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Mr. Carolina (parrotthed) and I were just discussing this at lunch...

We both memorized the prologue to Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales in old English in high school. Try as we might, we couldn't recite more than the first two lines without having lines from Jabberwocky mixing in there!

"Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote..."
(Twas brillig and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gymbol in the wabe)

I spent a whole Sunday afternoon memorizing it and pacing around the dining room reciting it.

Here's the Old English opposite the Modern English:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/C ... -para.html

Listen my children and you shall hear
of the midnight ride of Paul Revere

Four score and seven years ago
our founding fathers did

When in the course of human events...

Catholic School. Lots of memorizing. It's amazing how much comes back.

Everyone had to learn the first 19 lines of it in OLD English. It makes for great fun at class reunions as we all recite it!

Mr. Mojito teaches senior English...his students write their own tale....and they dress in period costumes....his kids say it's the most fun day of the year.

Immanual Kant was a real p*** who was very rarely stable
Heideggar, Heideggar was a boozy bugger who could think you under the table...

(most of my rote memory stems from school, though)

I never had to memorize it - but we did study it for what seemed like a very long time. In retrospect, it wasn't as bad.

Thank god no. I did take British Literature, we studied Beowulf, Chaucer, and Shakespeare

Didn't memorize it, but did have to read it in old English in college....I HATED it

I'm an english major...took a course called Chaucer last semester...had to read the whole canterbury tales in middle English and memorize the first eighteen lines of the prologue in middle English and recite it in the west saxon dialect for credit.

CG from alot of your posts I gather you are either very interested in Literature or the English language. Were you an English major in College or what do you do for a living? Was this always a passion of yours or just an interest?

No thank God never had to memorize it.I think we may have had the option of reading it or something else..... I know we read Beowulf and at least one of Shakespear's. I was not impressed with the "Olde English"n or did I care for it. It was difficult for me to read and harder to understand.

One of my teacher friends ( teaches literature) and I got into a talk about Shakespear and explained a lot about it and where it came from, that I never heard in school.

Okies for some dumb and maybe not so funnies to borrow from someone from above.

Listen my children and you shall hear
of the midnight ride of Paul Revere
He jumped in his car and stepped on the gas,
The bottom fellout and he busted his a$$

Four score and seven years ago
our founding fathers did come forth and organize
the first orgy and beer and pizza fest in American History

When in the course of human events... it becomes self evident
everyone needs to get laid at some point in their lives.
Obviously the wrong people are busy getting laid while I am here
making this speech.

Okies I did say they were dumb.....so you were warned.

carolinagirl wrote:Mr. Carolina (parrotthed) and I were just discussing this at lunch...

We both memorized the prologue to Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales in old English in high school. Try as we might, we couldn't recite more than the first two lines without having lines from Jabberwocky mixing in there!

"Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote..."
(Twas brillig and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gymbol in the wabe)

I spent a whole Sunday afternoon memorizing it and pacing around the dining room reciting it.

Here's the Old English opposite the Modern English:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/C ... -para.html

CG the only thing is the Canterbury Tales are actually written in Middle English. Chaucer's time period and all his writings are in middle English. Old English is not too far before, but before his time. The link you provided is actually a contrast between middle English and a modern English translation. Middle and modern English are not that far from each other.
The biggest difference is the drop of the final "e" on many words. In Old english and middle english that final "e" was phonetically pronounced but after the norman conquest and an influx of French ovcabulary it was dropped in the Language.
This is a great thread it makes me happy!!!!!!!! Makes me feel like there are other word nerds out there! hugs and kisses! (h's n K's)!!!!

Nope "To Be or Not to Be" was ours...

SweetMelissa wrote:

carolinagirl wrote:Mr. Carolina (parrotthed) and I were just discussing this at lunch...

We both memorized the prologue to Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales in old English in high school. Try as we might, we couldn't recite more than the first two lines without having lines from Jabberwocky mixing in there!

"Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote..."
(Twas brillig and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gymbol in the wabe)

I spent a whole Sunday afternoon memorizing it and pacing around the dining room reciting it.

Here's the Old English opposite the Modern English:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/C ... -para.html

CG the only thing is the Canterbury Tales are actually written in Middle English. Chaucer's time period and all his writings are in middle English. Old English is not too far before, but before his time. The link you provided is actually a contrast between middle English and a modern English translation. Middle and modern English are not that far from each other.
The biggest difference is the drop of the final "e" on many words. In Old english and middle english that final "e" was phonetically pronounced but after the norman conquest and an influx of French ovcabulary it was dropped in the Language.
This is a great thread it makes me happy!!!!!!!! Makes me feel like there are other word nerds out there! hugs and kisses! (h's n K's)!!!!

Thanks, Mel, for setting me straight... I just checked back on this old post, so I'm sorry I didn't reply earlier... Big time word nerd from way back. I have always loved the language... English was favorite subject, but I majored in Communications in order to have a career in writing...
Hubby was the English major.
PM incoming...

We had memorize NOTHING
Welcome to South Carolina

I recall having to read it in English Lit class as a senior in High School... but we didnt have to memorize it!

Forget about memorizing it, I never even had to read it.

Sidew13 wrote:We had memorize NOTHING
Welcome to South Carolina

I went to school in S.C. (Dorchester 2 School District)
I was able to CLEP out of all required English classes in college because my H.S. English classes were so comprehensive.
(Went to Winthrop College in Rock Hill.)

I couldn't check two boxes!

we had to memorize (and dramatize) the prologue in High School English.

don't remember any of it now, but I can still quote from Jabberwocky!

(gotta love those slithy toves!)

we didn't have to memorize anything from the Canterbury Tales but we did study them...

for history we had to memorize the Preamble to the Constitution... once in 8th then in 10th grade.. the second time was easy as I still remember it to this day... the day my 10th grade teacher assigned it I asked if I could get it out of the way then.. he was shocked that I didn't miss a beat.

SweetMelissa wrote:

carolinagirl wrote:Mr. Carolina (parrotthed) and I were just discussing this at lunch...

We both memorized the prologue to Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales in old English in high school. Try as we might, we couldn't recite more than the first two lines without having lines from Jabberwocky mixing in there!

"Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote..."
(Twas brillig and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gymbol in the wabe)

I spent a whole Sunday afternoon memorizing it and pacing around the dining room reciting it.

Here's the Old English opposite the Modern English:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/C ... -para.html

CG the only thing is the Canterbury Tales are actually written in Middle English. Chaucer's time period and all his writings are in middle English. Old English is not too far before, but before his time. The link you provided is actually a contrast between middle English and a modern English translation. Middle and modern English are not that far from each other.
The biggest difference is the drop of the final "e" on many words. In Old english and middle english that final "e" was phonetically pronounced but after the norman conquest and an influx of French ovcabulary it was dropped in the Language.
This is a great thread it makes me happy!!!!!!!! Makes me feel like there are other word nerds out there! hugs and kisses! (h's n K's)!!!!

Wow, Melissa. You're a Chaucer nerd. I'm impressed, ... and intrigued.

haha thanks mings....I'm nerdy at heart, just don't tell anyone