How did Geoffrey Chaucer combine courtly and popular traditions in his writing?

Geoffrey Chaucer masterfully synthesized courtly and popular traditions by integrating diverse literary genres and social perspectives within his work, most notably in The Canterbury Tales.12

Chaucer’s early career was heavily influenced by fashionable French courtly love poetry, which emphasized refined, aristocratic ideals. However, he transcended these origins by incorporating popular, "earthy" genres such as the fabliau—racy, comic tales often focused on the bourgeoisie—and the beast fable.324

The structural genius of The Canterbury Tales—a frame story involving a pilgrimage—allowed him to bridge these worlds. By assigning tales to a diverse group of pilgrims ranging from a knight to a miller, Chaucer juxtaposed high-minded chivalric romance with bawdy, satirical narratives. This "God’s plenty," as described by John Dryden, enabled Chaucer to maintain a sophisticated, often ironic authorial stance while exploring both the frailties of human folly and serious philosophical questions regarding the human condition.213