Rime royal involves rhyming stanzas consisting of seven lines apiece. Chaucer wrote the poem using rime royal, a technique he originated. Troilus and Criseyde is a narrative poem that retells the tragic love story of Troilus and Criseyde in the context of the Trojan War. Chaucer was well acquainted with the theme firsthand-during his service to the court and his marriage of convenience to a woman whose social standing served to elevate his own.Ĭhaucer is believed to have written the poem Troilus and Criseyde sometime in the mid-1380s. The poem uses allegory, and incorporates elements of irony and satire as it points to the inauthentic quality of courtly love. It had been identified as peppered with Neo-Platonic ideas inspired by the likes of poets Cicero and Jean De Meun, among others. Bennet interpreted the Parliament of Fouls as a study of Christian love. Some historians of Chaucer’s work assert that it was written in 1380, during marriage negotiations between Richard and Anne of Bohemia. The precise dates of many of Chaucer’s written works are difficult to pin down with certainty, but one thing is clear: His major works have retained their relevancy even in the college classroom of today.Ĭhaucer’s body of best-known works includes the Parliament of Fouls, otherwise known as the Parlement of Foules, in the Middle English spelling. He needed to keep working in public service to earn a living and pay off his growing accumulation of debt. When Philippa passed away in 1387, Chaucer stopped sharing in her royal annuities and suffered financial hardship. For the next four years he lived in Kent but worked as a justice of the peace and later a Parliament member, rather than focusing on his writing. In 1385 he petitioned for temporary leave. Busy with his duties, Chaucer had little time to devote to writing poetry, his true passion. In 13, Chaucer engaged in yet more diplomatic missions, with the objectives of finding a French wife for Richard II and securing military aid in Italy. Meanwhile, Philippa and Chaucer were also granted generous pensions by John of Gaunt, the first duke of Lancaster. By the time he returned, he and Philippa were prospering, and he was rewarded for his diplomatic activities with an appointment as Comptroller of Customs, a lucrative position. He also spent time familiarizing himself with the work of Italian poets Dante and Petrarch along the way. From 1370 to 1373, he went abroad again and fulfilled diplomatic missions in Florence and Genoa, helping establish an English port in Genoa. When the queen died in 1369, it served to strengthen Philippa’s position and subsequently Chaucer’s as well. Public Serviceīy 1368, King Edward III had made Chaucer one of his esquires. In 1366, Chaucer married Philippa Roet, the daughter of Sir Payne Roet, and the marriage conveniently helped further Chaucer’s career in the English court. For his services, King Edward granted Chaucer a pension of 20 marks. After Chaucer’s release, he joined the Royal Service, traveling throughout France, Spain and Italy on diplomatic missions throughout the early to mid-1360s. Thanks to Chaucer’s royal connections, King Edward III helped pay his ransom. In 1359, the teenage Chaucer went off to fight in the Hundred Years’ War in France, and at Rethel he was captured for ransom. In 1357, Chaucer became a public servant to Countess Elizabeth of Ulster, the Duke of Clarence’s wife, for which he was paid a small stipend-enough to pay for his food and clothing. Paul’s Cathedral School, where he probably first became acquainted with the influential writing of Virgil and Ovid. Geoffrey Chaucer is believed to have attended the St. According to some sources, Chaucer’s father, John, carried on the family wine business. Chaucer’s family was of the bourgeois class, descended from an affluent family who made their money in the London wine trade. Poet Geoffrey Chaucer was born circa 1340, most likely at his parents’ house on Thames Street in London, England. He died October 25, 1400, in London, England, and was the first to be buried in Westminster Abbey’s Poet’s Corner. The Canterbury Tales became his best known and most acclaimed work. In 1357, Geoffrey Chaucer became a public servant to Countess Elizabeth of Ulster and continued in that capacity with the British court throughout his lifetime.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |