Geoffrey Chaucer (1342-1400)
“There was a Knight, a most distinguished man,
Who from the day on which he first began
To ride abroad had followed chivalry,
Truth, honour, generousness, and courtesy.
He had done nobly in his sovereign’s war
And ridden into battle, no man more,
As well in Christian as in heathen places,
And ever honoured for his noble graces.”
- From The Canterbury Tales (Prologue) by Geoffrey Chaucer, edited into modern English by Nevill Coghill (Penguin Classics edition, 1977).
