In English and in writyng of oure tonge,

So prey I God that non myswrite the,

Ne the mysmetre for defaute of tonge"

Which translated into Modern English means

"And because there is such great diversity

So I pray God that none wrongly copy thee

Nor get thy meter wrong because of a failure of tongue"

What that means is that Chaucer wished that people would recite his poems, as he had intended them to be recited. But, he had to pray because, his poetry was up against the great diversity that was the English language.

Chaucer was born around 1340; and was the son of a wealthy merchant. At 14, he became a page in the household of the daughter-in-law of King Edward III. At 17, he had served for the king's army and had been captured and held for ransom. When his ransom was paid, he returned to England and spent the rest of his life as a royal courtier. He also had a few other administrative p

Geoffrey Chaucer was a very important figure in the development in the English language because of the way he brought structure to the language used by the lower class. He brought more interest to the language, and if it was not for him, English may not be as we know it today.

Middle English is clearly much closer to Modern English, yet is still vastly different. Writers of the era simply picked a spelling that approximated the sounds of a word! The same word could be spelt differently by different writers. Dr. Johnson hadn't invented the dictionary, so, there was none to consult! What also makes the passages hard to read are the changing of word meanings. Thirdly the structures of Chaucer's sentences can be hard to put together. But one of the main problems people had with his passages, is the change of pronunciation.

Chaucer most likely started off writing his poems in French, and then translated them into English. But as he developed his talent, he found English to have special qualities, which he incorporated into his poetry. He introduced French rhyming patterns to English poetry. A

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 741
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)