English Literature
Submitted to:
Mr. Saifullah Raheel Sab
Submitted by:
Muhammad Aziz Ullaha
Topic:
The Age of Chaucer
Date: 04-02-2021
Informatics Group of Colleges
Fort Abbas
INTRODUCTION:
The period between 1343 and 1450 (14th Century) is known as the age of Chaucer.
The age of Chaucer is the first significant period in the literary history of England.
In every walk of life there were signs of change. The social, political, religious and
literary changes were taking place. Chaucer was a great writer who is not only of
an age but of all the ages. It was the age of transition, transformation of to the
Modern times. The great age of enlightenment and prosperity.
A Brief History:
Geoffrey Chaucer is known as the father of English literature. He wasn't only an
author but a Philosopher, Astronomer, Bureaucrat and a Diplomat. Chaucer is very
well known for his beautiful and exceptional metrical innovation. He is famous for
Canterbury Tales which is a collection of stories told by a fictional pilgrim.
Chaucer was born in London most likely in the early 1340s. His father and
grandfather were both London Vintners, and several previous generations had been
Merchant in Ipswich. His family name is derived from the French “Chausser”,
meaning "shoemaker".
Religious Belief:
Chaucer's attitudes toward the Church should not be confused with his attitudes
toward Christianity. He seems to have respected and admired Christians and to
have been one himself, though he also recognized that many people in the church
were venal and corrupt. He writes in Canterbury Tales, "now I beg all those that
listen to this little treatise, or read it, that if there be anything in it that pleases
them, they thank our Lord Jesus Christ for it, from whom proceeds all
understanding and goodness.
Literary Work:
Chaucer's first major work was The Book of the Duchess, an elegy for Blanche of
Lancaster who died in 1368. Two other early works were Anelida and Arcite and
The House of Fame. He 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 of Good Women, and Troilus and Criseyde all date from
this time. It is believed that he started The Canterbury Tales in the 1380s.
Chaucer also translated Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy and The Romance of
the Rose by Guillaume de Lorris (extended by Jean de Meun). Eustache
Deschamps called himself a "nettle in Chaucer's garden of poetry". In 1385,
Thomas Usk made glowing mention of Chaucer, and John Gower also lauded him.
Chaucer's Treatise on the Astrolabe describes the form and use of the astrolabe in
detail and is sometimes cited as the first example of technical writing in the
English language, and it indicates that Chaucer was versed in science in addition to
his literary talents. The equatorie of the planetis is a scientific work similar to the
Treatise and sometimes ascribed to Chaucer because of its language and
handwriting, an identification which scholars no longer deem tenable.
Literary:
Widespread knowledge of Chaucer's works is attested by the many poets who
imitated or responded to his writing. John Lydgate was one of the earliest poets to
write continuations of Chaucer's unfinished Tales while Robert Henryson's
Testament of Cresseid completes the story of Cressida left unfinished in his Troilus
and Criseyde. Many of the manuscripts of Chaucer's works contain material from
these poets and later appreciations by the Romantic era poets were shaped by their
failure to distinguish the later "additions" from original Chaucer.
Writers of the 17th and 18th centuries, such as John Dryden, admired Chaucer for
his stories, but not for his rhythm and rhyme, as few critics could then read Middle
English and the text had been butchered by printers, leaving a somewhat
unadmirable mess. It was not until the late 19th century that the official Chaucerian
canon, accepted today, was decided upon, largely as a result of Walter William
Skeat's work. Roughly seventy-five years after Chaucer's death, The Canterbury
Tales was selected by William Caxton to be one of the first books to be printed in
England.
English:
Chaucer is sometimes considered the source of the English vernacular tradition.
His achievement for the language can be seen as part of a general historical trend
towards the creation of a vernacular literature, after the example of Dante, in many
parts of Europe. A parallel trend in Chaucer's own lifetime was underway in
Scotland through the work of his slightly earlier contemporary, John Barbour, and
was likely to have been even more general, as is evidenced by the example of
the Pearl Poet in the north of England.
Although Chaucer's language is much closer to Modern English than the text
of Beowulf, such that (unlike that of Beowulf) a Modern English-speaker with a
large vocabulary of archaic words may understand it, it differs enough that most
publications modernize his idiom.
