Tales for ten years or more, and he was not one quarter through his original plan. He may have felt he could not divide his time successfully between his writing and his business interests. Chaucer himself offers an explanation in the “Retraction” which follows “The Parson’s Tale,” the last of The Canterbury Tales . In it Chaucer disclaims apologetically all of his impious works, especially “the tales of Caunterbury, thilke that sowen into synne.” There has been some speculation about the “Retraction”: some believe that Chaucer in ill health confessed his impieties and others that the “Retraction” is merely conventional, Chaucer taking on the persona of the humble author, a stance favored in the Middle Ages. If the reader is to take Chaucer at his word, he seems to suggest that his works were being misread, that people were mistaking the sinful behavior in The Canterbury Tales for its message. The last thirteen years of Chaucer’s life correspond almost exactly to the span of years covered by Shakespeare’s Richard II , that is, the period marked by Richard’s claiming his majority (he had become king at age nine) and his assumption of the power of the throne in 1389 until his deposition and death in 1399. The realm was marred by the power struggles of the Lancastrian (Gaunt and his son, the eventual Henry IV) and Court (Richard) parties but Chaucer had connections in both camps, and over the dozen years of Richard’s reign it was possible to be of the court without being Gaunt’s enemy. That Chaucer was able to do this is indicated by the fact that Henry renewed annuities granted to Chaucer when Richard was king. Nonetheless, these appear to have been financially trying times for Chaucer. His wife received the last payment of her annuity in 1387, which suggests she died in the following year. Although Chaucer lost his post as controller of customs in 1386, he had been appointed justice of peace for the County of Kent in 1385, and in 1389, following the coming to power of Richard, Chaucer was named clerk of public works. This post, which amounted to being a kind of general contractor for the repair of public buildings, was more lucrative than the controller’s job that he had lost, but it caused him no end of headaches. One of the duties of this position required him to carry large sums of money, and in 1390 he was robbed of both his and the king’s money three times in the space of four days. Though there was no direct punishment, he was appointed subforester of North Pemberton in Somerset. It appears that in 1390 or 1391 he was eased out of his clerk’s job; he eventually got into financial trouble. In 1398 he borrowed against his annuity and was sued for debt.

His last poem, “The Complaint to his Purse,” is a letter asking King Henry for money. It is quite likely that in the last years of his life, he was constantly asking the king, whoever he was, for money. The poem, or his connections to the Lancastrians, must have worked because Chaucer was granted a sizable annuity by Henry. Nonetheless, Chaucer moved to a house in the Westminster Abbey Close because a house on church grounds granted him sanctuary from creditors. And so, from the fact of Chaucer’s debts comes the tradition of burying poets, or erecting memorials to them, in Westminster Abbey. Chaucer died in 1400, the year after the accession of Henry to the throne and also the year after the death of John of Gaunt, the king’s father. That Chaucer was buried in Westminster Abbey was due primarily to the fact that his last residence was on the abbey grounds. So important was he deemed as a poet that the space around his tomb was later dubbed the Poets’ Corner, and luminaries of English letters were laid to rest around him.

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Biography Online

Geoffrey Chaucer Biography

“Truth is the highest thing that man may keep.”

– Geoffrey Chaucer, Canterbury Tales

Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343 – October 25, 1400) was an English writer, poet, and philosopher. He is famous for writing Canterbury Tales which were not finished. He is one of the first writers to write in English and is considered the father of English literature

By 1357 Chaucer was a page to Elizabeth, Countess of Ulster, wife of Lionel, 1st Duke of Clarence. In 1360, he was captured by the French near Reims during a battle in the Hundred Years War. He was then ransomed and released. King Edward III gave £16 towards his release. Chaucer married Phillipa (de) Roet. She was a lady-in-waiting to the queen and had close family connections to John of Gaunt. He had about three or four children.

The king’s esquire

Chaucer may have studied law in the Inner Temple. He joined the Royal Court and travelled a lot around Europe on business for the king. He became one of the king’s esquires. One of his first known poems was written in 1369. It was called The Book of The Duchess and was written after the death of John of Gaunt’s wife, Blanche. In 1373, Chaucer travelled to Italy where he became acquainted with Italian medieval poetry. He learnt from the forms and compositions of these poems and would later incorporate some of these ideas into his own poetry.

In 1374, he became Comptroller (in charge of the money) of the Customs for the Port of London. He did this well-paid job for 12 years and became quite wealthy.

When Richard II became king, Chaucer continued to working in Customs. He was also sent to Europe on several more diplomatic jobs for the king. Richard II was to be a good patron to Chaucer whilst the king lived.

Country life

Chaucer moved to Kent in 1385 where he had a new position as Justice of the Peace. He was also elected as one of two knights of the shire to be a member of parliament. At the end of the year, he lost his customs jobs. His wife, Phillipa, died in 1387. But on 12 July 1389, he was made the Clerk of the Kings Works looking after repairs to the royal palaces. He was given other small positions including looking after the river banks of the Thames, and as a deputy forester in the Royal Forest. Over the next few years, Chaucer became poorer and often was given small payments and pensions from the king.

He died at St.Mary’s Chapel at Westminster on October 25, 1400. Chaucer is buried in Westminster Abbey, in what is now called the Poets’ Corner.

His writings

Chaucer did most of his writing between 1369 and 1393. He is famous for his collection of stories called The Canterbury Tales. Many of the characters featuring in the book were based on Chaucer’s own experiences of many different jobs. These gave Chaucer an insight into the manners and characteristics of a diverse range of people – and enabled him to satirise them in his book.

Chaucer helped to standardise modern English. He is considered the first great English writer. Though still the English of Chaucer has drifted, making it difficult for modern readers to understand the original.

When William Caxton began the first English printing press, Caxton chose ‘The Canterbury Tales’ to be the finest example of English writing.

Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan . “ Biography of Geoffrey Chaucer” , Oxford, UK. www.biographyonline.net , 22nd Jan. 2010. Last updated 6th March 2017.

The Canterbury Tales at Amazon

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Geoffrey Chaucer: A Biography

Geoffrey chaucer 1343-1400.

Geoffrey Chaucer stands as the great giant of English poetry. His verse is still read and enjoyed today and often adapted for theatre performances. It is full of characters, still recognisable as types we encounter in daily life in spite of having been inspired by people Chaucer observed more than seven hundred years ago.

There is a freshness in Chaucer’s poetry. His characters act their lives out in every conceivable human situation from the deeply serious to the crude, belly laughing comical. His stories are both funny and thought-provoking: people caught in sexual mix-ups; two young knights fighting to the death for the love of a beautiful young woman; a badly behaved young knight travelling the country on a desperate quest to find the answer to a question that will save his life and learning a great lesson; the tragic love story of Tristan the son of the Trojan king, and the beautiful young Isolde; young wives giving their old husbands the slip to sleep with handsome young suitors. The list of human tales goes on indefinitely, and all of them still appealing to the modern reader. If a writer can connect with a readership seven centuries after his death he is most certainly a great writer.

Geoffrey Chaucer led an eventful, exciting life, by any standards. He is known to us as a poet and, indeed, he has the distinction of being the first poet to be buried in poet’s corner in Westminster Abbey , but that was, to him, not much more than an interest. He was an immensely, multi, talented man with a long and very successful full-time career as a diplomat. He was also a philosopher, astronomer and alchemist.

In his own time Chaucer would have been far better known as a diplomat than a poet. He was greatly valued by Edward III. During the Hundred Years War, Chaucer was on a mission to Rhiems in 1360, when he was captured. The King paid a £16 ransom, which was worth a few hundred thousand dollars in today’s currency, to get him back.

Geoffrey Chaucer portrait

Chaucer was deeply immersed in public life and he established a family tradition of that, his son, Thomas rising to distinguished heights, including the position of Speaker of the House of Commons.

While pursuing his career, Chaucer was writing his poems and reading them aloud at court, no doubt amid great laughter. His most famous work is The Canterbury Tales , a series of fictional tales related by pilgrims on their way to Canterbury, and part of its fame and importance is that it was revolutionary as an English literary work. It is not only written in vernacular English but its characters talk in a naturalistic way, according to their class and background – something unknown in English literature until this moment. The narrators of the stories talk in a way fitted to their characters and states of life rather than in stylised conventional language. Readings of such verse would have been immensely engaging and the language offered opportunities for humour. Chaucer had many jobs during his life – soldier, messenger, valet, administrator, clerk etc. – and had observed colleagues in all of these areas, allowing him to portray them convincingly in his tales.

Chaucer’s influence on English literature is one thing; he also had an enormous influence on the development of the English language. This is clear when one looks at other English texts of his time, which are almost unrecognisable as English while his are fairly easily comprehensible to the modern reader. In using language the way he did he pointed the way forward.

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Home / Poetry / Geoffrey Chaucer Biography | The Father of English Literature

Geoffrey Chaucer Biography | The Father of English Literature

Geoffrey Chaucer is known as the “Father of English Literature”. He was a medieval English poet, philosopher, bureaucrat, and diplomat. He was born around 1343 in London. Chaucer’s life coincided with a period of significant social, political, and cultural upheaval in England. His literary contributions, particularly “The Canterbury Tales”, have left an unforgettable mark on English literature. He is among those writers who shaped the English language.

Early Life and Education.

Chaucer’s early life is not documented. We know about him from legal records, contemporary writings, and his own works. He was born to John Chaucer, a vintner and deputy to the King’s butler, and Agnes Copton. Little is known about his childhood, but it is believed that he received a decent education, likely at the St Paul’s Cathedral School.

Career and Bureaucratic Service.

Chaucer’s career began in the service of the royal court. He entered into the service of Elizabeth de Burgh, the Countess of Ulster. Later he became a page in the household of Prince Lionel. His diplomatic career took him to various European countries. He experienced diverse cultures that later influenced his writing.

Chaucer’s diplomatic missions included trips to Italy. He encountered the works of Italian poets like Dante and Petrarch. These encounters significantly impacted his writing style and contributed to the richness of his literary works.

Literary Works.

The canterbury tales (c. 1387-1400)..

Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales” is a collection of stories narrated by a diverse group of pilgrims travelling to the shrine of Thomas Becket in Canterbury. This work is a social commentary on medieval society. The book explores themes such as love, morality, and human nature.

Troilus and Criseyde (c. 1382).

The parliament of fowls (c. 1382)., the book of the duchess (c. 1369-1372)..

A poem written in the elegiac tradition, possibly dedicated to the memory of Blanche, Duchess of Lancaster.

Legacy and Influence.

Death and recognition..

Geoffrey Chaucer passed away on October 25, 1400. He was buried in Westminster Abbey. His tomb became a symbol of literary recognition. He was the first poet to be interred in what later became known as the “Poet’s Corner”.

• World Biography

Geoffrey Chaucer Biography

Born: c. 1345 London, England Died: October 1400 London, England English poet, author, and courtier

Called the father of English poetry, Geoffrey Chaucer is ranked as one of the greatest poets of the late Middle Ages (C. E. 476 c.–1500). He was admired for his philosophy as well as for his poetic talents. His best-known works are The Canterbury Tales and Troilus and Criseyde.

Early years and marriage

The exact date and place of Geoffrey Chaucer's birth are not known. The evidence suggests, however, that he was born about 1345, or a year or two earlier, in his father's house located on Thames Street, London, England. It is likely that young Geoffrey attended school at St. Paul's Cathedral, and that he was introduced to great writing and the poetry of Virgil (70–19 B.C.E. ) and Ovid (43 B.C.E. –? C. E.).

