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 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)
“Men may divine and glosen up and down,
But wel I woot, expres, withouten lie,
God bad us for to wexe and multiplye:
That gentil text can I wel understonde.”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)
“A frere ther was, a wantowne and a merye,
A lymytour, a ful solempne man.
In alle the ordres foure is noon that kan
So muchel of daliaunce and fair langage.
He hadde maad ful many a mariage
Of yonge wommen at his owene cost.
Unto his ordre he was a noble post.”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)
“Hold the high way and let they ghost thee lead
And Truthe shall deliver, it is no dread.”
—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)