Chaucer under French, Italian, and English influence:
The life of Chaucer is divided into three periods. The first, of thirty years, includes his youth and early manhood, in which time he was influenced almost exclusively by French literary models. The second period, of fifteen years, covers Chaucer’s active life as a diplomat and man of affairs; and in this, the Italian influence seems stronger than the French. The third, of fifteen years, generally known as the English period, is the time of Chaucer’s richest development. He lives at home, observes life closely but kindly, and while the French influence is still strong, as shown in the Canterbury Tales, he seems to grow more independent of foreign models and is dominated chiefly by the vigorous life of his own English people.
Works of Chaucer: Works of Chaucer are roughly divided into three classes, corresponding to the three periods of his life.
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Chaucer’s first period:
Chaucer’s works fall into three periods. During the first period, he imitated French models, particularly the famous and very long poem Le Roman de In Rose of which he made a translation – Romaunt of the Rose. This poem which gives an intimate introduction to the medieval French romances and allegories of courtly love is the embryo out of which all Chaucer’s poetry grows. When Chaucer began to write, his genius was fed by French poetry and romance, which were the favorite readings of the elite during his youth. French love poetry appealed in a strong way to his imagination. He was considerably influenced by two French writers, “De Lorris” and “De Meung”, and translated into English their lengthy romance, The Romaunt of the Rose. This lengthy translation consists of a long discourse on the drawbacks of marriage and the frailties of women.
During this period, he also wrote the Book of the Duchess, an elegy, which in its form and nature is like the Romaunt of the Rose; Complaint unto Pity, a shorter poem, and ABC, a series of stanzas religious in tone, in which each open with a letter of the alphabet in order.
The French period is basically a period of apprenticeship. It was in the influence of the French masters that he learned classical restraint, a taste for the good things of life and to be witty rather than satiric.
Chaucer’s second period:
The poems of the second period (1373-84) show the influence of Italian literature, especially of Dante’s Divine Comedy and Boccaccio’s poems. In this period, he wrote The Parliament of Fowls, which contains very dramatic and satiric dialogues between the assembled birds. The parliament of fowls is one of Chaucer’s best works, containing passages, which have been directly taken from date.
Troilus and Criseyde is another masterpiece of that period, which narrates the story of the Trojan prince Troilus and his love for a damsel, Criseyde. It is the chief work of this period, a poem of eight thousand lines.
The story of Griselda, in which is given a pitiful picture of womanhood; and The House of Fame, which is a masterpiece of comic fantasy, with a graver undertone of contemplation of human folly.
Boccaccio and The “Tales”: The idea of The Canterbury Tales is taken from Boccaccio’s “Decameron”, though the work as a whole is Chaucer’s own and belongs to the last of the English period.
Another great poem of this period is the legend of Goode Wimmen (The Legends of Good Women). In the Legend of God Woman, he employed for the first time the heroic couplet. The broad plan of this work has been borrowed from Boccaccio’s “Mulieribus”.
Chaucer’s third period:
Chaucer’s third period (1384-90) may be called the English period because in it he threw off foreign influences and showed native originality. It was during this period that he wrote The Canterbury Tales, his greatest poetic achievement, which places us in the heart of London. Here we find his gentle, kindly humor, which is Chaucer’s greatest quality, at its very best.
The last period of Chaucer’s literary career is known as the English career. Instead of being simply imitative, he becomes independent, relying upon himself completely.
Canterbury Tales represents his English period and influence drawn from the English society:
The Canterbury Tales is a landmark in the history of English poetry because here Chaucer enriched the English language and meter to such an extent, that now it could be conveniently used for any purpose. Moreover, by introducing a variety of high-finished characters into a single action, and engaging them in an animated dialogue, Chaucer fulfilled every requirement of the dramatist, short of bringing his plays on the stage. Also by drawing finished and various portraits in verse, he showed the way novelists portray characters.
The plan of the work (The Canterbury Tales) is magnificent: to represent the wide3 sweep of English life by gathering a motley company together and letting each class of society tells its own favorite stories. Though the great work was not finished, Chaucer succeeded in his purpose so well that in The Canterbury Tales he has given us a picture of contemporary English life, its work, and play, its dreams, its fun, and sympathy, and the hearty joy of living, such as no other single work of literature has equaled.
From the number of persons in the company, thirty-two in all, it is evident that Chaucer meditated an immense work of one hundred and twenty-eight tales, which should cover the whole life of England. Only twenty-four were written, some of these are incomplete, and others are taken from his earlier work to fill out the general plan of The Canterbury Tales. Incomplete as they are, they cover a wide range, including stories of love and chivalry, of saints and legends, travels, adventures, animal fables, allegories, satires, and the coarse humor of the common people.
The short account of Chaucer’s literary career reveals his indebtedness and originality. He borrowed unreservedly but he was not a plagiarist. He was a very original genius who left the impression of his powerful personality on everything he wrote.
Chaucer’s importance in the development of English literature is very great because he removed poetry from the region of Metaphysics and Theology, and made it hold as “twere the mirror up to nature”. He thus brought back the old classical principle of the direct imitation of nature.
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