Author

Geoffrey Chaucer

c. 1343-1400 · English poet and civil servant, author of The Canterbury Tales

Posthumous or imagined likeness of Geoffrey Chaucer.
Posthumous or imagined likeness of Geoffrey Chaucer. Source · Public domain

About Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1340s-1400) was an English poet, courtier and civil servant whose work helped establish Middle English as a major literary language. Best known for The Canterbury Tales, he drew on French, Italian and classical sources with psychological subtlety and irony. Troilus and Criseyde is his major completed long poem.

Notable works

  • The Canterbury Tales (c. 1387-1400)
  • Troilus and Criseyde (c. 1385)
  • The Book of the Duchess (c. 1368-1372)
  • The House of Fame (c. 1379-1380)
  • The Parliament of Fowls (c. 1380-1382)
  • The Legend of Good Women (c. 1386)

Frequently Cited

“WHEN that Aprilis, with his showers swoot”
The Canterbury Tales, General Prologue, opening line · Reader
“He was a very perfect gentle knight”
The Canterbury Tales, General Prologue, the Knight · Reader
“Sounding in moral virtue was his speech, And gladly would he learn, and gladly teach”
The Canterbury Tales, General Prologue, the Clerk · Reader
“To make a virtue of necessity”
The Canterbury Tales, The Knight's Tale · Reader
“Murder will out, that see we day by day”
The Canterbury Tales, The Nun's Priest's Tale · Reader
“The double sorwe of Troilus to tellen”
Troilus and Criseyde, Book I, opening lines · Reader

On this site

Troilus and Criseyde

Geoffrey Chaucer

c. 1380s · Medieval · Poetry

Troilus and Criseyde retells a story from the Trojan War tradition, but its real subject is erotic psychology under the pressure of fortune, language and time. Troilus, a Trojan prince and son of Priam, initially mocks lovers until he sees Criseyde in the temple and is struck by desire.

high medical relevanceLove DesireFate / Free WillLanguage / Storytelling
The Canterbury Tales

Geoffrey Chaucer

c. 1387-1400 · Medieval · Poetry

The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories framed by a pilgrimage. One April, the narrator, who calls himself Chaucer, is lodging at the Tabard Inn in Southwark when a company of some twenty-nine pilgrims arrives on its way to the shrine of St. Thomas Becket at Canterbury.

high medical relevanceFaith / ReligionClass / SocietySatire Folly