# Chaucer — On the Art of Reading character guide

> Chaucer in On the Art of Reading by Arthur Quiller-Couch.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** merry Chaucer

**First appearance:** 0003-lecture-i-introductory

## Snapshot

The medieval poet whose Canterbury Tales are prescribed, dissected, and nearly buried under the apparatus of examination.

## Who they are

Chaucer enters as a case study in how institutions smother literature: his tales are 'set,' listed, and examined alongside Old English dialect papers until the brain reels. Quiller-Couch uses him to expose the absurdity of reading English Literature in two years, from 1350 to 1832, as if it were a body of facts. Yet the affection is real — 'merry Chaucer' stands for the living poet the syllabus keeps threatening to replace with outlines and bibliographies.

## In the story

### [Lecture I: Introductory](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/on_the_art_of_reading_se/chapters/lecture-i-introductory)

Listed as a subject of examination in the English curriculum, with papers on his works and language.

### [Lecture V: On Reading for Examinations](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/on_the_art_of_reading_se/chapters/lecture-v-on-reading-for-examinations)

Listed as an author whose works are prescribed for examination, e.g., 'The Parlement of Fowls' and 'The Canterbury Tales'.

### [Lecture VI: On a School of English](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/on_the_art_of_reading_se/chapters/lecture-vi-on-a-school-of-english)

Cited as an author whose work requires understanding of the background and audience for whom he wrote.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/on_the_art_of_reading_se/characters/chaucer
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/on_the_art_of_reading_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/on_the_art_of_reading_se/characters