The first historical record of Chaucer reveals that in 1357 he was a page (a young boy in the service of a knight) in the household of the Countess of Ulster, the wife of Prince Lionel. During 1359–1360 Chaucer was in France with Prince Lionel (1338–1368). This was during the period of the Hundred Years' War (1137–1453) between England and France. Chaucer was taken prisoner. The English King Edward III (1312–1377) paid a ransom for his release.

Early poetry and continued diplomatic missions

The year 1369 marked a turning point both in the fortunes of England and in the career of young Chaucer. John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster, asked Chaucer to compose a memorial poem, written in English, to be recited at the Mass for his deceased wife. Prior to 1369 poetry in the English court had been written in French. French was the natural language of both the king and his queen. It is possible that he had written his English devotional poem, "An A B C," which is a translation from a French source, for the queen at some time before her death. The theme of his poem, The Book of the Duchess, which was written for intellectual and sophisticated people, was a fitting memorial to one of the highest-ranking ladies of the English royal household.

Chaucer was sent abroad on diplomatic missions in 1370 and again in 1372–1373. The latter mission took him to Florence and Genoa, Italy. There he may have deepened his acquaintance with the poetic traditions established by Dante (1265–1321) and Petrarch (1304–1374).

Times were good for Chaucer and Philippa because they were economically secure. John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster, gave Chaucer a yearly salary of ten pounds, the normal income for a squire in an aristocratic or distinguished household. The king appointed Chaucer a position as controller (chief accounting officer) of taxes on wools, skins, and hides in the port of London. This position brought ten pounds annually and a bonus of ten marks. The City of London granted Chaucer a free residence above Aldgate. He remained at Aldgate until 1386, though he went abroad several times on diplomatic missions for King Edward, who died in 1377, and for King Richard II (1367–1400). In 1382 Chaucer was made controller of taxes on wine and other goods with the right to employ a deputy.

Troilus and Criseyde

While he was living above Aldgate, Chaucer completed his translation of Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius (c. 480–524), a Roman philosopher, whose phrases and ideas repeat throughout Chaucer's poetry. He also probably composed some short poems and Troilus and Criseyde, a tragedy. This long poem is set against the background of the Trojan War and is based on an earlier poem by Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–1375), an Italian poet.

Chaucer lost his positions at the custom house in 1386 and moved to a residence in Kent, England. He served as a Member of Parliament from Kent. It is likely that Philippa died in 1387. Chaucer received his highest position, the clerkship of the royal works, in 1389. He served as clerk until he resigned in 1391. For a time thereafter he served as deputy forester for the royal forest at North Petherton, England. The king granted him a pension of twenty pounds in 1394, and in 1397 an annual cask of wine was added to this grant. King Henry IV (1553–1610) renewed and increased these grants in 1399.

The Canterbury Tales

Between 1387 and 1400 Chaucer must have devoted much time to the writing of his most famous work, The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer gives his tale of pilgrimage, or journey to a sacred site, national suggestions by directing it toward the shrine of St. Thomas Becket (c. 1118–1170), a citizen of London and a national hero. The humor is sometimes very subtle, but it is also often broad and out-spoken.

His original plan for The Canterbury Tales called for two tales each from over twenty pilgrims (people who travel to a holy site) making a journey from Southwark, England, to the shrine of St. Thomas Becket at Canterbury, England, and back. He later modified the plan to write only one tale from each pilgrim on the road to Canterbury, but even this plan was never completed. The tales survive in groups connected by prologues (introductions) and epilogues (conclusions), but the proper arrangement of these groups is not altogether clear. The series is introduced in a "General Prologue" that describes the pilgrimage and the pilgrims taking part in it.

Life after Canterbury Tales

In addition to the translation and major works mentioned, Chaucer wrote a number of shorter poems and translated at least part of Roman de la rose, a late medieval French poem by Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun. Chaucer's interests also included science. He prepared a translation of a Latin article on the use of the astrolabe, an instrument for finding the latitude of the sun and planets. He may also have been the translator of a work concerning the use of an equatorium, an instrument for calculating the positions of the planets.

In December 1399 Chaucer retired and leased a house in the garden of Westminster Abbey, London. In October 1400 Chaucer died.

For More Information

Bloom, Harold, ed. Geoffrey Chaucer. New York: Chelsea House, 1999.

Childress, Diana. Chaucer's England. North Haven, CT: Linnet Books, 2000.

Chute, Marchette G. Geoffrey Chaucer of England. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1946.

Wagenknecht, Edward. The Personality of Chaucer. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1968.

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Geoffrey Chaucer Biography and Works (Career, Themes and Politics)

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Geoffrey Chaucer Biography and Works (Career, Themes and Politics) Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343 – 1400) is widely regarded as one of the greatest English poets of the Middle Ages. His works, including The Canterbury Tales, Troilus and Criseyde, and The Book of the Duchess, are considered seminal works of English literature. Chaucer’s influence on the development of the English language and literature is significant, and his works continue to be studied and appreciated today.

Geoffrey Chaucer was born in London around 1343, the son of a prosperous wine merchant. Little is known about his early life, but he likely received an education and was fluent in several languages. In 1359, Chaucer served as a page in the household of Elizabeth, Countess of Ulster, and later joined the military campaign in France. Geoffrey Chaucer Biography and Works 

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Geoffrey Chaucer Biography and Works :- In 1366, Chaucer married Philippa Roet, a lady-in-waiting to Queen Philippa of Hainault, and began a career in government service. He held various positions in the royal court, including Clerk of the King’s Works and Comptroller of the Customs for the Port of London. He also served as a Member of Parliament for Kent.

Chaucer’s literary career began in the 1360s with translations of French and Italian literature. His first major work, The Book of the Duchess, was written in 1369 in memory of Blanche, the wife of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. Chaucer continued to write poetry throughout his life, and his best-known work, The Canterbury Tales, was written in the late 14th century.

