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)
“A good man was ther of religioun,
And was a poure persoun of a toun,
But riche he was of hooly thoght and werk.
He was also a lerned man, a clerk,
That Cristes gospel trewely wolde preche.
His parisshens devoutly wolde he teche.”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)
“So that the clerkes be nat with me wrothe,
I saye this, that they been maad for bothe—
That is to sayn, for office and for ese
Of engendrure, ther we nat God displese.”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)
“I wolde no lenger in the bed abide
If that I felte his arm over my side,
Til he hadde maad his raunson unto me;
Thanne wolde I suffre him do his nicetee.
And therfore every man this tale I telle:
Winne whoso may, for al is for to selle;
With empty hand men may no hawkes lure.”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)
“Povert ful ofte, whan a man is lowe,
Maketh his God and eek himself to knowe.
Povert a spectacle is, as thinketh me,
Thurgh which he may his verray frendes see.”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)