Geoffrey Chaucer
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"And yet, I say, Chaucer is not one of the great classics. He has not their accent. What is wanting to him is suggested by the mere mention of the name of the first great classic of Christendom, the immortal poet who died eighty years before Chaucer, — Dante. The accent of such verse as is altogether beyond Chaucer's reach ; we praise him, but we feel that this accent is out of the question for him."--Essays in Criticism (1865, 1888) by Matthew Arnold "A voice from the slums of Paris, [...], the voice of poor Villon out of his life of riot and crime, has at its happy moments (as, for instance, in the last stanza of La Belle Heaulmière) more of this important poetic virtue of seriousness than all the productions of Chaucer."--Essays in Criticism (1865, 1888) by Matthew Arnold |
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Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343 – 1400) was an English poet of the Middle Ages. While he achieved fame during his lifetime as an author, philosopher, alchemist and astronomer, Chaucer also maintained an active career in the civil service as a bureaucrat, courtier and diplomat.
Among his many works, which include The Book of the Duchess, the House of Fame, the Legend of Good Women and Troilus and Criseyde, he is best loved today for The Canterbury Tales.
Chaucer is a crucial figure in developing the legitimacy of the vernacular, Middle English, at a time when the dominant literary languages in England were French and Latin.
Major works
- Translation of Roman de la Rose, possibly extant as The Romaunt of the Rose
- The Book of the Duchess
- The House of Fame
- Anelida and Arcite
- Parlement of Foules
- Translation of Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy as Boece
- Troilus and Criseyde
- The Legend of Good Women
- The Canterbury Tales
- Treatise on the Astrolabe
