Geoffrey Chaucer

Chaucer, Geoffrey 

Born circa 1340 in London; died there Oct. 25,1400. English poet.

Chaucer fought in the Hundred Years’ War (1337–1453), and in the 1370’s he carried out various diplomatic missions in France and Italy. He held a number of administrative posts and was made a member of Parliament in 1386. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.

In the words of J. Dryden, Chaucer was the “father of English poetry”; from the very beginning, contrary to the traditions of his formative environment, he wrote only in English (the London dialect). The first period of Chaucer’s creative work—approximately until 1379—is usually called his French period because of the strong influence on him of the courtly literature of France, as exemplified in his translation of the Roman de la Rose and in his narrative poem Book of the Duchess (1369).

Chaucer’s second period began after his travels to Italy and lasted approximately from 1380 to 1386; it was during this Italian period that all his major works prior to the Canterbury Tales were written—namely, the narrative poems Parliament of Fowls, House of Fame, and Troilus and Criseyde. The Legend of Good Women was Chaucer’s first collection of tales and the first long narrative poem in English written in decasyllabic verse form—later used in the Canterbury Tales as well. The few examples of Chaucer’s prose are inferior in expressiveness to his poetry.

The English style of Chaucer’s third period appears in its final form in the Canterbury Tales. This work, begun in the late 1380’s, was never completed. It consists of a General Prologue, followed by more than 20 tales—told by pilgrims as a way of shortening their journey to the tomb of St. Thomas á Becket—and an equal number of linking interludes. Most of the social groups living in England at the time are represented in the Tales. The general tone of the book is one of good-natured humor that is tolerant of human weaknesses; only the parasitic monks are consistently depicted in the satiric vein. The marvelous quality of Chaucer’s humanism is vividly revealed in the Tales’ optimistic affirmation of life, loving interest in man, sense of social justice, feeling for the common people, and democratic spirit.

Chaucer’s influence is most clearly evident in the realistic depiction of everyday life as it evolved in English literature. His influence was also very great in the development of the literary language and national poetry of England. The Canterbury Tales were first published by W. Caxton, the first English printer, in 1478(7). The first edition of selected works by Chaucer appeared in 1532. In 1866, W. Morris began working on a “medieval-style” edition of Chaucer’s works. The first and most complete Russian translation of the Canterbury Tales was done by I. A. Kashkin and O. B. Rumer.

WORKS

The Complete Works, 2nd ed., vols. 1–7. Edited by W. W. Skeat. Oxford, 1952–54.
In Russian translation:
Kenterberiiskie rasskazy. Moscow, 1973.

REFERENCES

Istoriia angliiskoi literatury, vol. 1, fasc. 1. Moscow-Leningrad, 1943.
Kashkin, I. A. “Dzhefri Choser.” In his Dlia chitatelia-sovremennika. Moscow, 1968.
Spurgeon, C. F. E. Five Hundred Years of Chaucer Criticism and Allusion, 1357–1900, vols. 1–3. New York, 1960.
Coulton, G. G. Chaucer and His England. New York, 1957.
Robinson, I. Chaucer and the English Tradition. Cambridge, 1972.
Griffith, D. D. Bibliography of Chaucer, 1908–1953. Seattle, 1955.
Crawford, W. Bibliography of Chaucer, 1954–1963. Seattle-London [1967].

O. A. KIRPICHNIKOVA