Oxford

Name: Oxford
Author: Thomas, Edward

Thomas, Edward

Oxford (England) -- Description and travel; University of Oxford

Whilome ther was dwellynge at Oxenford
    A riche gnof, that gestės heeld to bord,
    And of his craft he was a carpenter.
    With hym ther was dwellynge a poure scoler,
    Hadde lernėd art, but al his fantasye
    Was turnėd for to lern astrologye,
    And koude a certeyn of conclusions,
    To demen by interrogaciouns,
    If that men sholde have droghte or ellės shoures.
    Or if men askėd him what sholde bifalle
    Of everythyng, I may nat rekene hem alle.
        This clerk was clepėd hendė Nicholas.
    Of deernė love he koude, and of solas,
    And ther-to he was sleigh and full privee,
    And lyk a mayden mekė for to see.
    A chambrė hadde he in that hostelrye
    Allone withouten any compaignye,
    And fetisly y-dight, with herbės swoote,
    And he himself as sweete as is the roote
    Of lycorys, or any cetėwale.
    His Almageste, and bookės grete and small,
    His astrelabie, longynge for his art,
    His augrym stonės, layen faire apart,
    On shelvės couchėd at his beddės heed.
    His presse y-covered with a faldyng reed,
    And all above there lay a gay sautrie,
    On which he made a-nyghtės melodie
    So swetėly, that al the chambrė rong,
    And _Angelas ad Virginem_, he song;
    And after that he song the “Kyngės noote”;
    Ful often blessėd was his myrie throte,
    And thus this sweetė clerk his tymė spente
    After his freendės fyndyng and his rente.

Such was a “clerk of Oxenford” in Chaucer’s day, living probably on the
generosity of a patron, and differing only from his patron’s son,
inasmuch as he was saved the expense of a fur hood. In the rooms of
most, Bibles, Missals, or an Aristotle or Boethius, took the place of
the Almagest of the astrologer; and more conspicuous were the rosaries,
lutes, bows and arrows of the undergraduates. In their boisterous
parti-coloured life of almost liberty, even an examination was a vivid
thing, and meant a disputation against all comers in a public school, to
be followed by a feast of celebration, visits to taverns, and probably a
dance,

    After the scole of Oxenfordė tho;

and so, after a fight with saucy tradesmen or foreigners, to bed, or
Binsey for a hare, or to other night work.


II

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

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