Christopher Cannon reads ‘Truth’ by Geoffrey Chaucer

For Bloomberg Distinguished Professor Christopher Cannon, the path to examining medieval language and literature began in an elective history of English course while an undergraduate. “I was always going to end up somewhere in a library, with books, poking around in the stacks,” he says. A scholar of linguistics and literacy, Cannon is one of the world’s leading experts on the 14th-century poet Geoffrey Chaucer. He joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins University this fall.

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TRUTH

Flee fro the prees and dwelle with sothfastnesse;
Suffyce unto thy thing, though it be smal,
For hord hath hate, and climbing tikelnesse,
Prees hath envye, and wele blent overal.
Savour no more than thee bihove shal,
Reule wel thyself that other folk canst rede,
And trouthe thee shal delivere, it is no drede.

Tempest thee noght al croked to redresse
In trust of hir that turneth as a bal;
Gret reste stant in litel besinesse.
Be war therfore to sporne ayeyns an al,
Stryve not, as doth the crokke with the wal.
Daunte thyself, that dauntest otheres dede,
And trouthe thee shal delivere, it is no drede.

That thee is sent, receyve in buxumnesse;
The wrastling for this world axeth a fal.
Her is non hoom, her nis but wildernesse:
Forth, pilgrim, forth! Forth, beste, out of thy stal!
Know thy contree, look up, thank God of al;
Hold the heye wey and lat thy gost thee lede,
And trouthe thee shal delivere, it is no drede.

Therfore, thou Vache, leve thyn old wrecchednesse;
Unto the world leve now to be a thral.
Crye him mercy, that of his hy goodnesse
Made thee of noght, and in especial
Draw unto him, and pray in general
For thee, and eek for other, hevenlich mede;
And trouthe thee shal delivere, it is no drede.