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.
Read more about Geoffrey Chaucer: Life, Works, Popular Culture
Famous quotes by geoffrey chaucer:
“‘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)
“‘Myn owene trewe wif,
Do as thee lust the terme of al thy lif;
Keep thyn honour, and keep eek myn estat,’
After that day we hadde nevere debat.”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)
“She was a worthy womman al hir lyve:
Housbondes at chirche dore she hadde fyve,
Withouten oother compaignye in youthe,
But thereof nedeth nat to speke as nowthe.”
—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)
“when I see the beauty of your face,
Ye been so scarlet red about your eyen,
It maketh all my dreade for to dyen;”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)