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Notable works. The Canterbury Tales. Signature. Geoffrey Chaucer (/ ˈtʃɔːsər / CHAW-sər; c.1343 – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for The Canterbury Tales. [ 1 ] He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". [ 2 ]
In 1387, he began his most famous work, 'The Canterbury Tales', in which a diverse group of people recount stories to pass the time on a pilgrimage to Canterbury. Chaucer disappears from the ...
Chaucer wrote in Middle English, and although he wasn’t the first to write in the vernacular, many people credit him as the one who popularized it. With over 17,000 lines in a collection of 24 stories, Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales is one of the most recognized pieces of English and world literature today.
- Arthur The Legend
- The French Poets
- The German Poets
- The English Poets
- Decline & Revival
Whatever shortcomings Geoffrey may have had as a history writer he makes up for in style, imagination, and dramatic pacing. Geoffrey's Arthur comes alive on the page from his first introduction as a naive youth to a mature king and conqueror of vast realms. Geoffrey makes skilled use of dialogue, setting, characterization, symbol, and most importan...
Geoffrey's work was written in Latin, the literary language of the day, and so needed no translation to be read by literate individuals in other countries. There were many of these who were inspired by Geoffrey's account to produce their own; so many, in fact, that those listed below are only the best-known who added the most famous details. By c. ...
The German poet Wolfram von Eschenbach (c. 1170 - c. 1220 CE) took the motif of the quest and created his epic poem Parzival c. 1200 CE in which the central character proceeds on a journey of self-awareness. Wolfram's poem is taken from Chretien's unfinished work and that of Robert de Boron but the characters are more completely developed on every ...
The Welsh masterpiece, the Mabinogion, is dated to around this time (c. 1200 CE) although the text only exists in copies from the 14th and 15th centuries CE. The Mabinogion is a collection of tales influenced by the poetry of Chretien de Troyes but relies heavily on Celtic lore and mythology. Two of the tales, especially, would lend themselves to t...
Although a bestseller initially, the work fell out of favor during the 16th century CE at the height of the Renaissance. Tales of a medieval English king were no longer fashionable reading as works of classical Greek and Latin writers were again made widely available. The Protestant Reformation of the 15th century CE had opened religious belief to ...
- Joshua J. Mark
Signature. William Shakespeare (c. 23 [ a ] April 1564 – 23 April 1616) [ b ] was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. [ 4 ][ 5 ][ 6 ] He is often called England's national poet and the " Bard of Avon " (or simply "the Bard").
Oct 3, 2011 · In 1623, two of Shakespeare’s former colleagues published a collection of his plays, commonly known as the First Folio. In its preface, the dramatist Ben Jonson wrote of his late contemporary ...
Rembrandt’s story begins in Leiden on July 15, 1606, when he was born to a miller, Harmen Gerritsz van Rijn, and his wife, Neeltgen van Zuytbrouck. 6 As the youngest son of at least ten children, Rembrandt was not expected to carry on his father’s business but was allowed to follow his natural instincts, which were, according to his first biographer, “toward the art of painting and ...
