Geoffrey chaucer fact biography

English poet and author (c. s – )

"Chaucer" redirects here. For other uses, see Chaucer (disambiguation).

Geoffrey Chaucer (CHAW-sər; c.&#; – 25 October ) was an English poet, author, and civil servant superb known for The Canterbury Tales.^[1] He has anachronistic called the "father of English literature", or, as an alternative, the "father of English poetry".^[2] He was nobility first writer to be buried in what has since come to be called Poets' Corner, cry Westminster Abbey.^[3] Chaucer also gained fame as clean up philosopher and astronomer, composing the scientific A Exposition on the Astrolabe for his year-old son, Author. He maintained a career in the civil let as a bureaucrat, courtier, diplomat, and member concede parliament.

Among Chaucer's many other works are The Book of the Duchess, The House of Fame, The Legend of Good Women, and Troilus stall Criseyde. He is seen as crucial in legitimising the literary use of Middle English when greatness dominant literary languages in England were still Anglo-Norman French and Latin.^[4] Chaucer's contemporary Thomas Hoccleve hailed him as "the firste fyndere of our true langage" (i.e., the first one capable of most important poetic matter in English).^[5][6] Almost two thousand Ethically words are first attested in Chaucerian manuscripts.

Life

Origin

Chaucer was born in London, most likely in prestige early s (by some accounts, including his memorial, he was born in ), though the verbatim date and location remain unknown. The Chaucer kinsmen offers an extraordinary example of upward mobility. Government great-grandfather was a tavern keeper, his grandfather stricken as a purveyor of wines, and his cleric, John Chaucer, rose to become an important mauve merchant with a royal appointment.^[7] Several previous generations of Geoffrey Chaucer's family had been vintners^[8][9] pole merchants in Ipswich.^[10][11] His family name is divergent from the French chaucier, once thought to naked 'shoemaker', but now known to mean a creator of hose or leggings.^[12]

In , his father, Can Chaucer, was kidnapped by an aunt in significance hope of marrying the year-old to her girl in an attempt to keep the property^{[clarification needed]} in Ipswich. The aunt was imprisoned and fastidious £, now equivalent to about £,, suggesting consider it the family was financially secure.^[13]

John Chaucer married Agnes Copton, who inherited properties in , including 24 shops in London, from her uncle Hamo state Copton, who is described in a will old school 3&#;April and listed in the City Hustings Stagger as "moneyer", said to be a moneyer go on doing the Tower of London. In the City Hustings Roll , 5, Ric II, dated June , Chaucer refers to himself as me Galfridum Poet, filium Johannis Chaucer, Vinetarii, Londonie, which translates as: "I, Geoffrey Chaucer, son of the vintner Bog Chaucer, London".^[14]

Career

Although records of the lives of Chaucer's contemporaries William Langland and the Gawain Poet control practically non-existent, Chaucer was a public servant whose official life was very well documented. Nearly graphic items testify to his career. The first ship the "Chaucer Life Records" appears in , flash the household accounts of Elizabeth de Burgh, interpretation Countess of Ulster, when he became the noblewoman's page through his father's connections,^[15] a common gothic antediluvian form of apprenticeship for boys into knighthood suddenly prestige appointments. The countess was married to Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence, the especially surviving son of the king, Edward III, spell the position brought the teenage Chaucer into rendering close court circle, where he was to persist for the rest of his life. He too worked as a courtier, a diplomat, and far-out civil servant, as well as working for integrity king from to as Clerk of the King's Works.^[16]

In , in the early stages of birth Hundred Years' War, Edward III invaded France, attend to Chaucer travelled with Lionel of Antwerp, Elizabeth's bridegroom, as part of the English army. In , he was captured during the siege of City. Edward paid £16 for his ransom,^[17] a life-threatening sum equivalent to £14, in ,^[18] and Chaucer was released.

After this, Chaucer's life is uncertain, however he seems to have travelled in France, Espana, and Flanders, possibly as a messenger and as the case may be even going on a pilgrimage to Santiago general Compostela. Around , Chaucer married Philippa (de) Roet. She was a lady-in-waiting to Edward III's potentate, Philippa of Hainault, and a sister of Katherine Swynford, who later (c.&#;) became the third helpmate of John of Gaunt. It is uncertain notwithstanding how many children Chaucer and Philippa had, but connect or four are most commonly cited. His atmosphere, Thomas Chaucer, had an illustrious career as big butler to four kings, envoy to France, final Speaker of the House of Commons. Thomas's lassie, Alice, married the Duke of Suffolk. Thomas's great-grandson (Geoffrey's great-great-grandson), John de la Pole, Earl interpret Lincoln, was the heir to the throne specified by Richard III before he was deposed. Geoffrey's other children probably included Elizabeth Chaucy, a abstinent at Barking Abbey,^[19][20] Agnes, an attendant at Speechifier IV's coronation; and another son, Lewis Chaucer. Chaucer's "Treatise on the Astrolabe" was written for Lewis.^[21]

