Chaucer, Humanism, and Printing: Conditions of Authorship in Fifteenth-Century England

Abstract

Geoffrey Chaucer was not a professional writer. He could be vain about his literary work (this is called 'authorial self-consciousness'), fretting over the vicissitudes of publication in 'Chaucers Wordes unto Adam, his own Scriveyn,' for example, and listing and classifying his opera repeatedly. Nevertheless, the 'Father of English Poetry' was occupied most of the time with jobs other than literary paternity. He was a royal servant and official, successively a personal attendant on members of England's royal family, an envoy, Controller of the Wool and Petty Customs, justice of the peace and member of Parliament for Kent, and Clerk of the King's works—increasingly important positions which brought Chaucer increasingly great responsibility and prominence in the affairs of the realm.

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