It appears that the actor is reciting from memory. If so, this is an incredible feat. The tempo is much faster than other renderings exhibiting a facility that a native speaker would possess. This is brilliant.
I had to recite the first part of this for my high school senior English class. Wow, that was 32 years ago. This actor is impressive. Bravo, young man.
I want to be able to recite it to myself like this, just for pleasure, and this is an invaluable study guide. It's not all that hard to memorize. What annoys me is memorizing Chaucer and then discovering the pronunciation I learned was totally different.
@@dominicberry5577 I agree that it would not be (that) hard to learn. I also have read it repeatedly and feel reading it is even easier. If transported back to 1389, I'm guessing within 2 months a fluent modern English speaker would be pretty fluent. Obviously, just a guess. However, it's more intelligible than Dutch and within a few weeks in Amsterdam, I could make myself understood.
This was unimaginably impressive ... I intended to just watch a bit to hear the beginning of the Prologue in Middle English and ended up watching the entire thing. Colin Gibbings, who played Chaucer, not only delivered the entire Prologue from memory, but did it in Middle English with great gusto, humor, and personality. This was an incredible performance. Bravo!
This is extraordinary. I just read the full prologue in Elizabethan English and wanted to hear it in Middle English. It's more understandable than I thought it would be, and Colin is incredible.
When you lie awake in the early hours of an English, April morning, listening to the bird song, you will recall the opening lines of the Prologue all your life. It is a celebration of Spring as it is experienced in a world that lives closer to nature than we do in the modern world. And it will always be in Middle English that you will hear the words.
Thank you so much for this! I’m studying English literature, I’m from Spain, and being able to hear the text in Old English helps me understand rhythm and pacing much more easily. Besides enjoying it much more. Of course I haven’t mastered the pronunciation of Old English either so I really needed this. I can’t help it but stop the video every few minutes to re-read the text with the actor’s voice in my head.
This is truly an incredible feat! What a great performance! I love hearing middle and olde English. I sometimes wish we still spoke in a way like this. Thank you for preserving the ancient vestiges of our great English for us all to enjoy!
Love love love this.I have an exam 4 days later and I can't tell u how much just listening to him read the prologue with middle English pronunciation has helped me.Thankyou for this.
Peter Robinson - This is the type of thing I really believe the Internet was "made for." Thanks a lot - smashing, brilliant - all the other adjectives!
Absolutely wonderful - listening to this performance on a rainy morning made me so happy and brought tears to my eyes. This performance is simply phenomenal. Please do do more! Colin Gibbings is truly remarkable, conveying both the beauty and the meaning of Chaucer’s poetry with such surety and deft skill.
I love this! An incredible feat of passion, practice, and chutzpah. Really drives home just how clever and funny the Tales are. Would love to hear him perform the whole book!
Brilliant! I recall studying the Prologue and some of the Tales back in the 1960s (A Level English). How lovely this rendering of Middle English sounds, and full marks to Master Chaucer (!) for his clarity and pronunciation of our beautiful language....
@UC86I85OCIGzeNCf9FL4F9lQ, I have enormously enjoyed your staging of Colin's readings and 'reenactments' of the Canterbury Tales. I hope there are more to come. As I've paid close attention to repeated viewings, I find myself understanding a large amount of Chaucer's "London Dialect" Middle English. It seems fluency is within a few months, possibly within reach.
This is arguably the most lively performance of the GP. I will have my class watch it - thank you very much for this incredible feat! Could you do more of Chaucer's CT?
We have also done the Miller's and Nun's Priest's Tale. See artsandscience.usask.ca/english/outreach/medieval-performances.php. You might also like our app of the General Prologue, on android and iphone, and at www.sd-editions.com/CantApp/GP/
@@peterrobinson6831 Many thanks indeed! I will visit the site. Also Do you intend do the Reeve's Tale at some point? Can one buy these recordings should I want to assign them to my class in the future?
It's interesting despite all the 'naysaying' videos which state we modern (so-called!) English speakers haven't much chance of understanding Middle English - I understood a fair amount. I'm sure many others do, too.
Peter Robinson - Most enjoyable. Thanks to your presentation of these videos made some years ago, Colin Gibbing's brilliant performances have helped me become, at least in comprehension of the written word, 90% successful. That is, I can read the original Middle English (aided by a naturally excellent memory perhaps) version with high comprehension. These videos were key. Not so much Gwain and the Green Knight, though that too will 'fall.' I hope to conquer Gwain and understand it to the same degree when reading it off the page in Middle English some day. I've read that 'Gwain,' was composed between 1350-1400 and that is simply the dialect that makes it more difficult that Chaucer's 'South' Middle English. I'm no authority - you are. I doubt that it is the dialect creating the difficulty. I argue for a composition date of 1350 and that 50 years is 50 years less intelligible to we speakers of Modern or, New English. My feeling, purely a guess (I think) then, is that its relative age and not the dialect is the reason it is considerably more difficult. I would love to hear your expert opinion. Again, thanks to you and Colin for these brilliant videos. Breathtaking. Best, Allan
LOVED this. Who is performer and how did he do it? I was proud to memorize the first 18 lines! His pronunciation is exactly how I learned it. Most recitations I hear are different and, therefore, I think wrong.
قلت لحبيبي كن ما شئت ،كن عادلا كن ظالما كن متفهما كن قاسيا مجحفا ...كن ماتشاء كيفما تشاء ....والمهم ان لا تتوقف عن تدمير العواذل وان لاتتوقف عن ضرب وجوههم بالسيف ..ثم انني لا اصدق كل التصديق انك لم ترى الاحداث الاخيرة قبل حدوثها ولم ترى الفرص الكامنة في المأساة ....وبافتراض انك قابل للخداع حقا ...الاله نفسه يسمح لنفسه بالاندهاش والتفاجؤ اكثر من مرة في سفر التكوين!
Many of the words that derive from French are really obvious in Middle English, they stick out like sore thumbs. I'm so glad we've anglicized the pronunciation of some of those words more than you hear here
An amazing job, but I think it sounds a bit too fast and not necessarily in the tempo of speech but the length at which his throat makes the words. Also when he says "Palatye" he actually says "patalye". Middle English also makes avid use in the "e's" at the end of sentences so that "son" may be quite literally pronounced "Sun'ah/son'ah. It is quite important to emphasize the "e" at the end of the word even if it feels as if it is in contrast to the first letter of the next word. Much like Norse there seems to be, in true pronunciation, a good deal of glotal stops or what seems to be glotal stops. The U in in nature when after the T is pronounced as a "oo"
@@charlesmcgurk7205 my favourite reader is a man who I don't know his name. Type in UA-cam Canterbury Tales In Middle English the prologue (not complete). This reader talks more from the stomach and makes the rhythm of speech just so that the pattern of rhyme works rather well on the tongue. Also, middle English was Rhotic, so the 'r's were often sounded as in the word 'Red'. I know trilled 'R's were used, but also Rhotic ones, but I am not sure in which way there were used or rather where in the sentence they were used.
very much respect this actor (wish I knew his name) but there are a few times where the pronounciation is questionable. The Chaucerian metre is stuck to consistantly and laudably, but words like 'face' should be 'farce' in the middle english. 'love' should be 'luuve'. perhaps he made a conscious decision to deliver some words on modern pronouncation for audience comprehension. Tremendous effort nevertheless.
The Rhotic 'R' was extremely prevalent in middle English. Also were trilled ones. There is another great reader of you type in Canterbury tales in middle English the prologue (not complete). The man that reads the one I just described draws out the speech in a very guttural way and it can be likened to many Northern regional dialects in England today. I find it fascinating that the way in which words were used and pronounced was in accordance with where in the country people were from (as is everywhere).
It appears that the actor is reciting from memory. If so, this is an incredible feat. The tempo is much faster than other renderings exhibiting a facility that a native speaker would possess. This is brilliant.
Latin sounds easy to learn
It sounds sooooo clear
He’s not speaking latin its middle english
I had to recite the first part of this for my high school senior English class. Wow, that was 32 years ago. This actor is impressive. Bravo, young man.
I want to be able to recite it to myself like this, just for pleasure, and this is an invaluable study guide. It's not all that hard to memorize. What annoys me is memorizing Chaucer and then discovering the pronunciation I learned was totally different.
@@dominicberry5577 I agree that it would not be (that) hard to learn. I also have read it repeatedly and feel reading it is even easier.
If transported back to 1389, I'm guessing within 2 months a fluent modern English speaker would be pretty fluent. Obviously, just a guess. However, it's more intelligible than Dutch and within a few weeks in Amsterdam, I could make myself understood.
This was unimaginably impressive ... I intended to just watch a bit to hear the beginning of the Prologue in Middle English and ended up watching the entire thing. Colin Gibbings, who played Chaucer, not only delivered the entire Prologue from memory, but did it in Middle English with great gusto, humor, and personality. This was an incredible performance. Bravo!
This is extraordinary. I just read the full prologue in Elizabethan English and wanted to hear it in Middle English. It's more understandable than I thought it would be, and Colin is incredible.
