Geoffrey Chaucer And His Works Essay Research

Geoffrey Chaucer And His Works Essay, Research Paper

Known as the Father of the English Language, Geoffrey Chaucer, after six centuries, has retained his status as one of the three or four greatest English poets. Throughout his assiduous life as a courtier and civil servant under the royalty of Edward III and Richard II, Chaucer has written many famous pieces that are still admired and praise today. His life serving royalty in which he undertook multiply positions that allowed him to engage with various people of difference statuses has greatly swayed his writings. Furthermore, Chaucer himself and the success of this works have placed great influence on the English language.

Geoffrey Chaucer was born in Vintry Ward, London around 1343.1 He was the son of Agnes de Copton and John Chaucer, a prosperous wine merchant. The name, from chaussier (French term for shoes), indicates ancestors who were shoemakers.2 In 1357, when he was approximately 14 years old, he was old enough to enroll as a page in a noble household- the household of King Edward’s son Prince Lionel and his wife Elizabeth. This is known from an entry in Countess Elizabeth’s household account book, which records the purchase of a suit of clothes for Geoffrey Chaucer, including a pair of red and black hose and a pair of shoes. 1 This being his first connection with royalty, he was trained to be a civil servant and a diplomat; at the same time he leant the ways of the court and the use of arms.2 Those days must have been lively days for the young page, for old records show that the countess and her household were constantly on the move from one palace or great mansion to another. 1 Two years later Chaucer was with a European army that Edward III led into France during the Hundred Years’ War. He was taken prisoner by the French but was soon ransomed by the king for a sum equivalent to about U.S. $2,400 in 1360. 3

Of his next seven years, nothing definite is known; but there is reason to believe that he may have been studying law in London.1 It is believed that from this time forward, Chaucer began accumulating information and details through his experience for his later work the Canterbury Tales .

By 1367, he was a member of the royal household with the rank of yeoman and later of squire, with a regular pension, or salary.1 He also had a wife, Philippa, the daughter of Sir Poan Roet of Hainauut and sister of John of Gaunt s third wife; she was a member of the queen’s household.3 Thus, some time in his 20s, Chaucer was launched on the official career that he followed for the remainder of his lifetime.

For the next 30 years, or thereabouts, Chaucer traveled aboard on numerous diplomatic missions because of his training in diplomacy and he also held a number of positions at court and in the king s service. He served two kings, Edward III and Richard II, in important offices and diplomatic missions abroad.3 Between 1370 and 1378, he was sent on seven missions to France, Flanders, and Italy. From 1374 to 1386, he was controller of the customs in London.1 In 1385, he was appointed justice of the peace, and in 1386, in addition to his one term position in Parliament, he was made knight of the shire of Kent.1 From 1389 to 1391 came a succession of responsible posts. He was clerk of the king’s works, in charge of Westminster Palace, the Tower of London, and other palaces and manors. He was given a commission to survey the roads, bridges, and ditches along the Thames near London, and he was put in charge of repairs to St. George’s Chapel at Windsor.3 A less demanding post fell to him in 1391, when he was made sub-forester of one of the king’s parks.1 He may have held this position until his death.

During the 12 years that Chaucer was controller of the customs (1374-86), he and his wife lived in a house built on the city wall above the gate called Aldgate. His wife died in 1387.3 Nothing is known about where Chaucer lived after this tragedy until December 1399, when he leased a house in the garden of Westminster Abbey in London.3 October 25 1400, Geoffrey Chaucer died and was buried where he had spent his last year of life. It was there in later years that other men of letters were buried near him, and gave recognition to this part of the Abbey as the Poets’ Corner.4

Soldier, diplomat, justice of the peace, Member of Parliament, and man of affairs, Chaucer lived a full and busy life. Born soon after the beginning of the Hundred Years’ War, he lived through the terrible years of the Black Death, through John Wycliffe’s dramatic challenge to the established church, through the Peasant’s Revolt of 1381, and through the deposition of Richard II. Geoffrey Chaucer lived to the age 57.

With his association with the royal family, from boyhood to his death, Chaucer s multiple positions probably caused him to be fascinated with people s characters, to have knowledge of English lifestyle and to develop the irony in his works. His life, which has greatly influenced his ideas in his works, in addition to his love for poetry, gave him a title as one of greatest poet every known.

London was then a rural city. Garden, orchard, and meadow were in sight of Chaucer’s window; moor, heath, and forest were within easy walking distance. As a boy, he skated across the frozen ponds, but shared with most others a dislike of the cold; and, though responsive to the beauty of stars on a f