Handout
New Advent

Catholic Encyclopedia: Geoffrey Chaucer

For Students 9th - 10th
Quotations and a bibliography accompany this biography of Geoffrey Chaucer from The Catholic Encyclopedia.
Website
Harvard University

The Geoffrey Chaucer Page: Other Authors

For Students 9th - 10th
This site from The Geoffrey Chaucer Page contains links to many other authors whose work was related to or influenced Chaucer's. Includes links to Petrarch, Dante, Boccaccio, Boethius and more. A great site to check out on the subject.
Handout
Harvard University

Harvard: The Geoffrey Chaucer Page: John Lydgate

For Students 9th - 10th
Resource provides a brief biography and general critique of his "high style" English lyric poetry, with links to several of his works, some annotated. Beautiful color picture from "Sege of Thebes."
Website
Harvard University

The Geoffrey Chaucer Page: A Brief Chronology

For Students 9th - 10th
This timeline of Geoffrey Chaucer's life and times from 1300 to 1400 provides a historical and social context for The Canterbury Tales. Features links to related topics.
Website
Harvard University

The Geoffrey Chaucer Page: Deposition of Chaucer

For Students 9th - 10th
Deposition from the Scrope-Grosvenor Trial, one of two "autobiographical statements" attributed to Chaucer. Includes a description of Chaucer's coat-of-arms.
Website
Harvard University

The Geoffrey Chaucer Page: Contemporary Reputation

For Students 9th - 10th
Features praise in verse for Geoffrey Chaucer by his contemporaries: Lydgate, Hoccleve, Gower, Usk, and Deschamps. A rare look at the community that existed among 14th century English writers.
Website
Harvard University

The Geoffrey Chaucer Page: Clerk of the Works

For Students 9th - 10th
Transcript of a document instructing the poet Chaucer, as Clerk of the Works, to oversees the building of jousting tournament scaffolds.
Website
Harvard University

The Geoffrey Chaucer Page: Tournaments and Ceremonies

For Students 9th - 10th
Note on the jousting tournament and its cultural meaning and literary representation (such as in Chaucer's "The Knight's Tale").
Website
Harvard University

The Geoffrey Chaucer Page: On Marriage

For Students 9th - 10th
This site from The Geoffrey Chaucer Page provides the vv.8822-8244 of F.S. Ellis's English translation of the 13th-century novel On Marriage, or Le Roman de la rose (The Romance of the Rose). This is a great site to check out on the...
Website
Harvard University

The Geoffrey Chaucer Page:"confession" of Fals Semblant

For Students 9th - 10th
This site from The Geoffrey Chaucer Page provides information from a 1901 English translation offered as a resource in the Harvard Chaucer curriculum. This article from Le Roman de la rose is medium size in length.
Website
Harvard University

The Harvard Chaucer Page: The High Style

For Students 9th - 10th
Essay about Geoffrey Chaucer's use of the "high style" in middle English verse, characterized by an elegantly adorned diction reliant upon Latin and French borrowings.
Website
Harvard University

The Harvard Chaucer Page: English Romance

For Students 9th - 10th
A survey of Geoffrey Chaucer's work, which was much influenced by romance, the dominant mode of secular fictional narrative in his time.
Website
Harvard University

The Harvard Chaucer Page: "The Tale of Gamelyn"

For Students 9th - 10th
Full text of the Middle English 14th century verse romance, "The Tale of Gamelyn," which was popular during Chaucer's lifetime.
Website
Harvard University

The Harvard Chaucer Page: 14th Century English

For Students 9th - 10th
This site from The Geoffrey Chaucer Page of Harvard University provides biographical information on Chaucer, specifically on his social class and his learning/speaking/writing French. Explanation for why the commoners and aristocrats...
Website
Harvard University

The Harvard Chaucer Page: "Piers Plowman"

For Students 9th - 10th
Full text of William Langland's (1332?-1400?) middle English narrative poem "Piers Plowman." Includes scholarly introduction that notes parallels between the poem and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.
Website
Harvard University

Geoffrey Chaucer Page: Comparison of Chaucer and Ovid

For Students 9th - 10th
Full text of John Dryden's (1631-1700) Preface to The Fables (1700), the English poet's translation of Chaucer texts from the middle English. Dryden compares the styles of Ovid, Chaucer, and Boccaccio.
Website
Harvard University

The Great Vowel Shift

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
Do you know what the Great Vowel Shift is? Check out this site to learn more how this shift played a part in the history of the English Language.
Website
University of Toronto (Canada)

University of Toronto: History of the English Language

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
What do you know about the origins of the English language? Explore this resource to learn more about this topic. This resource features links to several helpful sites.
Activity
Luminarium

Luminarium: Middle English Literature (1350 1485)

For Students 9th - 10th
Listed as Medieval literature, you can find authors from the 14th and 15th centuries here, as some are considered Renaissance writers. Excellent resource with links to extensive info on the writers including Chaucer, Langland, and Gawain.
Handout
Other

Goucher English / General Prologue

For Students 9th - 10th
This site, prepared for college English literature students, deals with the following aspects of Chaucer's General Prologue from "The Canterbury Tales": Genre, Form, Characters, Summary, Issues, and General Sources. Also contains...
Website
Other

The Origin and History of the English Language

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
How many native English speakers are there in the world today? Learn important facts and statistics about the English-speaking world as well as a history of the language from its Germanic beginnings to the present.
Lesson Plan
Other

Armstrong Atlantic State University: English Language

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Discover more about the history of the English language when you visit this informative site. Students and teachers will benefit from this educational resource.
eBook
University of Virginia

University of Virginia: Troilus and Criseyde

For Students 9th - 10th
This collection from the University of Virginia provides links to the entire work entitled "Troilus and Criseyde." Links divided into the various books.
eBook
California Digital Library

E Scholarship Editions: The Naked Text: Chaucer's Legend of Good Women

For Students 9th - 10th
University professor Sheila Delany takes Chaucer's poem "Legend of Good Women" as the basis for a scholarly work that examines the ideas in and surrounding the poem. Follow this link to access the publication in full.