(c. 1340-1400) English poet. The Canterbury Tales, a collection of stories told by a group of pilgrims on their way to Canterbury, reveals his knowledge of human nature and his stylistic variety, from urbane and ironic to simple and bawdy. Early allegorical poems, including The Book of the Duchess, were influenced by French poems like the Roman de la Rose. His Troilus and Criseyde is a substantial narrative poem about the tragic betrayal of an idealized courtly love.
Chaucer was born in London. Taken prisoner in the French wars, he had to be ransomed by Edward III 1360. He married Philippa Roet 1366, becoming in later life the brother-in-law of John of Gaunt. He achieved various appointments and was sent on missions to Italy (where he may have met Boccaccio and Petrarch), France, and Flanders. His early work showed formal French influence, as in his adaptation of the French allegorical poem on courtly love, The Romaunt of the Rose; more mature works reflected the influence of Italian realism, as in his long narrative poem Troilus and Criseyde, adapted from Boccaccio. In The Canterbury Tales he showed his own genius for meter and characterization. He was the most influential English poet of the Middle Ages.