#writing #literature #chaucer #canterbury #tales
Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1340-1400) was well-travelled and highly educated. He was as familiar with Latin and French as he was with English, and he had little trouble in learning enough Italian to absorb the literary tradition of Italy during his visits to that country. It is therefore hardly surprising to find that stories from the literature of France and Italy, and from the Classical tradition, appear in the Canterbury Tales, adapted to a greater or lesser degree.
- For the Clerk’s Tale of “patient Griselda”, Chaucer uses a story told in Latin by Petrach (1304-74), and this is actually cited in the short prologue to the Tale. However, Petrach is known to have used Boccaccio’s Decameron as his own source, this being a work with which it is believed Chaucer was not familiar. For the Clerk’s Tale, Chaucer sticks quite closely to the story as told by Petrach.