Chaucer died in London in 1400 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Early Career :

Geoffrey Chaucer Biography and Works  Chaucer’s works are known for their vivid characters, intricate plots, and use of language. He was a master of different literary genres, including poetry, prose, and satire.

The Canterbury Tales written in the late 14th century, is perhaps Chaucer’s most famous work. It tells the story of a group of pilgrims traveling to Canterbury and the tales they tell along the way. The tales cover a wide range of genres including romance, satire, and religious allegory, and offer a rich portrayal of medieval life and society. Geoffrey Chaucer Biography and Works 

Geoffrey Chaucer Biography and Works :- Another notable work by Chaucer is Troilus and Criseyde, a long narrative poem that tells the story of the Trojan prince Troilus and his love for Criseyde, a woman of Greek descent. The poem is considered one of the finest works of English literature of the Middle Ages and is admired for its psychological depth and nuanced character portrayal.

The Book of the Duchess, written in memory of Blanche, the wife of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, is another notable work by Chaucer. The poem is a elegiac work that mourns the loss of a loved one and is admired for its vivid language and use of imagery.

Chaucer also wrote several other works, including The House of Fame, The Parliament of Fowls, and The Legend of Good Women, all of which showcase his mastery of different literary genres.

Geoffrey Chaucer Biography and Works 

#1 the canterbury tales :.

• Publish Date: Late 14th century (unfinished)
• Summary: “The Canterbury Tales” is Chaucer’s most renowned work, consisting of a collection of stories framed as a pilgrimage to the shrine of Thomas Becket in Canterbury. The tales are narrated by a diverse group of pilgrims from different social backgrounds, offering a rich portrayal of medieval English society. The stories cover a wide range of genres, including romance, comedy, and tragedy, and explore various themes such as love, morality, and human nature.

#2 Troilus and Criseyde :

• Publish Date: 1380s
• Summary: “Troilus and Criseyde” is a long narrative poem based on the Trojan War. It follows the tragic love affair between Troilus, a Trojan prince, and Criseyde, a Trojan woman. The poem explores themes of love, honor, and the fickleness of fortune. Chaucer’s work presents a nuanced portrayal of the complexities of human emotions and the consequences of one’s choices.

#3 The Book of the Duchess :

• Publish Date: 1369-1372
• Summary: “The Book of the Duchess” is an elegy written in the form of a dream vision. The poem mourns the death of Blanche, the wife of John of Gaunt’s first wife. It showcases Chaucer’s poetic skill and explores themes of grief, love, and the passage of time. The dream-like narrative incorporates elements of allegory and classical mythology.

#4 The Parliament of Fowls :

• Publish Date: Late 14th century
• Summary: “The Parliament of Fowls” is a poetic work that uses a dream framework to depict a parliament of birds gathering to choose their mates on Valentine’s Day. The poem explores themes of love, desire, and the complexities of romantic relationships. It also contains subtle social commentary and satirical elements.

#5 The Legend of Good Women :

• Summary: “The Legend of Good Women” is a collection of narratives in verse that celebrate the virtues and stories of various legendary women from history and mythology. Chaucer originally planned to include several more tales, but the work remains unfinished. The poem engages with themes of love, fidelity, and the representation of women in literature.

These works, along with Chaucer’s other poems and shorter compositions, contribute to his reputation as one of the greatest English poets of the Middle Ages. Chaucer’s innovative use of vernacular English and his insightful characterization continue to captivate readers and scholars, making him a significant figure in the development of English literature.

Social class: Chaucer’s works often examine the social hierarchy of medieval society and the relationships between people of different social classes.

Love and romance: Chaucer’s works frequently explore the theme of love, including romantic love, courtly love, and love of God.

Geoffrey Chaucer Biography and Works :- Religion and morality: Chaucer’s works often address religious and moral issues, such as the role of the church in society, the importance of living a virtuous life, and the consequences of sin.

Gender roles: Chaucer’s works often challenge traditional gender roles and expectations, particularly in his portrayal of female characters.

Chaucer’s writing style is characterized by its use of vivid characterization, intricate plots, and use of language. He was a master of different literary genres, including poetry, prose, and satire, and his works reflect his deep knowledge of classical literature and his love of language.

Geoffrey Chaucer Biography and Works :- Chaucer’s poetry is known for its use of Middle English, which was the language spoken in England in the Middle Ages. His use of language is often rich and ornate, and he uses metaphor and symbolism to convey his ideas. Chaucer was also skilled in using humor and satire to critique contemporary society

Geoffrey Chaucer Biography and Works (Career, Themes and Politics) Geoffrey Chaucer was a prolific writer and one of the most important figures in English literature. His works, including The Canterbury Tales, Troilus and Criseyde, and The Book of the Duchess, are considered seminal works of English literature, and his influence on the development of the English language and literature is significant. Chaucer’s writing style is characterized by its use of vivid characterization, intricate plots, and use of language. He was a master of different literary genres, including poetry, prose, and satire, and his works continue to be studied and appreciated today for their psychological depth and nuanced character portrayal, and for their portrayal of medieval life and society.

FAQ. Geoffrey Chaucer Biography and Works  

Q: what is geoffrey chaucer most famous for.

A: Geoffrey Chaucer is most famous for his work The Canterbury Tales, which is a collection of stories told by a group of pilgrims on their way to the shrine of Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral.

Q: What language did Geoffrey Chaucer write in?

A: Geoffrey Chaucer wrote in Middle English, which was the language spoken in England in the Middle Ages.

Q: What was Geoffrey Chaucer’s most important contribution to English literature?

A: Geoffrey Chaucer’s most important contribution to English literature was his use of the vernacular English language in his works, which helped to establish English as a literary language in its own right.

Q: When was Geoffrey Chaucer born?

A: Geoffrey Chaucer was born around 1343, although the exact date is not known.

