انگلیسی کهن (1100-449)

در قرنِ پنجم میلادی، مردمانی از سه قبیله "جوت"، "انگِل" و "ساکسون" که در "آلمان" و "دانمارک" کنونی ساکن بودند، به کشور انگلستان حمله ور شده و آن سرزمین ،که مردمی سِلتیک-زبان داشت را تصرف می کنند. جوتها در جنوبِ شرقی ساکن شده و در تعامل با زبانهای محلی، لهجه "کِنتی" را بوجود آوردند. ساکسون ها هم که در جنوب و جنوبِ غربی سکنی گزیدند، لحجه "ساکسونِ غربی" را خلق کردند.
اما انگل هایی که در شمال و مرکزِ انگلستان اقامت گزیده بودند، به ترتیب، لهجه های "آمبِریای شمالی" و "مِرسیایی" را بوجود آوردند. از قرنِ نهمِ میلادی، لهجه ساکسونی، شاید به دلیلِ سلطه پادشاه آلفرد (نخستین شاهِ انگلستان که فردی از قبیله ساکسون بود)، بر سایر لحجه ها برتری یافته و به عنوان زبان رسمی این کشور شناخته شد.

The Canterbury Tales

Geoffrey Chaucer

Author/Context

Geoffrey Chaucer lived during a tumultuous period in England's history. During his early youth, the Bubonic Plague terrorized Europe, killing a large portion of the population, and forever leaving a lasting impression on those surviving the catastrophe. Throughout Chaucer's life, the Church was also in an upheaval. It was caught in a position of deception and uncertainty, perhaps because of the Plague and perhaps because of economics. Nonetheless, the fraud occurring within the holy walls influenced Chaucer's work. During his lifetime, the Hundred Years War between England and France also took place, which again placed a violent element in Chaucer's work.

It is this period of political and social turmoil in England that allowed Chaucer to produce a large body of influential work. Known as a poet and often as a friend of the nobility, Chaucer was ultimately part of the bourgeois of England. Very little is actually known about his life, despite his rearing by a middle-class family. His father was in the wine and leather trade, perhaps giving the family their surname - Chaucer - for it means a maker of footwear. He was a page in a royal household during his youth, continued his relationship with royalty throughout his life, married the daughter of a knight, Philippa, and traveled to France and Spain. His life was that of "an active, responsible civil servant and cosmopolitan courtier" (Halverson x).