Chaucer

Family Background

• Hailed from Ipswich, settled in London
• Wealthy; owned extensive Ipswich, London property
• Importers, exporters, customs controllers

Geoffrey Chaucer

• c. 1340–c. 1400
• Soldier, customs controller, diplomat, esquire, member of the king’s household, justice of the peace, member of Parliament, forester, overseer of royal construction projects
• Travelled to Italy and Spain

Writings

• Poetry
  • The Romaunt of the Rose (DV, before 1372)
  • The Book of the Duchess (DV, c. 1374)
  • The House of Fame (DV, 1378–80)
  • Anelida and Arcite (1370s)
  • Parlement of Foules (DV-DEB, 1380–82)
  • The Legend of Good Women (DV, 1380s)
  • Troilus and Criseyde (1382–86)
  • Canterbury Tales (1388–1400)
• Prose
  • Boece (before 1386)
  • Treatise on the Astrolabe (c. 1391)
  • ? Equatorie of the Planetis

Writings

• French period (1370s)
• Italian period (early 1380s)
• English period (late 1380s–1390s)

Dialect

• London and Westminster trade, legal centres
• Chaucer trained in the administrative standard (Chancery English)