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Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for '' The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He was the first writer to be buried in what has since come to be called Poets' Corner, in Westminster Abbey. Chaucer also gained fame as a philosopher and astronomer, composing the scientific ''A Treatise on the Astrolabe'' for his 10-year-old son Lewis. He maintained a career in the civil service as a bureaucrat, courtier, diplomat, and member of parliament. Among Chaucer's many other works are '' The Book of the Duchess'', '' The House of Fame'', '' The Legend of Good Women'', and '' Troilus and Criseyde''. He is seen as crucial in legitimising the literary use of Middle English when the dominant literary languages in England were still Anglo-Norman French and Latin. Chaucer's contemporary Thomas Hoccleve hailed him as "the firste fynder ...
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The Canterbury Tales
''The Canterbury Tales'' ( enm, Tales of Caunterbury) is a collection of twenty-four stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. It is widely regarded as Chaucer's '' magnum opus''. The tales (mostly written in verse, although some are in prose) are presented as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together from London to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. The prize for this contest is a free meal at the Tabard Inn at Southwark on their return. It has been suggested that the greatest contribution of ''The Canterbury Tales'' to English literature was the popularisation of the English vernacular in mainstream literature, as opposed to French, Italian or Latin. English had, however, been used as a literary language centuries before Chaucer's time, and several of Chaucer's contemporaries— John Gower, William Langland, the Pearl Poet, and ...
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English Words First Attested In Chaucer
English words first attested in Chaucer, or special manuscript words of Chaucer, are a set of about two thousand English words whose first use found in existing manuscripts is credited to Geoffrey Chaucer.Cannon, pp. 231–233 This does not necessarily mean that he was the person to introduce these words into English, but that the earliest extant uses of these words are found in Chaucerian manuscripts. Many of the words were already in everyday speech in 14th-century England (especially London). The claim is that these words are found for the first time in written manuscripts where he introduced them in one of his extensive works from 1374 to 1400 as the first author to use these particular words. Many of Chaucer's special manuscript words are used today: ''absent, accident, add, agree, bagpipe, border, box, cinnamon, desk, digestion, dishonest, examination, finally, flute, funeral, galaxy, horizon, infect, ingot, latitude, laxative, miscarry, nod, obscure, observe, outrageo ...
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The Legend Of Good Women
''The Legend of Good Women'' is a poem in the form of a dream vision by Geoffrey Chaucer during the fourteenth century. The poem is the third longest of Chaucer's works, after ''The Canterbury Tales'' and '' Troilus and Criseyde'', and is possibly the first significant work in English to use the iambic pentameter or decasyllabic couplets which he later used throughout ''The Canterbury Tales''. This form of the heroic couplet would become a significant part of English literature possibly inspired by Chaucer. Summary Prologue The prologue describes how Chaucer is reprimanded by the god of love and his queen, Alceste, for his works—such as ''Troilus and Criseyde''—depicting women in a poor light. Criseyde is made to seem inconstant in love in that earlier work, and Alceste demands a poem of Chaucer extolling the virtues of women and their good deeds. The incomplete nature of the poem is suggested by Chaucer's Retraction from ''The Canterbury Tales'' which calls t ...
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The House Of Fame
''The House of Fame'' (''Hous of Fame'' in the original spelling) is a Middle English poem by Geoffrey Chaucer, probably written between 1374 and 1385, making it one of his earlier works. It was most likely written after ''The Book of the Duchess'', but its chronological relation to Chaucer's other early poems is uncertain. ''The House of Fame'' is over 2,005 lines long in three books and takes the form of a dream vision composed in octosyllabic couplets. Upon falling asleep the poet finds himself in a glass temple adorned with images of the famous and their deeds. With an eagle as a guide, he meditates on the nature of fame and the trustworthiness of recorded renown. This allows Chaucer to contemplate the role of the poet in reporting the lives of the famous and how much truth there is in what can be told. Synopsis The work begins with a poem in which Chaucer speculates on the nature and causes of dreams. He claims that he will tell his audience about his "wonderful" dream "i ...
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Philippa Roet
Philippa de Roet (also known as Philippa Pan or Philippa Chaucer; – c. 1387) was an English courtier, the sister of Katherine Swynford, third wife of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster (a son of King Edward III), and the wife of the poet Geoffrey Chaucer. Early life Philippa was the daughter of Sir Gilles de Roet, who was a herald and, later, a knight of Hainault and accompanied Queen Philippa to England. He later became the Guienne King of Arms. There is no history of her mother, but it is thought that Philippa had two sisters and a brother: Katherine, Elizabeth, and Walter. Her father went to serve the queen's sister, Marguerite, who was the empress of Germany and the three younger children – Walter, Philippa and Katherine – were left in the care of Queen Philippa. It was her father's relationship with royalty that gave Philippa and her family high status and a reputation among the upper class, who took Philippa in as a 'domicella', or lady-in-waiting. This phase of her ...
