Geoffrey Chaucer ( /ˈtʃɔːsər/; c. 1343 – 25 October 1400), known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages and was the first poet to have been buried in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey. While he achieved fame during his lifetime as an author, philosopher, alchemist and astronomer, composing a scientific treatise on the astrolabe for his ten year-old son Lewis, Chaucer also maintained an active career in the civil service as a bureaucrat, courtier and diplomat. Among his many works, which include The Book of the Duchess, the House of Fame, the Legend of Good Women and Troilus and Criseyde, he is best known today for The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer is a crucial figure in developing the legitimacy of the vernacular, Middle English, at a time when the dominant literary languages in England were French and Latin.
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Famous quotes by geoffrey chaucer:
“For I am shave as neigh as any frere.
But yit I praye unto youre curteisye:
Beeth hevy again, or elles moot I die.”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)
“Your yen two wol slee me sodenly,
I may the beaute of hem not sustene,
So woundeth hit through-out my herte kene.”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)
“mine housbondes tolde me,
I hadde the beste quoniam mighte be.”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)
“Virginitee is greet perfeccioun,
And continence eek with devocioun,”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)
“Ye wise wives, that conne understonde,
Thus sholde ye speke and bere him wrong on honde—
For half so boldely can ther no man
Swere and lie as a woman can.”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)