“Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swych licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halve cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open ye
(So priketh hem nature in hir corages);
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages.”
General Prologue, l. 1-12
The Canterbury Tales
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Geoffrey Chaucer99
English poet 1343–1400Related quotes
“Know, man hath all which Nature hath, but more,
And in that more lie all his hopes of good.”
Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools
To An Independent Preacher
“I am glad that my Adonis hath a sweete tooth in his head.”
John Lyly (1554–1606) English politician
Source: Euphues and his England, P. 308.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
1840s, Essays: First Series (1841), Compensation
Context: Every excess causes a defect; every defect an excess. Every sweet hath its sour; every evil its good. Every faculty which is a receiver of pleasure has an equal penalty put on its abuse. It is to answer for its moderation with its life. For every grain of wit there is a grain of folly. For every thing you have missed, you have gained something else; and for every thing you gain, you lose something. If riches increase, they are increased that use them. If the gatherer gathers too much, nature takes out of the man what she puts into his chest; swells the estate, but kills the owner. Nature hates monopolies and exceptions.
Thomas Occleve (1369–1426) British writer
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.
John Dee (1527–1608) English mathematican, astrologer and antiquary
Testamentum Johannis Dee Philosophi Summi ad Johannem Gwynn (1568)
Context: Cut that in Three, which Nature hath made One,
Then strengthen hyt, even by it self alone,
Wherewith then Cutte the poudred Sonne in twayne,
By length of tyme, and heale the woonde againe.
The self same Sunne twys yet more, ye must wounde,
Still with new Knives, of the same kinde, and grounde;
Our Monas trewe thus use by natures Law,
Both binde and lewse, only with rype and rawe,
And ay thanke God who only is our Guyde,
All is ynugh, no more then at this Tyde.
John Fortescue (1394–1476) Chief Justice of the King's Bench of England
History of the English Speaking Peoples by Winston Churchill at p.377 vol I