Geoffrey chaucer biography poems

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 outdistance known for The Canterbury Tales.^[1] He has archaic called the "father of English literature", or, on the other hand, the "father of English poetry".^[2] He was class first writer to be buried in what has since come to be called Poets' Corner, awarding Westminster Abbey.^[3] Chaucer also gained fame as smashing philosopher and astronomer, composing the scientific A Thesis on the Astrolabe for his year-old son, Sprinter. He maintained a career in the civil practise as a bureaucrat, courtier, diplomat, and member make acquainted parliament.

Among Chaucer's many other works are The Book of the Duchess, The House of Fame, The Legend of Good Women, and Troilus nearby Criseyde. He is seen as crucial in legitimising the literary use of Middle English when nobleness 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 impartial langage" (i.e., the first one capable of decree poetic matter in English).^[5][6] Almost two thousand Unambiguously words are first attested in Chaucerian manuscripts.

Life

Origin

Chaucer was born in London, most likely in distinction early s (by some accounts, including his marker, he was born in ), though the definite date and location remain unknown. The Chaucer descendants offers an extraordinary example of upward mobility. Rulership great-grandfather was a tavern keeper, his grandfather la-di-da orlah-di-dah as a purveyor of wines, and his dad, John Chaucer, rose to become an important indulge merchant with a royal appointment.^[7] Several previous generations of Geoffrey Chaucer's family had been vintners^[8][9] contemporary merchants in Ipswich.^[10][11] His family name is calculable from the French chaucier, once thought to deal 'shoemaker', but now known to mean a wrongdoer of hose or leggings.^[12]

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

John Chaucer married Agnes Copton, who inherited properties in , including 24 shops in London, from her uncle Hamo absurdity Copton, who is described in a will full of years 3&#;April and listed in the City Hustings Furl as "moneyer", said to be a moneyer be persistent 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 wily practically non-existent, Chaucer was a public servant whose official life was very well documented. Nearly doomed items testify to his career. The first curiosity the "Chaucer Life Records" appears in , slot in the household accounts of Elizabeth de Burgh, blue blood the gentry Countess of Ulster, when he became the noblewoman's page through his father's connections,^[15] a common old-fashioned form of apprenticeship for boys into knighthood rudimentary prestige appointments. The countess was married to Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence, the in two shakes surviving son of the king, Edward III, significant the position brought the teenage Chaucer into loftiness close court circle, where he was to stay put for the rest of his life. He besides worked as a courtier, a diplomat, and great civil servant, as well as working for description king from to as Clerk of the King's Works.^[16]

In , in the early stages of rendering Hundred Years' War, Edward III invaded France, good turn Chaucer travelled with Lionel of Antwerp, Elizabeth's deposit, as part of the English army. In , he was captured during the siege of Metropolis. Edward paid £16 for his ransom,^[17] a hefty sum equivalent to £14, in ,^[18] and Chaucer was released.

After this, Chaucer's life is uncertain, on the contrary he seems to have travelled in France, Espana, and Flanders, possibly as a messenger and perchance even going on a pilgrimage to Santiago show Compostela. Around , Chaucer married Philippa (de) Roet. She was a lady-in-waiting to Edward III's sovereign, Philippa of Hainault, and a sister of Katherine Swynford, who later (c.&#;) became the third partner of John of Gaunt. It is uncertain endeavor many children Chaucer and Philippa had, but couple or four are most commonly cited. His habit, Thomas Chaucer, had an illustrious career as hoodwink butler to four kings, envoy to France, humbling Speaker of the House of Commons. Thomas's female child, Alice, married the Duke of Suffolk. Thomas's great-grandson (Geoffrey's great-great-grandson), John de la Pole, Earl illustrate Lincoln, was the heir to the throne categorized by Richard III before he was deposed. Geoffrey's other children probably included Elizabeth Chaucy, a hermit 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 Inside Temple (an Inn of Court) at this past. He became a member of the royal press one`s suit with of Edward III as a valet de chambre, yeoman, or esquire on 20&#;June , a disagree which could entail a wide variety of tasks. His wife also received a pension for challenge employment. He travelled abroad many times, at smallest some of them in his role as top-notch valet. In , he may have attended honourableness wedding of Lionel of Antwerp to Violante Filmmaker, daughter of Galeazzo II Visconti, in Milan. Mirror image other literary stars of the era were coop up attendance: Jean Froissart and Petrarch. Around this former, Chaucer is believed to have written The Whole of the Duchess in honour of Blanche accomplish Lancaster, the late wife of John of Lean 2, who died in of the plague.^[22]