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Geoffrey Chaucer Biography

While historians have been able to reconstruct much about the life of Geoffrey Chaucer (CHAW-sur) from the 493 documents, mostly office records, that mention him, these documents cast light only on the public life of a prominent civil servant; not one refers to him as an author. That is not to say that he was not recognized or appreciated as a poet by his contemporaries: In Chaucer’s day, poetry was considered to be a leisure pastime of talented men, a valuable skill, but not in itself a career. Chaucer, too, probably thought of himself primarily in terms of his public duties rather than his poetry.

The exact date and even year of Chaucer’s birth are unknown; the year 1340 has become traditionally accepted, but 1343 may be a more accurate guess. He was probably born in London, where his parents, John and Agnes, held property. His father was a prosperous wine merchant with business ties to the court of King Edward III.

Despite his middle-class origins, he was to have a distinguished public career as a courtier, soldier, diplomat, and civil servant. No records of his early childhood or schooling have survived, but in 1357 Chaucer received an appointment to serve as a page in the household of Elizabeth de Burgh, countess of Ulster and wife of Edward III’s son Lionel, duke of Clarence. Chaucer apparently went along with Prince Lionel’s forces when England invaded France in 1359, was captured by the French, and then ransomed in 1360.

No direct evidence survives concerning Chaucer’s activities between 1360 and 1366, but Thomas Speght, who edited Chaucer’s works in 1598, claimed to have seen records establishing that Chaucer was studying among the lawyers of the Inner Temple, one of the four great Inns of Court. As expensive academies for the sons of rich or noble families, the inns were more convenient than the universities for a grounding in common law because of their proximity to the law courts in Westminster and also because common law was studied in three languages, English, French, and Latin, at a time when only Latin was used at the universities. A period of study at one of the inns would account for the training in record keeping and legal procedures that would have been considered prerequisite for many of the posts that Chaucer later held.

In 1366 he married Philippa de Roet, a woman well above his own social class, the daughter of a knight and sister of Katherine Swynford. (Swynford was to become the mistress and eventually the third wife of Edward III’s son, John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, who would become one of the most powerful men in England.) About 1367, Chaucer began working as a member of the household of Edward III and was soon advanced from the status of yeoman to that of esquire (just below a knight). He apparently had no specific duties and may have been valuable to the household in part for his storytelling abilities. He was engaged in four diplomatic missions to France between 1366 and 1370, and an extended mission to Italy in 1372 and 1373. In 1374, having been made financially independent with a yearly grant and a rent-free house, he left the royal household and became controller of customs for the port of London. It was the first of a series of responsible administrative positions that he would hold through the reigns of three monarchs—a tribute both to his competence and to his ability to remain on good terms with the members of opposing factions.

Chaucer’s busy life in public affairs was apparently never a serious obstacle to his creative work. Indeed, most of his poetry seems to have been written during the years of his most active public service, and relatively little after his retirement. Since Chaucer’s works were all written before the introduction of the printing press into England and existed only in his manuscripts and copies made of them by scribes, there are no exact dates of “publication” of any of his works. Dating the works is further complicated by evidence that he left...

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Geoffrey Chaucer

Early life and education, political career, personal life and death, some important facts about him, literary career, some important works of geoffrey chaucer, geoffrey chaucer’s impact on future literature, famous quotes, related posts:, post navigation.

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Introduction

For six centuries Geoffrey Chaucer has retained his status in the highest rank of the English poets. As many-sided as William Shakespeare, he did for English narrative what Shakespeare did for drama. If he lacks the profundity of Shakespeare, he excels in playfulness of mood and simplicity of expression. His foremost characteristics are his skillful creation of realistic characters and his humor: by turns twinkling, quietly glowing, or loudly robust. Although his language, Middle English, is difficult to read and his usage often seems quaint he was an essentially modern writer, and his works still speak to modern readers.

Chaucer’s World

As a soldier, diplomat, justice of the peace, member of Parliament, and man of affairs Chaucer lived a full and busy life. It is as a writer, however, that he is remembered today. Many of the people he met in the course of his career influenced his writing, and his familiarity with and mastery of all genres of medieval literature gave him the means to communicate his view of the world with humor and intelligence.

Chaucer’s Life

Geoffrey Chaucer was born in London, probably in 1342 or 1343. He was the son of Agnes de Copton and John Chaucer, a prosperous wine merchant. In 1357, while he was in his teens, Geoffrey was a page in the household of Prince Lionel, son of King Edward III. This is known from an entry in the household account book of Countess Elizabeth, Lionel’s wife, that records the purchase of a suit of clothes for Geoffrey Chaucer. Two years later Chaucer was with an army that King Edward led into France during the Hundred Years’ War. He was taken prisoner by the French but was soon ransomed by the king for a large sum.

Of his next seven years, nothing definite is known, but there is reason to believe that he may have been studying law in London. By 1367 he was married and a member of the royal household with the rank of yeoman. Later he became a squire, with a regular pension, or salary. His wife, Philippa, was a member of the queen’s household. Thus as a young man Chaucer had already embarked on the career as an official that he was to follow for the remainder of his life. He wrote his first significant poem, The Book of the Duchess , in 1369 or 1370, on the occasion of the death from plague of the first wife of John of Gaunt, another of Edward’s sons. The poem was written as a dream allegory, or dream vision, in which an allegorical tale is presented in the narrative framework of a dream.

Between 1370 and 1378 Chaucer was sent on seven missions to France, Flanders, and Italy. In Italy he came into contact with the works of three writers who were to influence him profoundly: Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio. In his best poem of the decade, House of Fame (1374–79; unfinished), he established the light, bantering tone that is his signature style. In 1374 he assumed the office of comptroller of the customs and subsidy of wools, skins, and tanned hides for the Port of London. In 1382 he became comptroller for wine and other merchandise. During this time he wrote a work on love, Parliament of Fowls (1380). In 1385 he was appointed justice of the peace, and in 1386 he sat for one term in Parliament. His other works of this period are Troilus and Criseyde (1382–86), from a story by Boccaccio, and Legend of Good Women (1385–87).

