Geoffrey Chauucer Research Paper

Geoffrey Chaucer is by far one of the most influential english writers to have ever graced our world’s presence, so influential in fact, that he is known as the Father of English Literature. He was the greatest English poet of the middle ages, bar none, that being said his place in the Poet’s Corner of Westminster Abbey is well deserved. Not only was he an accomplished writer and poet he was also competent in the fields of astronomy, alchemy, and philosophy. As if that wasn’t enough Chaucer was an accomplished diplomat, bureaucrat, and courtier. We have Chaucer to thank for english as we know it today as he was a crucial figure in developing middle english, the vernacular at the time. Nearly every other contemporary of his time was writing

They would have about three or four children as nobody is really certain. Sources suggest that he would then study law it the Inner Temple. He then became a member of the royal court of Edward III as his Valet de Chambre which was essentially a secretary but was a very prestigious job, it sometimes meant that he was the king’s right-hand man. During this time he would write The Book of the Duchess was written in honor of the late wife of John Gaunt, Blanche of Lancaster. Geoffrey then allegedly went on another military excursion in hopes of seeking out a french wife for future king, King Richard II, effectively ending the One-hundred Years War, if this reigns true then it is quite apparent that he failed as no marriage was ever held between the two factions. Chaucer would then be sent out by Richard II as an envoy, in secret, to the Visconti and to Sir John Hawkwood, who may have been the basis of Chaucer’s Knight in The Canterbury Tales. A clear sign that Chaucer had already been writing great poems or other works was the fact that he was granted a gallon of wine a day for the rest of his life from King Edward III for a

The Book of the Duchess is looked at as the first of Chaucer’s major works. It is quite a long poem which was an elegy for Blanche of Lancaster and was most likely commissioned by her husband after her death. Chaucer was paid ten pounds for the work which described a poet suffering from a bit of insomnia. He reads a book of Ceyx and Alcyone and wishes there was a god like Juno or Morpheus so that he may sleep in bliss, lost in his thoughts he falls asleep. He has a wonderful dream where a knight describes the love of his life and how her beauty was above and beyond all the other women in the world. He declares that he played a game of chess with Fortuna and lost. The dreamer takes this literally and tells him not to be upset. The knight finally bursts out at his incompetence and exclaims that his love is dead. The story finally clicks in the poet’s head as he wakes up and says that this beautiful story must be written in a poem. This story, while hard to understand without a translation to modern english, is a wonderfully bitter-sweet story of love and loss. To carry on rhyme for over one thousand lines is no small feat in and of itself. The Canterbury Tales is another of Chaucer’s best and is by far his most ambitious project that was unfortunately, never finished. The prologue states that there are thirty pilgrims who travel to Canterbury and each