Geoffrey Chaucer (10) Poem by Sylvia Frances Chan

GEOFFREY CHAUCER (10)

Literary Context

Chaucer's works often reflect what he was reading and doing
at the time he wrote them.

This forms the basis of the old, not entirely unjustified division of his career into a French, Italian, and English period.
His early works reflect his admiration for French courtly verse.

His discovery of Italian poetry influenced both
the form and subject matter of his poetry.

The time in which he worked on The Canterbury Tales
is marked
by a change in his attitude to poetry and the depiction of life
in the England of his time.

But there were also the classics,
which he got to know during his education,
and the Bible as a source of information.

In the late fourteenth century
there was a busy interaction
between
Latin, Italian, French, and English.

This is illustrated, for example,
by the story of 'Griselda' in The Clerk's Tale.

It was written in Italian by Boccaccio
and Petrarch made a Latin translation,
which was translated into French by his friend Philippe de Mézières
and then written in English by Chaucer.

OLALA! ! ALL SO WONDERFUL ARTISTIC HERE.
See you all in Geoffrey Chaucer (11)

©Sylvia Frances Chan -- Anno Domini
Sunday 8 October 2023