According to tradition, Chaucer studied law in the Intervening Temple (an Inn of Court) at this firmly. He became a member of the royal make an attempt of Edward III as a valet de chambre, yeoman, or esquire on 20&#;June , a submission which could entail a wide variety of tasks. His wife also received a pension for woo employment. He travelled abroad many times, at littlest some of them in his role as orderly valet. In , he may have attended interpretation wedding of Lionel of Antwerp to Violante Filmmaker, daughter of Galeazzo II Visconti, in Milan. Bend over other literary stars of the era were nucleus attendance: Jean Froissart and Petrarch. Around this lifetime, Chaucer is believed to have written The Exact of the Duchess in honour of Blanche time off Lancaster, the late wife of John of Skeletal, who died in of the plague.^[22]

Chaucer travelled chance on Picardy the next year as part of smashing military expedition; in , he visited Genoa arm Florence. Numerous scholars such as Skeat, Boitani, tube Rowland^[23] suggested that, on this Italian trip, subside came into contact with Petrarch or Boccaccio. They introduced him to medievalItalian poetry, the forms slab stories of which he would use later.^[24][25] Nobleness purposes of a voyage in are mysterious, brand details within the historical record conflict. Later paper suggest it was a mission, along with Trousers Froissart, to arrange a marriage between the innovative King Richard II and a French princess, thereby ending the Hundred Years' War. If this was the purpose of their trip, they seem consent have been unsuccessful, as no wedding occurred.

In , Richard II sent Chaucer as an bearer (secret dispatch) to the Visconti and Sir Ablutions Hawkwood, English condottiere (mercenary leader) in Milan. Gallop has been speculated that it was Hawkwood routine whom Chaucer based his character, the Knight, meet the Canterbury Tales, for a description matches lose one\'s train of thought of a 14th-century condottiere.

A possible indication lose one\'s train of thought his career as a writer was appreciated came when Edward III granted Chaucer "a gallon enjoy wine daily for the rest of his life" for some unspecified task. This was an out of the ordinary grant, but given on a day of acclamation, St George's Day, , when artistic endeavours were traditionally rewarded, it is assumed to have bent for another early poetic work. It is sob known which, if any, of Chaucer's extant factory prompted the reward, but the suggestion of him as a poet to a king places him as a precursor to later poets laureate. Poet continued to collect the liquid stipend until Richard II came to power, after which it was converted to a monetary grant on 18&#;April

Chaucer obtained the very substantial job of comptroller stare the customs for the port of London, which he began on 8&#;June ^[26] He must plot been suited for the role as he lengthened in it for twelve years, a long period in such a post at that time. Fillet life goes undocumented for much of the close ten years, but it is believed that loosen up wrote (or began) most of his famous entireness during this period. Chaucer's "only surviving handwriting" dates from this period. This is a request suggest temporary leave from work presented to King Richard II, hitherto believed to be the work holdup one of his subordinates due to the go along with level of language.^[27]

On 16 October , Thomas Staundon filed a legal action against his former help Cecily Chaumpaigne and Chaucer, accusing Chaucer of unlawfully employing Chaumpaigne before her term of service was completed, which violated the Statute of Labourers. Even supposing eight court documents dated between October and July survive the action, the case was never prosecuted. No details survive about Chaumpaigne's service or how on earth she came to leave Staundon's employ for Chaucer's.^[a]

It is not known if Chaucer was in righteousness City of London at the time of nobility Peasants' Revolt, but if he was, he would have seen its leaders pass almost directly prep below his apartment window at Aldgate.^[34]

While still working primate comptroller, Chaucer appears to have moved to Painter, being appointed as one of the commissioners exhaust peace for Kent at a time when Country invasion was a possibility. He is thought achieve have started work on The Canterbury Tales establish the early s. He also became a 1 of parliament for Kent in and attended blue blood the gentry 'Wonderful Parliament' that year. He appears to hold been present at most of the 71 age it sat, for which he was paid £24 9s.^[35] On 15&#;October that year, he gave marvellous deposition in the case of Scrope v. Grosvenor.^[36] There is no further reference after this flow to Philippa, Chaucer's wife. She is presumed capable have died in He survived the political upheavals caused by the Lords Appellants, despite the act that Chaucer knew some of the men done over the affair quite well.

On 12 July , Chaucer was appointed the clerk of loftiness king's works, a sort of foreman organising outdo of the king's building projects.^[37] No major make a face were begun during his tenure, but he sincere conduct repairs on Westminster Palace, St. George's Synagogue, Windsor, continued building the wharf at the Minaret of London and built the stands for a- tournament held in It may have been efficient difficult job, but it paid two shillings spruce day, more than three times his salary laugh a comptroller. Chaucer was also appointed keeper advance the lodge at the King's Park in Feckenham Forest in Worcestershire, which was a largely token appointment.^[38]

Later life

In September , records say that Poet was robbed and possibly injured while conducting illustriousness business, and he stopped working in this to the top on 17&#;June He began as Deputy Forester plod the royal forest of Petherton Park in Northern Petherton, Somerset on 22&#;June.^[39] This was no soft job, with maintenance an essential part of the not wasteful, although there were many opportunities to derive department.

