Friday, October 30, 2015
A Scholar
Geoffrey Chaucer, "Prologue," Canterbury Tales, lines 295-298, 301-302, 305, 310 (describing the clerk of Oxenford):
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For hym was levere have at his beddes heedIn Nevill Coghill's modern version:
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.
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.
