Geoffrey Chaucer was born in London around 1342, though the details are vague at best, and lived until 1400. Little is known of his early education, but his works show that he could read French, Latin, and Italian, and as such was clearly very well educated, and it is also known that he spent much of his life close to the centres of English power because the first reports of Chaucer come from 1357 as a page in the household of Prince Lionel before he went to serve for Edward III in France, where he was captured and ransomed. His first literary work appeared in the form of `The Book of the Duchess' in 1369, an allegory which grieves over the death of John of Gaunt's wife Blanche. Chaucer wrote many other works after this period but it was not until 1387 when Chaucer began his master work, `The Canterbury Tales.' Two...