Middle English literature

English Literature in the 14th Century
Chaucer was born in London, into the family of a wine merchant.
His father had connections with the court and hoped for a courtier's career for his son. At seventeen Ge-offrey became page to a lady at the court of Edward III. At twenty, Chaucer was in France, serving as a squire. During 1373 and the next few years Chaucer travelled much and lived a busy life. He went to France, made three journeys to Italy. Italian literature opened to Chaucer a new world of art. Chaucer's earliest poems were written in imitation of the French romances. The second period of Chaucer's literary work was that of the Italian influence. To this period belong the following poems: The House of Fame, The Parliament of Fowls, a poem satirizing Parliament, The Legend of Good Women and others. When Chaucer came back to England, he received the post of Controller of the Customs in the port of London. Chaucer held this position for ten years. He devoted his free time to hard study and writing. Later Chaucer was appointed "Knight for the Shire of Kent", which meant that he sat in Parliament as a representative for Kent. He often had to go on business to Kent and there he observed the pilgrimages to Canterbury. The third period of Chaucer's creative work begins in the year 1384, when he started writing his masterpiece, The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer died in 1400 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
The Canterbury Tales This is the greatest work of Chaucer in which his realism, irony and freedom of views reached such a high level that it had no equal in all the English literature up to the 16th century. That's why Chaucer was called "the founder of realism" It is for the Canterbury Tales that Chaucer's name is best rememberedd The book is an unfinished collection of stories in verse told by the pilgrims on their journey to Canterburyy Each pilgrim was to tell four storiess Chaucer managed to write only twenty-four instead of the proposed one hundred and twenty-four storiess All his characters are typical representatives of their classes. When assembled, they form one people, the English people. Chaucer kept the whole poem alive and full of humour not only by the tales themselves but also by the talk, comments and the opinions of the pilgrims. The prologue is the most interesting part of the work. It acquaints the reader with medieval society. The pilgrims are persons of different social ranks and occupations. Chaucer has portrayed them with great skill at once as types and as individuals true to their own age. There is a knight, a yeoman (a man who owned land; a farmer), a nun, a monk, a priest, a"merchant, a clerk, a sailor, Chaucer himself and others, thirty-one pilgrims in all. The knight is brave, simple and modest. He is Chaucer's ideal of a soldier. The nun weeps seeing a mouse caught in a trap but turns her head from a beggar in his "ugly rags" The fat monk prefers hunting and good dinners to prayerss The merchant's wife is merry and strongg She has red cheeks and red stockings on her fat legss The clerk is a poor philosopher who spends all his money on bookss Each of the travellers tells a different kind of story showing his own views and character. Some are comical, gay, witty or romantic, others are serious and even tragic. In Chaucer's age the English language was still divided by dialects. Chaucer wrote in the London dialect, the most popular one at that time. With his poetry the London dialect became the English literary language. Chaucer does not teach his readers what is good or bad by moralizing; he was not a preacher. He merely paid attention to the people around him; he drew his characters "according to profession and degree", so they instantly became typical of their class.