Chaucer, bears, and BBQ sauce

“Now certeinly he was a fair prelaat;
His palfrey was as broun as is a berye.”

Unless you’re familiar with Middle English or The Canterbury Tales, you may have a difficult time understanding those two lines. What’s a palfrey? What’s a beyre?

The English language has changed a lot since 1392, the year Chaucer wrote his story, so while we may have a hard time understanding what he said 600 years ago, surely we should have no problem understanding what we say to each other today, especially with over 170,000 words at our disposal if we’re talking about modern-day English.

So with so much to work with, why is it so hard to get our ideas across?

Sometimes it’s simply the lack of common experience.

Imagine we’re camping in the woods. Suddenly I stop what I’m doing and whisper, “Don’t move. There’s a grizzly bear over by that tree.”

Your first response is “which tree?”

I reply: “The river birch, right next to the western red cedar.”

Your next words are a bit more urgent: “This is my first time away from the Bronx, so unless you can tell me something that doesn’t require me to be an arborist, I’m just going to bet I’m faster than you. And just in case I’m not, I poured honey BBQ sauce on your shoes.”

It seems to me, that when introducing readers to new places, people, and events, the trick is to find the balance between technically precise description, and when to simply yell “run!”

By the way, it turns out a palfrey was a horse, but I still don’t know what a beyre is.

“Ful many a deyntee hors hadde he in stable,
And whan he rood, men myghte his brydel heere
Gynglen in a whistlynge wynd als cleere
And eek as loude as dooth the chapel belle
Ther as this lord was kepere of the celle.
I seigh his sleves purfiled at the hond
With grys, and that the fyneste of a lond;
And for to festne his hood under his chyn,
He hadde of gold ywroght a ful curious pyn;
A love-knotte in the gretter ende ther was.
His bootes souple, his hors in greet estaat.
Now certeinly he was a fair prelaat;
His palfrey was as broun as is a berye.”

From The Monk’s Tale in The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer.

- r