ALL PAST PAPPERS(CANTERBURY TALES)

2003

A bettre felawe sholde men naught fynde,

He wolde suffre, fro a quart of wyn,
A good felawe to have his concubyn,
A twelf monther, and excuse hym atte fulle.
Line # 645

Questio quid iuris

2004

Well liked by all and intimate was he

With Franklins everywhere in his country
And with the worthy women of the town
Friar
2005

He settenat his benefice to hyre

And leet his sheepe encombred in the myre,
And ran to Londoun,
Unto seint poules,
To seeten hym a chaunterie for sonless.
Parson
2006
In all the possible wifne was ther noon
That to the offerynge before hire shoulde goone;
And if there dide, certeyn so wrooth was she,
That she was out of all charitee.
Wife of Bath
2007
Ful many a deyntee horse had he in stable;
And when he rood men myghte his broydel heer
Gynglen in a whistlunge wynd als cleere,
Monk
2007

Ful wel biloved and famulier was he

With frankeleyns over all his contree,
And eek with worthy wommen of the town;
Friar
2008

She leet no morsel from her lippes falle

Ne wettee hir fvngres in her sauce depe.
Wel koude she carie a morsel and wel kepe
That no drope ne fille upon hire breste.
Priorer
2009

Therefore, he was prickausour aright

Greyhounds he hadde, as swift as fowel in flight
Of prikying and of huntinge for the hare
Was at his best, for no cost would he spare
Monk
2010

Of twenty year of age he was, I guesse

Of his stature he was evene lengthe
And wonderly delyvere and greet of strengthe
Squire
2011

Great chiere made oure fear us everichon,

And the soper sette he us anon,
And serve us with vitalle at the beste:
Strong was thy wyn and wel to drynke us leste.
Pardoner
2012

A voys he hadde as hath a goot

No bread hadde he, ne never sholde have,
As smothe it was as it were late y-shave
Pardoner
2013

That of her hir smylyng was ful simple and coy;

Hire gretteste ooth was but by Seint Loy,
And she was cleped mandame Eglentyne
Prioer
2014
Nill
2015

And yet he was but esy of dispence;

He kepte that he was in pestilence.
For gold in phisik is a cordial;

Therefore he lovede gold in special

Doctor Of Physics

Gods Plenty: Chaucers Canterbury

Tales
John Dryden, the great poet of 18th-century England, said of the Canterbury
Tales, Tis sufficient to say heres Gods plenty. The title of this post is a
quote from John Dryden, writing of Chaucer. While not everything Dryden
wrote about G.C. was accurate, this is pretty close. When I teach Chaucer to
my kids, I make a point of talking about his amazing range, the vast assortment
of genres he tackles, whether in the Canterbury Tales or his larger corpus of
work. If youre using literature as a way of understanding people, then Chaucer
is right up there with Shakespeare as a lens.
This vast range also marks one of my favorite parts of being an academic, the
International Congress for Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo. Ive written about
it in the past, and attended on several occasions, but its hard to capture the
kaleidoscopic vastness of the stuff under discussion each year. In a way, its
like a real-world example of the all-encompassing work Northrop Frye
described as an anatomy. Im not going this year, but I regret it a little every
year when I dont go.
I also regret staying home when I read articles like this impressionistic take on
Kalamazoo by Josephine Livingstone. Check it out, and maybe Ill catch you
up there some May afternoon.