ENGLISH LITERATURE

Team Number 1


Date of birth: 1343 in Londres,England.
Death: October 25th., 1940,England.
Nationality: English
Ocupation: writer,philosoper and English poet.

He is consider one of the most famous poet in the middle Ages.
He was the first poet to be buried in Poets Corner of Westminster Abbey.
Famous works

The book of the Duchess
House of fame
The legend of Good women
The Troilus and criseyde

He is well known as the author of the Canterbury Tales

Chaucer was a crucial figure in developing the
legitimacy of the vernacular, Middle English,
at a time when the dominant
literary languages in England were French and Latin.





Roman de la Rose

The Roman de la Rose is a poem of about 22,000 octosyllabic that
takes the form of allegorical dream.
Although consists of two parts, which were written at different
times.

The best-seller
first part

by Guillaume de Loris






The first part of the poem was written by Guillaume of Lorris,
which consists for 4.058 octosyllabic.
It was elaborated between 1225 and 1240.


Second part
The play was interrupted for the early death of
Guillaume of Lorris, was continued by Jean de
Meung with 17.722 verses
between 1275 and 1280.




Jean de Meung
The Book of the
Duchess
The Book of the Duchess, also known as The Deth of
Blaunche

is the earliest of Chaucer's major poems,
preceded only by his short poem, "An ABC," and
possibly by his translation of The Romaunt of the Rose.
Most sources put the date of composition after 12
September 1368.
Overwhelming (if disputed) evidence suggests
that Chaucer wrote the poem to commemorate
the death of Blanche of Lancaster, wife of John
of Gaunt.
At the beginning of the poem, the sleepless poet lies in bed, reading a book. A
collection of old stories, the book tells the story of Ceyx and Alcyone. The story tells
of how Ceyx lost his life at sea, and how Alcyone, his wife, mourned his absence.
Unsure of his fate, she prays to the goddess Juno to send her a dream vision. Juno
sends a messenger to Morpheus to bring the body of Ceyx with a message to
Alcyone.
The messenger finds Morpheus and relays Juno's orders. Morpheus finds
the drowned Ceyx and bears him to Alcyone three hours before dawn. The
deceased Ceyx instructs Alcyone to bury him and to cease her sorrow, and
when Alcyone opens her eyes Ceyx has gone.
The poet stops relaying the story of Ceyx and Alcyone and
reflects that he wished that he had a god such as Juno or
Morpheus so that he could sleep like Alcyone and describes
the lavish bed he would gift to Morpheus should he discover
his location.
Lost in the book and his thoughts, the poet suddenly
falls asleep with the book in his hands. He states that
his dream is so full of wonder that no man may
interpret it correctly. He begins to relay his dream.
THE CANTERBURY
TALES
The tales were written in the late fourteenth century .

The Canterbury Tales is one of the most important
works of English literature, and perhaps the best work of
the Middle Ages in England. It was the last work of
Geoffrey Chaucer. The version of the work that prevails
today comes from two different English manuscripts: the
Ellesmere and Hengwrt manuscripts.


The stories written in Middle English (some original,
some not, two written in prose and the rest in verse), are
contained in a larger narrative and are narrated by a
group of pilgrims traveling from Southwark to
Canterbury to visit temple of Saint Thomas Becket at
the cathedral Canterbury.
THE CANTERBURY CHURCH
The work becomes interesting both to his
contemporaries as currently, it was the first literary work
written in English; Chaucer wrote before only in French
or Latin, because just people in a higher cultural level
could understand.

Chaucer began writing the Canterbury Tales in the
1380s, but left them at the end of the next decade. It is
likely that Chaucer did not have a fixed structure in
writing the work, as this seems to have been revised
several times.

The structure of "tales content 'in The Canterbury Tales
is easily found in other works of the period, as the Book
of good love of the Archpriest of Hita, Juan Manuel and
Boccaccio's Decameron., Which can have been the
main source of inspiration for Chaucer.

Troilus and
criseyde
Troilus and criseyde
Troilus and Criseyde is a poem which re-tells
in Middle English the tragic story of the
lovers Troilus and Criseyde set against a backdrop of
war in the Siege of Troy.
It was composed using rime royale and probably
completed during the mid 1380s. Many Chaucer
scholars regard it as the poet's finest work. As a
finished long poem it is certainly more self-
contained than the better known but ultimately
uncompleted Canterbury Tales.
The Legend of Good
Women
The Legend of Good
Women
The Legend of Good Women is a poem in the form of
a dream vision
The poem is the third longest of Chaucers works,
after The Canterbury Tales and Troilus and Criseyde and
is possibly the first significant work in English to use
the iambic pentameter or decasyllabic couplets which
he later used throughout the Canterbury Tales.
This form of the heroic couplet would become a
significant part of English literature no doubt inspired
by Chaucer.
The prologue describes how Chaucer is
reprimanded by the god of love and his queen,
Alceste, for his workssuch as Troilus and
Criseydedepicting women in a poor light. Criseyde
is made to seem inconstant in love in that earlier
work, and Alceste demands a poem of Chaucer
extolling the virtues of women and their good deeds.
In The Parliament of Fowls, Chaucer tells us, on Saint Valentines Day, the vision he
has as a court poet, about nature, when each bird was there to choose his partner. I
quote some of the most known verses from The Parliament of Fowls*:

