1、Geoffrey Chaucer From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaGeoffrey Chaucer (pronounced /tsr/; c. 1343 25 October 1400) was an English author, poet, philosopher, bureaucrat, courtier and diplomat. Although he wrote many works, he is best remembered for his unfinished frame narrative The Canterbury Tales.
2、 Sometimes called the father of English literature, Chaucer is credited by some scholars as the first author to demonstrate the artistic legitimacy of the vernacular English language, rather than French or Latin. Life Chaucer was born circa 1343 in London, though the exact date and location of his b
3、irth are not known. His father and grandfather were both London vintners and before that, for several generations, the family members were merchants in Ipswich. His name is derived from the French chausseur, meaning shoemaker.1In 1324 John Chaucer, Geoffreys father, was kidnapped by an aunt in the h
4、ope of marrying the twelve-year-old boy to her daughter in an attempt to keep property in Ipswich. The aunt was imprisoned and the 250 fine levied suggests that the family was financially secure, upper middle-class, if not in the elite.2John married Agnes Copton, who, in 1349, inherited properties i
5、ncluding Geoffrey ChaucerPortrait of Chaucer from the 17th century.Born c. 1343 Died 25 October 1400 (aged 56-57) Occupation Author, poet, philosopher, bureaucrat, diplomatOvid, Giovanni Boccaccio Contents 1 Life 2 Works 3 Influence 3.1 Linguistic 3.2 Literary 3.3 English 4 Critical reception 4.1 Ea
6、rly criticism 4.2 Manuscripts and audience 4.3 Printed editions 4.4 Modern scholarship 5 Popular culture 6 Works 6.1 Major works 6.2 Short poems 6.3 Poems of dubious authorship 6.4 Presumedly lost works 6.5 Spurious works 6.6 Derived works 7 See also 8 Notes 9 References 10 External links Influences
7、页码，1/14(W)w2010-11-01file:/E:5GRE, TOEFLBackgroundREADINGGeoffrey Chaucer - Wikipedia, the fr.24 shops in London from her uncle, Hamo de Copton, who is described as the “moneyer“ at the Tower of London. There are few details of Chaucers early life and education but compared with near contemporary po
8、ets, William Langland and the Pearl Poet, his life is well documented, with nearly five hundred written items testifying to his career. The first time he is mentioned is in 1357, in the household accounts of Elizabeth de Burgh, the Countess of Ulster, when he became the noblewomans page through his
9、fathers connections.3He also worked as a courtier, a diplomat, and a civil servant, as well as working for the king, collecting and inventorying scrap metal. In 1359, in the early stages of the Hundred Years War, Edward III invaded France and Chaucer travelled with Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Cla
10、rence, Elizabeths husband, as part of the English army. In 1360, he was captured during the siege of Rheims, becoming a prisoner of war. Edward contributed 16 as part of a ransom,4and Chaucer was released.After this, Chaucers life is uncertain, but he seems to have traveled in France, Spain, and Fla
11、nders, possibly as a messenger and perhaps even going on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. Around 1366, Chaucer married Philippa (de) Roet. She was a lady-in-waiting to Edward IIIs queen, Philippa of Hainault, and a sister of Katherine Swynford, who later (ca. 1396) became the third wife of Ch
12、aucers friend and patron, John of Gaunt. It is uncertain how many children Chaucer and Philippa had, but three or four are most commonly cited. His son, Thomas Chaucer, had an illustrious career, as chief butler to four kings, envoy to France, and Speaker of the House of Commons. Thomas daughter, Al
13、ice, married the Duke of Suffolk. Thomas great-grandson (Geoffreys great-great-grandson), John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, was the heir to the throne designated by Richard III before he was deposed. Geoffreys other children probably included Elizabeth Chaucy, a nun at Barking Abbey.56Agnes, an atte
14、ndant at Henry IVs coronation; and another son, Lewis Chaucer.Chaucer may have studied law in the Inner Temple (an Inn of Court) at about this time, although Chaucer as a pilgrim from the Ellesmere manuscript definite proof is lacking. He became a member of the royal court of Edward III as a varlet
15、de chambre, yeoman, or esquire on 20 June 1367, a position which could entail any number of jobs. His wife also received a pension for court employment. He traveled abroad many times, at least some of them in his role as a valet. In 1368, he may have attended the wedding of Lionel of Antwerp to Viol
16、ante, daughter of Galeazzo II Visconti, in Milan. Two other literary stars of the era were in attendance: Jean Froissart and Petrarch. Around this time, Chaucer is believed to have written The Book of the Duchess in honour of Blanche of Lancaster, the late wife of John of Gaunt, who died in 1369. Ch
17、aucer traveled to Picardy the next year as part of a military expedition, and visited Genoa and Florence in 1373. It is speculated that, on this Italian trip, he came into contact with Petrarch or Boccaccio. They introduced him to medieval Italian poetry, the forms and stories of which he would use
18、later.7One other trip he took in 1377 seems shrouded in mystery, with records of the time conflicting in details. Later documents suggest it was a mission, along with Jean Froissart, to arrange a marriage between the future King Richard II and a French princess, thereby ending the Hundred Years War.
