Geoffrey Chaucer ( /ˈtʃɔːsər/; c. 1343 – 25 October 1400), known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages and was the first poet to have been buried in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey. While he achieved fame during his lifetime as an author, philosopher, alchemist and astronomer, composing a scientific treatise on the astrolabe for his ten year-old son Lewis, 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 known 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.
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Famous quotes by geoffrey chaucer:
“And thou shalt kisse the relikes everychon,
Ye, for a grote! Unbokele anon thy purs.’”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)
“But, though myself be gilty in that sinne,
Yet can I maken other folk to twinne
From avaryce, and sore to repente.”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)
“Ye knowe eek, that in forme of speche is chaunge
Withinne a thousand yeer, and wordes tho
That hadden prys, now wonder nyce and straunge
Us thinketh hem; and yet they spake hem so,
And spedde as wel in love as men now do;
Eek for to winne love in sondry ages,
In sondry londes, sondry ben usages.”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340–1400)
“I have swich love-longinge,
That lik a turtle trewe is my moorninge:
I may nat ete namore than a maide.’”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)
“And I was yong and ful of ragerye,
Stibourne and strong and joly as a pie:
How coude I daunce to an harpe smale,
And singe, ywis, as any nightingale,
Whan I hadde dronke a draughte of sweete win.”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)