Talk:Geoffrey Chaucer

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Contents 1 Comments 2 Translation 3 Introduction 4 Marriage 5 Trivia 6 Chaucer's ethnicity 7 "Obliged"

[edit] Comments

I changed The Roman of the Rose to the Romance of the Rose, which is misleading but at least in a single language. I think that's the title used on most translations (both my copies are at the office). --MichaelTinkler

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A "tenant" is someone who lives on somebody else's property. Chaucer isn't living in Poet's Corner, and I think the part he's using is probably his now. Would somebody please choose a better word for this? -- isis 31 Aug 2002

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We should not forget the earliest extant original narrative we have by Chaucer, the dream vision called the "Book of the Duchess" (written before the "House of Fame" or the "Parliament of Fowls"). It fuses the genres of elegy and dream vision as never before (closest parallel being the theological allegory "Pearl"), and draws from the beginnings of several love visions by the French poets Machaut and Froissart, always setting the borrowed material in unexpected contexts, and deleting Love as the theme, thus setting up his own vision as a narrative description of the beginnings of Poetry -- maybe. Beware of those calling it derivative! Chaucer changes the whole ending of the story he borrows from Ovid's "Metamorphoses," and then uses its comedic potential to draw us uncritically into his siting of the origins of poetry in the Cave of Morpheus, the god of sleep. The poem's combination of beauty and oddity creates the inventive readers the rest of his poetry demands. Among the best of this poem's many imaginative readers are Wolfgang Clemen, Ellen E. Martin, A. C. Spearing. Wordsworth is indebted to it for some aspects of "Resolution and Independence" ("The Leech-Gatherer"), and Walter Scott alludes to it at length in his account of "The Antiquary." -- Jazzbojackson 06:11, 21 Jan 2005 (UTC)

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Which year was he born in? 1340 or 1343? --216.240.152.74 01:40, 1 October 2005 (UTC)

It is not known for certain. He says in 1386 that he is fourty years and more, while another comment suggests he was born after 1340 so 1343 is a traditional compromise date. I'll change the lead date to agree with the other two. MeltBanana 13:27, 1 October 2005 (UTC)

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Sorry for the major edit. The page is full of all sorts of small errors. Still left is the list of word coinages, which I assume is taken from the OED. The OED is a notoriously unreliable source for this kind of thing, because when it was written, the only consulted major works to find first usages, and so you tend to find the major writers like Chaucer, Shakespeare, and so on, being credited with the most introductions. Chaucer, in all likelihood, probably used the language that was around him, and is probably not responsible for many loan words or neologisms. Amans.

No need to apologise for your edits, someone as important as Chaucer needs all the editors he can muster, although I don't agree with all your edits. Chaucer did help to standadise the language just as all writers of the time did His influence in this area might be much smaller than is traditionally given to him but it is a well established and should be represented before being shot down. Also the word list is more to do with showing the importance of Chaucer in the corpus rather then as a crazed neologiser; I have tried to address this in the article.

One thing I have been thinking of adding that you may have some ideas on is a sample of his writing, probably the opening of the Tales. The only problem is finding a non-copyright source for a translation of the prologue for a side by side comparison. I though of offering my own translation but was worried I might do too much violence to it and breach the doctrine of no original research. If you have a good translation it might be worth adding. MeltBanana 01:10, 9 November 2005 (UTC)

I only have this:

And when that April with his showers sweet,

Has quenched the drought of March in every root

And bathed each leaf and vein in that rich dew,

From which the flowers are born each year anew,

And when that Zephyrus with his sweet breath

Has so inspired in every holt and heath

The tender crops, and when the quick’ning sun

Has halfway through his course in Aries run,

And small birds are to melody inspired

To sleep all the night with wide open eyes

(So nature plucks at their hearts and spirit)

Then people long to go on pilgrimage

And palmers yearn to see strange sands,

To visit distant shrines in sundry lands;

And from each and every English shire’s end

To Canterbury all at once they wend,

To seek that martyr holy of heaven’s bliss

Whom aided them when they were all amiss

But it still needs work. And in any case, the problems you note arise. Incidentally, talking of new sections, I think that something on the development of Chaucer's versification might be appropriate: there is a very definite trend in the development of his style, similar to that of Shakespeare, which is hugely useful to know because it helps date his work. (Amans)

Yes a versification section with more detail in the development of his craft would be good. Although I doubt I could be of much help as meter and rhyme are details I have no great understanding of; I would not recognise a trochee if I fell over one. My own attempt at translating the opening of the Tales shows this by dispensing with the poetry and instead trying to do a word for word translation of the the difficult vocabulary.

When April with his showers sweet

Has pierced the drought of March to the root,

And bathed every vein in such liquor

Of which virue is engendered in the flower;

When Zephyr also with his sweet breath

Breathed in to every wood and heath

The tender crops, and the young sun

Has in Aries half his course run,

And small fowls make melody,

That sleep all the night with open eye

(So Nature encourages them in their hearts),

Then folk long to go on pilgrimages,

And pilgrims go to seek strange sands

To far shrines, known in sundry lands

And specially from every shire's end

Of England to Canterbury they wend,

The holy blessed martyr for to seek,

That has helped them when they were sick.

I'm not sure what is the best approach for a side by side translation but I don't know that original research should be too much of a concern, it is not like propounding a new theory. Also any non-copyright sources may well be a little too Victorian anyway. MeltBanana 16:17, 9 November 2005 (UTC)

Need more on influence to present day. Much more can be gotten/linked to at TEAMS, especially on medieval Chaucer-influenced works. Dan Knauss

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How is it that Chaucer was born in El Salvador??? That's in Central America!71.104.125.94 04:52, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Translation

Since the topic of translation has been dormant for four months I've inserted a passage. It's only three lines longer than a similar quote at Beowulf. Wikipedia encourages users to translate from other language versions of the encyclopedia, so I see nothing wrong with doing an original translation here. Durova 00:10, 16 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Introduction

An article of this length ought to have a three paragraph introduction. I've expanded the one short paragraph a little. This needs help from ther editors who know his life better. Durova 03:40, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Marriage

"Around 1366 Chaucer married Philippa (de) Roet at St Mary de Castro (Leicester)"

Do we have a source on this? I've seen the mauscripts on Chaucer's life and there isn't anything about this. The most we have is evidence that he was married before 1366, but no record of his actual marriage, which could have occured anywhere during the six-year fault in records. it is furthurmore possible that Chaucer met his future wife before 1360, and would likely have been married soon afterwards. If this is from a source outside of Chaucer: Life-Records (Martin M. Crow and Clair C. Olsen. 1966) I'd really like to see it. Diabolic 09:35, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Trivia

In Santa Barbara, California, there is a bookstore named Chaucer's. The owner's cat is or was named Geoffrey.

A character from the movie "A Knight's Tale" is named Geoffrey Chaucer and in the commentary, the movie is said to take place in 1377 the time when he took his mysterious trip, mentioned in the article --Aaronpark 23:32, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Chaucer's ethnicity

I am curious to know whether Chaucer was of Anglo-Norman or Anglo-Saxon derivation, or perhaps something else?

[edit] "Obliged"

"Edward III granted Chaucer a gallon of wine daily for the rest of his life because he had...shall we say...'obliged' his highness." What is this supposed to mean? 71.232.96.127 05:56, 2 December 2006 (UTC)