Who is Chaucer?

is an
English poet and writer who lived from about 1342€“1400 in London. This was the high Middle Ages
and the period in which the Black Death devastated the European population. Chaucer is
considered by many the greatest English writer before Shakespeare, largely on the basis of his
masterpieces: and . He also worked as government
official for several kings.

Although he is known for his humorous and bawdy
writing, such as is often used in The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer's first
claim to fame came with a 1370 poem called , a dream vision which
commemorated the death from the plague of Blanche, the first wife of John of Gaunt, Duke of
Lancastera son of King Edward III with whom Chaucer was friends.

Chaucer was
much influenced by the Renaissance, which brought the classical works of Greek and Roman authors
to the forefront of European thought. One of his most famous works, Troilus and
Criseyde, is based on the Trojan War, and Chaucer is known to have read such
Classical authors as Ovid and Aesop.

Chaucer's versatility in many styles of
writing and his ability to draw from many sources is on display in The Canterbury
Tales. The work is famous for being secular and trying to
present people as they really are rather than as types or in idealized forms. The work is
written in Middle English, a precursor to modern English, that can be difficult but (notably)
not impossible to read in the original.