Geoffrey Chaucer (2)

Geoffrey Chaucer: (2) This is the sequel of Introducing Geoffrey Chaucer, medieval English poet He was an exceptionally gifted author and poet, Chaucer had a busy public life as a soldier, courtier, diplomat, and civil servant, serving a variety of public functions. During his career, he was the confidant and protege of three additional kings, namely Edward III (1312-1377) , Richard II (1367-1400) and Henry IV (1367-1413) . Geoffrey Chaucer lived between 1343-1403 and thus qualifies as medieval. The Middle Ages, as first defined in the Renaissance, has long been understood as a period of backwardness and superstition. Yet Chaucer found the time to write thousands of lines of verse that are still highly valued and admired by literature lovers today. There was no judicial torture in Chaucer's England (as there was in Renaissance England, and under US jurisdiction today) no witches were burned; nobody was put to death for their religious beliefs. Chaucer's England showed immense resilience in recovering from the bubonic plague that wiped out one-third of Europe's population (perhaps one-half) in 1348-1349. The period 1370-1400 is one of the three greatest in English literary history, along with 1580-1610, and 1790-1820. Chaucer himself is more of a Renaissance man than any subsequent writer. He studied and translated scientific treatises and works of astrology, theology, and alchemy, plus works of philosophical dialogue and theories of dreams. He was fascinated by the lives and fate of those who lived in pagan antiquity by what happens after death, by farts. His earlier writings explore dream vision formats and the lives and loves of those trapped in the doomed city of Troy. ©Sylvia Frances Chan - 3 August 2023