Political and Literary Attitude of Chaucer

Chaucer's name, like so much of his language, was of French origin. It meant shoemaker, and probably was pronounced "shosayr." He was the son of John Chaucer, a London vintner. He won a good education from both books and life. His poetry abounds in knowledge of men and women, literature and history. In 1357 "Geoffrey Chaucer" was officially listed in the service of the household of the future Duke of Clarence (Adams 33). Two years later he was off to the wars in France. He was captured, but was freed for a ransom, to which Edward III contributed. It was a pleasant custom of those days, which admired poetry and eloquence, to send men of letters on diplomatic missions abroad. So Chaucer was deputed with two others to negotiate a trade agreement at Genoa and in 1378 he went with Sir Edward Berkeley to Milan. Italy was a transforming revelation to him. He saw there a culture far more polished, lettered, and subtler than England's. He learned a new reverence for the classics, including Latin. When he finally turned to his own homeland for his scenes and characters, he was an accomplished artist and a mature mind.

He describes himself, in The House of Fame, as hurrying home after he had "made his reckonings," and losing himself in h

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h's Tale, Chaucer reaches the nadir of his morals and the zenith of his power (Ingalis A21). It is a riotous protest against virginity and celibacy put into the rather bawdy mouth of an expert on matrimony, a woman who has had five husbands since she was twelve years of age, has buried four of them, and looks forward to a sixth to assuage her youth. Of the 58 stories promised in the Prologue Chaucer gives us only twenty-three. Perhaps he felt that 500 pages were enough, and that his inventiveness had run dry (Stuttaford 57). Even in the bubbling stream of his work there are in fact muddy passages which the judicious critic will ignore. Nevertheless, the slow, deep current of his poetry and language carries us along and emits an air of freshness as if the poet had lived along green banks rather than over a London gate--though there, too, the Thames also was not far to be found. Some of his paeans to outdoor beauty are stereotyped literary exercises (Lord 58) yet the whole picture comes alive with such naturalness and directness of feeling and speech, such revealing firsthand observation of men and manners, as may rarely be found between the covers of one book. Such a cornucopia of images, similes, and metaphors would only b
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Wife Bath, Prologue Chaucer, Becket Canterbury, Ingalis A21, Edward III, Clerk Westminster, Tabard Inn, England Adams, Geoffrey Chaucer, John Guant, wife bath, edward iii, adams 34, tabard inn, house fame, richard ii, martin luther, publishers weekly, lord 58, feb 1988,
Approximate Word count = 2003
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

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