In the Wife of Bath's Tale, what do women most desire?

Sovereignty over their husbands

English Literature Quiz

Geoffrey Chaucer: Life, Works and Style

Geoffrey Chaucer, who lived from about 1343 to 1400, is called the father of English poetry because he made English, rather than French or Latin, a language fit for great literature. A courtier, soldier, diplomat and civil servant as well as a poet, he absorbed French and Italian models and turned them into something wholly English, above all in his unfinished masterpiece, The Canterbury Tales. These notes cover his life, the three periods of his writing with each major work dated, The Canterbury Tales in detail, his verse forms and language, his place in literary history, and the facts most often tested. A 20-question practice set follows.

Life and Career

Chaucer was not a professional man of letters but a busy public servant who wrote in his spare time, and his official life gave him the wide human experience that fills his poetry. Born into a prosperous London wine-merchant's family, he rose through royal and diplomatic service, and his journeys abroad, especially to Italy, shaped his art.

Born in London in about 1343 to John Chaucer, a wine merchant; the family was well-off but not noble.
Served as a page in a royal household, was captured and ransomed while soldiering in France, and became an esquire of the king's court.
Worked as a diplomat, travelling to France and, crucially, twice to Italy, where he encountered the work of Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio.
Held official posts including Controller of Customs for the port of London and Clerk of the King's Works, responsible for royal building projects.
Enjoyed the patronage of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, the most powerful noble of the age.
Died on 25 October 1400 and was buried in Westminster Abbey; his tomb became the origin of Poets' Corner, where later English writers are honoured.

The Three Periods of His Work

Scholars divide Chaucer's writing into three phases by the foreign literature he was drawing on: a French period, an Italian period after his journeys south, and a mature English period rooted in his own observation of English life.

French period: The Romaunt of the Rose, a translation of the French Roman de la Rose; and The Book of the Duchess (about 1369), a dream-vision elegy on the death of Blanche of Lancaster, wife of his patron John of Gaunt.
Italian period: The House of Fame, an unfinished dream poem; The Parliament of Fowls, a dream-vision of birds choosing mates, linked with Saint Valentine's Day; Troilus and Criseyde, his greatest finished poem, a tragic love story in rhyme royal based on Boccaccio; and The Legend of Good Women, whose prologue is the first sustained use of the heroic couplet in English.
English period: The Canterbury Tales, begun about 1387 and left unfinished at his death.
Prose works: Boece, a translation of Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy, and A Treatise on the Astrolabe, written for a boy named Lewis.
The progression shows Chaucer moving from imitation of French convention, through the richer narrative art learned from Italy, to a confident, realistic English voice.

The Canterbury Tales

The Canterbury Tales is Chaucer's masterpiece and one of the foundational works of English literature. A group of pilgrims travelling from London to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury agree to tell stories on the way, and the tales, matched to the tellers, become a portrait of the whole of English society.

The pilgrims gather at the Tabard Inn in Southwark; the host, Harry Bailly, proposes the tale-telling contest with a free supper as the prize.
The famous opening line is Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote; the General Prologue introduces about thirty pilgrims from nearly every rank of society.
The plan was for each pilgrim to tell two tales going and two returning, about 120 in all; Chaucer completed only 24.
The pilgrims form a cross-section of medieval England: the Knight, the Squire, the Prioress, the Monk, the Friar, the Wife of Bath, the Clerk, the Parson, the Miller, the Pardoner and the Summoner, among others.
Well-known tales: the Knight's Tale, a chivalric romance; the Miller's Tale and the Reeve's Tale, bawdy fabliaux; the Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale on what women most desire, namely sovereignty; the Pardoner's Tale, an exemplum that greed is the root of evil; and the Nun's Priest's Tale, the mock-heroic fable of the cock Chauntecleer and the fox.
Its greatness lies in vivid characterisation, irony, humour and realism; it is the first great gallery of English social types and the beginning of English literary realism.
Most of the tales are in heroic couplets, but Chaucer varies the form, using rhyme royal for tales such as the Man of Law's and the Prioress's.

Language, Verse and Legacy

Chaucer's lasting importance is as much technical and linguistic as it is imaginative: he shaped the English literary language and introduced verse forms that lasted for centuries.

He wrote in Middle English, in the East Midland dialect of London, and his choice helped make that dialect the basis of standard modern English.
He introduced the rhyme royal stanza into English: seven lines of iambic pentameter rhyming a b a b b c c, used in Troilus and Criseyde.
He was the first English poet to use the iambic pentameter, and the first to use the heroic couplet, the rhymed pentameter couplet that would dominate English verse through Dryden and Pope.
Titles earned by Chaucer: the father of English poetry, the first national poet, the first great realist, and the first English humorist.
Famous judgements: John Dryden, in the preface to his Fables of 1700, called him the father of English poetry and said of the General Prologue here is God's plenty; Edmund Spenser called him the well of English undefiled.
Trap: Chaucer wrote in Middle English, not Old English (that is Beowulf), and The Canterbury Tales is unfinished with 24 tales, not the roughly 120 planned.
His work bridges the medieval and the modern, and William Caxton's printing of The Canterbury Tales soon after 1476 fixed his text and spread his influence at the very start of English printing.

Key Terms

Father of English poetry: The title traditionally given to Geoffrey Chaucer for establishing English as a serious literary language and for his mastery of narrative verse, above all in The Canterbury Tales.
Rhyme royal: A seven-line stanza of iambic pentameter rhyming a b a b b c c, introduced into English by Chaucer and used in Troilus and Criseyde and several of the Canterbury Tales.
Fabliau: A short, comic, often coarse verse tale of ordinary townspeople and a trick or intrigue. The Miller's Tale and the Reeve's Tale are Chaucer's examples.
General Prologue: The opening section of The Canterbury Tales in which Chaucer introduces the pilgrims one by one, creating the first great gallery of English social types.

