Chaucer Why should you bullshit bout Geolrey® Chancer? Well, first and foremost because he is one of those ‘writers that anyone with a litle culture fae heard of but no one has read. The ragon for thsi simple: his Englishis close enough to our modern-day language for us Yo recognise words (lor ample, he would nave called this magazine Tynke in ngissh) but too oi-terent for native readers to fallow it comfortably without footnotes. Tis offers you an ‘excellent opportunity: with ‘minima effort you ean know the than 99% of tive speakers That's what bullshitting. is about The other reson you should bullshit about Chaucer is that you have a better chance of prenounsing his work cowretly than sn0 natives, Ata time when no forsigness hethered* 10 eam English, the language was pronounced more oes sit was written, Yor Jost your opportunity. Now that hal the world has to leam it, English is almost impossible to pronounce correctly! Young Geoff Geotiey Chaucer was born in 140 or 18 or IM or Mor 138, ‘What al scholar em to afte on it that he certainly wisp born in 133) Wete et telly sire shen he was bora but if you are bad at ren memeriag dater you shoul Sehemeny defend Chaver ite boing fom 134140) (i you cant smember those dates, go hac to watching foot We know nothing about eat te unt 135 when he was I7.. or ID Anyway, he vas fort ate to reach’ hat indetr- minate age because in 13489 the Black Dea” had swept How many dead horses would you exchange for a poet? ‘across’ Englind and tilled between a third and half the population, In 1381 lucky Geoff gor a job as s page in the royal court. TWo Yeats later Chaucer Went to France to fight (or King Edward ML Chaucer was obviously highly-valuee solder since’, when be wes captured at the siege!" of Rheims, the ig paid £16 ransom" (a lt of money then) fer him. One commentator says that Chaucer's ransom compares favourably with the £6 13 shitings paid in compensation for Lord Andrew Luuera's deud horse! Sex & Violence Back from the wat, Geott may tave studied law A beeen 14615, According to sone reports he was fined inthis period for beating un a Franciscan fia ina London street (presumably hecause he ‘wanted to experience the legal system al fist hand), ving thus" perfected his diplomatic skil6", Geoff war sent off to STMT in engine 10 Navarre and Castle in February 1366 on state business. The same year Chaucer married Pht Pax with whom he subsequently had two sons and two daughters. In the late "60s Chaucer took part in diverse diplomatic missions. In 1369 he was Killing Frenchmen again on another military campaign, Chaucer wrote The Book of the Duchess in 136970 — his first major work. The duchess” in question was Dlasche, duchess of Kent who had died of plague’ in September, Al you need to Know about this poem is that the syle is ‘dream-vision” and itis hheavily influenced by French romances (obvioudy Geoff had done some reading between hates). [n the late 13606 and 137s Geoff hada royal pant ofa Fitcher" of wine day. 1's not suprising he did tle writing inthis period In 13723 Geoll was in Taly on diplo- matic missions to Florence and Genoa, Some commentators suggest that he met Petrarch and Boccaccio while™ in Forenee, Thatscems about aslikely as an Eihiopean cipiomat visting the United Nations meeting up with Woody Alien and ‘Al Pacino in New York come on! In 134 hhe was. given the cushy” job as CComptoller of the. Wool Custom” in London (free house, good salary and tos ‘of kickbacks"). Knowing good thing Wien he saw it, he stayed inthis job for Twelve years, However, t was during this period that Geoff was secused of raping rl called Cecile Chaumpaigne. Some authorities sugpest that the fai that Cecile dropped the charges is proof that Geof was innocent, However, he had to poy hes fan undisclosed amount” of money to de so. In our unforgiving mein worldwhen 8 pop star pays someone ‘i 10 press charges of iadecent asault we don't aulomatically assume eS innocest, dospite