Read the excerpt from the General Prolgue to the Canterbury Tales.In the king’s service he’d fought valiantly,And travelled far; no man as far as heIn Christian and in heathen lands as well,And ever honoured for his ability.
Read the excerpt from the General Prolgue to the Canterbury Tales.To any kind of man; he was indeedThe very pattern of a noble knight.But as for his appearance and outfit,He had good horses, yet was far from smart.
Read the excerpt from the General Prolgue to the Canterbury Tales.In church he made a splendid ecclesiastic.He’d read a lesson, or saint’s history,But best of all he sang the offertory:For, knowing well that when that hymn was sung,He’d have to preach and polish smooth his tongueTo raise—as only he knew how—the wind,The louder and the merrier he would sing.
Read the excerpt from the General Prolgue to the Canterbury Tales.There was also a nun, a prioress,Whose smile was unaffected and demure;Her greatest oath was just, "By St. Eloi!”And she was known as Madame Eglantine.She sang the divine service prettily,And through the nose, becomingly intoned;And she spoke French well and elegantlyAs she’d been taught it at Stratford-at-Bow,For French of Paris was to her unknown.Good table manners she had learnt as well:She never let a crumb from her mouth fall;She never soiled her fingers, dipping deepInto the sauce; when lifting to her lipsSome morsel, she was careful not to spillSo much as one small drop upon her breast.Her greatest pleasure was in etiquette.
Read the excerpt from the General Prolgue to the Canterbury Tales.The pardon-seller’s hair was yellow as wax,And sleekly hanging, like a hank of flax.In meagre clusters hung what hair he had;Over his shoulders a few strands were spread,But they lay thin, in rat’s tails, one by one.As for a hood, for comfort he wore none,For it was stowed away in his knapsack.
Read the excerpt from the General Prolgue to the Canterbury Tales.When the sweet showers of April have piercedThe drought of March, and pierced it to the root,And every vein is bathed in that moistureWhose quickening force will engender the flower;And when the west wind too with its sweet breathHas given life in every wood and fieldTo tender shoots, and when the stripling sunHas run his half-course in Aries, the RamRead the same excerpt from the Middle English version of the General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales.Whan that Aprille with his shoures soteThe droghte of Marche hath perced to the rote,And bathed every veyne in swich licour,Of which vertu engendred is the flour;Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breethInspired hath in every holt and heethThe tendre croppes, and the yonge sonneHath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne
Read the excerpt from the General Prolgue to the Canterbury Tales.She was so full of charity and pityThat if she saw a mouse caught in a trap,And it was dead or bleeding, she would weep.She kept some little dogs, and these she fedOn roast meat, or on milk and fine white bread.But how she’d weep if one of them were dead,Or if somebody took a stick to it!She was all sensitivity and tender heart.Her veil was pleated most becomingly;Her nose well-shaped; eyes blue-grey, of great beauty;And her mouth tender, very small, and red.And there’s no doubt she had a fine forehead,Almost a span in breadth, I’d swear it was,For certainly she was not undersized.
Read the excerpt from the General Prolgue to the Canterbury Tales.She had been respectable all her life,And five times married, that’s to say in church,Not counting other loves she’d had in youth, Of whom, just now, there is no need to speak.
Read the excerpt from the General Prolgue to the Canterbury Tales.Also I beg you to forgive it meIf I overlooked all standing and degreeAs regards the order in which people comeHere in this tally, as I set them down:My wits are none too bright, as you can see.
Read the excerpt from the General Prolgue to the Canterbury Tales.There was a knight, a reputable man,Who from the moment that he first began Campaigning, had cherished the professionOf arms; he also prized trustworthiness,Liberality, fame, and courteousness.In the king’s service he’d fought valiantly,And travelled far; no man as far as heIn Christian and in heathen lands as well,And ever honoured for his ability.Read the same excerpt from the Middle English version of the General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales.A Knight ther was, and that a worthy man,That fro the tyme that he first biganTo ryden out, he loved chivalrye,Trouthe and honour, fredom and curteisye.Ful worthy was he in his lordes werre,And therto hadde he riden (no man ferre)As wel in Cristendom as hethenesse,And ever honoured for his worthinesse.
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