How did Geoffrey Chaucer influence Shakespeare?

Geoffrey Chaucer influenced Shakespeare mainly by popularizing the English language and iambic pentameter.

Did Chaucer inspire Shakespeare?

Chaucer’s poetry influenced and inspired many of Great Britain’s authors, poets, and playwrights who followed him, including William Shakespeare. Shakespeare borrowed some of his stories from Chaucer’s poetry. In particular, Shakespeare drew heavily on Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde for his play, Troilus and Cressida.

Where did Shakespeare get inspiration for his plays?

Shakespeare used stories from older books of all sorts for his non-historical plays. He borrowed from Latin and Greek authors as well as adapting stories from elsewhere in Europe. Hamlet is borrowed from an old Scandinavian tale, but Romeo and Juliet comes from an Italian writer writing at the same time as Shakespeare.

Why is Chaucer so important to English literature?

One of the reasons Chaucer is so important is that he made the decision to write in English and not French. The Canterbury Tales was one of the first major works in literature written in English. Chaucer began the tales in 1387 and continued until his death in 1400.

How did Geoffrey Chaucer change the English language?

He introduced rhyme royal into English. Chaucer chose to focus on rhyme, which was unusual for an English language poet of his time, but not completely original. However, he was probably the first person to include rhyme royal in English language literature.

Who was Geoffrey Chaucer’s audience?

Chaucer’s original audience was a courtly one, and would have included women as well as men of the upper social classes.

Who influenced Shakespeare writing?

Shakespeare certainly was influenced by at least two earlier writers, namely Plutarch and Geoffery Chaucer. Shakespeare would have been more familiar with the works of Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400) and he uses several of Chaucer’s poems as sources of his plays.

What influenced Shakespeare’s Macbeth?

Shakespeare borrowed heavily from Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (1587), a popular history well known to Shakespeare and his contemporaries (Shakespeare had previously used Holinshed for his English History plays).

How did Shakespeare become inspired to write?

Shakespeare was inspired by the stories he heard or read from other sources. Most, if not all of his plays, can be traced to other stories. This is why he wrote so many plays about important historical figures such as Julius Caesar. So one of his inspirations was history and the acts of the people who made history.

Who helped make Shakespeare’s plays so popular?

EDMONDSON: A really important moment in the 18th century for the popularity of Shakespeare came with the great actor David Garrick, who in 1769, was invited by the corporation (the borough of Stratford-upon-Avon) to hold a special celebration of Shakespeare, which he did in the form of a jubilee in that September.