Chaucer's Knight
Middle English Reading 1
Chapter 6 · Chaucer's Knight
📜 Chaucer's Knight
Chapter 5 read eight lines of scene-setting. This chapter reads eight lines about a person: the Knight, the first pilgrim Chaucer describes. Describing someone uses different parts of the grammar from describing spring: past tenses, possessives, and a run of abstract nouns.
The text
| Line | Middle English | Word for word (mine) |
|---|---|---|
| 43 | A Knight ther was, and that a worthy man, | a knight there was, and that a worthy man |
| 44 | That fro the tyme that he first bigan | that from the time that he first began |
| 45 | To ryden out, he loved chivalrye, | to ride out, he loved chivalry |
| 46 | Trouthe and honour, fredom and curteisye. | truth and honour, freedom and courtesy |
| 47 | Ful worthy was he in his lordes werre, | full worthy was he in his lord's war |
| 48 | And therto hadde he riden (no man ferre) | and thereto had he ridden (no man further) |
| 49 | As wel in Cristendom as hethenesse, | as well in Christendom as heathendom |
| 50 | And ever honoured for his worthinesse. | and ever honoured for his worthiness |
Source: Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales (ed. Skeat, 1900), Prologue, lines 43 to 50, Wikisource, as the page tool gave them line by line. The page gave no translation, so the word-for-word column is mine and unverified.
Put together, the lines say: There was a Knight, and a worthy man, who from the time he first began to ride out loved chivalry, truth and honour, freedom and courtesy. He was very worthy in his lord's war, and had ridden further than any man, in Christian and heathen lands alike, and was always honoured for his worthiness. That reading is mine.
Walking through it
- The past tense. was (lines 43 and 47) is the past of be (Middle English Grammar 1, Chapter 7). loved carries the weak -ed (Chapter 6), and so does honoured. bigan looks like a vowel-change past (as I said in Chapter 10 of Middle English Grammar 1); that reading is mine, not the source's.
- The infinitive. ryden (line 45) ends in -en, the infinitive ending of Chapter 6.
- The pluperfect. hadde ... riden (line 48) pairs the past of have (hadde, Chapter 7) with a participle in -en. This participle has no y- prefix; Chapter 6 said such prefixes were common, not required.
- The genitive. lordes (line 47) has the strong genitive -es (Chapter 2): "his lord's war". This is the same -es that became our 's.
- Possessives. his appears three times, always masculine, referring to the Knight or his lord (Chapter 5).
- Adjectives. worthy (lines 43 and 47) has no final -e. In line 43 it follows a and a singular noun, and in line 47 it is a predicate after Ful; neither is a context in Chapter 4's rule. That matches the rule.
- Word order. In line 47 the verb comes before the pronoun: worthy was he. This is not a question. Chapter 8's sources described no question order, so I note the inversion without a rule. In line 48 it comes again: hadde he riden.
- Comparison. ferre in no man ferre is read as "farther" because the sense requires a comparative. It ends in -re, not the -er of Chapter 4, so I cannot tie it to a rule from the sources.
- Abstract nouns. chivalrye, Trouthe, honour, fredom, curteisye, worthinesse. Chapter 9 listed French words of law, government, the church and food, and did not name these, so I do not mark any of them French. They have no plural ending here because they are not plural.
New words
| Middle English | Meaning | Modern English relative |
|---|---|---|
| fro | from | fro (as in to and fro) |
| tyme | time | time |
| ryden | to ride | ride |
| trouthe | truth | truth |
| fredom | freedom | freedom |
| werre | war | war |
| therto | to that, in addition | thereto |
| wel | well | well |
| hethenesse | heathendom, heathen lands | heathen (my guess) |
Try It Yourself
Say the answer first, then click to check.
1. Which pilgrim do these lines describe?
Show answer
The Knight.
2. What ending shows that ryden is an infinitive?
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-en.
3. Which weak past tense forms appear in lines 43 to 50?
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loved and honoured.
4. Parse hadde he riden.
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The past of have (hadde), the pronoun he, and a participle in -en (riden): "he had ridden".
5. Translate his lordes werre.
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"His lord's war."
6. What does the -es on lordes show?
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The strong genitive, the ancestor of Modern English 's.
7. Why does worthy have no final -e?
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It is not in any of Chapter 4's contexts: singular noun after a, and a predicate.
8. What is unusual about the order in Ful worthy was he?
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The verb comes before the subject, though it is not a question. The sources gave no rule for this.
9. What does no man ferre mean, and what can't we say about ferre?
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"No man farther." Its ending -re does not match the -er of Chapter 4, so the sources do not explain it.
10. Why does this chapter not call honour or curteisye French?
Show answer
Chapter 9 listed categories of French words but not these words, and no source I read states their origin.