When you lie awake in the early hours of an English, April morning, listening to the bird song, you will recall the opening lines of the Prologue all your life. It is a celebration of Spring as it is experienced in a world that lives closer to nature than we do in the modern world. And it will always be in Middle English that you will hear the words.
As an English Major who is reading Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales in Middle English, this is extremely helpful! Thank you for uploading! :)
same here. need to find such content on edmund spencer's faerie queene
Oh same here
Hello fellow English major!
Had Colin as a TA for a course and he was absolutely brilliant. The enthuasiasm he brought to his field made learning it infinitely easier.
By far the best recitation of the Caunterbury Tales I have ever heard.
We are really interested in people's reaction to this! Should we do more...?
Peter Robinson It would be greatly appreciated if you would. An excellent reading by Mr. Gibbings. Roll on the Miller's Tale.
+Peter Robinson Please do more!!
Yes please that is really excellent!
Yes, please. It's a great reading. I use it in my university-level English class.
3 years late, but yes! I'd love to hear some Sir Gawain and the Green Knight...
Thank you so much for this! I’m studying English literature, I’m from Spain, and being able to hear the text in Old English helps me understand rhythm and pacing much more easily. Besides enjoying it much more. Of course I haven’t mastered the pronunciation of Old English either so I really needed this. I can’t help it but stop the video every few minutes to re-read the text with the actor’s voice in my head.
This is truly an incredible feat! What a great performance! I love hearing middle and olde English. I sometimes wish we still spoke in a way like this.
Thank you for preserving the ancient vestiges of our great English for us all to enjoy!
Love love love this.I have an exam 4 days later and I can't tell u how much just listening to him read the prologue with middle English pronunciation has helped me.Thankyou for this.
Words are not enough.. Just wonderful! Thanks a lot
Wow, this really brought it to life, thank you so much! Please do more!
Peter Robinson - This is the type of thing I really believe the Internet was "made for." Thanks a lot - smashing, brilliant - all the other adjectives!
Remarkable how talented Colin Gibbings is!
Absolutely wonderful - listening to this performance on a rainy morning made me so happy and brought tears to my eyes. This performance is simply phenomenal. Please do do more! Colin Gibbings is truly remarkable, conveying both the beauty and the meaning of Chaucer’s poetry with such surety and deft skill.
I wish we still talked like this.
@Andrew Guerrero your toxic lol think out that box bruh
It's the spelling of middle english that I really want
5:22 "the beginning"
Thank you, everyone, for producing and presenting this in the original language. Marvelous!
I love this! An incredible feat of passion, practice, and chutzpah. Really drives home just how clever and funny the Tales are. Would love to hear him perform the whole book!
I can recognize many french words pronounced in the french way. The great vowel shift hasn’t hit yet.
This is amazing! I am astounded by the talent. Chaucer is not easy to read, much less performing it from memory. Thank you!
Wonderfully done, accurate pronunciation, well acted!
Evolution of language is an amazing thing.
Brilliant! I recall studying the Prologue and some of the Tales back in the 1960s (A Level English). How lovely this rendering of Middle English sounds, and full marks to Master Chaucer (!) for his clarity and pronunciation of our beautiful language....
He is amazing. Thank you for sharing. I'm using this to practice my middle english.
This was an amazing presentation!!
This is really good! Thank you!
Impressive performance, thank you!
Fantastic! I studied the Old and Middle English Period quite extensively in Groningen (Netherlands), and this sounds really good and well performed!.
I went with a girl from Groningen... I think she maybe still teaches there.. probably retired like I am her name was bouwein. Faber
Brilliant, we can follow this amazing delivery, we can actually understand most of it, including the humour!
Amazing.
Sir terry Jones. You will me missed
Yes please. This is very well done. Mahalo (Thank You in Hawaiian).
very impressive
Thanks for uploading! This is helping me so much for my Chaucer class
Outstanding performance!
I really enjoyed this!
I had a great professor, and this reminds me of him. Beautiful. Like a song, I have it playing as I work online.
Amazing!
Love the live performance. Delivering Middle English in spoken form is so satisfying.
This is very special indeed.
So awesome, kind of starts to make sense after a minute. And wow, this is a really impressive performance.
Thank you!
bellissimo!!!!
Very cool.
@UC86I85OCIGzeNCf9FL4F9lQ, I have enormously enjoyed your staging of Colin's readings and 'reenactments' of the Canterbury Tales. I hope there are more to come.
As I've paid close attention to repeated viewings, I find myself understanding a large amount of Chaucer's "London Dialect" Middle English. It seems fluency is within a few months, possibly within reach.
Fantastic read! I'm taking a Chaucer course so reading along with this helped a ton.
