ABSTRACT
When Sir Geoffrey Chaucer began to write verse, the French language in England was dying, it is true, but it was by no means dead, nor was its fate certain; and he must have considered and debated with himself whether to write in French or in English. In selecting English as his poetic language, Chaucer was hazarding the transitory popularity of the minstrels, and of writers of romances and verse-tales. The next important formative influence upon Chaucer's mind, and indirectly upon his art, was his translation of Boëthius, to whose Consolatio Philosophiae he had been led by his study of Le Roman de la Rose. One effect on Chaucer of the Consolation of Philosophy was to confirm by scholastic authority the notion that men's lives were acted upon in accordance with God's providence by Fortune; who, like Nature, was personified, if not deified, and entrusted with divine purpose in the scheme of things.
