Table of contents Introduction

1.2 The career of Geoffrey Chaucer before The Canterbury Tales
Geoffrey Chaucer can be called one of the most prominent English poets, he is even called the father of English poetry, the founder of English national literature, the father of the English literary language. He was born in 1340/1345 (the exact date is unknown) and died in London on October 25, 1400. Critics note that the work of Geoffrey Chaucer is a phenomenon that anticipates the literature of the English Renaissance, that is, in general, pre-Renaissance. And the main work of Geoffrey Chaucer is The Canterbury Tales, a collection of short stories, the analysis of which we will analyze in chapter 2 [66]. Biographical circumstances had a serious impact on the whole life and work of Chaucer. His father was a wine merchant who supplied wine to the court of the king himself, thanks to which Geoffrey managed to be at the court at the age of 17, where he served as a page of Elizabeth, wife of Edward S. Geoffrey Chaucer also takes part in 1359 in the war against France, and in this on the way he was taken prisoner. He was bought out of captivity by the king for 16 pounds, and after returning to England, Chaucer becomes the king's valet, and, somewhat later, the royal squire. By this time, he had already managed to study the available writers quite thoroughly, he had already tried his pen - he wrote poems about love for a lady unknown to history, who, however, did not reciprocate his passion. When the war ended, in 1367 Chaucer probably attended the higher law school of London; this school at that time gave a good general education. It was at this school that he managed to acquire the skills to work on the future main thing in his life - literary creativity [63].
Chaucer actively studied the works of the classics - Virgil, Statius, Lucan, read Dante, Claudian, Horace and Juvenal, he was especially impressed by Ovid's Metamorphoses and Heroides, it is these works that become Geoffrey Chaucer's favorite books. In addition, he also studied patristic and medieval Latin literature, numerous works created by the luminaries of scholastic science, which were useful to him later, when he began to supply his heroes with various kinds of scientific information. These interests included the translation of Boethius, which was popular with the scholastics, as well as the writer's later treatise on the astrolabe. However, more than the classics and more than the Church Fathers and Scholastics, Chaucer was fascinated by modern French poets. The reading of these works included a bit of everything: epic, and lyrics, and visions, and allegories of all kinds.
By 1367, Geoffrey Chaucer's name had reappeared in documentary evidence; and this time he is mentioned as the king's valet; it was also mentioned that he received a pension from the crown. Then the name of Chaucer occurs more and more often: royal gifts are made to him and his wife, regular benefits are paid, new appointments are determined, diplomatic trips are intended. In addition, documentary evidence also recorded an extremely important assignment for the subsequent history of literature to Chaucer in 1372 - negotiating with the Doge of Genoa. Need help writing your thesis? We are an exchange of professional authors (teachers and associate professors of universities). Handing over chapter by chapter. Uniqueness over 70%. We make edits for free . More It is with the date of this appointment that the first trip of Geoffrey Chaucer to Italy is connected (more precisely, the first one mentioned in historical documents). This visit to Italy has a serious impact on the writer's work. The second trip takes place in 1377, when he accompanies the embassy also to Florence, where the embassy had a secret mission from the king [57]. At this time in Florence, Boccaccio is going to give a public course on the Divine Comedy; Chaucer managed to take out of Italy the manuscripts created by Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio. According to documentary evidence, Chaucer did not know Italian before the trip, but this did not matter much to him. At that time, in business, trade and political relations, the Latin language was in use, and this language was well known to the poet. Chaucer was in Italy for half a year, which gave him the opportunity to master the Tuscan language at a good level and read the great Florentine poets in the original. Geoffrey returned once more to Italy towards the end of 1377, on this trip he stayed in Italy for four months. His mission this time concerned Lombardy. He was involved in military negotiations with Bernabo Visconti, the tyrant of Milan, and also with his son-in-law, John Gacoud, who was Chaucer's countryman, a condottiere who labored at that time in Italy. It is possible that it was on this trip that Chaucer visited Venice. Thus, during his two trips to Italy, Chaucer had the opportunity to observe the lush growth of urban culture, the first class struggles and the first flowering of the Renaissance. However, in his native England, everything was completely different. The possibility of observing another world changed his outlook. On the trip, he saw how a new bourgeois culture was born, watched the Italian city republics and monarchies of a new type, was surprised at what scope the rise of industry and commerce assumed, beginning in the light of such impressions to evaluate in a completely different way what was left to them in England [18].
