GEOFFREY CHAUCER HATH A BLOG.

I keep forgetting about this, but fortunately No-sword wrote about it and reminded me: this is well worth your attention. Yeah, yeah, Chaucer blogs, got the idea… but it’s really well done and funny as hell. Geoffrey gives advice:

Sir –
Ich wishe for ad[v]yce in the matter of fashion and armes. Ys it verrily a mistake to wear a lilyflour in my helm? (Ich have a shylde of golde.)
Thopas
Mon Sire Thopas,
By seinte Jerome, finallye someone who kan spelle! Messire Thopas, yow seem a man fair and gent, and Y sholde muchel relish for to tellen yowre tale. Ich shalle have myne peple calle yowre peple. As for the lilye? It dependeth how whethir yow wolde ben ‘easte coaste’ or ‘weste coaste.’
Le Vostre G

Geoffrey on the Perle poete (and I do mean “on”):

O, thatte olde colde tyme on the montayne, when we ownede the worlde and nothynge semed wronge! Indede – the makere of Perle was “wyth” me…
Depe did we stepe ourselves in drinke. Thenne – and by the waye ich assume thou wilt kepe this knowledge from dere Philippa! – we dide thynges that wolde make Alanus of Lille his hede explode. We dide thynges that wolde make Peter Damyan spontaneouslie combuste. We dide thynges that are notte even listede in Burchard of Worms. Rim, ram, ruf!
At morwe-tyde, he sayde me, “Thou knowst I am not of the scole of Edwarde II.”
“Me neithere,” quod I “‘Tis nobodies privitee but oures.”


He prefaces the latter post with the classic blogger’s apology: “Lordynges, by Goddes grace ich yow biseche that ye forgyven me myn tardinesse yn updatinge myn blogge. In this droughty march, the customes house is unusualie bisy.”
(Originally seen at MetaFilter.)

Comments

  1. OOOOOOO
    As if I haven’t had a headache already!

  2. This is a great example of how an idea is nothing and execution is everything. I also thought “yeah, yeah… I thought of that too” when I saw the link, but when I actually read it and saw how good the ME pastiche was, I was just delighted.

  3. Brilliant.
    Reminded me of Bill Bailey’s ‘Chaucer’s Pubbe Gagge’, which might be of interest to you. Basically it’s a ‘Three men walk into a pub’ joke, in the style of Chaucer. Googling for it will quite definately get you the transcript, but of course hearing or seeing it is even better…

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