During an attack on Rheims, Chaucer was taken prisoner, but released after a ransom was paid, in part by the King himself.īy 1367, he had entered royal service under the patronage of the King’s son, the powerful John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. Still in his teens, he fought in Edward III’s army in France. As a young teenager he was taken into an aristocratic household. Finally, he blended French, Italian and classical influences into a truly English style in two great works: Troilus and Criseyde and the Canterbury Tales.Ĭontinuous publication of the Canterbury Tales since Chaucer’s death, and the inspiration it has provided for other writers and artists, are testimony to the enduring appeal of his characters and their stories: proof that people’s hopes and fears – and the English sense of humour – are little changed by six centuries of history.Ĭhaucer was born in London, around 1345, into a well-connected family of wine merchants. Later, Chaucer’s writing picked up an Italian flavour through his diplomatic visits there. His first works are either translations of French originals or much influenced by them. Even by Chaucer’s day, the royal court was still bilingual.Ĭhaucer had travelled in Spain and Italy, and was influenced by contemporary European literature as well as the Latin and Greek classics. Earlier Anglo-Saxon poetry, such as Beowulf, had been succeeded by a taste for French literature, in large part the result of England being ruled by Norman French kings after the Conquest of 1066. The popularity of the Canterbury Tales may well be due to the fact that they were written in Middle English, as opposed to French, Italian or Latin. This suggests that the tales were enormously popular in medieval England. No text in Chaucer’s own hand still exists, but a surprising number of copies survive from the 1500s – more than 80. Their order varies in different surviving copies, the Hengwrt manuscript being valued most for its accuracy. Chaucer’s original plan was for over 100 stories, but only 24 were completed, some of which had already been written for earlier works. Taken together, the tales offer a fascinating insight into English life during the late 14th century.Ĭhaucer began the tales in 1387 and continued working on them until his death in 1400. The tone of their tales ranges from pious to comic, with humour veering between erudite wit and good honest vulgarity. Chaucer mixes satire and realism in lively characterisations of his pilgrims. This literary device gives Chaucer the opportunity to paint a series of vivid word portraits of a cross section of his society, from a knight and prioress, to a carpenter and cook a much-married wife of Bath, to a bawdy miller – an occupation regarded in Chaucer’s day as shifty and dishonest. The best storyteller is to be rewarded with a free supper on their return. The host at the inn suggests each pilgrim tell two tales on the way out and two on the way home to help while away their time on the road. Chaucer’s long poem follows the journey of a group of pilgrims, 31 including Chaucer himself, from the Tabard Inn in Southwark to St Thomas à Becket’s shrine at Canterbury Cathedral.
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