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:
“A gentil maunciple was ther of a temple,
Of which achatours myghte take exemple
For to be wise in byynge of vitaille.”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)
“Heaven froze above, severe; the clouds congeal,
And through the crystal vault appeared the standing hail.”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)
“Ther nis no werkman, whatsoevere he be,
That may bothe werke wel and hastily.”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340–1400)
“‘O blissful God, that art so just and true,
Lo, how that thou bewrayest murder alway!
Murder will out, that see we day by day.
Murder is so wlatsom and abominable”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)
“There was also a Nonne, a prioresse,
That of hir smylyng was ful symple and coy;
Hire gretteste ooth was but by Seint Loy.
And she was cleped madame Eglentyne.”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)