Scho fondeth in hire briddes forme, tries
If that sche mihte hirself conforme,
To do the plesance of a wif,
As sche dede in that other lif.
If Chaucer has more variety and power, both have graceful verse, an engaging
narrative voice and a light touch.Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer was born about 1342 in the Vintry, the vintners’ street, in
London’s walled City; with nearby Westminster, this then had c.30,000 inhabitants.
His father and grandfather were wine merchants, but Geoffrey became a king’s man,
a professional royal servant, holding a series of posts, including Collector of
Customs and Clerk of the King’s Works. He was also a diplomat, who travelled on
the king’s business, often to France, once to Spain, twice to Italy. His name occurs
four hundred times in the records, not as a poet. He lived in London and in Kent,56 2 · MIDDLE ENGLISH LITERATURE: 1066–1500
Portrait of Geoffrey Chaucer commissioned by Thomas Hoccleve
Hoccleve, who writes affectionately about him. Chaucer
points to the stanza of Hoccleve’s The Regiment of
Princes(1411–13) in which Hoccleve explains his
purpose: to show exactly what Chaucer looked like so
that others will remember him.