Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1342-1400)
“Now as I’ve drunk a draught of corn-ripe ale,
By God it stands to reason I can strike
On some good story that you all will like.
For though I am a wholly vicious man
Don’t think I can’t tell moral tales. I can!”
- From The Canterbury Tales (The Pardoner’s Prologue) by Geoffrey Chaucer, translated to modern English by Nevill Coghill (Penguin Classics, 2003).
