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The Chaucer Quiz

by Melissa Snell

 

Without a doubt, Geoffrey Chaucer offers us an unparalleled window to the High Middle Ages. His life and career in service to kings provide insight into the culture and society of late fourteenth-century Europe. His education and the works that influenced him draw us further back to the shaping of medieval European thought. And his poetry sings to us across the centuries of the universal themes of love, humor and melancholy in words strange enough to be exotic yet familiar enough to begin to understand.

What do you know about Geoffrey Chaucer? Below is a quick quiz to test your knowledge of the man and his work; the answers are on a separate page.

Ready? Then it's time to take --

The Quiz

1. The exact date of Geoffrey Chaucer's birth is uncertain; it is generally given as c. 1340, but it's more likely he was born in 1342 or 1343. Who was king of England when he was born?

1. Edward II
2. Edward III
3. Richard II
4. Henry IV

 

2. Which of Chaucer's works is associated with Valentine's Day?

1. The Book of the Duchess
2. The Legend of Good Women
3. The Parliament of Fowles
4. Troilus and Criseyde

 

3. Geoffrey Chaucer was alive to witness--or hear breaking news of--some remarkable events in medieval history. Which one of the following events was he not around for?

1. The Battle of Agincourt
2. The Black Death
3. The Deposition of Richard II
4. The Peasants' Revolt

 

4. Chaucer wrote The Book of the Duchess as an elegy for Blanche, the late wife of which nobleman?

1. Henry Bolingbroke
2. John of Gaunt
3. Jean de Montfort
4. Simon de Montfort

 

5. The Canterbury Tales is an unfinished work, wherein each pilgrim was supposed to tell more than one tale. How many tales did Chaucer originally envision each pilgrim telling?

1. Two
2. Three
3. Four
4. Seven

 

6. The device Chaucer employs in The Canterbury Tales of many characters gathered together, each telling stories, was not new. The idea had been used by an Italian author in a work probably begun sometime in the late 1340's. Who was this Italian poet?

1. Dante Alighieri
2. Giovanni Boccaccio
3. Baldassare Castiglione
4. Francesco Petrarch

 

7. Chaucer's epic poem Troilus and Criseyde is considered by some to be his best work. Against what war is this tragic romance set?

1. The Hundred Years' War
2. The Peloponnesian War
3. The Trojan War
4. The War of the Roses

 

8. Chaucer was strongly influenced by classical and early medieval writings and even translated one into the English of his day. Which older work did he translate?

1. The City of God by St. Augustine
2. The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius
3. De Officiis by Cicero
4. Metamorphoses by Ovid

 

9. In the early 1390s, Chaucer began a treatise that he dedicated to "little Lewis"; scholars are undecided as to whether or not the Lewis in question was Chaucer's own son or that of a friend. What topic did this factual treatise cover?

1. Alchemy
2. The Astrolabe
3. The Cannon
4. The Printing Press

 

10. Geoffrey Chaucer died in October, 1400. Where is he buried?

1. St. Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury
2. The Crypt of Canterbury Cathedral
3. Potter's Field
4. Westminster Abbey, London

 

 

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The Chaucer Quiz is copyright © 1999 Melissa Snell and About.com. Permission is granted to reproduce this article for personal or classroom use only, provided that the URL below is included. For reprint permission, please contact Melissa Snell.

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