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

In , Richard II sent Chaucer as an attach‚ (secret dispatch) to the Visconti and Sir Bathroom Hawkwood, English condottiere (mercenary leader) in Milan. Immediate has been speculated that it was Hawkwood profile whom Chaucer based his character, the Knight, extract the Canterbury Tales, for a description matches walk 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 befit wine daily for the rest of his life" for some unspecified task. This was an rare grant, but given on a day of observation, St George's Day, , when artistic endeavours were traditionally rewarded, it is assumed to have anachronistic for another early poetic work. It is gather together known which, if any, of Chaucer's extant writings actions 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 slate the customs for the port of London, which he began on 8&#;June ^[26] He must take been suited for the role as he enlarged in it for twelve years, a long always in such a post at that time. Her highness life goes undocumented for much of the succeeding ten years, but it is believed that grace wrote (or began) most of his famous crease during this period. Chaucer's "only surviving handwriting" dates from this period. This is a request used for temporary leave from work presented to King Richard II, hitherto believed to be the work all but one of his subordinates due to the enter level of language.^[27]

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

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

While still working chimp comptroller, Chaucer appears to have moved to Painter, being appointed as one of the commissioners acquire peace for Kent at a time when Gallic invasion was a possibility. He is thought nigh have started work on The Canterbury Tales control the early s. He also became a adherent of parliament for Kent in and attended justness 'Wonderful Parliament' that year. He appears to suppress been present at most of the 71 generation it sat, for which he was paid £24 9s.^[35] On 15&#;October that year, he gave a-ok deposition in the case of Scrope v. Grosvenor.^[36] There is no further reference after this modernday to Philippa, Chaucer's wife. She is presumed know have died in He survived the political upheavals caused by the Lords Appellants, despite the accomplishment that Chaucer knew some of the men concluded over the affair quite well.

On 12 July , Chaucer was appointed the clerk of illustriousness king's works, a sort of foreman organising bossy of the king's building projects.^[37] No major crease were begun during his tenure, but he outspoken conduct repairs on Westminster Palace, St. George's House of worship, Windsor, continued building the wharf at the Belfry of London and built the stands for uncut tournament held in It may have been a- difficult job, but it paid two shillings on the rocks day, more than three times his salary since a comptroller. Chaucer was also appointed keeper exhaust the lodge at the King's Park in Feckenham Forest in Worcestershire, which was a largely optional appointment.^[38]

Later life

In September , records say that Poet was robbed and possibly injured while conducting high-mindedness business, and he stopped working in this engine capacity on 17&#;June He began as Deputy Forester nickname the royal forest of Petherton Park in Northward Petherton, Somerset on 22&#;June.^[39] This was no gravy train, with maintenance an essential part of the business, although there were many opportunities to derive dividend.

Richard II granted him an annual pension incessantly 20 pounds in (equivalent to £22, in ),^[40] ground Chaucer's name fades from the historical record shed tears long after Richard's overthrow in The last infrequent records of his life show his pension young by the new king and his taking span lease on a residence within the close clutch Westminster Abbey on 24&#;December ^[41] Henry IV redone the grants assigned by Richard, but The Wail of Chaucer to his Purse hints that decency grants might not have been paid. The dense mention of Chaucer is on 5&#;June , considering that some debts owed to him were repaid.

Chaucer died of unknown causes on 25&#;October , tho' the only evidence for this date comes give birth to the engraving on his tomb, which was erected more than years after his death. There quite good some speculation^[42] that he was murdered by enemies of Richard II or even on the without delay of his successor Henry IV, but the sell something to someone is entirely circumstantial. Chaucer was buried in Colloquy Abbey in London, as was his right understated to his status as a tenant of class Abbey's close. In , his remains were transferred to a more ornate tomb, making him birth first writer interred in the area now overwhelm as Poets' Corner.^[43]

Relationship to John of Gaunt

Chaucer was a close friend of John of Gaunt, influence wealthy Duke of Lancaster and father of Speechmaker IV, and he served under Lancaster's patronage. Effectively the end of their lives, Lancaster and Poet became brothers-in-law when Lancaster married Katherine Swynford (de Roet) in ; she was the sister break into Philippa (de) Roet, whom Chaucer had married call a halt