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Troilus And Criseyde
''Troilus and Criseyde'' () is an epic poem by Geoffrey Chaucer which re-tells in Middle English the tragic story of the lovers Troilus and Criseyde set against a backdrop of war during the siege of Troy. It was written in '' rime royale'' and probably completed during the mid-1380s. Many Chaucer scholars regard it as the poet's finest work. As a finished long poem it is more self-contained than the better known but ultimately unfinished ''The Canterbury Tales''. This poem is often considered the source of the phrase: "all good things must come to an end" (3.615). Although Troilus is a character from Ancient Greek literature, the expanded story of him as a lover was of Medieval origin. The first known version is from Benoît de Sainte-Maure's poem '' Roman de Troie'', but Chaucer's principal source appears to have been Boccaccio, who re-wrote the tale in his '' Il Filostrato''. Chaucer attributes the story to a "Lollius" (whom he also mentions in '' The House of Fame''), alth ...
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A Treatise On The Astrolabe
''A Treatise on the Astrolabe'' is a medieval instruction manual on the astrolabe by Geoffrey Chaucer. It describes both the form and the proper use of the instrument, and stands out as a prose technical work from a writer better known for poetry, written in English rather than the more typical Latin. Significance The ''Treatise'' is considered the "oldest work in English written upon an elaborate scientific instrument". It is admired for its clarity in explaining difficult concepts – although modern readers lacking an actual astrolabe may find the details of the astrolabe difficult to understand. Robinson believes that it indicates that had Chaucer written more freely composed prose it would have been superior to his translations of Boethius and Renaut de Louhans. Chaucer’s exact source is undetermined but most of his ‘conclusions’ go back, directly or indirectly, to ''Compositio et Operatio Astrolabii'', a Latin translation of Messahala's Arabic treatise of the 8 ...
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Thomas Chaucer
Thomas Chaucer (c. 136718 November 1434) was an English courtier and politician. The son of the poet Geoffrey Chaucer and his wife Philippa Roet, Thomas was linked socially and by family to senior members of the English nobility, though he was himself a commoner. Elected fifteen times to the Parliament of England, he was Speaker of the House of Commons for five parliaments in the early 15th century. Parental connections Thomas Chaucer was a relative by marriage of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, through his aunt Katherine Swynford. Katherine (born Roet) was the sister of his mother, Philippa Roet. Swynford was first Gaunt's mistress, and then his third wife. Their four children, John Beaufort, Henry Beaufort, Thomas Beaufort and Joan Beaufort, were first cousins to Thomas Chaucer, and all prospered: John's family became Earls and subsequently Dukes of Somerset, Henry a Cardinal, Thomas became Duke of Exeter, Joan became Countess of Westmorland and was grandmot ...
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The Book Of The Duchess
''The Book of the Duchess'', also known as ''The Deth of Blaunche'',
''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 1910. Accessed 11 March 2008.
is the earliest of 's major poems, preceded only by his short poem, "An ABC", and possibly by his translation of ''''. Based on the themes and title of the poem, most sources put the date of composition after 12 September 1368 (when Blanche of Lancaster died) and before 1372, with many recent studies privileging a date as early as the end of 1368. Overwhelming (if disputed) evidence suggests that Chaucer wrote the poem to commemor ...
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Middle English
Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English period. Scholarly opinion varies, but the '' Oxford English Dictionary'' specifies the period when Middle English was spoken as being from 1150 to 1500. This stage of the development of the English language roughly followed the High to the Late Middle Ages. Middle English saw significant changes to its vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, and orthography. Writing conventions during the Middle English period varied widely. Examples of writing from this period that have survived show extensive regional variation. The more standardized Old English language became fragmented, localized, and was, for the most part, being improvised. By the end of the period (about 1470) and aided by the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg ...
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Thomas Hoccleve
Thomas Hoccleve or Occleve (1368 or 1369–1426) was an English poet and clerk, who became a key figure in 15th-century Middle English literature. His ''Regement of Princes or De Regimine Principum'' is a homily on virtues and vices, written for Henry V of England shortly before his accession. Biography Hoccleve was born in 1368, as he states when writing in 1421 (''Dialogue, 1.246'') that he has seen "fifty wyntir and three". Nothing is known of his family, but they probably came from the village of Hockliffe in Bedfordshire. In November 1420, Hoccleve's fellow Privy Seal clerk John Bailey returned land and tenements in Hockliffe to him, which suggests that Hoccleve may indeed have had family ties there. What is known of his life comes mainly from his works and from administrative records. He obtained a clerkship in the Office of the Privy Seal at the age of about twenty. This would require him to know both French and Latin. Hoccleve retained the post on and off for about 35 y ...
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Anglo-Norman French
Anglo-Norman, also known as Anglo-Norman French ( nrf, Anglo-Normaund) (French: ), was a dialect of Old Norman French that was used in England and, to a lesser extent, elsewhere in Great Britain and Ireland during the Anglo-Norman period. When William the Conqueror led the Norman conquest of England in 1066, he, his nobles, and many of his followers from Normandy, but also those from northern and western France, spoke a range of langues d'oïl (northern varieties of Gallo-Romance). One of these was Old Norman, also known as "Old Northern French". Other followers spoke varieties of the Picard language or western registers of general Old French. This amalgam developed into the unique insular dialect now known as Anglo-Norman French, which was commonly used for literary and eventually administrative purposes from the 12th until the 15th century. It is difficult to know much about what was actually spoken, as what is known about the dialect is restricted to what was written, but it ...
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