Chaucer’s life was difficult during the period from 1386 to 1389, when the political situation in England was unsettled. Adding to his difficulty was the death of his wife in 1387. When Richard II gained control of the country in 1389, Chaucer’s fortunes changed for the better. During this period he began his masterpiece, The Canterbury Tales .

From 1389 to 1391 he had a succession of responsible posts. As clerk of the king’s works, he was put in charge of Westminster Palace, the Tower of London, and other palaces and manors. He was given a commission to survey the roads, bridges, and ditches along the Thames near London, and he was put in charge of repairs to St. George’s Chapel at Windsor. A less exacting post fell to him in 1391, when he was made subforester of one of the king’s parks. He held this position until his death on Oct. 25, 1400. Not long before his death he purchased a house in the garden of Westminster Abbey. He was buried in the abbey—a great honor for a commoner—in a section that came to be known in later centuries as the Poets’ Corner.

Born soon after the beginning of the Hundred Years’ War, Chaucer lived through the terrible years of the plague known as the Black Death, through troubled times for the government, and through challenges to the established church. Chaucer’s career allowed him to have access to people and ideas beyond the ordinary scope of a common Englishman of the time. Literature of all eras delighted him. Ovid, Virgil, Livy, Boethius, Petrarch, Dante, and Jean de Meun are among the authors who most influenced him. Taking what he needed from others, he remolded and immortalized it, with great narrative skill.

Chaucer met people from all stations in society and all walks of life. In his England of expanding trade with all nations he met shipman, merchant, overseer, and plowman. In an era of changing religious ideas, he met men and women of various clerical orders, from priest and nun to abbot and abbess. He may have known John Wycliffe, who was a forerunner of the Protestant Reformation. As a page and later as a courtier, Chaucer became acquainted with the nobility and with royalty. His wife was a lady in waiting. As a soldier he knew hardship and foreign captivity. He was familiar with the lore and customs of chivalry, without taking them entirely seriously.

Chaucer knew men of law and doctors of medicine, and may even have studied these professions as a young man He knew innkeepers, and on their premises may well have lifted a cup of the very wine that his father had sold to them. On trips to the continent he mingled with men of high estate who were directing the affairs of nations. All of these gave him inspiration for the characters he created in his writing.

Chaucer’s Language

Several languages and dialects were in use in Chaucer’s England. Latin was the language of the church. Most learned books were written in Latin and copied out by scribes, as the printing press did not yet exist. An Anglo-Norman dialect of the French language was used in the royal court and the courts of law. An early form of English—now called Middle English—was the language of the common people. Chaucer chose to write in English and was the first court writer to do so. As a Londoner he used the English of the Midland counties. This was one of several regional dialects that coexisted then because there was so little contact between the various parts of the country. Modern English has more in common with Chaucer’s dialect than with the other dialects of Middle English, perhaps due in part to the influence of his literary works.

Chaucer invented a new method of versifying: the rime royal, which is a seven-line stanza rhyming ababbcc . He also borrowed heavily from Latin and French when English words would not suffice. Many of these words do not look foreign to modern readers because they have long since become part of the ordinary English vocabulary—thanks in large part to Chaucer’s influence. ( See also English literature .)

The Canterbury Tales

The Canterbury Tales was Chaucer’s last and most famous work, written mostly after 1387 and not completed at the time of his death. The original plan called for 120 tales, but he completed only 20 and left parts of four more. The order in which the tales were supposed to be presented is uncertain. About 90 manuscripts of the tales exist, but not all of them are complete. One of the best is the Ellesmere manuscript in the possession of the Huntington Library in San Marino, Calif. The book was first put into print in about 1476 by William Caxton, the first English printer.

During the Middle Ages people often went on pilgrimages to cathedrals or shrines dedicated to Christian saints. There they prayed for favors, or gave thanks for favors received. If the route was not difficult and conditions were not uncertain, a pilgrimage often took on the air of a sightseeing trip. In England the most popular of these holiday excursions was to the shrine of St. Thomas ( Thomas à Becket ) in Canterbury , 55 miles (89 kilometers) southeast of London. The saint had been murdered there before the high altar of the cathedral in 1170. Chaucer’s tales are told by one such group of pilgrims on their way to Canterbury.

In the Prologue Chaucer describes the group of pilgrims, who chance to gather at the Tabard Inn across the Thames River from London on an evening in April 1387. He says there are 29 in all, but he actually introduces 30. Chaucer himself is a pilgrim, bringing the total to 31. They are as follows: a Knight and his young son, a Squire; the Knight’s Yeoman (servant); a Prioress (head of a nunnery), who has with her another nun (the Second Nun) and three Priests; a Monk; a Friar; a Merchant; a Clerk (scholar) of Oxford; a Man of Law (lawyer); a Franklin (country gentleman); a Haberdasher; a Carpenter; a Weaver; a Dyer; a Tapicer (tapestry maker); a Cook; a Shipman (sailor); a Doctor of Physic; Alice, the Wife (woman) of Bath; a poor Parson (parish priest) and his brother, a Plowman; a Miller; a Manciple (steward); a Reeve (overseer of an estate); a Summoner (court officer); and a Pardoner (a preacher who sold indulgences).

Harry Bailly, host of the Tabard Inn, is a “right merry man” with an eye to business. He offers to go with them as their guide and suggests that each pilgrim tell two stories on the way to Canterbury and two on the return trip. If anyone refuses to accept his leadership that person shall “pay all that we spend on the way.” The pilgrims agree.

The First Day

Harry gets the party up at daybreak. After they set out, he has them draw lots to decide who shall tell the first story. It is the Knight who begins. His tale is a long classical romance about Palamon and Arcite, who compete in a tournament for the love of Emelye, an Amazon princess. “Truly,” says the Host, “the game is well begun.”

