How Well Do You Know Geoffrey Chaucer?

writer and poet who is considered one of the greatest in English literature. ​• He wrote in Middle English, which was spoken by the ​common people, and not in Latin or French, which were ​the languages of the educated and the aristocracy. ​• His most famous work is The Canterbury Tales, a ​collection of stories told by pilgrims on their way to ​Canterbury. ​• The tales are written in verse and are full of humor, ​irony, and satire. ​• Chaucer was also a civil servant, working as a clerk, ​diplomat, and member of parliament. ​• He died in 1400, and his tomb in Westminster Abbey ​is a testament to his importance in English literature. ​• After Chaucer, English literature continued to ​develop, with writers like William Shakespeare, John ​Milton, and Jane Austen becoming famous for their ​works. ​• English literature has continued to evolve, with ​writers like Virginia Woolf, George Orwell, and J.K. Rowling ​making their mark on the literary world.Geoffrey Chaucer, a poet and author, was referred to as the "father of English literature". He passed away in 1400, approximately four decades prior to the invention of printing. The Canterbury Tales, a masterpiece of modern literature, showcases Chaucer's observations of real-life, tolerant, humorous, skeptical, passionate, and humanity-loving individuals. Chaucer's language is modern and recognizable to our time, as demonstrated in The Pardoner's Tale, where he denounces the sin of gluttony. Chaucer's works have become part of everyday speech, and his brilliant descriptive abilities and humor captivate readers, making them forget that they are reading a poet who lived six centuries ago. The Canterbury Tales is a collection of short stories that bring together individuals of all temperaments and social statuses, intermingling them and making them narrate stories that illustrate their personalities. Chaucer's work sparkles with drama and life, as each character has their own way of speaking and philosophy, providing a picture of the world itself. Pilgrimages were common in Chaucer's time, and The Canterbury Tales immortalizes one such pilgrimage where the landlord of the Tabard Inn offers a free supper to the pilgrim who tells the best story on the long road to Canterbury. Chaucer's most famous work, Troilus and Criseyde, is a tragic love story filled with humor and modern psychology, making it read like a modern novel. The ballad, one of the oldest poetic forms in English, is a type of poem that tells a story and was traditionally set to music, typically composed of four-line stanzas that follow an ABCB rhyme scheme. William Caxton, who set up the printing press in 1476, realized the difficulty in determining what kind of English to print. In 1484, he printed the Morte D' Arthur of Sir Thomas Malory, which is the fullest record of the mythical Knights of the Table, their loves, treacheries, and their search for the Holy Grail.