Geoffrey Chaucer (biography and main works)

1.

Geoffrey Chaucer
(biography and main works)

2.

Geoffrey Chaucer
Chaucer was the first great poet writing in English,
whose best-known work is 'The Canterbury Tales'.
Geoffrey Chaucer was born between 1340 and 1345
in London. His father was a prosperous wine
merchant. We do not know any details of his early
life and education.
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Chaucer started serving as a page for
Elizabeth, Countess of Ulster (wife of Edward
III's son.) He served as attendant, messenger
and entertainer as well. It is probably the
period in which he started to think of himself
as a poet. The Countess was French so it is
commonly believed that works by French
poets were available and may have provided
an inspiration for the poet's earliest poems:
The Book of the Duchess and The Parlement
of Foules (The Parliament of Birds.)
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Chaucer reading his poetry to the
English court.

4.

Chaucer took part in military expeditions in France and was captured by the
French in 1359. The king paid his ransom. Then Edward III sent him on
various diplomatic missions to France and Italy (Genoa and Florence.)
During these missions he was probably exposed to the works of Froissart,
Dante, Boccaccio and Petrarch.
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Froissart's statue in
the Louvre
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Dante Alighieri
Giovanni Boccaccio
Statue of Petrarch
on the Uffizi Palace,
in Florence

5.

From his marriage with Philippa Roet (circa 1366), the queen's
lady-in-waiting, he had four children. He then got related to the
king's fourth son when Philippa's sister married John of Gaunt,
Chaucer's patron.
From 1374 to 1386 Chaucer held various public offices: comptroller
of London customs, member of parliament for Kent, justice of the
peace. In 1389 while working as clerk of the king's works he
oversaw royal building projects. He served in various royal posts
both under Edward III and Richard II.
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10

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Illuminated manuscript of the
prologue to 'The Canterbury Tales'
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Chaucer's first major work was 'The Book
of the Duchess', an elegy for the first wife
of his patron John of Gaunt. Other works
include 'Parlement of Foules', 'The
Legend of Good Women' and 'Troilus and
Criseyde'. In 1387, he began his most
famous work, 'The Canterbury Tales', in
which a diverse group of people recount
stories to pass the time on a pilgrimage to
Canterbury.
Chaucer died in 1400. He was the first
poet to be buried in what is now known
as the Poet's corner in Westminster Abbey
because of the high number of poets,
playwrights and writers commemorated
there.

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