The Miller, who is “drunk of ale,” insists on telling the next story. Chaucer warns the reader that the Miller is a churl (a vulgar fellow) and so are the Reeve and others. Anyone who does not want to read their stories should “turn the leaf.” The Miller’s Tale is about a carpenter. The Reeve’s is about a miller. Both are coarse and humorous. The Cook’s Tale, about an idle apprentice, is left incomplete.

The Second Day

The pilgrims spend the first night some 15 miles (24 kilometers) from London. The next morning Harry calls on the Man of Law. He tells the story of Constance, daughter of the Emperor of Rome, who was constant in the face of misfortune. Pleased with this “profitable tale,” the Host stands in his stirrups and cries with an oath for a story by the Parson. The Parson reprimands him for swearing. Harry retorts that doubtless they will now get a sermon. The Shipman protests that the Parson should do no preaching and breaks in with a tale about a merchant, his wife, and a monk. Harry then turns to the elegant Prioress. She sobers the party with a miracle tale about a choirboy who continued to sing after he had been murdered.

Harry then turns to Chaucer, who is staring moodily at the ground. Chaucer tells the tedious “Tale of Sir Thopas” in a verse form that parodies the popular jog-trot ballad meter. Harry cuts him short. “My ears ache,” he complains. “This is rhyme doggerel.” Chaucer says he cannot do any better with rhyme; so he tells in prose “The Tale of Melibee,” a romance.

The Monk then begins a series of short stories about men who fell from high estate to the depths of misery. He begins with Lucifer and Adam and gets as far as a 17th example when the Knight protests. It would be more joyful, he says, to hear about men who had climbed to good fortune. The Host wants the Monk to tell a hunting story. “Nay,” says the Monk. “Now let another tell.” One of the priests then relates the comic tale of Chanticleer the cock, his beloved hen Pertelote, and a fox. Then the party stops for the night.

The Third Day

The next morning the Doctor leads off with a rather dull story about Virginius, who killed his daughter, Virginia, at her own request to save her from the wicked judge Apius. Harry is sure this piteous tale has caused damage to his heart and asks the Pardoner to tell some jokes. “Nay,” cry the others: “Let him tell no kind of ribaldry but something moral to improve the mind.” The Pardoner says he will try to think of “some honest thing.” He begins with a sermon about greed, drunkenness, gambling, and swearing. Then he illustrates the sermon with a story about three travelers who all find death trying to get sole possession of some gold.

The Wife of Bath introduces her story with a long and very funny prologue. She has had five husbands, and she narrates how she outwitted all of them. Her story then follows. It is a charming fairy tale about a knight of King Arthur’s court who was required to find out what it is that women desire most. An ugly woman gives him the answer—mastery in marriage—when he promises to marry her.

The Summoner had reproved the Friar for laughing at the Wife of Bath’s long prologue. After angry words each tells a scandalous tale about the other’s profession. The Summoner’s Tale ends as the pilgrims approach a town.

In the afternoon the Clerk of Oxford tells the well-known story about patient Griselda, who submitted humbly to all the trials her husband devised to test her love. The Host wishes his wife had been there to hear it. The Merchant complains that although he has been married only two months his wife has turned into a shrew. Then he tells the bitter tale of a young wife who deceived her old, blind husband.

The Fourth Day

The next day the Squire begins a courtly romance about a princess who had a magic ring that enabled her to understand the language of birds. If it had been finished, this would have been one of Chaucer’s finest tales. The Franklin praises it and wishes his own son were like the young Squire. His son, he says, plays dice and will not listen to good counsel.

In the Franklin’s Tale, a virtuous wife agrees to betray her husband—but only after all the rocks have been removed from the coast of Brittany. Her would-be lover uses magic to accomplish this impossible task but then courteously releases the woman from her vow. The Second Nun relates a miracle tale about events in the life of St. Cecilia.

Suddenly a Canon and his Yeoman dash up on sweating horses and ask to join the “merry company.” The Yeoman, in answer to the Host’s questions, says that the Canon is an alchemist who could turn the road upside down and pave it with gold and silver. The Host wants to know why, if he has such power, he does not wear better clothes. The Canon, angered, rides off. His Yeoman then exposes the tricks of alchemists and tells a tale of a canon and a priest.

The Cook is called on, but he complains of a “great heaviness” that he cannot account for. The Manciple says the Cook is drunk and offers to take his place. The Cook starts to fight with the Manciple and falls off his horse. The Manciple’s Tale is a fable explaining why crows are black.

In the afternoon the Parson begins a long prose sermon on penitence and the seven deadly sins. Because The Canterbury Tales ends abruptly, it is assumed that the party was approaching its destination.

Additional Reading

Chesterton, G.K. Chaucer (House of Stratus, 2000). Cooper, Helen. The Canterbury Tales, 2nd ed. (Oxford Univ. Press, 1996). Gardner, J.C. The Life and Times of Chaucer (Barnes & Noble, 1999). Hallissy, Margaret. A Companion to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (Greenwood, 1995). Hussey, S.S. Chaucer: An Introduction, 2nd ed. (Methuen, 1982). Lerer, Seth. Chaucer and His Readers: Imagining the Author in Late-Medieval England (Princeton Univ. Press, 1997). Morrison, Theodore, ed. The Portable Chaucer, rev. ed. (Penguin, 1981). Pearsall, D.A. The Life of Geoffrey Chaucer: A Critical Biography (Blackwell, 1994). West, Richard. Chaucer, 1340–1400: The Life and Times of the First English Poet (Carroll & Graf, 2002). Wright, David. The Canterbury Tales (Oxford Univ. Press, 1998).

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Geoffrey Chaucer summary

Explore some of the notable works of geoffrey chaucer.

