Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer Often called the “Father of English Poetry” He made English respectable Ordinary people in Chaucer’s England spoke the Anglo-Norman combination known as Middle English—a language that became the ancestor to Modern English At the time, literature, science, religion, and policy was writing in Latin and French

Geoffrey Chaucer Not fashionable for serious poets to write in English because people thought that the English language could not convey the nuances and complexities of serious literature He was composed the vernacular of the time Vernacular—the everyday language spoken in London

Geoffrey Chaucer Chaucer lent respectability to the English language He was a government official who served under three kings He was like a prominent adviser to the United States president

Chaucer’s Influence Chaucer traveled to Italy where he was influenced by the poems of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio Connection between Boccaccio’s Decameron and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales Both include a framing device where the characters tell their stories and are based on similar plots

The Canterbury Tales Religious pilgrimage during which each traveler tells a story Pilgrimage—religious journey made to a shrine or holy place Pilgrims are from a cross section of stations or stages of life Travel on horseback to the shrine of Sir Thomas Becket at Canterbury

The Canterbury Tales Starts with a General Prologue Establishes time of year for pilgrimage The journey of the pilgrimage Narrator meets 29 other pilgrims at an inn on their journey to Becket’s shrine Innkeeper suggests that the pilgrims tell tales on the journey to pass the time Prologue concise picture of a nation representing all walks of life at that time