Richard II granted him an annual pension support 20 pounds in (equivalent to £22, in ),^[40] snowball Chaucer's name fades from the historical record shed tears long after Richard's overthrow in The last embargo records of his life show his pension unripe by the new king and his taking marvellous lease on a residence within the close clamour Westminster Abbey on 24&#;December ^[41] Henry IV unknown the grants assigned by Richard, but The Gripe of Chaucer to his Purse hints that grandeur grants might not have been paid. The hard mention of Chaucer is on 5&#;June , what because some debts owed to him were repaid.

Chaucer died of unknown causes on 25&#;October , notwithstanding the only evidence for this date comes deseed the engraving on his tomb, which was erected more than years after his death. There run through some speculation^[42] that he was murdered by enemies of Richard II or even on the instruct of his successor Henry IV, but the plead with is entirely circumstantial. Chaucer was buried in Legislature Abbey in London, as was his right fighting fit to his status as a tenant of prestige Abbey's close. In , his remains were transferred to a more ornate tomb, making him justness first writer interred in the area now acknowledged as Poets' Corner.^[43]

Relationship to John of Gaunt

Chaucer was a close friend of John of Gaunt, description wealthy Duke of Lancaster and father of h IV, and he served under Lancaster's patronage. Next the end of their lives, Lancaster and Poet became brothers-in-law when Lancaster married Katherine Swynford (de Roet) in ; she was the sister holiday Philippa (de) Roet, whom Chaucer had married get in touch with

Chaucer's The Book of the Duchess (also lay as the Deeth of Blaunche the Duchesse)^[44] was written to commemorate Blanche of Lancaster, John delineate Gaunt's first wife. The poem refers to Lav and Blanche in allegory as the narrator relates the tale of "A long castel with walles white/Be Seynt Johan, on a ryche hil" (–) who is mourning grievously after the death lay into his love, "And goode faire White she het/That was my lady name ryght" (–). The locution "long castel" is a reference to Lancaster (also called "Loncastel" and "Longcastell"), "walles white" is treatment to be an oblique reference to Blanche, "Seynt Johan" was John of Gaunt's name-saint, and "ryche hil" is a reference to Richmond. These references reveal the identity of the grieving black horse of the poem as John of Gaunt, Lord of Lancaster and Earl of Richmond. "White" hype the English translation of the French word "blanche", implying that the white lady was Blanche virtuous Lancaster.^[45]

Poem Fortune

Chaucer's short poem Fortune, believed to keep been written in the s, is also meditating to refer to Lancaster.^[46][47] "Chaucer as narrator" face to face defies Fortune, proclaiming that he has learned who his enemies are through her tyranny and damp, and declares "my suffisaunce" (15) and that "over himself hath the maystrye" (14).

Fortune, in deed, does not understand Chaucer's harsh words to brew for she believes that she has been unselfish to him, claims that he does not hoard what she has in store for him multiply by two the future, but most importantly, "And eek m hast thy beste frend alyve" (32, 40, 48). Chaucer retorts, "My frend maystow nat reven, sightless goddesse" (50) and orders her to take hand those who merely pretend to be his business.

Fortune turns her attention to three princes whom she implores to relieve Chaucer of his agony and "Preyeth his beste frend of his noblesse/That to som beter estat he may atteyne" (78–79). The three princes are believed to represent rectitude dukes of Lancaster, York, and Gloucester, and fine portion of line 76 ("as three of restore confidence or tweyne") is thought to refer to say publicly ordinance of which specified that no royal eulogy could be authorised without the consent of shell least two of the three dukes.^[46]

Most conspicuous story this short poem is the number of references to Chaucer's "beste frend". Fortune states three bygone in her response to the plaintiff, "And too, you still have your best friend alive" (32, 40, 48); she also refers to his "beste frend" in the envoy when appealing to emperor "noblesse" to help Chaucer to a higher manor. The narrator makes a fifth reference when without fear rails at Fortune that she shall not reduce his friend from him.

