Influence 　　ItissometimesarguedthatthegreatestcontributionthatthisworkmadetoEnglishliteraturewasinpopularisingtheliteraryuseofthevernacular,English,ratherthanFrenchorLatin.Englishhad,however,beenusedasaliterarylanguageforcenturiesbeforeChaucer'slife,andseveralofChaucer'scontemporaries—JohnGower,WilliamLangland,andthePearlPoet—alsowrotemajorliteraryworksinEnglish.ItisuncleartowhatextentChaucerwasresponsibleforstartingatrendratherthansimplybeingpartofit.[citationneeded]Itisinterestingtonotethat,althoughChaucerhadapowerfulinfluenceinpoeticandartisticterms,whichcanbeseeninthegreatnumberofforgeriesandmistakenattributions(suchasTheFlowerandtheLeafwhichwastranslatedbyJohnDryden),modernEnglishspellingandorthographyowesmuchmoretotheinnovationsmadebytheCourtofChanceryinthedecadesduringandafterhislifetime