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Geoffrey Chaucer. The Father of English Poetry 1343-1400. Geoffrey Chaucer -- c. 1343-1400 Middle Ages – 1066-1485. Father of English Poetry: Wrote in Middle English not Latin or French. Middle English is the vernacular of the time. Born into middle class…father was a wine merchant
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Geoffrey Chaucer The Father of English Poetry 1343-1400
Father of English Poetry: • Wrote in Middle English not Latin or French. • Middle English is the vernacular of the time. • Born into middle class…father was a wine merchant • Became a page for wealthy family, had some legal training. • Government career. Sent to Europe as the King’s ambassador. • Wrote and held a job. • Italian connection. • Style of writing.
Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343-1400) • Father of English poetry… made English respectable • Government worker – important person, and eventually a member of Parliament • His job took precedence over his poetry • Loyal to the Crown (1374 – granted a DAILY pitcher of wine!) • Began writing The Canterbury Tales in 1387
The Canterbury Tales • Written in iambic pentameter (unstressed syllable – stressed syllable x5) • Gives a snapshot of an entire country at the time in which it was written • Describes people (“pilgrims”) from EVERY station in life
The Canterbury Tales • Frame Story Structure – sets up at “outer story” in the Prologue that unites each of the following 29 pilgrims’ stories • Setting? April; outside London in Southwark (55 miles away from Canterbury) at The Tabard (Inn/Tavern) • Everyone is on a pilgrimage to Canterbury to see the shrine of St. Thomas a Becket (the martyr killed in his own cathedral by the King’s knights) • Reasons for a pilgrimage? A pilgrimage is a long journey or search of great moral significance. Sometimes, it is a journey to a shrine of importance in a person's beliefs and faith.
