Geoffrey Chaucer, known as the Father of
English literature, is widely considered the greatest English
poet of the
Middle Ages and was the first poet to have been buried in
Poet's Corner of
Westminster Abbey. While he achieved fame during his lifetime as an
author,
philosopher,
alchemist and
astronomer, composing a scientific treatise on the
astrolabe for his ten year-old son Lewis, Chaucer also maintained an active career in the civil service as a
bureaucrat,
courtier and
diplomat. Among his many works, which include
The Book of the Duchess, the
House of Fame, the
Legend of Good Women and
Troilus and Criseyde, he is best known today for
The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer is a crucial figure in developing the legitimacy of the
vernacular,
Middle English, at a time when the dominant literary languages in England were
French and
Latin.