Chaucer

It was on this day in 1400 that the English poet Geoffrey Chaucer died (books by this author). No one is exactly sure when he was born, but he was probably about 60 years old when he died.

Chaucer had spent his life working as a civil servant. His longest-held position was as Comptroller of Customs, which meant that he kept the books on export taxes for all of the wool, sheepskin, and leather that went through the Port of London. His position ended in 1386, and he seems to have been out of work for three years. He probably began The Canterbury Tales during that period, before he was hired as the Clerk of the King's Works in 1389. When he died in 1400, the Canterbury Tales was unfinished. In the Prologue, the innkeeper Harry Bailey declares that each pilgrim will tell two stories on the way to Canterbury, and two more on the way home — at the end, Harry will judge who was the best storyteller, and everyone else will buy that pilgrim a big dinner. Depending on how you count them, there are about 30 pilgrims, so there should be 120 tales. But in the manuscript Chaucer left behind, there are just 24 stories, each told by a different pilgrim.