Instructions:
Choose ONE of the following three passages from the General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales printed on page two (each is a description of a person who accompanies Chaucer on his pilgrimage to Canterbury) and do the tasks below.
Tasks
1. Translate the passage into modern English prose. Do NOT try to translate it into verse.
2. (i) Identify and list 3 words of non-English origin. Give the language of origin and the date of the earliest recorded usage for each.
(ii) Do your three words have English synonyms?
- If yes, list it and suggest why Chaucer may have chosen the French word in preference to its English synonym.
- If no, think of a reason why that may be so.
3. In each passage, one word is in BOLD. These words exist in Modern English in a slightly different form. In a few lines explain how the Middle English differs from the Modern English form. Do only the word in your chosen passage
Use tools such as the OED, the MED or a Middle English text of the General Prologue with a glossary. Do not be tempted to use any of the Interweb or commercial translations. (Alternatively, do be tempted, but be aware that I know them all). Overall, I am looking for your application to the task; signs that you tried to engage with the English of another time.
Passage 1
With hym ther was his sone, a yong SQUIER,
80 A lovyere and a lusty bacheler;
With lokkes crulle, as they were leyd in presse.
Of twenty yeer of age he was, I gesse.
Of his stature he was of evene lengthe,
And wonderly delyvere, and of greet strengthe.
85 And he hadde been somtyme in chyvachie
In Flaundres, in Artoys, and Pycardie,
And born hym weel, as of so litel space,
In hope to stonden in his lady grace.
Embrouded was he, as it were a meede,
90 Al ful of fresshe floures, whyte and reede;
Syngynge he was, or floytynge, al the day,
He was as fressh as is the monthe of May.
Short was his gowne, with sleves longe and wyde.
Passage 2
A CLERK ther was of Oxenford also,
That unto logyk hadde longe ygo.
As leene was his hors as is a rake,
290 And he nas nat right fat, I undertake,
But looked holwe and therto sobrely.
Ful thredbare was his overeste courtepy;
For he hadde geten hym yet no benefice,
Ne was so worldly for to have office.
295 For hym was levere have at his beddes heed
Twenty bookes, clad in blak or reed,
Of Aristotle and his philosophie,
Than robes riche, or fithele, or gay sautrie.
But al be that he was a philosophre,
300 Yet hadde he but litel gold in cofre;
But al that he myghte of his freendes hente
Passage 3
The REVE was a sclendre colerik man.
590 His berd was shave as ny as ever he kan;
His heer was by his erys ful round yshorn;
His top was dokked lyk a preest biforn.
Ful longe were his legges, and ful lene,
Ylyk a staf, ther was no calf ysene.
595 Wel koude he kepe a gerner and a bynne;
Ther was noon auditour koude on him wynne.
Wel wiste he by the droghte and by the reyn,
The yeldynge of his seed and of his greyn.
His lordes sheep, his neet, his dayerye,
600 His swyn, his hors, his stoor, and his pultrye,
Was hoolly in this Reves governynge,
And by his covenant yaf the rekenynge,
Syn that his lord was twenty yeer of age