Geoffrey Chaucer — "He was a shrewe, and a greet market-betere."
He was a shrewe, and a greet market-betere.
He was a shrewe, and a greet market-betere.
Click any product to generate a realistic preview. Up to 3 at a time.
* Initial load can take up to 90 seconds — revising the preview in another color is nearly instant.
"A vernycle hadde he sowed upon his cappe. / His walet lay biforn hym in his lappe, / Bretful of pardoun, come from Rome al hoot."
"A good wyf was ther, of biside Bathe, But she was somdel deef, and that was scathe."
"Thus may ye see that every creature, Evere in his kynde, desireth to confourme Him to the kynde of his creatoure."
"He hadde a forhead reed as any glede, / With eyen narwe, and hoote as any goot."
"And yet he was but of litel stature; But al he hadde, it was as he were wood."
English poet, civil servant, and the father of English literature; The Canterbury Tales (~1387-1400) is the founding text of English-language storytelling. Closely associated with Giovanni Boccaccio (his Italian predecessor; the Decameron preceded the Canterbury Tales by ~40 years). For an intellectual contrast, see John Wycliffe, English theologian and Lollard reform-movement leader — Wycliffe and Chaucer were near-contemporaries in the same English Christian world — Chaucer's Wife of Bath and Pardoner are the canonical literary defense of fleshly humanity against the Lollard moral austerity that would later become English Puritanism. Earthy storytelling vs proto-Protestant moralism.
General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales, describing the Wife of Bath's first husband. 'Shrewe' (scold) and 'market-betere' (one who beats at the market) are unusual and blunt descriptors of his character.
Date: c. 1387-1400
Money & BusinessFound in 1 providers: gemini
1 source checked
Your cart is empty