Portable Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer was born in London, the son of a wine-merchant, in about 1342, and as he spent his life in royal government service his career happens to be unusually well documented. By 1357 Chaucer was a page to the wife of Prince Lionel, second son of Edward III, and it was while in the prince's service that Chaucer was ransomed when captured during the English campaign in France in 1359-60. Chaucer's wife Philippa, whom he married c. 1365, was the sister of Katherine Swynford, the mistress (c. 1370) and third wife (1396) of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, whose first wife Blanche (d. 1368) is commemorated in Chaucer's ealrist major poem, The Book of the Duchess.From 1374 Chaucer worked as controller of customs on wool in the port of London, but between 1366 and 1378 he made a number of trips abroad on official business, including two trips to Italy in 1372-3 and 1378. The influence of Chaucer's encounter with Italian literature is felt in the poems he wrote in the late 1370's and early 1380s – The House of Fame, The Parliament of Fowls and a version of The Knight's Tale – and finds its fullest expression in Troilus and Criseyde.In 1386 Chaucer was member of parliament for Kent, but in the same year he resigned his customs post, although in 1389 he was appointed Clerk of the King's Works (resigning in 1391). After finishing Troilus and his translation into English prose of Boethius' De consolatione philosophiae, Chaucer started his Legend of Good Women. In the 1390s he worked on his most ambitious project, The Canterbury Tales, which remained unfinished at his death. In 1399 Chaucer leased a house in the precincts of Westminster Abbey but died in 1400 and was buried in the Abbey.

• IntroductionSuggested Readings and Other AidsTHE CANTERBURY TALESPrologueThe Knight's TalePrologue to the Miller's TaleThe Miller's TalePrologue to the Reeve's TaleThe Reeve's TalePrologue to the Cook's TaleThe Words of the Host to the CompanyPrologue to the Lawyer's TaleEpilogue to the Lawyer's TaleThe Words of the Host to the Shipman and PrioressPrologue to the Prioress's TaleThe Prioress's TalePrologue to "Sir Topaz"Sir TopazThe Host's Interruption of "Sir Topaz"Epilogue to the Tale of MelibeusThe Knight's Interruption of the Monk's TaleThe Nun's Priest's TaleEpilogue to the Nun's Priest's TalePrologue to the Wife of Bath's TaleThe Wife of Bath's TalePrologue to the Friar's TaleThe Friar's TalePrologue to the Summoner's TaleThe Summoner's TalePrologue to and Conclusion of the Student's TaleChaucer's EnvoyPrologue to the Merchant's TaleThe Merchant's TaleEpilogue to the Merchant's TaleEpilogue to the Squire's TalePrologue to the Franklin's TaleThe Franklin's TaleThe Words of the Host to the Physician and PardonerPrologue to the Pardoner's TaleThe Pardoner's TalePrologue to the Manciple's TalePrologue to the Parson's TaleChaucer's RetractationTROILUS AND CRESSIDATranslator's NoteTextSELECTIONS AND SHORT POEMSfrom The Book of the Duchessfrom The House of Fame, Book IIfrom The Bird's Parliamentfrom the Prologue to the Legend of Good WomenNobilityTruthLack of SteadfastnessChaucer's Envoy to BuktonChaucer's Words to Adam, His Own CopyistChaucer's Complaint to His PurseChaucer's Envoy to Scogan

“The most successful translations of Chaucer’s poetry that I have ever seen.”—Chicago Tribune