Geoffrey Chaucer, a very remarkable english poet.

Renowed before Shakespear, is considered

the first Finder of the English Language.

This renowned autor also contributed importantly during the second half of the 14th century
to the management of public affairs as a courtier, diplomat and civil servant.

He was a loyal servant of the Crown and during the govern of three different kings, Chaucer
was praised and trusted. But he is remebered because of his real passion: the writting of
poetry.

Chaucer was born around 1342, in London. A curious fact about his family name is that it
derives from the Frech “Chaucier” which means shoe-maker, but Chaucer’s father was a wine
merchant. His first appeareance in historic record is in 1357 as a member of the household of
Elizabeth, Countess os Ulster, wife of Lyonel, third son of King Edward III.

It is thought that his father was able to place him among a group of Young men and women to
serve in that royal household. This was very common in those years, it was the way families
provide their children with opportunitynecessary for courty education and connections to
advance their careers. For Chaucer who had 16 siblings it resulted really helpful-

Later, Chaucer had to leave his family when he started to work as a page in serve to a knight
and then he was only 15 years old.

At the age of 17, he was already a member of King Edward III’s army in France and he was
captured during the siege of Rhymes. And it was the King himself contributed to Chaucer’s
ransom to sabe him in ordder to return him to his majesty’s service.

At the age of 25, Chaucer had moved from a household servant, a soldier to that of a trusted
diplomat. The amount of responsibility he had and activity in public matters appearently left
him very Little time for writing. However, his travels exposed Chaucer to the Works of Dante,
Petrarch and Boccaccio so we could say that they had a strong influence in Chaucer’s works.

There’s almost nothing of information about Chaucer’s early education, but it is presumed that
he would have been fluent in French and in the middle English of the time, but he also became
competent in Latin and Italian. Some sources showed that he is closely familiar with many
important books of this time.

In 1366, Chaucer married to a ver closed friend of his, Filipa Pann, a lady-in-waiting-to the
queen of England, and continued his work for his majesty as a diplomat.

By this moment, Chaucer’s carrer was prospering and his first important poem, Book of the
Duchess, became popular. So this allowed him to connect with more persons in high places.

When Richard II ascended the throne, Chaucer was appointed Clerk of the King’s work

His pays raised more than thirty pounds a year and a pitcher of wine daily

Now he had new responsilbilities, for example, he became responsable for the construction at
Wstminster, the tower of London and several castles and manors. But times were still hard for
him. And during this same time, he was caught up in ilegal scandal, but finally the charges were
dropped and he was found not guilty. But despite that his place in society had a great change.
He resigned or was removed ( this information wasn’t very clear) but he left the court and then
moved to Kent, later his wife, Philippa would die due to por health. Leaving him with two sons
and two daughters.
Years later, when Henry IV took the throne, Chaucer hoped to find a new job under a new
King. And while his reputation for loyalty helped him to get a small pension, he had months
with no pay at all and was near penniless. Nevertheless he was able to get a tenement in 1399
in the garden at St Mary’s Chapel at Westminster, and it is believed that he died in this place
on October 25th of 1400. He was burried in Westminster aby and his tumb became the
nucleous of what is now known as Poet’s Corner

About his written work I can tell you the following

His first poem was more tan thirteen hundred lines long and it was probably written in 1369 or
1370, for the funeral of Blanche, Duchess of Lancaster, who died of plagued in September
1369.She was the wife of John of Gaunt, Chaucer’s best friend.

“Lord,but my heart is maketh light

When I think on that sweetest right,

A commonly one to see

And wish to God it might so be

That she would hold me for her knight,

My lady, fair and bright”

The House of Fame  was another substantial work of his, not as Good as its master
peace obviously, but still good, here the poet falls asleep and dreams he’s in a glass
temple adorned with images of glorious and famous people from history (including
the poets Ovid and Virgil).
Between the years 1387 and 1400, Chaucer devoted mosto f his time writing his most famouse
work, Canterbury tales. The humor of the work is sometimes very subtle, but is often broad
and outspoken, when compared to other Works written at the same time.

His original plan for this work was writing two tales each through over 20 pilgrims making
journey from Southport England to the Shrine of St Thomas Beckett of Caterbury England

But later, he modified this plan to write only one tale for each pilgrim on the road to
Canterbury. But he only finished 24 tales out of the 120 is believed he had been planning

He introduces each of thes pilgrims as vivid, brief sketches, a lively mix of a variety of genres
told by the travelers of all aspects of society.

His Canterbury tales ranks as one of the greatest public Works in English literatura

By his time in medieval England literatura was separeted into very distinct styles, focused more
on audience : lower, middle and upper classes than his characters. Chaucer, however, moved
freely between them. So we cannot say that he had a favourtie one.

He considerd the reader of his work as his intended audience, and he did the same with the
other pilgrams of the story. This allowed him to créate a multi-layer rhetorical puzle of
ambiguities, His work traspasses the ability of any Medieval theory to uncover. He avoid
targeting any specific audience or social class of reader, focusing instead on the characters of
the story.

The characters ar all divided into three distinct classes: those who prayed, the clergy, the
highest of al lof the classes in Medieval England. Then we had those who fight, the nobility.
And finally, those who work, the communist and the pesantry.

Another important thing about this work of him, is that he gives importance to female
characters, giving them for a first time a voice as narrator, because until now, Medieval
literature only classified women as wives, virgins or prostitutes, they were never given a
primary rol in a story.

So why is this work so well considered?

It is because of its depiction of the different social classes of that time

language/expressions used. Chaucer chose to write in English and not Frech, which
was the language of the moment, after the Norman invasion.