1. Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400)

2. Geoffrey Chaucer ’ s Biography (1343-1400) born in London into a wine merchant ’ s family. He ever worked as a courtier, a diplomat, and a civil servant. Traveled widely on the Continent. best known today for The Canterbury Tales.

3. Geoffrey Chaucer ’ s Biography known as the Father of English literature, widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages and the first poet to have been buried in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey.

4. The Canterbury Tales The tales (mostly written in verse) are a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together on a journey to Canterbury Cathedral. The prize for this contest is a free meal at the Tabard Inn at Southwark on their return. The Tales are a miniature of the English society of Chaucer ’ s time for all classes of the English feudal society, except the royalty and the poorest peasant, are represented by these 30 pilgrims.

5. Characters Knight, Squire, Yeoman, Prioress, Monk, Friar, Merchant, Clerk, Man of Law, Franklin, Haberdasher, Carpenter, Weaver, Dyer, Tapestry-Weaver, Cook, Shipman, Physician, Wife, Parson, Plowman, Miller, Manciple, Reeve, Summoner, Pardoner, nun, scholar, and Host. Humanism. The tales affirm men and women ’ s right to pursue their happiness on earth, and oppose the dogma of asceticism preached by the church. Praise of men ’ s energy, quick wit and love of life. Criticism of the noble, the judge, esp., the church.

6. Questions How does the poet draw a picture of spring What do you think is force that makes such a spring ? Why does the knight have fine horses but dirty dresses ?

7. Achievements metrical innovation. Rhyming couplets, ( 双行体 ), iambic pentameter ( 五音步抑 抑格 ) the legitimacy of the vernacular, Middle English, at a time when the dominant literary languages in England were French and Latin.

8. iambic pentameter ( 抑扬格五音步 )and heroic couplet （英雄双行体） That toward Canterbury meant to ride The rooms and stables of the inn were wide But none the less, while I have time and space, Before my story takes a further place Rhymed couplets in iambic pentameter

9. Love is blind. Time and tide wait for no man. The guilty think all talk is of themselves. Forbid us something, and that thing we desire. The life so short, the crafts so long to learn.