Life is so short, profession so long to learn,
attempt so difficult, victory so tough,
the terrible joy so hard to obtain,
all that passing by so quicklythat is, what I call Love
since his wonders in this stage of the world
confounds so much that, when thinking about,
I scarcely know if I sink or swim.
CHAUCEERS TRANSLATION OF BOETHIUS S CONSOLIDATION OF
PHILOSOPHY.
Consolation of Philosophy is a work written by Boethius in latin, during the last years of
his life.
This books were written in prison while Boethius awaiting his trial and subsequent
execution.
He divided his work into five books:

Book One: Boethius explains his sadness, and philosophy, which explains that man has
forgotten its true purpose is presented.
Book Two: Speaking of fortune and property (real or fictitious) that this entails.
Book Three: Explain that the fortunes of men is not small goods and individuals, but in
God, the Supreme Being.
Book Four: why God despite there is evil in the world.
Book Five: Discuss the human will in relation to God's omnipresence.
The House of Fame

The House of Fame is a poem by Geoffrey Chaucer, probably
written between 1379 and 1380, making it one of his earlier
works.
The House of Fame is over 2,000 lines long in three books and
takes the form of a dream vision composed in octosyllabic
couplets. Upon falling asleep the poet finds himself in a glass
temple adorned with images of the famous and their deeds.
With an eagle as a guide, he meditates on the nature of fame
and the trustworthiness of recorded renown.
The poem contains the earliest known uses in
the English language of the terms galaxy and
Milky Way:

"See yonder, lo, the Galaxy
Which men clepeth the Milky Wey,
For hit is whyt."
Geoffrey Chaucer The House of Fame,
Anelida and Arcite

Anelida and Arcite is a 357-line English poem by Geoffrey
Chaucer. It tells the story of Anelida, queen of Armenia and
her wooing by false Arcite from Thebes, Greece.
Although relatively short[dubious discuss], it is a poem with
a complex structure, with an invocation and then the main
story. The story is made up of an introduction and a complaint
by Anelida which is in turn made up of a proem, a strophe,
antistrophe and a conclusion.
Like many of Chaucer's works it ends abruptly, and may be
unfinished.
It is a medieval instruction manual on the astrolabe
by Geoffrey Chaucer. It is notable for being written
in prose, in English and for describing a scientific
instrument.
It is considered the "oldest work in English written
upon an elaborate scientific instrument". It is
admired for its clarity in explaining difficult
conceptsalthough modern readers lacking an
actual astolabe may find the details of the astrolabe
difficult to understand.
The astrolabe was a sophisticated precision
instrument. With it one could determine the
date, time (when the sky was clear), the
position of stars, the passage of the zodiac,
latitude on the earth's surface, tides and basic
surveying. Care must be taken not to dismiss
the astrological aspects; as well as any mystical
interpretation astrological terminology was
used for what today would be recognized as
astronomy. Determining when the sun entered
a house (or sign) of the zodiac was a precise
determination of the calendar.
Chaucer's introduction to the work lays out his planned
structure:
A description of the astrolabe
A rudimentary course in using the instrument
Various tables of longitudes, latitudes, declinations, etc.
A "theorike" (theory) of the motion of the celestial
bodies, in particular a table showing the "very moving of
the moon"
An introduction to the broader field of "astrologie," a
word which at the time referred to the entire span of
what we now divide into astrology and astronomy.
Little child Lewis, my son, I have
perceived well by certain evidence
your ability to learn science
touching numbers and proportions.
And I also consider your request in
particular to learn the treatise of
the astrolabe. And for as much as a
philosopher says "he wraps himself
in his friend that condescends to the
request of his friend", therefore
have I given you an astrolabe
sufficient for our location, calibrated
to the latitude of Oxford, upon
which is the text of this little
treatise.
REFERENCES
http://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/library/library_exhibitions/schoolre
sources/astrolabe/chaucer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Chaucer
Chaucer, Geoffrey. "Troilus and Criseyde." The Online
Medieval and Classical Library. Roy Tennant, March 1995.
Web. 5 May 2010.
Troilus and Criseyde, UK: BBC.
Citation. Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Legend of Lood Women.
NeCastro, Gerard, ed. and trans. eChaucer:
http://www.umm.maine.edu/faculty/necastro/chaucer
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_cuentos_de_Canterbury