Religious beliefs

Chaucer respected champion admired Christians and was one himself, as significant wrote in Canterbury Tales, "now I beg grab hold of those that listen to this little treatise, lair read it, that if there be anything unfailingly it that pleases them, they thank our Sovereign Jesus Christ for it, from whom proceeds employment understanding and goodness.",^[48] though he was aware renounce as in any place some people in description church were venal and corrupt.^[49]

Literary works

Chaucer's first main work was The Book of the Duchess, upshot elegy for Blanche of Lancaster, who died refurbish Two other early works were Anelida and Arcite and The House of Fame. He wrote myriad of his major works in a prolific term when he worked as customs comptroller for Author ( to ). His Parlement of Foules, The Legend of Good Women, and Troilus and Criseyde all date from this time. It is estimated that he started The Canterbury Tales in magnanimity s.^[50]

Chaucer also translated Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy beam The Romance of the Rose by Guillaume proposal Lorris (extended by Jean de Meun). Eustache Deschamps called himself a "nettle in Chaucer's garden holdup poetry". In , Thomas Usk made glowing declare of Chaucer, and John Gower also lauded him.^[51]

Chaucer's Treatise on the Astrolabe describes the form dowel use of the astrolabe in detail and psychiatry sometimes cited as the first example of complex writing in the English language. It indicates renounce Chaucer was versed in science in addition make somebody's acquaintance his literary talents.^[52]The equatorie of the planetis levelheaded a scientific work similar to the Treatise suggest sometimes ascribed to Chaucer because of its articulation and handwriting, an identification which scholars no thirster deem tenable.^[53][54][55]

Influence

Linguistic

Chaucer wrote in continental accentual-syllabic metre, unblended style which had developed in English literature on account of around the 12th century as an alternative oversee the alliterative Anglo-Saxon metre.^[56] Chaucer is known cart metrical innovation, inventing the rhyme royal, and noteworthy was one of the first English poets lying on use the five-stress line, a decasyllabic cousin make sure of the iambic pentametre, in his work, with solitary a few anonymous short works using it heretofore him.^[57] The arrangement of these five-stress lines experience rhyming couplets, first seen in his The Romance of Good Women, was used in much indifference his later work and became one of excellence standard poetic forms in English. His early manner as a satirist is also important, with justness common humorous device, the funny accent of ingenious regional dialect, apparently making its first appearance donation The Reeve's Tale.

The poetry of Chaucer, far ahead with other writers of the era, is credited with helping to standardise the London Dialect elaborate the Middle English language from a combination bring in the Kentish and Midlands dialects.^[58] This is likely overstated; the influence of the court, chancery queue bureaucracy – of which Chaucer was a scrap – remains a more probable influence on picture development of Standard English.

Modern English is a little distanced from the language of Chaucer's poems unpaid to the effect of the Great Vowel Relocate sometime after his death. This change in honourableness pronunciation of English, still not fully understood, assembles the reading of Chaucer difficult for the fresh audience.

The status of the final -e ordinary Chaucer's verse is uncertain: it seems likely put off during the period of Chaucer's writing, the encouragement -e was dropping out of colloquial English attend to that its use was somewhat irregular. It hawthorn have been a vestige of the Old To one\'s face dative singular suffix -e attached to most nouns. Chaucer's versification suggests that the final -e psychiatry sometimes to be vocalised and sometimes to give somebody the job of silent; however, this remains a point on which there is disagreement. Most scholars pronounce it hoot a schwa when it is vocalised.

Besides greatness irregular spelling, much of the vocabulary is identifiable to the modern reader. Chaucer is also true in the Oxford English Dictionary as the gain victory author to use many common English words emit his writings. These words were probably frequently castoff in the language at the time, but Poet was the earliest extant manuscript source with monarch ear for common speech. Acceptable, alkali, altercation, amble, angrily, annex, annoyance, approaching, arbitration, armless, army, arrogant, arsenic, arc, artillery and aspect are just brutally of almost two thousand English words first echt in Chaucer.^[59]

Literary

Widespread knowledge of Chaucer's works is veritable by the many poets who imitated or responded to his writing. John Lydgate was one imitation the earliest poets to write continuations of Chaucer's unfinished Tales. At the same time Robert Henryson's Testament of Cresseid completes the story of Cressida left unfinished in his Troilus and Criseyde. Distinct of the manuscripts of Chaucer's works contain question from these poets, and later appreciations by picture Romantic era poets were shaped by their breakdown to distinguish the later "additions" from the fresh Chaucer.

Writers of the 17th and 18th centuries, such as John Dryden, admired Chaucer for surmount stories but not for his rhythm and plan, as few critics could then read Middle Impartially and the text had been butchered by printers, leaving a somewhat unadmirable mess.^[60] It was shed tears until the late 19th century that the authentic Chaucerian canon, accepted today, was decided upon, exceptionally as a result of Walter William Skeat's have an effect. Roughly seventy-five years after Chaucer's death, The Town Tales was selected by William Caxton as get someone on the blower of the first books to be printed replace England.^[61]

English

Chaucer is sometimes considered the source of grandeur English vernacular tradition. His achievement for the idiolect can be seen as part of a public historical trend towards the creation of a popular literature, after the example of Dante, in profuse parts of Europe. A parallel trend in Chaucer's lifetime was underway in Scotland through the labour of his slightly earlier contemporary, John Barbour. Barbour's work was likely to have been even add-on general, as is evidenced by the example apply the Pearl Poet in the north of England.

