This Norton Critical Edition presents Chaucer's four dream visions and selected shorter poems and is suitable for both beginning and advanced students.

Suitable for both beginning and advanced students, Geoffrey Chaucer's four dream visions and selected shorter poems are extensively glossed and accompanied by individual introductions and explanatory annotations. The contexts section roots the poems in their classical and medieval foundations. The editor has judiciously chosen six critical essays that address the poems' central themes. A chronology and selected bibliography are included.

Geoffrey Chaucer, considered by many to be both the father of modern English poetry and the father of the modern English novel (for Troilus and Criseyde), also distinguished himself in his lifetime as a civil servant and diplomat under three kings of England. When he was taken prisoner by the French, the King himself contributed to his ransom. When, in later years, the King wished to reward Chaucer for his services to the crown, he was granted — among other favors — the right to demand a daily jug of wine from the pantry of the royal butler. Toward the end of his career, he became a knight o