Download Geoffrey Chaucer (2).

Ariel Carrico & Eryn Faught

Born: 1343 Died: 1400

Often called the father of English poetry.

author,
philosopher, alchemist and astronomer

Wrote The Canterbury Tales (1387- 1400)

Born into a middle-class family.

Family had enough money to put him
through school. (Legal Training)

Became very prominent in his
government careers.
• Awarded numerous times for the services
to the Crown.
• Sent to Europe on many occasions as the
King’s ambassador.

Married and had at least two children.
 Chaucer
was born in the early 1340’s, not
long after the beginning of the Hundred
Year’s War.
 During
his time, the languages of
literature, science, diplomacy, and religion
were still Latin and French.
 Before
Chaucer, people felt that English
were pretty much for the poor.

The Book of the Duchess,

the House of Fame,

The Legend of Good
Women

Troilus and Criseyde

He is best known today
for The Canterbury Tales

Written at the end of the
14th century

Uses the tales and the
descriptions of its
characters to paint an
ironic and critical portrait
of English society

The Church

Built around the frame
tale
 Frame
tale: common
and already long
established genre of
its period
 Chaucer
describes, not
the tales to be told,
but the people who
will tell them
 The
Hundred Year’s War. (1337-1453)
 The
Black Death wipes out one third of the
population of England. (1348-1349)
 The
Great Schism: Split between the
Eastern and Western Christian Churches.
 Chaucer
became widely known widely
known in his government career and was
important enough that the king
contributed to his ransom when he was
captured in France while serving as a
soldier during the Hundred Years’ War.
 Likely
influenced by the poems of Dante
and Petrarch after traveling to Italy in 1372
and 1378.

Worked as a translator of old literature.

First poet buried in Poet’s Corner in Westminster
Abbey.

As recognition of his poetry, Edward III granted
Chaucer “A gallon of wine daily for the rest of his life”

There’s also crater on the far side of the moon named
for Chaucer.

Though Chaucer died in 1400, more than 600 years
ago, he has more than 11,900 fans on Facebook.