Recently, I found myself trying to remember the Middle English opening to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, several lines I had to memorize in college. I did memorize them back then, but my professor wasn’t crazy about my pronunciation even though I tried hard to imitate the Middle English record he assigned.
I wish I could remember why I wanted to resurrect Chaucer this week. It might have been that Karl Ove Knausgaard mentioned him admiringly in My Struggle: Book Two, which I’m currently reading.
No sooner had I begun working on “Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote” (“When April with his showers sweet”) than John, all unaware, sent me a John Skelton Middle English video about a parrot.
It’s hard to figure out the words, but the sound of them is lovely. And I do understand the meow, which apparently is a source of anxiety to the parrot.
If you can tell me more about the words, please do. (There is also some Latin and French, to keep us all on our toes.)
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