And father, Chaucer, fain would have me taught;
But I was dull, and little learned or naught.
Alas! my worthy master honouráble,
This landés very treasure and richéssė.
Source: Regement of Princes (c. 1412), Line 2078; vol. 3, pp. 75-6; modernized-spelling version from Henry S. Pancoast (ed.) English Prose and Verse from Beowulf to Stevenson (New York: H. Holt, 1915) pp. 81-2.
Thomas Occleve:
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Famous Thomas Occleve Quotes
O Youth, alas, why wilt thou not incline
And unto ruled Reason bowé thee,
Syn Reason is the verray staighté line
That leadeth folk unto felicitee.
Source: La Male Regle (c. 1405), Line 69; vol. 1, p. 27.
O master dear and reverend father, my master Chaucer, flower of eloquence, mirror of fruitful wisdom, O universal father of knowledge! Alas, that on thy mortal bed thou mightest not bequeath thine excellent prudence! What aileth Death? Alas, why would he slay thee?
Source: Regement of Princes (c. 1412), Line 1961; vol. 3, p. 71; translation from Roger Sherman Loomis and Rudolph Willard (eds.) Medieval English Verse and Prose in Modernized Versions (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1948) p. 351.
“For the more paart, youthe is rebel,
Un-to reson & hatith her doctryne.”
As for the moré part Youth is rebél
Unto Reasón, and hateth her doctrine.
Source: La Male Regle (c. 1405), Line 65; vol. 1, p. 27; translation p. 58.
“The firste fyndere of our faire langage.”
The first finder of our fair language.
Source: Regement of Princes (c. 1412), Line 4978; vol. 3, p. 179; modernized-spelling version from Geoffrey Hughes A History of English Words (Oxford: Blackwell, 2000) p. 126.
If those men who to be lovers pretend
Behaved more faithfully and did not lie,
And dreaded to deceive or to offend,
Then women might not choose to pass them by.
But each man's heart's a fickle butterfly
Which can alight on one just a short while.
Can it be wrong in this case to beguile?
"The Letter of Cupid", line 267; vol. 1, p. 83; translation from Thelma S. Fenster and Mary Carpenter Erler (eds.) Poems of Cupid, God of Love (Leiden: Brill, 1990) p. 191.
“With bookës of his ornat endytyng,
That is to al þis land enlumynyng.”
With books of his ornate writing
That is to all this land illuminating.
Source: Regement of Princes (c. 1412), Line 1973; vol. 3, p. 71; translation from Terry Jones et al. Who Murdered Chaucer? (London: Methuen, 2004) p. 4.
Many a servant unto his Lord saith
That all the world speaketh of him honóur,
When the contrary of that is sooth in faith.
Source: La Male Regle (c. 1405), Line 217; vol. 1, p. 32; translation p. 60.
“Who was hiër in philosophie
To Aristotle, in our tonge, but thow?”
Also, who was higher in Philosophy To Aristotle, in our tongue, but thou?
Source: Regement of Princes (c. 1412), Line 2087; vol. 3, p. 76; translation from George Carver (ed.) The Catholic Tradition in English Literature (New York: Doubleday, 1928) p. 16.