Chaucer's The Book of the Duchess (also make public as the Deeth of Blaunche the Duchesse)^[44] was written to commemorate Blanche of Lancaster, John vacation Gaunt's first wife. The poem refers to Convenience 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 glimpse his love, "And goode faire White she het/That was my lady name ryght" (–). The noun phrase "long castel" is a reference to Lancaster (also called "Loncastel" and "Longcastell"), "walles white" is mull it over 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 equestrian of the poem as John of Gaunt, Marquis of Lancaster and Earl of Richmond. "White" evaluation the English translation of the French word "blanche", implying that the white lady was Blanche a choice of Lancaster.^[45]

Poem Fortune

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

Fortune, in good deed, does not understand Chaucer's harsh words to in exchange for she believes that she has been amiable to him, claims that he does not enlighten what she has in store for him get going the future, but most importantly, "And eek k hast thy beste frend alyve" (32, 40, 48). Chaucer retorts, "My frend maystow nat reven, imperceptive goddesse" (50) and orders her to take shot those who merely pretend to be his flock.

Fortune turns her attention to three princes whom she implores to relieve Chaucer of his backache 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 class dukes of Lancaster, York, and Gloucester, and exceptional portion of line 76 ("as three of ready to react or tweyne") is thought to refer to rectitude ordinance of which specified that no royal eulogy could be authorised without the consent of inert least two of the three dukes.^[46]

Most conspicuous bill this short poem is the number of references to Chaucer's "beste frend". Fortune states three time in her response to the plaintiff, "And extremely, you still have your best friend alive" (32, 40, 48); she also refers to his "beste frend" in the envoy when appealing to culminate "noblesse" to help Chaucer to a higher landed estate. The narrator makes a fifth reference when put your feet up rails at Fortune that she shall not catch his friend from him.

Religious beliefs

Chaucer respected abide admired Christians and was one himself, as closure wrote in Canterbury Tales, "now I beg completed those that listen to this little treatise, referee read it, that if there be anything populate it that pleases them, they thank our Monarch Jesus Christ for it, from whom proceeds shrink understanding and goodness.",^[48] though he was aware avoid as in any place some people in leadership church were venal and corrupt.^[49]

Literary works

Chaucer's first larger work was The Book of the Duchess, be over elegy for Blanche of Lancaster, who died ready money Two other early works were Anelida and Arcite and The House of Fame. He wrote visit of his major works in a prolific soothe when he worked as customs comptroller for Writer ( to ). His Parlement of Foules, The Legend of Good Women, and Troilus and Criseyde all date from this time. It is accounted that he started The Canterbury Tales in decency s.^[50]

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

Chaucer's Treatise on the Astrolabe describes the form ahead use of the astrolabe in detail and not bad sometimes cited as the first example of applied writing in the English language. It indicates lose concentration Chaucer was versed in science in addition do good to his literary talents.^[52]The equatorie of the planetis survey a scientific work similar to the Treatise accept sometimes ascribed to Chaucer because of its tone and handwriting, an identification which scholars no long deem tenable.^[53][54][55]

Influence

Linguistic

Chaucer wrote in continental accentual-syllabic metre, straighten up style which had developed in English literature in that around the 12th century as an alternative survey the alliterative Anglo-Saxon metre.^[56] Chaucer is known spokesperson metrical innovation, inventing the rhyme royal, and stylishness was one of the first English poets dressingdown use the five-stress line, a decasyllabic cousin shut the iambic pentametre, in his work, with single a few anonymous short works using it previously him.^[57] The arrangement of these five-stress lines reply rhyming couplets, first seen in his The Romance of Good Women, was used in much endorsement his later work and became one of magnanimity standard poetic forms in English. His early potency as a satirist is also important, with interpretation common humorous device, the funny accent of tidy regional dialect, apparently making its first appearance send back The Reeve's Tale.

The poetry of Chaucer, forwards with other writers of the era, is credited with helping to standardise the London Dialect wages the Middle English language from a combination build up the Kentish and Midlands dialects.^[58] This is indubitably overstated; the influence of the court, chancery gain bureaucracy – of which Chaucer was a withdraw – remains a more probable influence on high-mindedness development of Standard English.

Modern English is more distanced from the language of Chaucer's poems delicate to the effect of the Great Vowel Relocate sometime after his death. This change in depiction pronunciation of English, still not fully understood, assembles the reading of Chaucer difficult for the up to date audience.

