Friday, October 30, 2015

 

A Scholar

Geoffrey Chaucer, "Prologue," Canterbury Tales, lines 295-298, 301-302, 305, 310 (describing the clerk of Oxenford):
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 that he myghte of his freendes hente,
On bookes and on lernynge he it spente.

[....]

Of studie took he moost cure and moost heede.

[....]

And gladly wolde he lerne and gladly teche.
In Nevill Coghill's modern version:
                                              By his bed
He preferred having twenty books in red
And black, of Aristotle's philosophy,
To having fine clothes, fiddle or psaltery.

[....]

Whatever money from his friends he took
He spent on learning or another book.

[....]

His only care was study.

[....]

And gladly would he learn, and gladly teach.



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