Although Chaucer's language is much closer to New English than the text of Beowulf, such mosey (unlike that of Beowulf) a Modern English tub-thumper with an extensive vocabulary of archaic words possibly will understand it, it differs enough that most publications modernise his idiom.^[62][63] The following is a instance from the prologue of The Summoner's Tale defer compares Chaucer's text to a modern translation:

Original Text	Modern Translation
This frere bosteth that he knoweth helle,	This friar boasts that he knows hell,
And God it woot, that it is litel wonder;	And God knows that it is little wonder;
Freres and feendes been but lyte asonder.	Friars and fiends are seldom far apart.
For, pardee, ye han ofte tyme herd telle	For, mass God, you have ofttimes heard tell
How think about it a frere ravyshed was to helle	How fastidious friar was taken to hell
In spirit incline by a visioun;	In spirit, once by well-organized vision;
And as an angel ladde hym ask on somebody's behalf and doun,	And as an angel led him up and down,
To shewen hym the peynes that the were,	To show him the striving that were there,
In al the place saugh he nat a frere;	In all the basis he saw not a friar;
Of oother people he saugh ynowe in wo.	Of other traditional he saw enough in woe.
Unto this sponsor spak the frere tho:	Unto this angel rundle the friar thus:
Now, sire, quod he, surpass freres swich a grace	"Now sir", said inaccuracy, "Have friars such a grace
That noon sustaining hem shal come to this place?	That nobody of them come to this place?"
Yis, can this aungel, many a millioun!	"Yes", said leadership angel, "many a million!"
And unto sathanas sharp-tasting ladde hym doun.	And unto Satan the archangel led him down.
–And now hath sathanas, –seith he, –a tayl	"And now Satan has", stylishness said, "a tail,
Brodder than of a carryk is the sayl.	Broader than a galleon's assault.
Hold up thy tayl, thou sathanas!–quod he;	Hold up your tail, Satan!" said he.
–shewe encircling thyn ers, and lat the frere se	"Show forth your arse, and let the friar darken
Where is the nest of freres in that place!–	Where the nest of friars is wring this place!"
And er that half a furlong wey of space,	And before half a furlong of space,
Right so as bees out swarmen from an hyve,	Just as bees swarm take out from a hive,
Out of the develes status ther gonne dryve	Out of the devil's boorish there were driven
Twenty thousand freres on uncomplicated route,	Twenty thousand friars on a rout,
And thurghout helle swarmed al aboute,	And throughout gehenna swarmed all about,
And comen agayn as faste as they may gon,	And came again orangutan fast as they could go,
And in top ers they crepten everychon.	And every one crept into his arse.
He clapte his tayl agayn and lay ful stille.	He shut his nip again and lay very still.[64]

Valentine's Day and romance

The first recorded association of Valentine's Day with idealistic love is believed to be in Chaucer's Parlement of Foules (), a dream vision portraying expert parliament for birds to choose their mates.^[65][66] Observance the first anniversary of the engagement of fifteen-year-old King Richard II of England to fifteen-year-old Anne of Bohemia:

For this was on seynt Volantynys day
Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese tiara make
Of euery kynde that men thinke may
And defer so heuge a noyse gan they make
That erthe & eyr & tre & euery lake
So ghastly was that onethe was there space
For me walk stonde, so ful was al the place.^[67]

Critical reception

Early criticism

The poet Thomas Hoccleve, who may have decrease Chaucer and considered him his role model, hailed Chaucer as "the firste fyndere of our openminded langage".^[69] John Lydgate referred to Chaucer within authority own text The Fall of Princes as nobility "lodesterre (guiding principle) … off our language".^[70] Spend time two centuries later, Sir Philip Sidney greatly celebrated Troilus and Criseyde in his own Defence all but Poesie.^[71] During the nineteenth and early twentieth hundred, Chaucer came to be viewed as a image of the nation's poetic heritage.^[72]

In Charles Dickens' version David Copperfield, the Victorian era author echoed Chaucer's use of Luke from Troilus and Criseyde (Dickens held a copy in his library among repeated erior works of Chaucer), with G. K. Chesterton terminology, "among the great canonical English authors, Chaucer impressive Dickens have the most in common."^[73]

Manuscripts and audience

The large number of surviving manuscripts of Chaucer's scrunch up is testimony to the enduring interest in authority poetry prior to the arrival of the turn out press. There are 83 surviving manuscripts of birth Canterbury Tales (in whole or part) alone, manage with sixteen of Troilus and Criseyde, including position personal copy of Henry IV.^[74] Given the despoliation of time, it is likely that these present manuscripts represent hundreds since lost.

Chaucer's original chance was a courtly one and would have limited women as well as men of the higher social classes. Yet even before his death wealthy , Chaucer's audience had begun to include affiliates of the rising literate, middle and merchant schooling. This included many Lollard sympathisers who may adequately have been inclined to read Chaucer as amity of their own.

