Chaucer the Pilgrim Quotes

“And well she sang a service, with a fine Intoning through her nose, as was most seemly, And she spoke daintily in French, extremely, After the school of Stratford-atte-Bowe; French in the Paris style she did not know.”

“Your dreary rhyming isn’t worth a turd!:

“When in April the sweet showers fall And pierce the drought of March to the root, and all The veins are bathed in liquor of such power As brings about the engendering of the flower”

“He did not rate that text at a plucked hen Which says that hunters are not holy men And that a monk uncloistered is a mere Fish out of water, flapping on the pier, That is to say a monk out of his cloister. That was a text he held not worth an oyster”

“His worthy steed he then bestrode And forth upon his way he glode Like sparkles from a flame. And his crest he bore a tower And stuck thereon a lily-flower, God guard him from all shame!”

“You’re doing nothing else but wasting time. Sir, in a word, you shall no longer rhyme.”

“Though there was nowhere one so busy as he, He was less busy than he seemed to be.”

“He was a true, a perfect gentle-knight.”

“For May will have no sluggardry at night, Season that pricks in every gentle heart, Awaking it from sleep, and bids it start”

“About a fair and gentle knight In battle, tournament and fight, Sir Topaz was his name.”