Thinking Activity : Brief note about Geoffrey Chaucer

 # Thinking Activity

# Student of semester-1 Department of English MK Bhavnagar University

GEOFFREY CHAUCER

     

He was an English poet and author. Widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages, he is  best known for "The Canterbury Tales ". He has been called….

~ The Father of English Literature

~ The Father of English Poetry

He was the first writer to be buried in what has since come to be called poet's corner, in Westminster Abbey. Chaucer also gained fame as a philosophy and astronomer, composing the scientific 'A Treatise On The Astrolabe' for his ten year-old son Lawise. He maintained a career in the civil service as a bureaucrat, courtier, diplomat and member of Parliament.

Chaucer was a prolific writer, creating many other fine works which have been overshadowed by 'The Canterbury Tales'. None of his pieces were technically published during his lifetime as that concept had not yet been invented. His works were hand copied by scribes who admired them and did not make a living from his writing, as his occupations and salaries from court records attest, but was honored for his poetry by noble patrons in other ways.

• Early Life :-

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.

• Public service:-

By 1368, King Edward || 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.

In 1377 and 1388, Chaucer engaged in yet more diplomatic missions, with the objective of finding a French wife for Richard || and securing military aid in Italy. Busy with his duties Chaucer had little time to devote to writing poetry, his true passion.

• Court Life & Marriage  :-

By september 1366, Chaucer was back in England and married to Philippa Roer, and in 1367 he is recorded as a member of the Royal household holding with the title of esquire and valet . 

Benson describes Chaucer at this time as being….

" One of a group of some forty young men in the King's service, not personal servants, but expected to make themselves useful around the court ".

Philippa was a lady-in-waiting attending female members of the court. During this time, Chaucer began to write poetry in French, experimenting with various forms. He was sent to France a number of times on official court business and may have also traveled in Italy.

• Major Works :-

• The Book Of The Duchess (1370)

• The House Of Fame (1378-1380)

• Anelida And Arcite (1380-1387) 

• The Parliament Of Fowls (1380-1382)

• Troilus And Criseyde (1382-1386)

• The Legend Of Good Women (1380)

• The Canterbury Tales (1388-1400)

• The Book Of The Duchess :-

Chaucer wrote his first major work ' The Book Of The Duchess ', in his wife's honor and as a means of consoling his friend in,

" The book of the duchess deals with a central concern of the poetic genre of courtly love, which is worse to lose one's love to death or to infidelity ".

• 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 .

'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 Chaucer 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 overlay ambitious one . In actuality, 'The Canterbury Tales' is made up of only 24 tales and rather abruptly ends before it's characters even make it to Canterbury .

• The Parliament Of Fouls :-

Chaucer's body of best known works includes 'The Parliament Of Fouls',otherwise known as 'The Parliament Of Fouls',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.Bemnet 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 .

• Troilus And Criseyde :-

Chaucer is believed to have written the poem 'Troilu and Criseyde' sometimes in the mid 1380s . It 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 involved rhyming stanzas consisting of seven lines apiece .

'Troilus and Criseyde' is broadly considered on 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 Legend Of Good Women :-

The period of time over which Chaucer penned 'The Legend Of Good Wonen' is uncertain, although most scholars do agree that Chaucer seems to have abandoned it before it's completion . The queen mentioned in the work is believed to be Richard ||'s wife,Anne of Behemia . 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).

• A Treatise On The Astrolabe :-

'A Treatise On The Astrolabe' is one of Chaucer's nonfiction work. It is an essay about the astrolabe, a tool used by astronomers and explorers to locate the positions of the sun, moon and planets.

• Later Life :-

From 1389 to 1391,after Richard || had ascended to the throne, Chaucer held a draining and dangerous position as clerk of the work. He was robbed by highwayman twice while on the job,which only served to further compound his fincial worries.

• Death :-

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.

So we can say that from 1386 on, Chaucer held a number of important and highly paid positions,such as justice of the peace ,a member of Parliament, clerk of the King's works,and Deputy Forester of the Royal Forest.