A strange idea has been creeping up on me for the past few days: to try to memorize a bit of the Canterbury Tales in Middle English.
One of the reasons that it interests me is because it almost understandable, but just weird enough to give neurons a strange workout.
Here’s what it looks like:
Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote
And bathed every veyne in swich 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 halfe cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open eye-
(So priketh hem Nature in hir corages);
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes
To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;
And specially from every shires ende
Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende,
The hooly blisful martir for to seke
That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seeke.
…and here is what it sounds like:
It would useful to have an audio book of the text with good pronunciation.
UPDATE: I don’t think I’m going to memorize any of the Canterbury Tales beyond the intro posted above. It’s really interesting, but completely obscene by today’s standards. One would got slapped reciting this stuff — if anyone could understand it.
The Penguin Classics version has a facing translation in modern prose, so you can go back and forth.
They actually still perform Chaucer’s poetry. I took a class on Chaucer last year, as well as a class on Old French. Both, though hardly comprehensible to the modern listener, are amazingly beautiful. Vowels in Middle English were purer than they are now – closer to the French of its day. Speaking French may have helped my understanding the poems a great deal… I had to memorize some of his poetry for the class, and I loved it – I did part of the Wife of Bath’s story.
I like your idea of memorizing part of Beowulf. But I feel that it would be much harder not understanding the meaning of the poem. I’ve memorized poetry in French, and it was a great way to learn vocabulary, though. Still, I’ve never used mnemonic devices for memorizing poetry, and I’d like to give it a try.