19、 If this was the purpose of their trip, they seem to have been unsuccessful, as no wedding occurred. In 1378, Richard II sent Chaucer as an envoy/secret dispatch to the Visconti and to Sir John Hawkwood, English condottiere (mercenary leader) in Milan. It is on the person of Hawkwood that Chaucer ba
20、sed the character of the Knight in the Canterbury Tales, whose description matches that of 页码，2/14(W)w2010-11-01file:/E:5GRE, TOEFLBackgroundREADINGGeoffrey Chaucer - Wikipedia, the fr.a fourteenth-century condottiere. A possible indication that his career as a writer was appreciated came when Edwar
21、d III granted Chaucer “a gallon of wine daily for the rest of his life“ for some unspecified task. This was an unusual grant, but given on a day of celebration, St. Georges Day, 1374, when artistic endeavours were traditionally rewarded, it is assumed to have been another early poetic work. It is no
22、t known which, if any, of Chaucers extant works prompted the reward, but the suggestion of poet to a king places him as a precursor to later poets laureate. Chaucer continued to collect the liquid stipend until Richard II came to power, after which it was converted to a monetary grant on 18 April 13
23、78. Chaucer obtained the very substantial job of Comptroller of the Customs for the port of London, which he began on 8 June 1374.8He must have been suited for the role as he continued in it for twelve years, a long time in such a post at that time. His life goes undocumented for much of the next te
24、n years, but it is believed that he wrote (or began) most of his famous works during this period. He was mentioned in law papers of 4 May 1380, involved in the raptus of Cecilia Chaumpaigne. What raptus means, rape or possibly kidnapping, is unclear, but the incident seems to have been resolved quic
25、kly and did not leave a stain on Chaucers reputation. It is not known if Chaucer was in the city of London at the time of the Peasants Revolt, but if he was, he would have seen its leaders pass almost directly under his apartment window at Aldgate.9While still working as comptroller, Chaucer appears
26、 to have moved to Kent, being appointed as one of the commissioners of peace for Kent, at a time when French invasion was a possibility. He is thought to have started work on The Canterbury Tales in the early 1380s. He also became a Member of Parliament for Kent in 1386. There is no further referenc
27、e after this date to Philippa, Chaucers wife, and she is presumed to have died in 1387. He survived the political upheavals caused by the Lords Appellants, despite the fact that Chaucer knew well some of the men executed over the affair. On 12 July 1389, Chaucer was appointed the clerk of the kings
28、works, a sort of foreman organizing most of the kings building projects.10No major works were begun during his tenure, but he did conduct repairs on Westminster Palace, St. Georges Chapel, Windsor, continue building the wharf at the Tower of London, and build the stands for a tournament held in 1390
29、. It may have been a difficult job, but it paid well: two shillings a day, more than three times his salary as a comptroller. In September 1390, records say that he was robbed, and possibly injured, while conducting the business, and it was shortly after, on 17 June 1391, that he stopped working in
30、this capacity. Almost immediately, on 22 June, he began as deputy forester in the royal forest of North Petherton, Somerset. This was no sinecure, with maintenance an important part of the job, although there were many opportunities to derive profit. He was granted an annual pension of twenty pounds
31、 by Richard II in 1394.11It is believed that Chaucer stopped work on the Canterbury Tales sometime towards the end of this decade. Not long after the overthrow of his patron, Richard II, in 1399, Chaucers name fades from the historical record. The last few records of his life show his pension renewe
32、d by the new king, and his taking of a lease on a residence within the close of Westminster Abbey on December 24, 1399.12A 19th century depiction of Chaucer Although Henry IV renewed the grants assigned to Chaucer by Richard, Chaucers own The Complaint of Chaucer to his Purse hints that the grants m
33、ight not have been paid. The last mention of Chaucer is on 5 June 1400, when some monies owed to him were paid. He is believed to have died of unknown causes on 25 October 1400, but there is no firm evidence for this date, as it comes from the engraving on his tomb, erected more than one hundred yea
34、rs after his 页码，3/14(W)w2010-11-01file:/E:5GRE, TOEFLBackgroundREADINGGeoffrey Chaucer - Wikipedia, the fr.death. There is some speculationmost recently in Terry Jones book Who Murdered Chaucer? : A Medieval Mysterythat he was murdered by enemies of Richard II or even on the orders of his successor