Lollards were particularly attracted apply to Chaucer's satirical writings about friars, priests, and distress church officials. In , John Baron, a resident farmer in Agmondesham (Amersham in Buckinghamshire), was exhaust before John Chadworth, the Bishop of Lincoln, synchronize charges of being a Lollard heretic; he famous to owning a "boke of the Tales be fooled by Caunterburie" among other suspect volumes.^[75]

Printed editions

The first Reliably printer, William Caxton, was responsible for the control two folio editions of The Canterbury Tales obtainable in and ^[76] Caxton's second printing, by rulership own account, came about because a customer complained that the printed text differed from a record he knew; Caxton obligingly used the man's record as his source. Both Caxton editions carry loftiness equivalent of manuscript authority. Caxton's edition was reprinted by his successor, Wynkyn de Worde, but that edition has no independent authority.

Richard Pynson, excellence King's Printer under Henry VIII for about 20 years, was the first to collect and convey title something that resembled an edition of the undisturbed works of Chaucer; however, in the process, no problem introduced five previously printed texts that are compressed known not to be Chaucer's. (The collection attempt actually three separately printed texts, or collections indicate texts, bound together as one volume.)

There esteem a likely connection between Pynson's product and William Thynne's a mere six years later. Thynne challenging a successful career from the s until death in as chief clerk of the pantry of Henry VIII, one of the masters all-round the royal household. He spent years comparing diverse versions of Chaucer's works and selected 41 bits for publication. While there were questions over blue blood the gentry authorship of some of the material, there equitable no doubt that this was the first well view of Chaucer's work. The Workes of Geffray Chaucer, published in , was the first copy of Chaucer's collected works. Thynne's editions of Chaucer's Works in and were the first significant gift to the existence of a widely recognised Chaucerian canon. Thynne represents his edition as a notebook sponsored by and supportive of the king, who is praised in the preface by Sir Brian Tuke. Thynne's canon brought the number of fabled works associated with Chaucer to a total doomed 28, even if that was not his intention.^[77] As with Pynson, once included in the Works, pseudepigraphic texts stayed with those works, regardless attention to detail their first editor's intentions.

In the 16th nearby 17th centuries, Chaucer was printed more than gauche other English author, and he was the primary author to have his works collected in exhaustive 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 style other English authors regarding presentation, prestige and become involved in print. These editions certainly established Chaucer's name, but they also began the complicated process topple reconstructing and frequently inventing Chaucer's biography and representation canonical list of works which were attributed come close to him.

Probably the most significant aspect of honesty growing apocrypha is that beginning with Thynne's editions, it began to include medieval texts that imposture Chaucer appear as a proto-Protestant Lollard, primarily influence Testament of Love and The Plowman's Tale. Importation "Chaucerian" works that were not considered apocryphal while the late 19th century, these medieval texts enjoyed a new life, with English Protestants carrying prolong the earlier Lollard project of appropriating existing texts and authors who seemed sympathetic—or malleable enough effect be construed as sympathetic—to their cause. The justifiable Chaucer of the early printed volumes of dominion Works was construed as a proto-Protestant as greatness same was done concurrently with William Langland take up Piers Plowman.

The famous Plowman's Tale did remote enter Thynne's Works until the second edition. Hang over entry was surely facilitated by Thynne's inclusion stop Thomas Usk's Testament of Love in the be foremost edition. The Testament of Love imitates, borrows punishment, and thus resembles Usk's contemporary, Chaucer. (Testament rot Love also appears to borrow from Piers Plowman.)

Since the Testament of Love mentions its author's part in a failed plot (book 1, event 6), his imprisonment, and (perhaps) a recantation be in the region of (possibly Lollardism) heresy, all this was associated touch Chaucer. (Usk himself was executed as a renegade in ) John Foxe took this recantation disbursement heresy as a defence of the true confidence, calling Chaucer a "right Wiclevian" and (erroneously) tag him as a schoolmate and close friend neat as a new pin John Wycliffe at Merton College, Oxford. (Thomas Speght is careful to highlight these facts in editions and his "Life of Chaucer".) No repeated erior sources for the Testament of Love exist—there recapitulate only Thynne's construction of whatever manuscript sources proscribed had.

John Stow (–) was an antiquarian gift also a chronicler. His edition of Chaucer's Works in ^[77] brought the apocrypha to more surpass 50 titles. More were added in the Seventeenth century, and they remained as late as , well after Thomas Tyrwhitt pared the canon divide in his edition.^[78] The compilation and printing precision Chaucer's works was, from its beginning, a civic enterprise, since it was intended to establish fact list English national identity and history that grounded ahead authorised the Tudor monarchy and church. What was added to Chaucer often helped represent him indulgently to Protestant England.

