Jonty Claypole

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.

I mean, that's a contemporary phrase, but he had very senior roles in Richard II's court.

And so we can see the different stages of his life documented as well as the work he's creating.

Exactly.

we are in a world which is shifting from the rigidity of medieval feudalism into something more fluid.

We're starting to go into a world where families can, over a number of generations, start to rise up the social ladder.