ADVICE FROM

OLD STORYTELLERS

 Chaucer in his General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales:

725         ...I pray yow, of youre curteisye,
              ...I pray you, of your courtesy,
726         That ye n' arette it nat my vileynye,
                 That you do not attribute it to my rudeness,
727         Thogh that I pleynly speke in this mateere,
                 Though I speak plainly in this matter,
728         To telle yow hir wordes and hir cheere,
                 To tell you their words and their behavior,
729         Ne thogh I speke hir wordes proprely.
                 Nor though I speak their words accurately.
730         For this ye knowen al so wel as I:
                 For this you know as well as I:
731         Whoso shal telle a tale after a man,
                 Whoever must repeat a story after someone,
732         He moot reherce as ny as evere he kan
                 He must repeat as closely as ever he knows how
733         Everich a word, if it be in his charge,
                 Every single word, if it be in his power,
734         Al speke he never so rudeliche and large,
                 Although he may speak ever so rudely and freely,
735         Or ellis he moot telle his tale untrewe,
                 Or else he must tell his tale inaccurately,
736         Or feyne thyng, or fynde wordes newe.
                 Or make up things, or find new words.
737         He may nat spare, althogh he were his brother;
                 He may not refrain from (telling the truth), although he were his brother;
738         He moot as wel seye o word as another.
                 He must as well say one word as another.
739         Crist spak hymself ful brode in hooly writ,
                 Christ himself spoke very plainly in holy writ,
740         And wel ye woot no vileynye is it.
                 And you know well it is no rudeness.

Courtesy of:

THE GEOFFREY CHAUCER PAGE

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Interlinear Translations of Some of The Canterbury Tales