CHAUCER 



1286 



CHAUFFEUR 



Chattels may be personal or real, the former 

 being all such movable articles as furniture, 

 money or clothes. A chattel real, on the other 

 hand, is any interest in land less than actual 

 ownership, as a lease or a mortgage. Grow- 

 ing crops also come under this title. The term 

 goods is narrower than chattel, meaning practi- 

 cally the same as chattels personal, and the 

 commonly used expression goods and chattels 

 is thus a mere repetition for emphasis, as the 

 first word adds nothing to the meaning. See 

 MORTGAGE, subhead Chattel Mortgage. 



CHAUCER, chaw'sur, GEOFFREY (about 1340- 

 1400), the first great poet of England, known 

 as the "Father of English Poetry." Writers of 

 verse there had been before him, and some 

 of these rose above the average low rank, but 

 he was the first 

 to show that 

 poetry, masterly 

 in technique as 

 well as in con- 

 tent, could be 

 written in the 

 shifting, develop- 

 ing English lan- 

 guage. The 

 changes which 

 have taken place 

 in the language 

 since his day 

 have prevented his wide popularity, for it is 

 not now possible to read his works without con- 

 siderable study; but those who do give them 

 attention find themselves well repaid. Critics 

 do not hesitate to give Chaucer a rank among 

 English poets secondary only to that of Shake- 

 speare and Milton. 



Little is known of the boyhood or education 

 of Chaucer, but it is certain that during the 

 English invasion of France in 1359-1360 he 

 was imprisoned, was ransomed by the king and 

 became a squire in the royal service. That he 

 was an efficient servant is shown by the fact 

 that he was sent on several important mis- 

 sions to France and to Italy, and the effect of 

 these journeys is evident in his works, which 

 show strong traces of French and Italian influ- 

 ence. In 1374 he was made comptroller of 

 customs for London, and in 1386 was elected 

 to Parliament. At times during the latter part 

 of his life, when the political party to which 

 he belonged was not in power, he was very 

 poor, and not until a year before his death 

 was he given permanent financial relief by the 

 king. Chaucer was a diplomat, a business 



GEOFFREY CHAUCER 



man and a poet of high rank; that he could 

 be all these shows that he must have been a 

 man of the greatest range of ability. 



His first works were translations or at least 

 adaptations from the French, but later the 

 Italian writers became his models, and under 

 their domination he produced such poems as 

 Troylus and Cryseyde, one of his most beauti- 

 ful works; Legende of Good Women, Palamon 

 and Arcite and The Parlement of Foules. In 

 his third and greatest period he was thoroughly 

 English in his theme and in his treatment of 

 it, though the plan of his greatest work, the 

 Canterbury Tales (which see), was one which 

 had been used before in Italy by Boccaccio. 

 The dramatic ability shown in his descriptions 

 of characters in this remarkable work has led 

 many to speculate as to what Chaucer might 

 have become in an age when the drama was 

 the chief form of literature; but he lived in a" 

 story-loving age, and the ability to tell a story 

 was perhaps the greatest of all his gifts. A.MC c. 



Consult MacKaye's Complete Poetical Works of 

 Chaucer: Now First Put into Modern English; 

 Hammond's Chaucer: A Bibliographical Manual. 



CHAUDIfiRE, sho dyair' , a river of the prov- 

 ince of Quebec, Canada, famed for its beautiful 

 falls, which attract many visitors. Its steep, 

 rocky banks and the many little wooded islands 

 which obstruct its channel are most picturesque. 

 The Chaudiere has its source in a number of 

 small streams which flow into Lake Megantic 

 near the border of Maine and only a few miles 

 from the source of the Kennebec. Issuing 

 from Lake Megantic, the Chaudiere flows 

 northward and then northwestward in a wide 

 curve, and after a course of 120 miles empties 

 into the Saint Lawrence about seven miles 

 above the city of Quebec. The falls, which are 

 two and one-half miles from its mouth, make 

 it of little value for navigation. 



CHAUFFEUR, sho' jer, from a French word 

 signifying to make hot, was in its original 

 meaning used to denote a stoker of a steam- 

 ship or a locomotive. As automobiles became 

 common the term was adopted not only in 

 France but also -in English-speaking countries 

 to refer to the man who looked after the fuel 

 and the machinery. To-day the word has be- 

 come well established in English to signify the 

 professional driver of any motor vehicle. In 

 the United States and Canada chauffeurs receive 

 wages ranging from $50 to $100 per month. 

 The hours of service may be long every day, 

 for a chauffeur must be, at the call of his em- 

 ployer day and night. 



