(c.1342–October 25, 1400), was known as the “Father of English Poetry.” He was honored as an English poet-laureate. The son of a vintner, he was born in London; rose to being a page to the Countess of Ulster, 1357; captured while fighting in France; and ransomed by Edward III, 1360. In 1385, Chaucer became a knight of the shire for Kent and a Justice of the Peace. He was supported by his steady patron, John of Gaunt (1340–1399), to whom he was related through marriage. At his death, he was buried in Westminster Abbey. His works include: The Book of the Duchess; The House of Fame; The Parliament of Fowls; Troilus and Criseyde, and a translation of Boethius’ De Consolatione Philosophiae.
In his classic work, The Canterbury Tales, 1387, Geoffrey Chaucer stated:
Who folwith Cristes Gospel and His lord
But we, that humble ben, and chast, and pore,
Workers of Goddes Word, not auditours.
—The Sompnoures Tale11
O cause first of our confusioun,
Till Crist had bought us with His blood agayn!
Loketh, how dere, schortly for to sayn,
Abought was first this cursed felonye;
Corrupt was al this world for glutonye.
Adam our fader, and his wyf also,
Fro Paradys to labour and to wo
Were dryven for that vice, it is no drede.
For whils that Adam fasted, as I rede,
He was in Paradys, and when that he
Eet of the fruyt defendit of a tre,
He was cast out to wo and into peyne.
Now for the love of Crist that for us dyde,
Levith youre othis, borthe gret and smale.
—The Pardoneres Tale12
But Cristes loore and his apostles twelve
He taughte, but first he folwed it hymselve.13
For in the sterres, clearer than is glass,
Is written, God woot, whoso koude it reade,
The deeth of every man.14
Sathan, that evere us waiteth to bigile.15
Geoffrey Chaucer, at the end of his Tales of Canterbury, inserted a retraction:
Now I beg all those that listen to this little treatise, or read it, that if there be anything in it that pleases them, they thank Our Lord Jesu Christ for it, from whom proceeds all understanding and goodness.
And if there be anything that displeases them, I beg them also to impute it to the fault of my want of ability, and not to my will, who would very gladly have said better if I had the power. For our Book says “all that is written is written for our doctrine”; and that is my intention. Wherefore I beseech you meekly for the mercy of God to pray for me, that Christ have mercy on me and forgive me my sins; and especially for my translations and editings of worldly vanities, which I revoke in my retractions; as are the book of Troilus; also the book of Fame; the book of Nineteen Ladies; the book of The Duchess; the book of St. Valentine’s Day of the Parliament of Fowls; The Tales of Canterbury, those that tend towards sin; the book of The Lion; and many another book, if they were in my memory; and many a song and many a lecherous lay; that Christ in His great mercy forgive me the sin.
But the translation of Boethius De Consolatione, and other books of Saints’ legends, of homilies, and morality and devotion, for them I thank our Lord Jesu Christ and His blissful Mother, and all the Saints of Heaven; beseeching them that they henceforth, to my life’s end, send me grace to bewail my sins and to study the salvation of my soul; and grant me the grace of true penitence, confession and satisfaction, that I may perform them in this present life, through the benign grace of Him that is King of kings and Priest over all priests, who brought us with the precious blood of His heart; so that I may be one of those that the Day of Judgement shall be saved, Qui cum Patre, etc.
Here ends the book of the Tales of Canterbury compiled by Geoffrey Chaucer, on whose soul Jesu Christ have mercy. Amen.16