Geoffrey Chaucer, in his youthful period of creativity, which is usually called "French", created quite interesting works. This period lasted from 1359 to 1379. During this period, the writer experiences the strongest influence of courtly French literature. In the same period, a translation of the Romance of the Rose, a work that was one of the most popular in the Middle Ages, was created. This translation gives Chaucer a certain notoriety. Unfortunately, at the moment his translation is lost; and another translation into English of this novel, which was formerly attributed to Chaucer, was found not to be his. The first work of Geoffrey Chaucer that can be accurately dated is a poem called The Book of the Duchess, which was written in 1369. The reason for writing the book was the death of Duchess Blanca of Lancaster, who was the first wife of the founder of the Lancastrian dynasty, John of Gaunt. In his book, Chaucer comforts her husband, the Duke, and mourns his loss with him. The elegy created by Masho, as well as Tristia, written by Ovid, served as models for the writer; in certain parts, he was guided by the Romance of the Rose translated by him. Already in this work, Chaucer managed to show extraordinary abilities for colorful and vivid descriptions [22].
The Duke of Lancaster subsequently became Chaucer's constant patron, and a little later he even became related to him: Katherine Swynford, the sister of Chaucer's wife, became the third wife of John of Gaunt. We have already described the writer's trips to Italy, all of which become significant for the writer. He managed to learn Italian, get acquainted with numerous literary masterpieces in Italian. In addition, all this affected his work. So, in the works that were written by the writer after trips to Italy, one can often find borrowings from his favorite works of Petrarch, Dante, Boccaccio, he often quotes them, often even refers to their plots in his writings [56].
According to legend, in Italy Chaucer met Petrarch, who is believed to have read to him his translation into Latin of the Novels of Griselda from Boccaccio's Decameron. Subsequently, this short story, in a revised form, was included by Chaucer in his "Canterbury Tales". It is the Italian poets for Chaucer that become a kind of ideal, he practically idolizes them. Need help writing your thesis? We are an exchange of professional authors (teachers and associate professors of universities). Handing over chapter by chapter. Uniqueness over 70%. We make edits for free . Diploma price The formal side of Chaucer's poetry was also influenced by his study of the Latin and Italian classics: as a result of this, his works receive completeness, grace, acquire a style hitherto unknown in English literature. Between trips, Chaucer stays in London, performing various kinds of administrative posts there. For 12 years from 1374, he served as customs controller and overseer, but at the same time he lived in relative seclusion in the Aldchet tower. His whole life belonged to the conscientious performance of official duties, but all his free time - only to literature, poetry [54].
The period of the poet's literary creations, created between 1380 and 1386, is called Italian. During this period, the main works were written before the Canterbury Tales: it was a translation of the life of St. Cecilia, which later, in 1378, became part of the Canterbury Tales; Complainte of Mars (1378); poem "Bird Parliament"; in 1382 he creates the poem "Troilus and Cressida", writes the poem "The House of Glory", in 1384 he finishes the "Legend of Glorious Women". These poems are particularly influenced by Italian poets. For example, the poem "The Life of Saint Cecilia" contains passages that are directly taken by Chaucer from Dante's Paradise. "Parliament of Foules" a poem written on the occasion of the marriage of Richard II, the young king, contains an insertion, a reworking of the famous introduction to the third song of the "Inferno": "Per me si va nella cittdolente". As for the plot of "Troylus and Chryseide", it is borrowed entirely from the work of Boccaccio "Filostrato" Boccaccio. In addition, the legend of exemplary women was inspired by Chaucer's work "De Claris mulieribus" by Boccaccio. And also the journey through the three kingdoms of Dante acted as a model for the writer for a poem called "The House of Fame" (where Dante is mentioned along with Virgil, Claudian) [38].
