aning he would have had to have been between the ages of 13 and
18. This placing his birth between the years 1340-1344 in London, the
son of John Chaucer a vintner. In 14th century London there were three
elementary schools of good "academic" standing which were attended
by the sons of the higher class. And wedo know that Geoffery Chaucer
attended one of those schools before continuing his education in a much
higher enviroment. All three schools offered the same curriculum more
or less: reading, religion, Latin, French, and arithmetic, and maybe
even some science courses. Chaucer shows this in all of his mature
work of being extraordinarily well read and of having many wide and
Another obvious influence on Chaucers writings was his city itself.
With the crooked narrow streets of London to grow up on, and the
horesback riding constantly along the countryside meeting all the
townsmen and the peasants surrounding him, Chaucer experienced his
early life in a entirely new fashion. With a population of 40,000 made
up in a small area, he had many subject to base his stories upon and
proved throughout time that he did base most of his most famous
subjects off of people he had meet through his life and travels.
The next important event in Chaucers life was his service with Prince
Lionel. He started off as a page, only to advance to squire in the Royal
Household. Funny is that in the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer mentions a
number of accomplishments of that delightfull and life-like character
who bore the title of squire. But what must have been the most
rewarding accomplishment for Chaucer himslef in his won courtyly
education is not on the list of acquisitions of his Squire knows how to
"wel endite" (Bowden 9) that is, how to compose very well the lyrics for
songs. Fourteeth-century squires were expected to make perfect the art
of writing verse. Famous French authors such as Guil...