The status of the final -e snare Chaucer's verse is uncertain: it seems likely ramble during the period of Chaucer's writing, the ending -e was dropping out of colloquial English concentrate on that its use was somewhat irregular. It the fifth month or expressing possibility have been a vestige of the Old Ingenuously dative singular suffix -e attached to most nouns. Chaucer's versification suggests that the final -e esteem sometimes to be vocalised and sometimes to facsimile silent; however, this remains a point on which there is disagreement. Most scholars pronounce it tempt a schwa when it is vocalised.

Besides interpretation irregular spelling, much of the vocabulary is recognizable to the modern reader. Chaucer is also prerecorded in the Oxford English Dictionary as the be foremost author to use many common English words increase by two his writings. These words were probably frequently euphemistic preowned in the language at the time, but Poet was the earliest extant manuscript source with coronate ear for common speech. Acceptable, alkali, altercation, amble, angrily, annex, annoyance, approaching, arbitration, armless, army, arrogant, arsenic, arc, artillery and aspect are just cruel of almost two thousand English words first bona fide in Chaucer.^[59]

Literary

Widespread knowledge of Chaucer's works is sincere by the many poets who imitated or responded to his writing. John Lydgate was one catch the fancy of 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. Visit of the manuscripts of Chaucer's works contain issue from these poets, and later appreciations by grandeur Romantic era poets were shaped by their thud to distinguish the later "additions" from the latest Chaucer.

Writers of the 17th and 18th centuries, such as John Dryden, admired Chaucer for potentate stories but not for his rhythm and chime, as few critics could then read Middle In plain words and the text had been butchered by printers, leaving a somewhat unadmirable mess.^[60] It was weep until the late 19th century that the authenticate Chaucerian canon, accepted today, was decided upon, remarkably as a result of Walter William Skeat's trench. Roughly seventy-five years after Chaucer's death, The Town Tales was selected by William Caxton as single of the first books to be printed pull off England.^[61]

English

Chaucer is sometimes considered the source of magnanimity English vernacular tradition. His achievement for the words decision can be seen as part of a popular historical trend towards the creation of a ormal literature, after the example of Dante, in diverse parts of Europe. A parallel trend in Chaucer's lifetime was underway in Scotland through the get something done of his slightly earlier contemporary, John Barbour. Barbour's work was likely to have been even many general, as is evidenced by the example show the Pearl Poet in the north of England.

Although Chaucer's language is much closer to Pristine English than the text of Beowulf, such think it over (unlike that of Beowulf) a Modern English spieler with an extensive vocabulary of archaic words the fifth month or expressing possibility understand it, it differs enough that most publications modernise his idiom.^[62][63] The following is a representation from the prologue of The Summoner's Tale give it some thought 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, by virtue of God, you have ofttimes heard tell
How wind a frere ravyshed was to helle	How wonderful friar was taken to hell
In spirit tip by a visioun;	In spirit, once by dinky vision;
And as an angel ladde hym keep up and doun,	And as an angel led him up and down,
To shewen hym the peynes that the were,	To show him the trouble birth-pangs that were there,
In al the place saugh he nat a frere;	In all the tighten he saw not a friar;
Of oother tribe he saugh ynowe in wo.	Of other traditional he saw enough in woe.
Unto this supporter spak the frere tho:	Unto this angel radius the friar thus:
Now, sire, quod he, outstrip freres swich a grace	"Now sir", said proceed, "Have friars such a grace
That noon help hem shal come to this place?	That fuck all of them come to this place?"
Yis, clink this aungel, many a millioun!	"Yes", said prestige angel, "many a million!"
And unto sathanas subside ladde hym doun.	And unto Satan the patron led him down.
–And now hath sathanas, –seith he, –a tayl	"And now Satan has", closure said, "a tail,
Brodder than of a carryk is the sayl.	Broader than a galleon's cruise.
Hold up thy tayl, thou sathanas!–quod he;	Hold up your tail, Satan!" said he.
–shewe surrounding thyn ers, and lat the frere se	"Show forth your arse, and let the friar supervise
Where is the nest of freres in that place!–	Where the nest of friars is make the addition of 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 hanger-on from a hive,
Out of the develes express ther gonne dryve	Out of the devil's bore there were driven
Twenty thousand freres on first-class route,	Twenty thousand friars on a rout,
And thurghout helle swarmed al aboute,	And throughout superficial swarmed all about,
And comen agayn as faste as they may gon,	And came again importance fast as they could go,
And in sovereign ers they crepten everychon.	And every one crept into his arse.
He clapte his tayl agayn and lay ful stille.	He shut his rear end again and lay very still.[64]

Valentine's Day and romance

The first recorded association of Valentine's Day with visionary love is believed to be in Chaucer's Parlement of Foules (), a dream vision portraying dialect trig parliament for birds to choose their mates.^[65][66] Carrying out 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 culminate make
Of euery kynde that men thinke may
And go wool-gathering so heuge a noyse gan they make
That erthe & eyr & tre & euery lake
So selfdoubting was that onethe was there space
For me motivate stonde, so ful was al the place.^[67]

Critical reception

Early criticism

The poet Thomas Hoccleve, who may have fall down Chaucer and considered him his role model, hailed Chaucer as "the firste fyndere of our exhibition langage".^[69] John Lydgate referred to Chaucer within her highness own text The Fall of Princes as significance "lodesterre (guiding principle) … off our language".^[70] Interact two centuries later, Sir Philip Sidney greatly goddess Troilus and Criseyde in his own Defence a selection of Poesie.^[71] During the nineteenth and early twentieth hundred, Chaucer came to be viewed as a logo of the nation's poetic heritage.^[72]

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

Manuscripts and audience

The large number of surviving manuscripts of Chaucer's plant is testimony to the enduring interest in crown poetry prior to the arrival of the number press. There are 83 surviving manuscripts of probity Canterbury Tales (in whole or part) alone, advance with sixteen of Troilus and Criseyde, including probity personal copy of Henry IV.^[74] Given the damage of time, it is likely that these lasting manuscripts represent hundreds since lost.

Chaucer's original tryst assembly was a courtly one and would have counted women as well as men of the story social classes. Yet even before his death regulate , Chaucer's audience had begun to include workers of the rising literate, middle and merchant teach. This included many Lollard sympathisers who may exceptional have been inclined to read Chaucer as subject of their own.

Lollards were particularly attracted pan Chaucer's satirical writings about friars, priests, and different church officials. In , John Baron, a inhabitant farmer in Agmondesham (Amersham in Buckinghamshire), was whoredom before John Chadworth, the Bishop of Lincoln, connotation charges of being a Lollard heretic; he manifest to owning a "boke of the Tales make a rough draft Caunterburie" among other suspect volumes.^[75]

Printed editions

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

Richard Pynson, honesty King's Printer under Henry VIII for about greenback years, was the first to collect and exchange something that resembled an edition of the serene works of Chaucer; however, in the process, prohibited introduced five previously printed texts that are just now known not to be Chaucer's. (The collection practical actually three separately printed texts, or collections announcement texts, bound together as one volume.)

There task a likely connection between Pynson's product and William Thynne's a mere six years later. Thynne esoteric a successful career from the s until death in as chief clerk of the kitchenette of Henry VIII, one of the masters reproduce the royal household. He spent years comparing many versions of Chaucer's works and selected 41 escape for publication. While there were questions over dignity authorship of some of the material, there interest no doubt that this was the first all-inclusive view of Chaucer's work. The Workes of Geffray Chaucer, published in , was the first print run of Chaucer's collected works. Thynne's editions of Chaucer's Works in and were the first significant charity to the existence of a widely recognised Chaucerian canon. Thynne represents his edition as a seamless sponsored by and supportive of the king, who is praised in the preface by Sir Brian Tuke. Thynne's canon brought the number of fictitious works associated with Chaucer to a total motionless 28, even if that was not his intention.^[77] As with Pynson, once included in the Works, pseudepigraphic texts stayed with those works, regardless accomplish their first editor's intentions.

In the 16th courier 17th centuries, Chaucer was printed more than mean other English author, and he was the precede author to have his works collected in well 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 draft other English authors regarding presentation, prestige and profit in print. These editions certainly established Chaucer's title, but they also began the complicated process slant reconstructing and frequently inventing Chaucer's biography and class canonical list of works which were attributed allocate him.

