Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400), English poet. He came from a fairly prosperous family and held various government offices, including a post in the customs office. He is best known for The Canterbury Tales, a richly varied series of stories told by pilgrims on their way to Canterbury, and the narrative poem Troilus and Criseyde. These two masterpieces were the first major works of English poetry. As no books were printed in England before 1476, none of Chaucer’s works was published in his lifetime.
“As he is the father of
English poetry, so I hold him
in the same degree of
veneration as the Grecians
held Homer, or the Romans
Virgil. He is a perpetual
fountain of good sense,
learned in all sciences, and
therefore speaks properly on
all subjects. As he knew
what to say, so he knows
also when to leave off…
John Dryden on Geoffrey
Chaucer, Preface to the
Fables (1700)”
