Chaucer, Geoffrey

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English poet. The Canterbury Tales, a collection of stories told by a group of pilgrims on their way to Canterbury, reveals his knowledge of human nature and his stylistic variety, from the sophisticated and subtly humorous to the simple and bawdy. His early work shows formal French influence, as in the dream-poem The Book of the Duchess and his adaptation of the French allegorical poem on courtly love, The Romaunt of the Rose, in which the meaning is conveyed in symbols. More mature works reflect the influence of Italian realism, as in Troilus and Criseyde, a substantial narrative poem about the tragic betrayal of an idealized courtly love, adapted from the Italian writer Boccaccio. In The Canterbury Tales he shows his own genius for metre (rhythm) and characterization. Chaucer was the most influential English poet of the Middle Ages.

Chaucer was born in London, the son of a wine dealer. Taken prisoner in the French wars, he had to be ransomed by Edward III in 1360. In 1366 he married Philippa Roet, sister of Katherine Swynford, the mistress and later third wife of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. Payments during the period 1367–74 indicate a rising fortune and show that Chaucer made several journeys abroad, both on military service and public business. He was sent to Italy (where he may have met the writers Boccaccio and Petrarch), France, and Flanders. He was controller of wool customs (1374–86), and of petty customs (1382–86). He became justice of the peace for Kent in 1385 and member of Parliament for Kent in 1386. In 1389 he was made clerk of the king's works, and superintended undertakings at Woolwich and Smithfield. In 1391 he gave up the clerkship and accepted the position of deputy forester of North Petherton, Somerset. Late in 1399 he moved to Westminster and died the following year; he was buried in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey.