Knowra Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer was a fourteenth-century English poet and royal administrator, best known for The Canterbury Tales , a collection of stories told by pilgrims.
Middle English : The form of English spoken and written from roughly the late eleventh through the fifteenth centuries. Chaucer wrote in the London variety of this language, helping establish it as a literary medium.
Troilus and Criseyde : Chaucer’s long narrative poem about the love and betrayal of Troilus and Criseyde during the Trojan War. This completed masterpiece contrasts with the unfinished form of The Canterbury Tales .
Hundred Years’ War : A series of conflicts between the English and French crowns, conventionally dated from 1337 to 1453. Chaucer served in France during the conflict and traveled on royal business.
John of Gaunt : A powerful English prince, son of Edward III, and patron of poets including Chaucer. Chaucer’s service and literary life intersected with Gaunt’s court and household.
Chaucerian English : The literary variety of late Middle English associated with Chaucer’s writing and London usage. Chaucer’s major poems helped make this form of English widely influential.
The Canterbury Tales : A collection of stories framed as a pilgrimage to Canterbury, written by Geoffrey Chaucer in Middle English. This unfinished story collection is Chaucer’s best-known work.
The Book of the Duchess : Chaucer’s dream-vision poem mourning the death of Blanche of Lancaster. It is an early example of his use of dream vision and courtly elegy.
Italian literature : Literature written in Italian, including major medieval works by Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio. Chaucer encountered Italian works that shaped the plots and forms of his poetry.
Edward III : King of England from 1327 to 1377, whose reign included major campaigns in France. Chaucer served the royal administration under Edward III and received royal grants.
English Renaissance : A period of English cultural and literary activity spanning roughly the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Renaissance writers inherited, edited, and reworked Chaucer’s literary reputation.
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