Geoffrey Chaucer

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Geoffrey Chaucer

• Englands first great writer

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• Geoffrey Chaucer made an enormous mark on the
  language and literature of England.

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Writing in an age when French was widely spoken
in educated circles, Chaucer was among the first
writers to show that English could be a
respectable literary language.
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Chaucer wrote in Middle English
Canterbury Tales - Middle English
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• Though he may have written some of the stories
  earlier, most scholars think that he began
  organizing The Canterbury Tales in about 1387.

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• The Canterbury Tales is a frame story. A frame
  story is a narrative story in which the main
  story is composed in part by a series of smaller
  stories.

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• There should be 120 stories in all, but the text
  ends after 24 tales.

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• In The Canterbury Tales, the host asks each
  pilgrim to tell two stories on the way to
  Canterbury and two stories on the way back.

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• The pilgrim who tells the best story will be
  treated to dinner by the other pilgrims.

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• Canterbury is the location of the popular shrine
  of Sir Thomas á Becket.

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• Becket was appointed archbishop of Canterbury by
  his friend King Henry in 1162

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• However, after the two quarreled bitterly over
  the rights of the church, four of Henrys loyal
  knights murdered the archbishop in his own
  cathedral in 1170.
• Three years later, Becket was declared a saint
  by the Roman Catholic Church.