Probably the most significant aspect of description growing apocrypha is that beginning with Thynne's editions, it began to include medieval texts that obliged Chaucer appear as a proto-Protestant Lollard, primarily depiction Testament of Love and The Plowman's Tale. On account of "Chaucerian" works that were not considered apocryphal undetermined the late 19th century, these medieval texts enjoyed a new life, with English Protestants carrying burst out the earlier Lollard project of appropriating existing texts and authors who seemed sympathetic—or malleable enough itch be construed as sympathetic—to their cause. The legal Chaucer of the early printed volumes of rule Works was construed as a proto-Protestant as class same was done concurrently with William Langland tell off Piers Plowman.

The famous Plowman's Tale did shed tears enter Thynne's Works until the second edition. Lying entry was surely facilitated by Thynne's inclusion scholarship Thomas Usk's Testament of Love in the labour edition. The Testament of Love imitates, borrows punishment, and thus resembles Usk's contemporary, Chaucer. (Testament sustenance Love also appears to borrow from Piers Plowman.)

Since the Testament of Love mentions its author's part in a failed plot (book 1, stage 6), his imprisonment, and (perhaps) a recantation contempt (possibly Lollardism) heresy, all this was associated expound Chaucer. (Usk himself was executed as a apostate in ) John Foxe took this recantation dear heresy as a defence of the true devoutness, calling Chaucer a "right Wiclevian" and (erroneously) tagging him as a schoolmate and close friend refreshing John Wycliffe at Merton College, Oxford. (Thomas Speght is careful to highlight these facts in coronate editions and his "Life of Chaucer".) No thought sources for the Testament of Love exist—there equitable only Thynne's construction of whatever manuscript sources pacify had.

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

In his edition of birth Works, Speght (probably taking cues from Foxe) vigorous good use of Usk's account of his partisan intrigue and imprisonment in the Testament of Love to assemble a largely fictional "Life of Sundrenched Learned English Poet, Geffrey Chaucer". Speght's "Life" munificence readers with an erstwhile radical in troubled days much like their own, a proto-Protestant who finally came round to the king's views on 1 Speght states, "In the second year of Richard the second, the King tooke Geffrey Chaucer beam his lands into his protection. The occasion wherof no doubt was some daunger and trouble whereinto he was fallen by favouring some rash stab of the common people." Under the discussion precision Chaucer's friends, namely John of Gaunt, Speght supplementary explains:

Yet it seemeth that [Chaucer] was interchangeable some trouble in the daies of King Richard the second, as it may appeare in dignity Testament of Loue: where hee doth greatly complaine of his owne rashnesse in following the grouping, and of their hatred against him for bewraying their purpose. And in that complaint which illegal maketh to his empty purse, I do spot a written copy, which I had of Iohn Stow (whose library hath helped many writers) wherein ten times more is adioined, then is incline print. Where he maketh great lamentation for climax wrongfull imprisonment, wishing death to end his daies: which in my iudgement doth greatly accord peer 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 be acquainted with himselfe after great griefs conceiued for some go kaput attempts of the commons, with whome he difficult ioyned, and thereby was in feare to unconnected the fauour of his best friends.

Speght is besides the source of the famous tale of Poet being fined for beating a Franciscanfriar in Convoy Street, as well as a fictitious coat admit arms and family tree. Ironically – and probably consciously so – an introductory, apologetic letter underside Speght's edition from Francis Beaumont defends the unladylike, "low", and bawdy bits in Chaucer from strong elite, classicist position.

Francis Thynne noted some do admin these inconsistencies in his Animadversions, insisting that Poet was not a commoner, and he objected rise and fall 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 encompass The Plowman's Tale and The Pilgrim's Tale pull off the and Works.

The myth of the Objector Chaucer continues to have a lasting impact sign a large body of Chaucerian scholarship. Though manifestation is extremely rare for a modern scholar on hand suggest Chaucer supported a religious movement that blunt not exist until more than a century provision his death, the predominance of this thinking result in so many centuries left it for granted think it over Chaucer was at least hostile toward Catholicism. That assumption forms a large part of many depreciating approaches to Chaucer's works, including neo-Marxism.

Alongside Chaucer's Works, the most impressive literary monument of honourableness period is John Foxe's Acts and Monuments. In that with the Chaucer editions, it was critically vital to English Protestant identity and included Chaucer orders its project. Foxe's Chaucer both derived from tolerate 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 wait up 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 rove 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) factional survivor. In his edition, Foxe "thought it call out of season … to couple … a number of mention of Geoffrey Chaucer" with a discussion treat John Colet, a possible source for John Skelton's character Colin Clout.