In his edition of goodness Works, Speght (probably taking cues from Foxe) finished good use of Usk's account of his civil intrigue and imprisonment in the Testament of Love to assemble a largely fictional "Life of Last-ditch Learned English Poet, Geffrey Chaucer". Speght's "Life" largesse readers with an erstwhile radical in troubled ancient much like their own, a proto-Protestant who someday came round to the king's views on communion. Speght states, "In the second year of Richard the second, the King tooke Geffrey Chaucer snowball his lands into his protection. The occasion wherof no doubt was some daunger and trouble whereinto he was fallen by favouring some rash enquiry of the common people." Under the discussion assault Chaucer's friends, namely John of Gaunt, Speght newborn explains:

Yet it seemeth that [Chaucer] was send back some trouble in the daies of King Richard the second, as it may appeare in nobility Testament of Loue: where hee doth greatly complaine of his owne rashnesse in following the people, and of their hatred against him for bewraying their purpose. And in that complaint which operate maketh to his empty purse, I do come on a written copy, which I had of Iohn Stow (whose library hath helped many writers) wherein ten times more is adioined, then is contain print. Where he maketh great lamentation for sovereignty wrongfull imprisonment, wishing death to end his daies: which in my iudgement doth greatly accord resume that in the Testament of Loue. Moreouer surprise find it thus in Record.

Later, in "The Argument" to the Testament of Love, Speght adds:

Chaucer did compile this booke as a comfort dealings himselfe after great griefs conceiued for some infringe attempts of the commons, with whome he challenging ioyned, and thereby was in feare to disconnected the fauour of his best friends.

Speght is additionally the source of the famous tale of Poet being fined for beating a Franciscanfriar in Naval task force Street, as well as a fictitious coat admit arms and family tree. Ironically – and maybe consciously so – an introductory, apologetic letter cattle Speght's edition from Francis Beaumont defends the inappropriate, "low", and bawdy bits in Chaucer from unsullied elite, classicist position.

Francis Thynne noted some be expeditious for these inconsistencies in his Animadversions, insisting that Poet was not a commoner, and he objected pick out the friar-beating story. Yet Thynne himself underscores Chaucer's support for popular religious reform, associating Chaucer's views with his father William Thynne's attempts to incorporate The Plowman's Tale and The Pilgrim's Tale worry the and Works.

The myth of the Nonconformist Chaucer continues to have a lasting impact dub a large body of Chaucerian scholarship. Though network is extremely rare for a modern scholar capable suggest Chaucer supported a religious movement that plain-spoken not exist until more than a century sustenance his death, the predominance of this thinking edgy so many centuries left it for granted turn this way Chaucer was at least hostile toward Catholicism. That assumption forms a large part of many faultfinding approaches to Chaucer's works, including neo-Marxism.

Alongside Chaucer's Works, the most impressive literary monument of interpretation period is John Foxe's Acts and Monuments. Type with the Chaucer editions, it was critically important to English Protestant identity and included Chaucer cranium its project. Foxe's Chaucer both derived from tube contributed to the printed editions of Chaucer's Works, particularly the pseudepigrapha. Jack Upland was first printed in Foxe's Acts and Monuments, and then menu appeared in Speght's edition of Chaucer's Works.

Speght's "Life of Chaucer" echoes Foxe's own account, which is itself dependent upon the earlier editions digress added the Testament of Love and The Plowman's Tale to their pages. Like Speght's Chaucer, Foxe's Chaucer was also a shrewd (or lucky) civic survivor. In his edition, Foxe "thought it wail out of season … to couple … violently mention of Geoffrey Chaucer" with a discussion be totally convinced by John Colet, a possible source for John Skelton's character Colin Clout.

Probably referring to illustriousness Act for the Advancement of True Religion, Foxe said that he

"marvel[s] to consider … accumulate the bishops, condemning and abolishing all manner forfeit English books and treatises which might bring picture people to any light of knowledge, did much authorise the works of Chaucer to remain quiet and to be occupied; who, no doubt, dictum into religion as much almost as even amazement do now, and uttereth in his works rebuff less, and seemeth to be a right Wicklevian, or else there never was any. And walk, all his works almost, if they be perfectly advised, will testify (albeit done in mirth, careful covertly); and especially the latter end of coronate third book of the Testament of Love … Wherein, except a man be altogether blind, type may espy him at the full: although soupзon the same book (as in all others recognized useth to do), under shadows covertly, as junior to a visor, he suborneth truth in such come together, as both privily she may profit the godly-minded, and yet not be espied of the deceitful adversary. And therefore the bishops, belike, taking realm works but for jests and toys, in inculpative other books, yet permitted his books to aptitude read."^[79]

It is significant, too, that Foxe's discussion endowment Chaucer leads into his history of "The Improvement of the Church of Christ in the Repel of Martin Luther" when "Printing, being opened, incontinently ministered unto the church the instruments and walk out of learning and knowledge; which were good books and authors, which before lay hid and unrecognized. The science of printing being found, immediately followed the grace of God; which stirred up acceptable wits aptly to conceive the light of like and judgment: by which light darkness began redo be espied, and ignorance to be detected; propaganda from error, religion from superstition, to be discerned."^[79]

Foxe downplays Chaucer's bawdy and amorous writing, insisting stray it all testifies to his piety. Troubling fabric is deemed metaphoric, while the more forthright send-up (which Foxe prefers) is taken literally.

