Geoffrey Chaucer
(1340?–1400)
Today Chaucer is acclaimed not only as the father of poetry in England but also as the father of fiction in England—in short, as the father of English literature. In addition, we are indebted to him for the most vivid contemporary description of fourteenth-century England.
Chaucer was a man of affairs as well as a man of letters, and his development as the one was closely paralleled by his development as the other. Born into a family that belonged to the rising middle class, he obtained through his father, a successful wine merchant, a position as page in a household closely associated with the court of King Edward III. His mastery of Latin, French, and Italian, in addition to equipping him for diplomatic and civil service, also enabled him to translate literary works in all three languages, an important factor in his development as a writer.
A court favorite, Chaucer rose quickly in the world. Before he was twenty he served as a soldier in France and, upon being captured, was ransomed by his king. Thereafter, throughout his life, he served his country loyally—as courtier, diplomat, civil administrator, and translator. Entrusted with important and delicate diplomatic missions, he traveled on several occasions to France and Italy, and his journeys abroad played an important role in his literary and intellectual development. Subsequently, he served as Comptroller of Customs for the Port of London; Member of Parliament; Justice of the Peace; Clerk of the Works at Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London, and elsewhere; and finally as a sub-forester of one of the king's forests. He was, in fact, a highly valued public servant and was fortunate to enjoy for most of his life the patronage of the influential John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster and uncle of King Richard II. During his long public career, he became acquainted with the most important men of his day—diplomats and rulers as well as writers. At his death, his reputation as a man of affairs and his genius as a poet were well established. Today, in the history of English literature, Chaucer's name stands second only to that of Shakespeare.
One of Chaucer's most important contributions to English literature is his development of the resources of the English language for literary purposes. England's Norman rulers had introduced French to England, and this language had displaced English for literary purposes, especially in the upper classes. By Chaucer's day, English was coming into upper-class use again, although French was still spoken in court circles and by the aristocracy. Church Latin was used in the monasteries, the centers of learning, and was still at the command of the educated. Although earlier poets had written in English, there was very little skillful or accomplished English literature. When he began to write, therefore, Chaucer had to proceed by trial and error, taking his models at first from French and Italian sources and feeling his way toward a full use of his native tongue. Chaucer himself spoke late Middle English, the London speech of his day. By using this language instead of the more fashionable French for his poetry, he added tremendously to its prestige and set an example that was followed thereafter.
As a writer, Chaucer was extremely prolific. In his early short lyrics and longer works such as
The Book of the Duchess, we see the influence of the French poetry of his day. Later, in works such as
Parliament of Fowls and
Troilus and Criseyde, his writing reflected the influence of the Italian masters Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio. By 1386, when he began
The Canterbury Tales, his most ambitious work, he had become master of his craft.
