~Appunti scolastici~

Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer was born in 1343 by a rich wine mercant in London. During the war in France he was taken prisoner and raisoned by the king. we grew up in close contact with the royal family and travelled a lot, in fact when he was in Italy, became interested in Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio. In 1374 was nominated to the office of contyroller of the customs and became a member of parliament. In 1386 he was dismissed and in this period he began to work on his masterpiece. the canterbury tales. After, he was appointed Clerk by king Richard II. He died in 1400 and was the first poet to be burried in Westmister Abbey.

Chaucer is regarded as the father of english literature and the first major secular poet, he is one of the first english poet to be know by name and his lenguage became the basis of modern english. Choucer works are divided into: French period, Italian Period and English Period. In this masterpiece: the canterbury tales he speacks about the english society of his time.

In particular, the canterbury tales is a long narrative poem, tells the story of 30 people: man, women and other member of the clergy, who are going in a Pilgrimage. London is a starting point and Canterbury final point and is a spiritual journey, allegorism of rebirth. Consist in a general prologue, where the pilgrims are introduced and usally preceded by a prologue (an introduction of the themes of tales, sometimes followed by an epilogue). They are narrated by different pilgrims, in particular Chaucer use a sort of interpli between real and unreal; the pilgrimage provides a dynamic frame, there is no logical order of events, but all remains in flux and on the road. Chaucer including rappresentatives of feudal society, member of clergy and the middle class. There is an individualisation because Chaucer described clothe, personal quality and other caratteristic. The main theme is the journey to the shrine of Thomas Becket.

By the 14 century existed a new middle class, the freeman earned more from food price and wool, that gave work to many people. Cloth-making was the county's chief industry and the peolple organised themself in groups called "guilds", that were supported by paymants of their member, finally the guilds controlled the quality of goods, the price and wages and sometimes they organised fairs and feast day.

In the General Prologue of the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer includes rapresentatives of the most social classes, like a member of high clergy, Eylantyne. She has perfect nose, blu-grey eyes and small mounth; she is an elegant lady and she only swears by St Loy, which sounds ironical because St Loy was the protector of goldensmith. She is fond of animals and feeds her dogs with roasted meat and fine bread. She wears jewellery as she has a red-coral rosarey and an alegant gold brooch with the motto Amor vincit omnia.