![]() ![]() While records concerning the lives of his contemporaries William Langland and the Gawain Poet are practically non-existent, since Chaucer was a public servant his official life is very well documented, with nearly five hundred written items testifying to his career. Career Chaucer as a pilgrim, in the early 15th-century illuminated Ellesmere manuscript of the Canterbury Tales In the City Hustings Roll 110, 5, Ric II, dated June 1380, Chaucer refers to himself as me Galfridum Chaucer, filium Johannis Chaucer, Vinetarii, Londonie, which translates as: "I, Geoffrey Chaucer, son of the vintner John Chaucer, London". John Chaucer married Agnes Copton, who inherited properties in 1349, including 24 shops in London from her uncle Hamo de Copton, who is described in a will dated 3 April 1354 and listed in the City Hustings Roll as "moneyer", said to be a moneyer at the Tower of London. The aunt was imprisoned and fined £250, now equivalent to about £200,000, which suggests that the family was financially secure. In 1324, his father John Chaucer was kidnapped by an aunt in the hope of marrying the 12-year-old to her daughter in an attempt to keep the property in Ipswich. His family name is derived from the French chaucier, once thought to mean 'shoemaker', but now known to mean a maker of hose or leggings. ![]() ![]() ![]() Several previous generations of Geoffrey Chaucer's family had been vintners and merchants in Ipswich. His great-grandfather was a tavern keeper, his grandfather worked as a purveyor of wines, and his father John Chaucer rose to become an important wine merchant with a royal appointment. The Chaucer family offers an extraordinary example of upward mobility. Life Origin Arms of Geoffrey Chaucer: Per pale argent and gules, a bend counterchanged.Ĭhaucer was born in London most likely in the early 1340s (by some accounts, including his monument, he was born in 1343), though the precise date and location remain unknown. Almost two thousand English words are first attested to in Chaucerian manuscripts. Chaucer's contemporary Thomas Hoccleve hailed him as " the firste fyndere of our fair langage" (i.e., the first one capable of finding poetic matter in English). He is seen as crucial in legitimising the literary use of Middle English when the dominant literary languages in England were still Anglo-Norman French and Latin. He maintained a career in the civil service as a bureaucrat, courtier, diplomat, and member of parliament.Īmong Chaucer's many other works are The Book of the Duchess, The House of Fame, The Legend of Good Women, and Troilus and Criseyde. Chaucer also gained fame as a philosopher and astronomer, composing the scientific A Treatise on the Astrolabe for his 10-year-old son Lewis. He was the first writer to be buried in what has since come to be called Poets' Corner, in Westminster Abbey. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". 1340s – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for The Canterbury Tales. Showing a scholar of remarkable breadth and literary passion bequeathing some of what he knows, this essay makes a larger argument for the necessity of medieval studies to a healthy humanities curriculum.Geoffrey Chaucer ( / ˈ tʃ ɔː s ər/ c. For both writers, Professor Martínez Pizarro’s impact has been profound and ongoing. The article focuses on Professor Martínez Pizarro’s dedication to his students and accompanying beliefs that guided his career: teaching is vital to the scholarly project language instruction extends the subtle craft of translation and a medievalist worth their salt does not adhere slavishly to constraints of genre or periodization but explores generic overlaps while reading and teaching outside the medieval canon. This essay describes the pedagogic style and teaching philosophy of Joaquín Martínez Pizarro, a scholar distinguished by his translations (from Latin) and literary interpretations of important, somewhat under-recognized early medieval texts, his discovery of emergent narrative styles in literary history, and his identification of “firsts” within the trajectory of early medieval literature. ![]()
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