35、Henry IV, but the case is entirely circumstantial. Chaucer was buried in Westminster Abbeyin London, as was his right owing to his status as a tenant of the Abbeys close. In 1556, his remains were transferred to a more ornate tomb, making Chaucer the first writer interred in the area now known as Po
36、ets Corner. Works Chaucers first major work, The Book of the Duchess, was an elegy for Blanche of Lancaster (who died in 1369). It is possible that this work was commissioned by her husband John of Gaunt, as he granted Chaucer a 10 annuity on 13 June 1374. This would seem to place the writing of The
37、 Book of the Duchess between the years 1369 and 1374. Two other early works by Chaucer were Anelida and Arcite and The House of Fame. Chaucer wrote many of his major works in a prolific period when he held the job of customs comptroller for London (1374 to 1386). His Parlement of Foules, The Legend
38、of Good Women and Troilus and Criseyde all date from this time. Also it is believed that he started work on The Canterbury Tales in the early 1380s. Chaucer is best known as the writer of The Canterbury Tales, which is a collection of stories told by fictional pilgrims on the road to the cathedral a
39、t Canterbury; these tales would help to shape English literature. The Canterbury Tales contrasts with other literature of the period in the naturalism of its narrative, the variety of stories the pilgrims tell and the varied characters who are engaged in the pilgrimage. Many of the stories narrated
40、by the pilgrims seem to fit their individual characters and social standing, although some of the stories seem ill-fitting to their narrators, perhaps as a result of the incomplete state of the work. Chaucer drew on real life for his cast of pilgrims: the innkeeper shares the name of a contemporary
41、keeper of an inn in Southwark, and real-life identities for the Wife of Bath, the Merchant, the Man of Law and the Student have been suggested. The many jobs that Chaucer held in medieval societypage, soldier, messenger, valet, bureaucrat, foreman and administratorprobably exposed him to many of the
42、 types of people he depicted in the Tales. He was able to shape their speech and satirize their manners in what was to become popular literature among people of the same types. Chaucers works are sometimes grouped into first a French period, then an Italian period and finally an English period, with
43、 Chaucer being influenced by those countries literatures in turn. Certainly Troilus and Criseyde is a middle period work with its reliance on the forms of Italian poetry, little known in England at the time, but to which Chaucer was probably exposed during his frequent trips abroad on court business
44、. In addition, its use of a classical subject and its elaborate, courtly language sets it apart as one of his most complete and well-formed works. In Troilus and Criseyde Chaucer draws heavily on his source, Boccaccio, and on the late Latin philosopher Boethius. However, it is The Canterbury Tales,
45、wherein he focuses on English subjects, with bawdy jokes and respected figures often being undercut with humour, that has cemented his reputation. Chaucer also translated such important works as Boethius Consolation of Philosophy and The Romance of the Rose by Guillaume de Lorris (extended by Jean d
46、e Meun). However, while many scholars maintain that Chaucer did indeed translate part of the text of Roman de la Rose as The Romaunt of the Rose, others claim that this has been effectively disproved. Many of his other works were very loose translations of, or simply based on, works from continental
47、 Europe. It is in this role that Chaucer receives some of his earliest critical praise. Eustache Deschamps wrote a ballade on the great translator and called himself a “nettle in Chaucers garden of poetry“. In 1385 Thomas Usk made glowing mention of Chaucer, and John Gower, Chaucers main poetic riva
48、l of the time, also lauded him. This reference was later edited out of Gowers Confessio Amantis and it has been suggested by some that this was because of ill feeling between them, but it is likely due simply to stylistic concerns.One other significant work of Chaucers is his Treatise on the Astrola
49、be, possibly for his own son, that describes the form and use of that instrument in detail. Although much of the text may have come 页码，4/14(W)w2010-11-01file:/E:5GRE, TOEFLBackgroundREADINGGeoffrey Chaucer - Wikipedia, the fr.from other sources, the treatise indicates that Chaucer was versed in science in addition to his literary talents. Another scientific work discovered in 1952, Equatorie of the Planetis, has similar language and ha