It would seem that the influence of continental authors was enormous, however, despite it, Chaucer in the poem "The House of Fame" shows considerable independence, mainly affecting both the descriptions of the pictures and the natural, lively dialogue. They also give a lot of space to their own personality, which gives his poem a character that is close to us. Chaucer describes how he is carried away on golden wings by an eagle to the temple of glory, built on an icy rock, where the names of great people are recorded. Under the rays of the sun, the rocks melt, the letters of the names are lost, gradually becoming less and less legible. There are noisy crowds in the temple - there are musicians, jugglers, prophets, people glorifying heroes in various ways; cheerful music sounds there, there are numerous statues of great poets. In the same poem, a satirical element is also found - it manifests itself in the description of a whole group of vicious braggarts who are pleased with their own, albeit notoriety. After that, Geoffrey Chaucer takes the reader to the news house, where there are idle onlookers who are greedy for news and do not pay attention to the authenticity of the news [66]. His poem "Troilus and Chryseis" (in the original language it sounds like "Troylus and Chryseide") is a complete long poem. It consists of five books that are written in the favorite size of Geoffrey Chaucer. These are stanzas of seven verses, where there is a system of rhymes ababbcc.
Gradually Chaucer becomes more and more important English writer. As a result, in the 19th century, on the initiative of Fournival, the so-called Chaucer Society (founded in 1867) appeared. Its goal is to publish critically checked texts of Chaucer's works with the study of the writer's biography [11]. Gradually Chaucer becomes more and more important English writer. As a result, in the 19th century, on the initiative of Fournival, the so-called Chaucer Society (founded in 1867) appeared. Its goal is to publish critically checked texts of Chaucer's works with the study of the writer's biography [11]. In the history of the English language, English literature, the merits of Geoffrey Chaucer can be called extremely high. They were the first among the English to be given examples of truly artistic poetry, in his works one can feel the dominant elegance of verse and form, taste, a sense of proportion, one can feel the hand of an artist who controls his own images, but he himself does not at all obey them, as was often the case with poets of the Middle Ages. . In all the works of the writer, there is a critical attitude to the characters and plots [66]. In addition, Chaucer's works contain the most important features of national English poetry, including rich imagination, combined with common sense, observation, humor, the ability to vividly characterize characters, a tendency to describe actions, characters in detail, love for contrasts. Thus, it was he who managed to start that line of English literature, which so clearly manifested itself in perfect form later in the most famous English authors - Shakespeare, Fielding, Dickens, etc. Chaucer succeeded in giving completeness to English verse; he brings English verse to the highest degree of elegance of the literary language. He always showed special concern for the purity of speech, he did not even trust the text to scribes and always personally looked through the lists of his own compositions. He showed common sense and great moderation in the creation of the English literary language, he rarely used neologisms, he did not try to revive obsolete expressions, he used only those words that were in common use [39].
Geoffrey Chaucer succeeded in imparting brilliance and beauty to the English language, as a result of which the English language was able to achieve an honorable place among other literary languages ​​in Europe; after Chaucer, adverbs lose all meaning in literature. Chaucer became the first writer who began to create his works in his native language, began to write prose, and not in Latin (for example, "The astrolab" is a treatise he wrote for his son in 1391). Here they deliberately use the national language, to express their thoughts better and more accurately, as well as out of patriotic feelings [58]. As for Chaucer's worldview, it is filled with a peculiar pagan spirit and the specific cheerfulness of the Renaissance; although it retains certain medieval expressions, medieval features, nevertheless, they are to a certain extent characteristic of Chaucer's medieval works. And yet, his certain thoughts about nobility, about raising children, about the war, the nature of his patriotism, which is alien to any national exclusivity, were clearly ahead of their time, they could have been appropriate already in the 19th century. The earliest edition of the writings of Geoffrey Chaucer was the collected works published in 1532 by Thynne. This was followed by the editions of Stowe (1561), Speght (1598, revised again in 1602), Tyrwhitt (1775), with a study of the life of the poet. Interest in his writings awakened again already in the 19th century, and Tennyson had an influence on interest in his work. In the future, the editions of his work only expand [54]. There is still no complete translation of the works of Geoffrey Chaucer into Russian, but most of his works have been translated into Russian. There is the most complete translation of the Canterbury Tales by I.A. Kashkin in 1946, later supplemented by T. Popova.