姓名:钱勇 班级:09级英语科二班 学号:19
My Comment on Geoffrey Chaucer
1 His life
Geoffrey Chaucer a great narrative poet is thought of as Father of English Poetry He was born in a welltodo wine merchant’s family in London and studied at Oxford and Cambridge
In 1359 he joined in the Hundred Years War and went with the English army to France and in 1367 he began to serve in the government King Edward III sent him on several diplomatic trips to Europe and stayed for some time in France and Italy
In 1386 he was elected Member of Parliament but lost that post soon due to the maneuvers of his enemies He had some difficult time In 1389 he was made Clerk of the King’s Works at Westminster and Windsor He was admired by Henry IV who issued him a pension
After Geoffrey Chaucer died he was buried in the Westminster Abbey The place became the famous Poets’ Corner
Geoffrey Chaucer was a creative author His creative work reflected the changes which had taken place in English culture sine the second half of the 14th century During that the foundation of the feudal system was challenged by people’s insurrections like the 1381 peasant uprising In religion the glory of the Catholic Church was also on the wane Chaucer’s creative career is usually divided into three phases
The phase of French influence
The phase of Italian influence
The English phase
The phase of realism in which his masterpiece the Canterbury tales was created
2 His works
His major work is Canterbury Tales In this work Chaucer presents a picturesque panorama of his contemporary England and shows his realistic tendency subtle irony and freedom of views all of which had no equal in the English literature before the 16th century Although Chaucer is not entirely free from medieval prejudices they take a very inconsiderable place in the tales He praises man’s energy intellect quick wit and the love for life and mocks at the Roman Catholic authorities who exploit the English people All these mark him as an avantgrade of the coming Age of Renaissance in England
3 His contributions
Geoffrey Chaucer learnt from both French and Latin poetry and then worked out a unique style for the English poetry that had absorbed nourishments from the more advanced European poetry of the time and at the same time reserved its AngloSaxon poetic features And the realism and humanity concerns demonstrated in his works looked forward to the coming English Renaissance
His literary career was also closely related with the development of English There were several dialects in the spoken English of Chaucer’s time But because he used the English of the London dialect to compose poetry it became a literary language that is a language rich and expressive enough to use for literary purposes Today we call the English used and developed by Chaucer and his contemporaries Middle English which was the foundation of modern English
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