GEOFFREY CHAUCER

INFOGRAPHIC

Geoffrey Chaucer

Chaucer's life

He was born about 1343. His father was a rich wine merchant. He received an excellent education and found employement in the house of John of Gaunt. He worked as a controller of the customs for the port of London and took part in important diplomatic missions. He died in 1400 and was the first poet to be buried in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey.

THE FATHER OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

Chaucer was the first English poets to be known by name. His language, the dialect of his native London, gradually became standard English, thus becoming the basis of Modern English. In his masterpiece The Canterbury Tales, he was able to give a portrait of the English society of his time.

INFOGRAPHIC

chaucer's three periods

THE FRENCH PERIOD: poems modelled on French romance styles and subjects, includes The Romaunt of the Rose and The Book of the Duchess.

THE ITALIAN PERIOD: a greater maturity of perception and skill in the manipulation of the metres. Influenced by Boccaccio.

THE ENGLISH PERIOD: marked by greater realism, includes his masterpiece The Canterbury Tales.

THE CANTERBURY TALES

It's a narrative poem told in verse. It contains a variety of narrative elements: the setting in time and place, the description of characters, the use of a narrator. It has links with the moral views of the time. It gives insight into individual characters as regards their lifestyles, their psychology and their experiences.