that litle episods, Geoff was bck in 8S with Troflus & Criseyde — ‘mother poaderiag” ofthe nature of trve love (ask Cecile, Geoff). If you are latking to someone who Seems toknOW & hie shout The Canterbury Tales (like, they've seen Passoinis film) youshould strongly argue that Tov and Cri Cris. that Trott isin fact, Chauce’s ‘most mportant work. 11386 Chaucer went t ive in Kent and wae elected to Parliament (05 Knight of the Shires of Keot). Bis political career lstod™ loss than 9 year tnd then things started to go wrong (asi living in Kent wasnt bad saouph!). fn 1887 Philippa died, Ln 888 we know that Sir Geoft was being prosecuted for a number of debts. The same year lots of his mates” were executed by the apily famed Merciless Parliament”. Extraordinary it was around this time ‘hat Chaueer started The Canterbury Tales. His most famous work does not show any of the bitterness that Geoffrey ‘must have been feeling at this tme and ‘re can only newume that weting it wad a Gathartic escape for him from his Fortunately, King Richard I got back sn control the next yesr ang mide Gott responsible forthe maintenance of royal busldigs in London, However, while this job stabilised his finances it was not a Aappy one. Before giving it up im 1391 he Was robbed twice and beaten up ‘nce. In June that year he managed 10 et the job of assistant forester to the toate a xe ho theme hat a an “icy” ‘find remedies ‘el eer caer cre pen ‘atloe thet hat, ven hata 0 hence See een ee tema pat i si thdcgntonrs {Btn bd pesoaly cety kings park at North Petherton (sounds exciting, doesnt it?). But before you Imagine Geoff prunio® tres there is no evidence that he ever crossed Enghnd {North Petherton isin Somerset in the Southwest). He was probably just given the job to jusify = royal pension in Ssemi-retirement in Keat. In 1399 Chawer moved back to London on a royal pension and he died conveniently in 1490 in Westminster. Chaucer in Context Chaucer lived in a Tong-gone age wher English people learned foreign languages Geoff spoke Latin, “per —nge oties1FDue ERMC tm nt ie ht on ‘ea ‘Tac thc nt Chace wt a he Visite Vos: However, Pett wis mc asa eres eee Sap EE Ranma ese Becerra Seer tie nat Supseee ca eee Soo gee ser pron pre Eicon STN in engin 19 Ualian and French He and his eonterporaries were also Europeans tem much greater degree than English writers in the subsequent sixcentures, (Chaucer was heavily influenced bythe Classica literary tradition as well as ‘eontemporary French and Italian writing, Several of the stories from The Canterbury Tales were taken fiom Petrarch and Byecacsio. But Chaucer cannot be dismissed” as a mere imitator, Boccaccio i interested in the story, the teller” is 20 important. By contrast, Chaacer'st- fies are a vehicle to reveal the tele fersonalitics, Each sory in The interbury Taler could ony be told hy the peeson who tells IL The Canterbury Talsis a poetic analysis of comtemporary English society bused ‘2 24 men and women from different rata’, Chaucers understindiag of thumsan narure rivals Shakespeare’. His fther great contiibutions were his story-telling and his humour. and he is prepaced to laugh st almost anything — flac himell™ Chaucer's Enguistic conribation was that he wrote ia English whon most ether court writers used Latin or Parisian reach, His work accelerated the rise” of [English 4 the language of literature in ‘England, So, you relly want to ietate English people you can point out that Chaucer's sumame® is French (Irom ‘hausser meaning "shoemaker") apd he land his contemporaries probably. pro- ‘nounced fouseit! (“show-sayt”) ete, eeare tell ed Sicpp. sation ‘tere amon Pe most ‘ar 2) pins soa cone “gt o) opened, ign Sheep he “met eects ao retna pete my srg gone tba nape may yes 0 ‘elas (none sone) aes ps onan ‘er = i comen try petson who ‘etic _ ‘bat rl it) evel colon ie TEER fr a, Chat se ety “haat wort aor” hich ne of [eva tha teleost econ sine) cen dine, pe ‘paint eton comment Ty