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Geoffrey Chaucer |
Geoffrey Chaucer was a short, cheerful man with a large head, white hair and spindly legs who traveled widely in Europe, carrying messages for the king and living with the people, royal and ribald, who were to become the models for his famous Canterbury pilgrims. So good was his service to the king that in 1374 he won the favor of the court and the promise of a gallon of wine a day for the rest of his life. A goodly grant. He thought his future was secure, and during the well-paying royal assignments that followed, he began to write The Canterbury Tales.
But the fortunes of his patron, Richard II, declined and Chaucer fell on hard times before finishing his work. The father of English poetry eked out his last days in rooms on the grounds of Westminster Abbey, dying of unknown causes at the age of fifty-seven. A hundred years later, in 1556, his remains were moved to the Poets Corner in Westminster Abbey, the first writer to be so honored.
Prologue from Canterbury Tales
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Immortal Poets: Their Lives and Verse, by Christopher Burns |