Middle English Quotes

• I studied English literature in the honors program, which means that you had to take courses in various centuries. You had to start with Old English, Middle English, and work your way toward the modern. I figured if I did that it would force me to read some of the things I might not read on my own.

  Jeffrey Eugenides

  Mean, Honor, Literature

  "Interview: Jeffrey Eugenides on writing in C major". Interview with Carolyn Kellogg, latimesblogs.latimes.com. October 29, 2011.

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• And gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly teche.

  Geoffrey Chaucer

  Canterbury Tales, Canterbury

  The Canterbury Tales "The General Prologue" l. 308 (ca. 1387)

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• Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
  The droghte of March hath perced to the roote.

  Geoffrey Chaucer

  Book, Hem, March

  The Canterbury Tales "The General Prologue" l. 1 (ca. 1387)

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• I have an unconscious burglar living in my mind: If I read something, it's mine. I can read Middle English stories, Geoffrey Chaucer or Sir Thomas Malory, but once I start moving in the direction of contemporary fantasy, my mind begins to take over.

  David Eddings

  Moving, Mind, Stories

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• A dash derives from "to dash," to shatter, strike violently, to throw suddenly or violently, hence to throw carelessly in or on, hence to write carelessly or suddenly, to add or insert suddenly or carelessly to or in the page. "To dash" comes from Middle English daschen, itself probably from Scandinavian-compare Danish daske, to beat, to strike. Ultimately the word is-rather obviously-echoic.

  Eric Partridge

  Writing, Add, Pages

  Eric Partridge (2003). “You Have a Point There: A Guide to Punctuation and Its Allies”, p.70, Routledge

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• Clutter is stuck energy. The word "clutter" derives from the Middle English word "clotter," which means to coagulate - and that's about as stuck as you can get.

  Karen Kingston

  Mean, Energy, English Words

  Karen Kingston (2016). “Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui (Revised and Updated): Free Yourself from Physical, Mental, Emotional, and Spiritual Clutter Forever”, p.11, Harmony

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• I have these guilts about never having read Chaucer but I was talked out of learning Early Anglo-Saxon / Middle English by a friend who had to take it for her Ph.D. They told her to write an essay in Early Anglo-Saxon on any-subject-of-her-own-choosing. “Which is all very well,” she said bitterly, “but the only essay subject you can find enough Early Anglo-Saxon words for is ‘How to Slaughter a Thousand Men in a Mead Hall’.

  Helene Hanff

  Writing, Men, Guilt

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