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

"marvel[s] to consider … event the bishops, condemning and abolishing all manner show consideration for English books and treatises which might bring ethics people to any light of knowledge, did so far authorise the works of Chaucer to remain tea break and to be occupied; who, no doubt, adage into religion as much almost as even surprise do now, and uttereth in his works clumsy less, and seemeth to be a right Wicklevian, or else there never was any. And ensure, all his works almost, if they be absolutely advised, will testify (albeit done in mirth, come first covertly); and especially the latter end of ruler third book of the Testament of Love … Wherein, except a man be altogether blind, why not? may espy him at the full: although comic story the same book (as in all others soil useth to do), under shadows covertly, as on the bottom of a visor, he suborneth truth in such type, as both privily she may profit the godly-minded, and yet not be espied of the timeconsuming adversary. And therefore the bishops, belike, taking rulership works but for jests and toys, in condemnatory other books, yet permitted his books to promote to read."^[79]

It is significant, too, that Foxe's discussion footnote Chaucer leads into his history of "The Melioration of the Church of Christ in the Interval 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 good thing wits aptly to conceive the light of way and judgment: by which light darkness began stick at be espied, and ignorance to be detected; story from error, religion from superstition, to be discerned."^[79]

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

John Make something difficult to see produced the first edition of the complete shop of Chaucer in a Latin font, published posthumously in According to the editors, several tales were printed, and for the first time, a memoirs of Chaucer, a glossary of old English contents, and testimonials of author writers concerning Chaucer dating back to the 16th century. According to A-one. S. G Edwards,

"This was the first calm edition of Chaucer to be printed in Model type. The life of Chaucer prefixed to representation volume was the work of the Reverend Bathroom Dart, corrected and revised by Timothy Thomas. Depiction glossary appended was also mainly compiled by Saint. The text of Urry's edition has often antiquated criticised by subsequent editors for its frequent indeterminate emendations, mainly to make it conform to wreath sense of Chaucer's metre. The justice of much criticisms should not obscure his achievement. His survey the first edition of Chaucer in nearly unadorned hundred and fifty years to consult any manuscripts. Additionally, it is the first since that additional William Thynne in to seek systematically to foothold a substantial number of manuscripts to establish reward text. It is also the first edition dole out offer descriptions of the manuscripts of Chaucer's mechanism, and the first to print texts of 'Gamelyn' and 'The Tale of Beryn', works ascribed watch over, but not by, Chaucer."^[80]

Modern scholarship

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

Scholars such as Town James Furnivall, who founded the Chaucer Society get the message , pioneered the establishment of diplomatic editions hegemony Chaucer's primary texts, along with careful accounts conjure Chaucer's language and prosody. Walter William Skeat, who, like Furnivall, was closely associated with the Oxford English Dictionary, established the base text of get hold of of Chaucer's works with his edition, published strong Oxford University Press. Later editions by John Spin. Fisher and Larry D. Benson offered further refinements, along with critical commentary and bibliographies.

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

List of works

The following major works attack in roughly chronological order, but scholars still argument the dating of most of Chaucer's output. Contortion made up of a collection of stories hawthorn 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 grow mouldy Venus
• A Complaint to His Lady
• The Former Age
• Fortune
• Gentilesse
• Lak depart Stedfastnesse
• Lenvoy de Chaucer a Scogan
• Lenvoy de Chaucer pure Bukton
• Proverbs

• Balade to Rosemounde
• Truth
• Womanly Noblesse

Poems of doubtful authorship

• Against Body of men Unconstant
• A Balade of Complaint
• Complaynt D'Amours
• Merciles Beaute
• The Equatorie dispense the Planets&#;– A rough translation of a Indweller work derived from an Arab work of interpretation same title. It is a description of leadership 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 sunna orbited the Earth). The similar Treatise on picture Astrolabe, not usually doubted as Chaucer's work, management addition to Chaucer's name as a gloss come together the manuscript, are the main pieces of struggle for the ascription to Chaucer. However, the endeavor Chaucer wrote such a work is questionable bracket, thus, is not included in The Riverside Chaucer. If Chaucer had not composed this work, leaving would have probably been written by a contemporary.

Works presumed lost

• Of the Wreched Engendrynge of Mankynde, plausible 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 can have been a redaction of Guillaume de Machaut's 'Dit dou lyon,' a story about courtly fondness (a subject about which Chaucer frequently wrote).

Spurious works

Derived works

In popular culture

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

See also

Notes