Practice Quiz — 20 Questions

correct out of 20

Geoffrey Chaucer is traditionally called the:
- A.Father of English drama
- B.Father of English poetry
- C.Father of the English novel
- D.Father of English criticism
B. Father of English poetry — Chaucer is called the father of English poetry for making English a great literary language.
In roughly which year was Chaucer born?
- A.1300
- B.1343
- C.1370
- D.1400
B. 1343 — He was born in London around 1343 to a wine-merchant family.
Chaucer died in which year and was buried in Westminster Abbey?
- A.1387
- B.1400
- C.1408
- D.1415
B. 1400 — He died on 25 October 1400; his tomb began Poets' Corner.
Chaucer's journeys to which country introduced him to Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio?
- A.France
- B.Italy
- C.Spain
- D.Germany
B. Italy — His diplomatic trips to Italy shaped the second, Italian period of his work.
The Book of the Duchess is an elegy on the death of:
- A.Chaucer's wife
- B.Blanche of Lancaster
- C.Queen Anne
- D.Philippa of Hainault
B. Blanche of Lancaster — It mourns Blanche, wife of Chaucer's patron John of Gaunt.
Chaucer's greatest completed poem, a tragic love story in rhyme royal, is:
- A.The House of Fame
- B.Troilus and Criseyde
- C.The Parliament of Fowls
- D.The Legend of Good Women
B. Troilus and Criseyde — Troilus and Criseyde, based on Boccaccio, is his greatest finished work.
Which of Chaucer's works is a prose translation of Boethius?
- A.Boece
- B.The Romaunt of the Rose
- C.A Treatise on the Astrolabe
- D.Anelida and Arcite
A. Boece — Boece is his translation of Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy.
The pilgrims in The Canterbury Tales set out from which inn?
- A.The Mermaid
- B.The Tabard
- C.The George
- D.The Boar's Head
B. The Tabard — They gather at the Tabard Inn in Southwark.
The host who proposes the tale-telling contest is named:
- A.Harry Bailly
- B.John of Gaunt
- C.Thomas Becket
- D.Chauntecleer
A. Harry Bailly — Harry Bailly, host of the Tabard, sets and judges the contest.
How many of the planned Canterbury Tales did Chaucer actually complete?
- A.12
- B.24
- C.60
- D.120
B. 24 — He completed 24 of the roughly 120 tales originally planned.
The famous opening line of the General Prologue begins Whan that Aprille with his:
- A.shoures soote
- B.wynter colde
- C.somer hete
- D.frostes kene
A. shoures soote — The line is Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote, meaning when April with its sweet showers.
In the Wife of Bath's Tale, what do women most desire?
- A.Wealth
- B.Beauty
- C.Sovereignty over their husbands
- D.Long life
C. Sovereignty over their husbands — The knight saves his life by answering that women most desire sovereignty, or mastery.
The Pardoner's Tale illustrates the moral that:
- A.Pride goes before a fall
- B.Greed is the root of evil
- C.Honesty is the best policy
- D.Love conquers all
B. Greed is the root of evil — It is an exemplum on the theme radix malorum est cupiditas, greed is the root of evil.
The Miller's Tale and the Reeve's Tale are examples of which genre?
- A.Romance
- B.Fabliau
- C.Beast fable
- D.Allegory
B. Fabliau — Both are fabliaux, coarse comic tales of trickery.
The mock-heroic tale of the cock Chauntecleer and the fox is the:
- A.Knight's Tale
- B.Nun's Priest's Tale
- C.Franklin's Tale
- D.Clerk's Tale
B. Nun's Priest's Tale — The Nun's Priest's Tale is the beast fable of Chauntecleer and the fox.
The seven-line stanza Chaucer introduced into English is called:
- A.Ottava rima
- B.Rhyme royal
- C.The Spenserian stanza
- D.Terza rima
B. Rhyme royal — Rhyme royal is seven lines of iambic pentameter rhyming a b a b b c c.
Chaucer wrote in which form of English?
- A.Old English
- B.Middle English
- C.Early Modern English
- D.Latin only
B. Middle English — He wrote in Middle English, in the East Midland dialect of London.
Who called Chaucer the well of English undefiled?
- A.John Dryden
- B.Edmund Spenser
- C.Samuel Johnson
- D.Matthew Arnold
B. Edmund Spenser — Spenser used the phrase in The Faerie Queene; Dryden called him the father of English poetry.
Which powerful noble was Chaucer's chief patron?
- A.John of Gaunt
- B.Richard II
- C.The Black Prince
- D.Henry Bolingbroke
A. John of Gaunt — John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, was Chaucer's patron.
Chaucer was the first English poet to use which verse form later dominant in English poetry?
- A.Blank verse
- B.The heroic couplet
- C.Free verse
- D.The sonnet
B. The heroic couplet — He first used the iambic pentameter heroic couplet, later perfected by Dryden and Pope.

References

The Riverside Chaucer, edited by Larry D. Benson, Oxford University Press — https://global.oup.com/
The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume A, The Middle Ages — https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393603026
British Library, The Canterbury Tales — https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-canterbury-tales
Harvard University, Geoffrey Chaucer website — https://chaucer.fas.harvard.edu/
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Geoffrey Chaucer — https://www.britannica.com/biography/Geoffrey-Chaucer