The Knight's Tale, in "Middle English"
[excerpts - as must natch be deGuidoized, me droogies]
First, from the [link|http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-old?id=Cha2Can&images=images/modeng&data=/lv1/Archive/mideng-parsed&tag=public&part=1&division=div1|
Knight's Portrait]
43: A knyght ther was, and that a worthy man,
[A K'nik't there waas, and that a ware-e-thy m(o)n]
44: That fro the tyme that he first bigan
45: To riden out, he loved chivalrie,
46: Trouthe and honour, fredom and curteisie.
47: Ful worthy was he in his lordes werre,
48: And therto hadde he riden, no man ferre,
49: As wel in cristendom as in hethenesse,
50: And evere honoured for his worthynesse.
51: At alisaundre he was whan it was wonne.
52: Ful ofte tyme he hadde the bord bigonne
53: Aboven alle nacions in pruce;
54: In lettow hadde he reysed and in ruce,
55: No cristen man so ofte of his degree.
56: In gernade at the seege eek hadde he be
57: Of algezir, and riden in belmarye.
58: At lyeys was he and at satalye,
59: Whan they were wonne; and in the grete see
60: At many a noble armee hadde he be.
61: At mortal batailles hadde he been fiftene,
62: And foughten for oure feith at tramyssene
63: In lystes thries, and ay slayn his foo.
64: This ilke worthy knyght hadde been also
65: Somtyme with the lord of palatye
66: Agayn another hethen in turkye.
[link|http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-old?id=Cha2Can&images=images/modeng&data=/lv1/Archive/mideng-parsed&tag=public&part=2&division=div1| The Knight's Tale]
987: He faught, and slough hym manly as a knyght
988: In pleyn bataille, and putte the folk to flyght;
989: And by assaut he wan the citee after,
990: And rente adoun bothe wall and sparre and rafter;
991: And to the ladyes he restored agayn
992: The bones of hir housbondes that were slayn,
993: To doon obsequies, as was tho the gyse.
994: But it were al to longe for to devyse
995: The grete clamour and the waymentynge
996: That the ladyes made at the brennynge
997: Of the bodies, and the grete honour
998: That theseus, the noble conquerour,
999: Dooth to the ladyes, whan they from hym wente;
1000: But shortly for to telle is myn entente.
1001: Whan that this worthy duc, this theseus,
1002: Hath creon slayn, and wonne thebes thus,
1003: Stille in that feeld he took al nyght his reste,
1004: And dide with al the contree as hym leste.
1005: To ransake in the taas of bodyes dede,
I still remember the (as taught) pronunciations of many of the words, now grateful for having been 'forced' to memorize some passages. It was/is fun to speak and - I challenge the assertion that it's incomprehensible. With an hour or two drill/practice, actually paying Attention - it indeed
rolls trippingly off the tongue, and from even this vast chasm across events. And maybe especially - amidst today's Great Silliness.
Surely the engrams activated by this minor exercise, gave first clues about Language itself.. sneaky, that Teacher. Doing/Saying 'Chaucer' connected lots of fragments and hints about how our brains (this one anyway) grab something expressible out of the infinite soup accumulated thus (that) far.
You Can at least begin to 'feel' why it is, that C. survived.. all the way to the Great Regression of the post-literate
Era-of-Distracting-Toys. (I deem that, if "all work and no play" makes Jack a dull boy; all play and no work: begets a nation of inarticulate Dubyas, Rushes and
Murican Idols ---> Our Futchah.)
[Though countering this assertion -at least superficially- I see: My Gramma! knew some Chaucer - and she was a Dubya/Rush surrogate.] What's that about All Generalizations Being False? Merely memorizing Chaucer is hardly appreciating the cat, or why he survived even in superficial Murica, at least up to ~ 50 years ago.
Yes, one needs a glossary for such 'wer-des' as
brennynge, waymentynge and the like. But the fluidity of metre -as spoken- and the sense of each phrase: Comes Through. 'Course such lore is irrelevant to getting your drivers license, MBA and that job at WallBurger. Evidently even the name 'Chaucer' shall become as unfamiliar as Agamemnon or Hypatia - if not already so.
But WTF - can Chaucer in NewSpeak be far behind?
Props fer the swingin Nonne, that habit habitu\ufffd with bling-blings...
(from the Prurient Priory of Pecksniffery, LLC)
ch-aa ch-aa ch-aaa
