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:
“mine housbondes tolde me,
I hadde the beste quoniam mighte be.”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)
“Madame Pertelote, my worldes bliss,
Harkneth these blissful birdes how they sing,
And see the freshe flowers how they spring;
Full is mine heart of revel and solace!’
But suddenly him fell a sorrowful case,
For ever the latter end of joy is woe.”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)
“We all desiren, if it mighte be,
To han husbandes hardy, wise, and free,
And secret, and no niggard, ne no fool,
Ne him that is aghast of every tool,
Ne none avaunter, by that God above!”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)
“th’Apostle saith that I am free
To wedde, a Goddes half, where it liketh me.
He saide that to be wedded is no sinne:
Bet is to be wedded than to brinne.”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)
“‘Teehee,’ quod she, and clapte the windowe to.
And Absolon gooth forth a sory pas.
‘A beerd, a beerd!’ quod hende Nicholas,
‘By Goddes corpus, this gooth faire and weel.’”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)