Why was Chaucer a bad speller?

He'd ask the same question of a lot of us now, especially the texters who don't proof their typing before uploading.

"SHEAKSPEARE", indeed!

Spelling wasn't invented in those days. It would be a few hundred years before Dr Johnson invented the English Dictionary.

Believe it or not, English changes with time.  The plural of shoe used to be shoon.  When Chaucer wrote in the 1300s both spelling and grammar were different than today

He was no bad speller at all!It all was just a way to improve his own books selling pattern!Just that you knew,books are sold somewhat better once you have small orphographical mistakes in them!The "bad spelling" added juice to his works!The same way Sheakspeare is famous for his own original tongue,not only for the story line at all!

LMAO.  Middle English baby!   Adore this question. 

In the time that Chaucer wrote there was no standardized spelling in the English language.

Because Dr Johnson's dictionary wasn't available until  three hundred years later.

We was not.  He wrote his books over 600 years ago.  The English language was still immerging at that time.  His works are often considered to be the first texts in "English".  At that time Chaucer was writing those were the correct spellings for the words.  We have changed the language (including adding the letters "F" and "J") since the time when Chaucer lived.

He wasn't as such.  Fewer people than today could read and write so there was no standardised spellings. He spoke and wrote in old English.  Dictionaries which helped to standarsdise spelling didn't come about until the 1750s.

He wasn't. It is just that there were no agreed spellings for words back then. Spelling was not standardised until some years later.