Quotes from Geoffrey Chaucer

He kept his tippet stuffed with pins for curls, And pocket-knives, to give to pretty girls.

We're like two dogs in battle on their own; They fought all day but neither got the bone, There came a kite above them, nothing loth, And while they fought he took it from them both. From Chaucer's The Knight's Tale

la virtud que corona la perfección es la paciencia.

This Nicholas anon leet fle a fart As greet as it had been a thonder-dent, That with the strook he was almoost yblent; And he was redy with his iren hoot, And Nicholas amydde the ers he smoot. Of gooth the skyn an hande-brede aboute, The hoote kultour brende so his toute, And for the smert he wende for to dye.

Well did he know the taverns in every town, and every hosteller and bar-maid, far better than he knew any leper or beggar.

So astute was he in his buying and selling, and in his borrowings, that no one knew if he was in debt.

High in moral virtue was his speech, and gladly would he learn and gladly teach.

Yet from the wise take this for common sense That to the poor all times are out of joint Therefore beware of reaching such a point.

Full is my heart of revelry and grace. But suddenly he fell in grievous case; For ever the latter end of joy is woe. God knows that worldly joys do swiftly go; And if a rhetorician could but write, He in some chronicle might well indite And mark it down as sovereign in degree.

One shouldn't be too inquisitive in life Either about God's secrets or one's wife. You'll find God's plenty all you could desire; Of the remainder, better not enquire.

Jesús de Sirach afirma: «Quien tiene el corazón alegre y contento se conserva vigoroso a través de los años, pero un corazón entristecido reseca los huesos».

But of no nombre mencioun made he, Of bigamye, or of octogamye33. Why sholde men thanne speke of it vileinye34?

There in the sun; and Chanticleer so free Sang merrier than a mermaid in the sea (For Physiologus says certainly That they do sing, both well and merrily).

Alas the day that gave me birth! Worse than my prison is the endless earth, now I am doomed eternally to dwell, not in purgatory, but in hell

Upon his arm he bare a gay bracer*, *small shield And by his side a sword and a buckler, And on that other side a gay daggere, Harnessed well, and sharp as point of spear:

nadie debe echar sobre sus espaldas fardo que no pueda llevar.

The fields have eyes, and the woods have ears.

Well is it said that neither love nor power Admit a rival, even for an hour.

you will not be master of my body & my property

De qué sirve tener posesiones si un hombre carece de conocimientos?

El hombre favorecido por la Fortuna se convierte en un imbécil integral.

Till we be roten, kan we not be rypen?

And after winter folweth grene May.

Go litel bok, go, litel myn tragedye, Ther God thi makere yet, er that he dye, So sende myght to make in som comedye! But litel book, no makyng thow n'envie, But subgit be to alle poesye; And kis the steppes where as thow seest pace Virgile, Ovide, Omer, Lucan, and Stace.