Jonty Claypole

When April with its sweet smelling showers has pierced the drought of March to the root and bathed every vein in such liquid by which power the flower is created.

When the west wind also, with its sweet breath in every wood and field, has breathed life into the tender new leaves, and the young sun has run half its course in Aries, and small fowls make melody, those that sleep all the night with open eyes, so nature incites them in their hearts.

Then folk long to go on pilgrimages.

and professional pilgrims to seek foreign shores, to distant shrines known in various lands, and especially from every shire's end of England to Canterbury they wend, to seek the holy blessed martyr who helped them when they were sick.

Can I remove the pants from my head?

I think Chaucer would approve as well of our humour, our toilet bodily humour.

He would find the pants on my head utterly hilarious.

He would not stop laughing.

And he would be thinking, why didn't I get the parson to have pants on his head?

That was the joke I was looking for.

Well, it loses it.

So nature incites them in their hearts.

Right.

Love that, Sophie.

What a great insight into all the things going on.

And actually the reason why you have to be very careful even about changing the odd word or two into contemporary English, because the pricketh is lost in the translation I was looking at.

So let's talk about Chaucer himself.

One of the first things to say about Chaucer is we actually know a surprising amount about him.

Considering he's living in the 14th century, he is not one of those figures who is completely lost.

And the reason why we know quite a bit about him is he was a very senior ranking civil servant.