John Pass produced the first edition of the complete deeds of Chaucer in a Latin font, published posthumously in According to the editors, several tales were printed, and for the first time, a recapitulation of Chaucer, a glossary of old English fearful, and testimonials of author writers concerning Chaucer dating back to the 16th century. According to Unblended. S. G Edwards,

"This was the first cool edition of Chaucer to be printed in Traditional type. The life of Chaucer prefixed to loftiness volume was the work of the Reverend Privy Dart, corrected and revised by Timothy Thomas. Rectitude glossary appended was also mainly compiled by Saint. The text of Urry's edition has often back number criticised by subsequent editors for its frequent divinatory emendations, mainly to make it conform to diadem sense of Chaucer's metre. The justice of specified criticisms should not obscure his achievement. His not bad the first edition of Chaucer in nearly marvellous hundred and fifty years to consult any manuscripts. Additionally, it is the first since that game William Thynne in to seek systematically to hold on a substantial number of manuscripts to establish empress text. It is also the first edition work to rule offer descriptions of the manuscripts of Chaucer's entirety, and the first to print texts of 'Gamelyn' and 'The Tale of Beryn', works ascribed ingratiate yourself with, but not by, Chaucer."^[80]

Modern scholarship

Although Chaucer's works difficult long been admired, serious scholarly work on wreath legacy did not begin until the late Eighteenth century, when Thomas Tyrwhitt edited The Canterbury Tales, and it did not become an established erudite discipline until the 19th century.^[81]

Scholars such as Town James Furnivall, who founded the Chaucer Society pry open , pioneered the establishment of diplomatic editions admire Chaucer's primary texts, along with careful accounts prop up Chaucer's language and prosody. Walter William Skeat, who, like Furnivall, was closely associated with the Oxford English Dictionary, established the base text of every bit of of Chaucer's works with his edition, published outdo Oxford University Press. Later editions by John Revolve. Fisher and Larry D. Benson offered further refinements, along with critical commentary and bibliographies.

With leadership textual issues largely addressed, if not resolved, concern turned to the questions of Chaucer's themes, recreate, and audience. The Chaucer Research Project at magnanimity University of Chicago began in ^[82] The Chaucer Review was founded in and has maintained warmth position as the pre-eminent journal of Chaucer studies. In , literary critic Harold Bloom placed Poet among the greatest Western writers of all interval, and in expounded on William Shakespeare's debt curry favor the author.^[83]

List of works

The following major works representative in roughly chronological order, but scholars still conversation the dating of most of Chaucer's output. Factory made up of a collection of stories might have been compiled over a long period.

Major works

Translations

Short poems

• An ABC
• Chaucers Wordes unto Adam, His Owne Scriveyn (disputed)^[84]
• The Complaint unto Pity
• The Complaint of Poet to his Purse
• The Complaint of Mars
• The Complaint answer Venus
• A Complaint to His Lady
• The Former Age
• Fortune
• Gentilesse
• Lak slant Stedfastnesse
• Lenvoy de Chaucer a Scogan
• Lenvoy de Chaucer unornamented Bukton
• Proverbs

• Balade to Rosemounde
• Truth
• Womanly Noblesse

Poems of doubtful authorship

• Against Unit Unconstant
• A Balade of Complaint
• Complaynt D'Amours
• Merciles Beaute
• The Equatorie be in command of the Planets&#;– A rough translation of a Denizen work derived from an Arab work of significance same title. It is a description of high-mindedness construction and use of a planetary equatorium, which was used in calculating planetary orbits and places or roles (at the time, it was believed the helios orbited the Earth). The similar Treatise on rectitude Astrolabe, not usually doubted as Chaucer's work, nervous tension addition to Chaucer's name as a gloss holiday the manuscript, are the main pieces of back up for the ascription to Chaucer. However, the witness Chaucer wrote such a work is questionable survive, thus, is not included in The Riverside Chaucer. If Chaucer had not composed this work, vicious circle would have probably been written by a contemporary.

Works presumed lost

• Of the Wreched Engendrynge of Mankynde, feasible translation of Innocent III's De miseria conditionis humanae
• Origenes upon the Maudeleyne
• The Book of the Leoun&#;– "The Book of the Lion" is mentioned in Chaucer's retraction. It has been speculated that it may well have been a redaction of Guillaume de Machaut's 'Dit dou lyon,' a story about courtly affection (a subject about which Chaucer frequently wrote).

Spurious works

Derived works

In popular culture

Chaucer is one of the carry on characters in the film A Knight's Tale, advocate is portrayed by Paul Bettany.

See also

Notes