Geoffrey Chaucer , (born c. 1342/43, London?, Eng.—died Oct. 25, 1400, London), English poet. Of middle-class birth, he was a courtier, diplomat, and civil servant, trusted by three kings in his active and varied career, and a poet only by avocation. His first important poem, Book of the Duchesse (1369/70), was a dream vision elegy for the duchess of Lancaster. In the 1380s he produced mature works, including The Parliament of Fowls , a dream vision for St. Valentine’s Day about a conference of birds choosing their mates; the fine tragic verse romance Troilus and Criseyde ; and the unfinished dream vision Legend of Good Women . His best-known work, the unfinished Canterbury Tales (written 1387–1400), is an intricate dramatic narrative that employs a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Thomas Becket in Canterbury as a framing device for a highly varied collection of stories; not only the most famous literary work in Middle English, it is one of the finest works of English literature. In this and other works Chaucer established the southern English dialect as England’s literary language, and he is regarded as the first great English poet.

Introduction to Geoffrey Chaucer, his Life and his Minor Works

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Geoffrey Chaucer was an English Poet, writer and philosopher who lived between 1343-1400. He is best known as the author of the Canterbury Tales , but this video is going to explore his lesser-known poems, often referred to as his 'Minor Works.' These works include The Book of the Duchess, The House of Fame, Anelida and Arcite, The Parliament of Fowls, Troilus and Criseyde, and The Legend of Good Women (which doesn’t survive in its entirety). Geoffrey Chaucer didn’t make his living as a writer (since publishing, as we know it, wasn’t even a thing yet), but he was held in high esteem as a poet by his noble patrons. He knew many languages including English, French, Latin and Italian. He translated a number of different works and established Middle English as a respectable language to compose literature in during the medieval period rather than the traditional French and Latin. We have much to thank Geoffrey Chaucer for, including the English words amble, bribe, femininity, plumage, and twitter, the rhyming stanza called the rhyme royal, and his most popular work, The Canterbury Tales. During Chaucer’s lifetime, his works were popular! They were written out and copied by scribes, as close as they could come to publishing literary works at that time, and after his death in 1400 CE, his popularity and audience continued to grow. When he died, he was buried in Westminster Abbey, and was the first to be laid to rest in the famous Poet's Corner of the abbey where many great writers and poets have been buried and memorialized since. — ATTRIBUTIONS — You can find all attribution and credits for images, animations, graphics and music here - https://worldhistory.typehut.com/introduction-to-geoffrey-chaucer-his-life-and-his-minor-works-images-and-attributions-5481 — MUSIC — 41-There-Were-Three-Young-Ladies-FULL-SM440 Greg Joy (SOCAN) https://download.audiohero.com/# !details?id=23208251 — THUMBNAIL IMAGE — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brown-The_Seeds_and_Fruits_of_English_Poetry.jpg Ford Maddox Brown Public domain

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Macquire, K. (2021, July 17). Introduction to Geoffrey Chaucer, his Life and his Minor Works . World History Encyclopedia . Retrieved from https://www.worldhistory.org/video/2601/introduction-to-geoffrey-chaucer-his-life-and-his/

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Macquire, Kelly. " Introduction to Geoffrey Chaucer, his Life and his Minor Works ." World History Encyclopedia . Last modified July 17, 2021. https://www.worldhistory.org/video/2601/introduction-to-geoffrey-chaucer-his-life-and-his/.

Macquire, Kelly. " Introduction to Geoffrey Chaucer, his Life and his Minor Works ." World History Encyclopedia . World History Encyclopedia, 17 Jul 2021. Web. 25 Aug 2024.

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Geoffrey Chaucer

Biography, English Author  

Geoffrey Chaucer (ca. 1345-1400) was one of the greatest poets of the late Middle Ages (C. E. 476 c.–1500) and is considered to be the father of English poetry. Chaucer was born in 1343 to a fairly upper-middle class family, probably in London, his father being a wine merchant and king's butler’s deputy. There is little information about his education, but his writings prove that he was closely familiar with many books of his contemporary writers and of earlier periods and was probably fluent in several languages (French, Italian, and Latin).

After 1357 he obtained a job as page for the Countess of Ulster, then in 1359 he joined the English Army, was captured during an unsuccessful offensive at Reims, North-Eastern France, but was eventually ransomed. In 1366 he married Philippa de Roet and had two sons, and two daughters.

In 1367 he was Member of the royal court being the valet to King Edward III, then in 1369 began working on the "Book of the Duchess", an elegy dedicated to Blanche of Lancaster. In 1370 Chaucer went for the second time to the English Army, travelling afterwards to Italy, where he read medieval poetry written by Italian authors (Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio) that influenced his work. He was then appointed Comptroller of Customs for 12 years, period in which he writes most of his poetic works: "Anelida and Arcite", "The House of Fame", a poem with more than 2,000 lines, under the form of a dream vision that is interrupted so some experts consider that Chaucer did not finish it.

In 1382 Chaucer composed the poem "Parlement of Foules" of 700 lines and begins writing "Troilus and Criseyde", an epic poem completed in 1388. Then he got a position for four years in Kent as Justice of the Peace, after which he joined the Parliament and began work on "The Legend of Good Women", a poem completed between 1386 and 1388.

In 1387 Philippa Chaucer died and Chaucer started writing his most acclaimed work, "The Canterbury Tales" (his masterpiece written over ten years), which secured his literary reputation. After 1389 he was Clerk of the King's Works then Deputy Forester in the forest of North Petherton.

Chaucer made many translations of verse and prose, which include sermons, Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy, French poetry, saints' legends by Machaut and Deschamps, and Italian and Latin poetry (Ovid, Virgil, Boccaccio, Petrarch). He also had extensive knowledge of jurisprudence, physiognomy, astrology, astronomy, alchemy, medicine, physics and his alchemy knowledge was so impressive that the alchemists of those times called him a ‘master’ of this science.

According to the legend on his Westminster Abbey tomb, Chaucer died on 25 October 1400.

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