Jonty Claypole

And I do want listeners to know that it's very hard to read Middle English or medieval English.

And Sophie knows exactly how it's done.

It was prior to something, an event known as the Great Vowel Shift of the 15th century, not to be confused with the Great Bowel Shift, which was an entirely different affair.

And the great vowel shift was a fundamental change in the English language and the sound of vowels.

And if you don't know much about the great vowel shift, you can't do what Sophie's about to do for us now.

And I'll put another lute in before it begins.

Here we go.

When we decided we were going to do this episode, you scoffed at me because I said, I've got to read Chaucer.

I've got to have a translation next to me.

And you scoffed because you don't need a translation, which is fair enough.

You've been teaching it.

But I think it's worth giving a translation of that.

Just in case anyone listening is feeling a bit dusty on their Middle English.

And actually, we should stress, it sounds more alien than it is.

So when Sophie was reading that, it's very hard to follow.

But actually, when you're looking on the page, very few words are actually different.

Maybe only one or two words in a line.

So it's as much about the pronunciation changing.

So what you're hearing is still Chaucer.

It's not like other translations where you're getting a different work essentially as mediated by a translator.