Geoffrey Chaucer was born
in London in about
1340. After working for Elizabeth de Burgh
(Edward Ill's daughter-in-law), Chaucer
served as a soldier in France. He was captured,
but his friends, including the king, raised
enough money to buy his freedom. Later
he was employed by the king as a diplomat.
In 1386 Chaucer was a Member
of Parliament
for Kent. At about this time he began to write his most important
work, The Canterbury
Tales.
The book is a collection of stories told by a party of pilgrims on
a journey from Southwark to Thomas Becket's shrine at Canterbury.
As Chaucer chooses characters from a whole range of different backgrounds,
the book provides an important insight into the social, religious
and economic conditions of the 14th century. Chaucer died in 1400.
The
Normans: Classroom Activities
(1)
Geoffrey Chaucer, The Wife of Bath's Tale (c. 1395)
By God,
if women had written stories
As clerks have written their oratories,
They would have written more of men's wickedness,
Than all the sons of Adam could redress.
(2)
Geoffrey Chaucer, The Knight's Squire (c. 1395)
With curly
locks, as if they had been
pressed.
He was some twenty
years of age, I guessed.
In stature he was
of a moderate length,
With wonderful agility and strength.
He'd seen some service with the cavalry
In Flanders and Artois and Picardy...
Short was his gown, the sleeves were long
and wide;
He knew the way to sit a horse and ride.
He could make songs and poems and recite,
Knew how to joust and dance, to draw
and write.
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