2. Geoffrey Chaucer
• Geoffrey Chaucer was born
in London c. 1343 into a
prosperous wine merchant
family.
• At the age of 16, he took
part in a military expedition
to France, a part of the
Hundred Years' War.
• He was held
prisoner, captured by the
French.
• The English king and
Chaucer's friends paid the
http://telasiado.suite101.com/geoffrey-chaucer-brief-bio-and-works-a131372

3. Geoffrey Chaucer
• In his late 20s, between 1370 and
1387, Chaucer was sent on diplomatic
missions throughout Europe.
• For this, he gained status and wealth having
been granted privileges and incomes by the
king.
• This was also the period of his greatest
creativity as he produced most of his best
poetry.

4. Chaucer's Earlier Works of Poetry
• During his first trip to Europe, he
encountered French Romance
literature. It prompted him to
translate Romaunt of the Rose.
• He wrote The Book of the
Duchess and later, The House of
Fame.
• Before The Canterbury Tales, his
best-known work was Troilus and
Cressida, a long poem based on a
love story told by the Italian
writer Giovanni Boccaccio.

5. Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales
• Chaucer did not begin The
Canterbury Tales, regarded
his greatest work, until he
was in his early 40s. It was
left unfinished when he
died. The Canterbury
Tales is made up of 24
stories told by a group of
pilgrims on their way to
Canterbury Cathedral.

6. Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales
• The rhyming verse is written in
what is called "Middle English." It
is an old form of the language
very different from the English
used today.
• The stories are
thoughtful, humorous, sometime
s rude and moralizing. Many of
them were told by other writers
of the time.
• Chaucer's versions have been
enjoyed for centuries because of
the lasting beauty of his poetry
and the colorful depictions of his
characters.

7. Geoffrey Chaucer
• Geoffrey Chaucer, although
considered the greatest of
English Medieval poets, was
greatly influenced by
contemporaneous French
and Italian writers.
• His poems are remarkable
for their narrative
sense, humor, and the
strength characterization.
• He died on October
25, 1400, at the age of c. 57.

8. Works by Geoffrey Chaucer
• The Book of the Duchess, c. 1369
• The House of Fame, c. 1374-85
• The Parliament of Fowls, c. 1380
• Anelida and Arcite, c. 1380
• Palamon, 1380-1386
• Troilus and Cressida, c. 1385
• The Canterbury Tales, c. 1386 onwards
• The Legend of Good Women, c. 1387-94
• Treatise on the Astrolabe

9. Language in The Canterbury Tales
• The Canterbury Tales is written in Middle
English, which bears a close visual resemblance to the
English written and spoken today. In contrast, Old
English (the language of Beowulf, for example) can be
read only in modern translation or by students of Old
English.
• Students often read The Canterbury Tales in its original
language, not only because of the similarity between
Chaucer’s Middle English and our own, but because the
beauty and humor of the poetry—all of its internal and
external rhymes, and the sounds it produces—would
be lost in translation.

10. Language in The Canterbury Tales
• The best way for a beginner to approach Middle English is to
read it out loud. When the words are pronounced, it is often
much easier to recognize what they mean in modern English.
• Most Middle English editions of the poem include a short
pronunciation guide, which can help the reader to understand
the language better.
• For particularly difficult words or phrases, most editions also
include notes in the margin giving the modern versions of the
words, along with a full glossary in the back. Several online
Chaucer glossaries exist, as well as a number of printed
lexicons of Middle English.