Chaucer's Opening
Middle English Reading 1
Chapter 5 · Chaucer's Opening
📜 Chaucer's Opening
You met lines 1 and 2 in Chapter 1. This chapter reads the first eight lines of the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales in full, using the version printed in Wikipedia's Middle English article, which comes with a word-for-word rendering. The lines are a good test of the final -e that Middle English Grammar 1, Chapter 4 described.
The text
| Line | Middle English | Word for word | Modern prose |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote | When that April with his showers sweet | When April with its sweet showers |
| 2 | The droȝte of March hath perced to the roote | The drought of March has pierced to the root | has drenched March's drought to the roots, |
| 3 | And bathed every veyne in swich licour, | And bathed every vein in such [liquor] | filling every capillary with nourishing sap |
| 4 | Of which vertu engendred is the flour; | Of which virtue engendered is the flower | prompting the flowers to grow, |
| 5 | Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth | When Zephyrus even with his sweet breath | and when Zephyrus with his sweet breath |
| 6 | Inspired hath in every holt and heeth | Inspired has in every holt and heath | has coaxed in every wood and dale, to sprout |
| 7 | The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne | The tender crops; and the young sun | the tender plants, as the springtime sun |
| 8 | Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne, | Has in [the Ram] his half-course run | passes halfway through the sign of [Aries] |
Source: Wikipedia, Middle English, Sample texts, Chaucer, lines 1 to 8, with the article's word-for-word and modern prose columns, as the page tool gave them line by line. The brackets are the article's links (to sap and to Aries) as the tool reported them. My notes below are mine and unverified.
The prose translation is loose. In line 2, for example, the Middle English says perced ("pierced") and the prose says "drenched". Lines 5 to 8 are one sentence with a long verb at the end, which the prose rearranges. Use the word-for-word column when you want to see what the Middle English says.
The final -e at work
Middle English Grammar 1, Chapter 4 said a final -e goes on an adjective before a plural noun, after the, after a demonstrative or possessive, and in direct address, and that longer adjectives did so less consistently later. These lines test it:
| Phrase | Context | Matches Chapter 4? |
|---|---|---|
| shoures soote (line 1) | after a plural noun | Yes: the plural -e. (The noun comes first, so the adjective follows it.) |
| his sweete breeth (line 5) | after his | Yes: after a possessive. |
| the tendre croppes (line 7) | after the, plural | Yes: tendre ends in -e. |
| the yonge sonne (line 7) | after the | Yes: yonge ends in -e. |
| his halfe cours (line 8) | after his | Yes: halfe ends in -e. |
| every veyne (line 3) | no adjective | Not tested. |
Every adjective in these eight lines that Chapter 4's rule covers does carry the -e. That is eight lines, so it tells us what these lines do. It does not say how consistently Chaucer used the -e across the whole of the Tales, which Chapter 4's source did not say either. (tendre and yonge have two syllables, and the article said those took -e less consistently later; they do here.)
Walking through the rest
- Verbs. hath occurs in lines 2, 6 and 8, the 3rd singular of have (Chapter 7). perced, bathed, engendred and Inspired end in -ed, the weak ending (Chapter 6). is in line 4 is the 3rd singular of be.
- The odd participle. yronne (line 8) starts with the y- that Chapter 6 listed for past participles, but ends in -e, not the -en that Chapter 6 gave for strong participles. The sources did not explain this, so I note the mismatch and nothing more.
- Word order. Lines 6 to 8 put the participle first: Inspired hath ..., Hath ... yronne. The sources gave no rule for this, so I describe it and do not explain it. Chaucer was writing verse, which may bend the order; that suggestion is mine.
- Pronouns. his in lines 1, 5 and 8 refers to April, to Zephyrus and to the sun. It means "its" in line 1 and "his" for Zephyrus and the sun, as the article's word-for-word column has it. Chapter 5 gave his as both masculine and neuter.
- Nouns. shoures and croppes carry the strong plural -es (Chapter 2). The is the reduced article throughout (Chapter 3).
- Borrowed words. I will not call vertu, licour or veyne French: Chapter 9 listed categories of French vocabulary, not these words.
- Spelling. droȝte uses yogh (ȝ, Chapter 1). Skeat's edition, which Chapter 1 of this course and Chapter 10 of Middle English Grammar 1 used, prints droghte, sote and rote where this text has droȝte, soote and roote. Editions differ.
New words
| Middle English | Meaning | Modern English relative |
|---|---|---|
| shoures | showers | showers |
| soote / sweete | sweet | sweet |
| droȝte | drought | drought |
| roote | root | root |
| holt, heeth | wood, heath | holt (rare), heath |
| croppes | crops, new shoots | crops |
| yonge | young | young |
| yronne | run (past participle) | run |
Try It Yourself
Say the answer first, then click to check.
1. Which dialect and spelling standard does the article associate with this text?
Show answer
A dialect associated with London, with spellings associated with the Chancery Standard.
2. Translate line 2 word for word.
Show answer
"The drought of March has pierced to the root."
3. Why does sweete end in -e in line 5?
Show answer
It follows the possessive his, one of Chapter 4's contexts.
4. Which words in line 7 show the -e after the?
Show answer
tendre and yonge.
5. How many times does hath appear, and in which lines?
Show answer
Three times: lines 2, 6 and 8.
6. Name two weak past participles in lines 1 to 8.
Show answer
Any two of perced, bathed, engendred, Inspired.
7. What is odd about yronne?
Show answer
It has the y- prefix but ends in -e, not the -en given for strong participles. The sources do not explain it.
8. Which plural nouns carry the strong -es?
Show answer
shoures and croppes.
9. Give two spelling differences between this text and Skeat's edition.
Show answer
Any two of droȝte / droghte, soote / sote, roote / rote.
10. Does this passage show how consistently Chaucer used the final -e?
Show answer
No. It shows what these eight lines do, which matches Chapter 4's rule, but not how the whole work behaves.