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 THE PERIOD OF GEOFFREY CHAUCER:

  THE LATE MIDDLE AGES(1066-1485)

Geoffrey Chaucer was born in London between 1340 and 1345 and died in

1400.It was during the last ten years of his life that Chaucer worked on his masteriece that touched all hases of !nglish life" #heCanterbury #ales$ that describes nearly e%ery tye of erson thatcould be found in mediae%al !ngland in different social classes$ trades androfession.Chaucer&s works are commonly di%ided into three eriods"

1. the 'rench eriod" 'rench culture was %ery imortant in !ngland at thetime(

). the Italian eriod" Chaucer following the e*amles of +occaccio and,ante.

3. the !nglish eriod" he wrote #he Canterbury #ales which was robablybegun in 13-.

,uring the eriod of Chaucer there were two imortant wars" the /undredears& ar and the ar of the 2oses$ the latter was a disute between ri%alfamilies.#he longest and most significant of these began in 133 when !dward III

claimed the 'rench crown with the ustifications that his mother was the sister of the 'rench king. #he war was to continue on and off for well o%er a centuryand became known as #he /undred ears& ar 13314536.#he real reasonfor this war was to di%ert the attention of the 'rench away from neighbouring'landers which they were threatening to in%ade$ and which was !ngland&srincial market in the e*ort of wool.et no sooner had the /undred ears& ar 145514-56 come to a close thana blood feud broke out between the two ri%al houses of Lancaster and ork.#his feud degenerated into a ci%il war between the two ri%al families whichwas to go on for 30 years. +ecause the emblem of both families was a rose$red for Lancaster and white for ork$ it became known as the ar of the2oses. 7ll of this fighting and feuding was suorted by an ideology in which war wase*alted as a noble occuation. #he idea of chi%alry was introduced aroundthe middle of the 14th  century. #his was a set of %alues 8 loyalty$ bra%ery$honesty and glory by which knights were suosed to li%e and$ more oftenhan not$ die. It was an e*tremely imortant element of the courtly romances$centred around the figure of 9ing 7rthur$ which aeared throughout !uroein this eriod.

 7nother imortant e%ent during the life of Chaucer was the : +lack ,eath;$ aneidemic of bubonic lague which sread raidly through !uroe in 134-.

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#he lague was caused by infected rats which tra%elled on the shis thatwere trading with !uroe and its raid sread was assisted by the aallingsanitation and li%ing conditions which e*isted in the flourishing towns.#he +lack ,eath is reorted to ha%e killed about a third of +ritain&s

oulation.In the late medie%al eriod there was a rise in the merchants and a change inthe ercetion of the figure of the merchant. In early medie%al !uroe therofession of the merchant was desised. ith the economic re%olution of the1)th  and the 13th  centuries and the rise of towns the rofession of themerchant de%eloed and he became a %alued and esteemed member of thenew society. #here was also a new %alue at that time$ time is money$ due tothe e*losion of trades and commerce. 7round the time of the 14th century$ the growth of towns brought with it ane*losion of new occuations" artisans and tradesmen of %arious tyes$ fromsmiths and shoemakers to carenters$ butchers and bakers$ etc.#hese skilled artisans organised themsel%es into guilds$ laying thefoundations of an urban bourgeoisie.iddle !nglish 115015006. Concerning grammar$ one of the mainchanges to occur in >iddle !nglish was the disaearance of thegrammatical gender of nouns. +ut the main influence of 'rench o%er >iddle!nglish is to be found in %ocabulary$ in the fields of law$ fashion$ food$ etc.In the literary field we ha%e two tyical rofession of the time" minstrel and

troubadours.#he troubadours from the end of the 11th  century to the end of the 13th

e*ercised the art of the oetcomoser. 7 good deal of our knowledge of thetroubadour life comes from ,ante 1)?513)16$ who li%e around the timewhen the troubadours were acti%e and whose oetical techni@ue shows their influence. #he lo%e of ,ante for +eatrice $ for e*amle$ erfectly reresentsthe courtly ideal of lo%e of the troubadours.