Chaucer for Children: A Golden Key

by Geoffrey Chaucer, Mary Eliza Joy Haweis

In revising Chaucer for Children for a New Edition, I have fully availed myself of the help and counsel of my numerous reviewers and correspondents, without weighting the book, which is really designed for children, with a number of new facts, and theories springing from the new facts, such as I have incorporated in my Book for older readers, Chaucer for Schools.
Curious discoveries are still being made, and will continue to be, thanks to the labours of men like Mr. F. J. Furnivall, and many other able and industrious scholars, encouraged by the steadily increasing public interest in Chaucer.
I must express my sincere thanks and gratification for the reception this book has met with from the press generally, and from many eminent critics in particular; and last, not least, from those to whom I devoted my pleasant toil, the children of England.
M. E. HAWEIS.
CHAUCER THE TALE-TELLER.
Do you like hearing stories? I am going to tell you of some one who lived a very long time ago, and who was a very wise and good man, and who told more wonderful stories than I shall be able to tell you in this little book. But you shall hear some of them, if you will try and understand them, though they are written in a sort of English different from what you are accustomed to speak.
But, in order that you really may understand the stories, I must first tell you something about the man who made them; and also why his language was not the same as yours, although it was English. His name was Chaucer—Geoffrey Chaucer. You must remember his name, for he was so great a man that he has been called the ‘Father of English Poetry’—that is, the beginner or inventor of all the poetry that belongs to our England; and when you are grown up, you will often hear of Chaucer and his works.
CONTENTS
FOREWORDS TO THE SECOND EDITION
FOREWORDS
CHAUCER THE TALE-TELLER
CANTERBURY TALES:
Chaucer’s Pilgrims
Chaucer’s Prologue
The Knight’s Tale
The Friar’s Tale
The Clerk’s Tale
The Franklin’s Tale
The Pardoner’s Tale
MINOR POEMS:
Complaint of Chaucer to his Purse
Two Rondeaux
Virelai
Good Counsel of Chaucer
NOTES ON THE PICTURES
COLOURED PICTURES.
PILGRIMS STARTING
DINNER IN THE OLDEN TIME
LADY CROSSING THE STREET
FAIR EMELYE
GRISELDA’S MARRIAGE
GRISELDA’S BEREAVEMENT
DORIGEN AND AURELIUS
THE RIOTER
CHAUCER’S PORTRAIT
WOODCUTS.
TOURNAMENT
TABLE
HEAD-DRESSES
MAPS OF OLD AND MODERN LONDON
LADIES’ HEAD-DRESSES
SHOE
JOHN OF GAUNT
SHIP
STYLUS
THE KNIGHT
THE SQUIRE
THE YEOMAN
THE PRIORESS
THE MONK
THE FRIAR
THE MERCHANT
THE CLERK
THE SERJEANT-OF-LAW
THE FRANKLIN
TABLE DORMANT
THE DOCTOR OF PHYSIC
THE WIFE OF BATH
THE PARSON
THE PLOUGHMAN
THE SUMMONER
THE PARDONER
MINE HOST
KNIGHTS IN ARMOUR

Genres: School, Poetry, Fiction, Medieval, Classics, Childrens

197 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 28, 2010

About the author

Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343 – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for The Canterbury Tales. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He was the first writer to be buried in what has since come to be called Poets' Corner, in Westminster Abbey. Chaucer also gained fame as a philosopher and astronomer, composing the scientific A Treatise on the Astrolabe for his 10-year-old son, Lewis. He maintained a career in the civil service as a bureaucrat, courtier, diplomat, and member of parliament.
Among Chaucer's many other works are The Book of the Duchess, The House of Fame, The Legend of Good Women, and Troilus and Criseyde. He is seen as crucial in legitimising the literary use of Middle English when the dominant literary languages in England were still Anglo-Norman French and Latin. Chaucer's contemporary Thomas Hoccleve hailed him as "the firste fyndere of our fair langage" (i.e., the first one capable of finding poetic matter in English). Almost two thousand English words are first attested to in Chaucerian manuscripts. As scholar Bruce Holsinger has argued, charting Chaucer's life and work comes with many challenges related to the "difficult disjunction between the written record of his public and private life and the literary corpus he left behind". His recorded works and his life show many personas that are "ironic, mysterious, elusive [or] cagey" in nature, ever-changing with new discoveries.

Reviews

[Gina Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

AmblesideOnline year 7. I read this aloud with my 7th grade daughter, it was our 2nd foray into middle English and while it’s still difficult it was easier since we had prior experience. Even if you don’t have any previous experience though this is a good introduction to Chaucer because she has notes at the side telling words that you wouldn’t know and she also rewrote some of the poetry and I was very impressed with the skill with which this was accomplished. This also leaves out most (all?) of The morally questionable parts from The Canterbury Tales. Overall the stories were very good!

[Heather Tully · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve never read Chaucer so I can’t speak to the translation ability to echo the author but I did find this delightful! I loved the glimpse into medieval life in the beginning with how the author sketched out the characters. And I appreciated the old English verse with updated verse, side by side. I found I was reading Chaucer’s prose better as the book went along!

Pre-read for 2023-2024 edu year.

[Denise Kruse · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book which was written in 1882, 500 years after Chaucer lived. The author gives wonderful explanations of the time and the language and of Chaucer’s place in all of it. The illustrations are a delight. Not just for children.

[Malory · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this retelling of The Canterbury Tales. I thought it would be really difficult with portions in Old English, but once you got used to it, it was actually quite fun to read! There were a lot of connections I made such as The Clerks Tale with The Taming of the Shrew and the Pardoners Tale with the Tale of the Three Brothers from Harry Potter. I read this with my 6th grader for school. It would be good for upper elementary and up. And a good intro for adults before reading Chaucer's complete tales.

[chloe · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fact that I keep having to read medieval lit for school when all I wanna do is read ya and spicy Sarah j Maas books pains me. This is my villain origin story. Still, this was a cool book LOL

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

An enticing introduction to Chaucer, not just for children! Beautifully republished by Yesterday’s Classics.