The complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer.

Chaucer, Geoffrey and Skeat, Walter W. (Ed.):

Edité par Oxford, Clarendon Press

A propos de cet article

732, 149 p., Satisfying condition. Note of ownership. Penciled notes. Paper brownished and soiled. -- Geoffrey Chaucer was born in London, about 1340 (not 1328, as was formerly said). His father was John Chaucer, Citizen and vintner of London, and his motlier s name was Agnes. His grandfather was Robert Chaucer, of Ipswich and London, who married a widow named Maria Heyroun, witli a son Thomas Heyroun. John Chaucer s house stood in Upper Thames Street, beside Walbrook, just where That Street is now crossed by the South-Eastern Railway from Cannon-Street Station. Here it was that the poet spent his earliest days, and in an interesting passage in his Pardoneres Tale (lines 549-572), he incidentally displays bis knowledge of various wines and the ways of mixing them together. John Chancer, the poet s father, was in attendanco on Edward III. in 1338, and this connexion with the court led to his son s employment there, some years after-wards, as a page in the houseliold of Elizabeth, wife of Lionel, duke of Clarence, the third son of Edward III. In the household accounts of this princess, mention is made of various articles of clothing and other necessaries purchased for 4 Geoffrey Chancer in April, May, and December, 1357, when he was about seventeen years old. In 1359. he joined the army of Edward III. when that king invaded France, and was there taken prisoner. In May, 1360, the peace of Bretigny (near Chartres) was concluded between the French and English kings. Chaucer had been set at liberty in March, when Edward paid 16Z. towards his ransom. 1367. We can only conjecture the manner in which he spent his life from hints given ns in his own works, and from various notices of him in official records. To consider the latter first, we find, from the Issue Rolls of the Exchequer, that a life-pension of 20 marks was granted by the king to Chaucer in 1367, in consideration of his Services, as being one of the valets of the king s household. During 1368 and part of 1369 he was in London, and received his pension in person. In October 1368, his patron, Prince Lionel, died, and it appears that Chaucer s Services were connsequently transferred to the next brother, John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster. -- 1369. In the autumn of 1369, the year of the third great pestilence of Edward s ' reign, Blanche, the first wife of John of Gaunt, died at the early age of twenty-nine. -- Chaucer did honour to her memory in one of his earliest poems, entitled The Death of Blaunche the Duchesse. (Beginning of the introduction) Sprache: Englisch Gewicht in Gramm: 550.

N° de réf. du vendeur 1168516

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: The complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer.
• Éditeur: Oxford, Clarendon Press
• Langue: anglais
• Reliure: Hardcover / Paperback.
• État de l'article: Befriedigend
• Poids: 550 grammes
• Catalogues du vendeur:
  • Literaturwissenschaft