This is arguably the most lively performance of the GP. I will have my class watch it - thank you very much for this incredible feat! Could you do more of Chaucer's CT?
We have also done the Miller's and Nun's Priest's Tale. See artsandscience.usask.ca/english/outreach/medieval-performances.php. You might also like our app of the General Prologue, on android and iphone, and at www.sd-editions.com/CantApp/GP/
@@peterrobinson6831 Many thanks indeed! I will visit the site. Also Do you intend do the Reeve's Tale at some point? Can one buy these recordings should I want to assign them to my class in the future?
The Narrator looks so medieval: pale, thin and humble. 🥰
I mastered the text when I was a student 33 years ago. After watching this I wish I could learn the recitation as well.
More!
It's interesting despite all the 'naysaying' videos which state we modern (so-called!) English speakers haven't much chance of understanding Middle English - I understood a fair amount. I'm sure many others do, too.
Now this is a guy who actually understands what he's saying. Absolute fluency.
Terry Jones!!!
Intresting work !
Back! Haha! Thanks for this content ❤
Peter Robinson - Most enjoyable. Thanks to your presentation of these videos made some years ago, Colin Gibbing's brilliant performances have helped me become, at least in comprehension of the written word, 90% successful. That is, I can read the original Middle English (aided by a naturally excellent memory perhaps) version with high comprehension. These videos were key.
Not so much Gwain and the Green Knight, though that too will 'fall.' I hope to conquer Gwain and understand it to the same degree when reading it off the page in Middle English some day.
I've read that 'Gwain,' was composed between 1350-1400 and that is simply the dialect that makes it more difficult that Chaucer's 'South' Middle English.
I'm no authority - you are.
I doubt that it is the dialect creating the difficulty. I argue for a composition date of 1350 and that 50 years is 50 years less intelligible to we speakers of Modern or, New English. My feeling, purely a guess (I think) then, is that its relative age and not the dialect is the reason it is considerably more difficult. I would love to hear your expert opinion.
Again, thanks to you and Colin for these brilliant videos. Breathtaking.
Best,
Allan
He reminds me of Danny Kaye towards the end. I love this ❤️
Colin, I assume by now you’re a professor yourself at some university? You are truly impressive here.
The recitation in Middle English begins at 5.24.
👍🏻👍🏻👏🏻
"Please Sir, I want some more!"
LOVED this. Who is performer and how did he do it? I was proud to memorize the first 18 lines! His pronunciation is exactly how I learned it. Most recitations I hear are different and, therefore, I think wrong.
7:22 A KNYGHT ther was,
قلت لحبيبي كن ما شئت ،كن عادلا كن ظالما كن متفهما كن قاسيا مجحفا ...كن ماتشاء كيفما تشاء ....والمهم ان لا تتوقف عن تدمير العواذل وان لاتتوقف عن ضرب وجوههم بالسيف ..ثم انني لا اصدق كل التصديق انك لم ترى الاحداث الاخيرة قبل حدوثها ولم ترى الفرص الكامنة في المأساة ....وبافتراض انك قابل للخداع حقا ...الاله نفسه يسمح لنفسه بالاندهاش والتفاجؤ اكثر من مرة في سفر التكوين!
Turn on the subtitles
Many of the words that derive from French are really obvious in Middle English, they stick out like sore thumbs. I'm so glad we've anglicized the pronunciation of some of those words more than you hear here
An amazing job, but I think it sounds a bit too fast and not necessarily in the tempo of speech but the length at which his throat makes the words. Also when he says "Palatye" he actually says "patalye". Middle English also makes avid use in the "e's" at the end of sentences so that "son" may be quite literally pronounced "Sun'ah/son'ah. It is quite important to emphasize the "e" at the end of the word even if it feels as if it is in contrast to the first letter of the next word. Much like Norse there seems to be, in true pronunciation, a good deal of glotal stops or what seems to be glotal stops. The U in in nature when after the T is pronounced as a "oo"
Might be a bit fast but such a wonderful sense of enjoyable understanding. I salute you
@@charlesmcgurk7205 my favourite reader is a man who I don't know his name. Type in UA-cam Canterbury Tales In Middle English the prologue (not complete). This reader talks more from the stomach and makes the rhythm of speech just so that the pattern of rhyme works rather well on the tongue. Also, middle English was Rhotic, so the 'r's were often sounded as in the word 'Red'. I know trilled 'R's were used, but also Rhotic ones, but I am not sure in which way there were used or rather where in the sentence they were used.
That poor man is shaking so hard
good
5:24 - you're welcome. ;)
Starts 5:27. You're welcome.
Well I am a nerd. I love this! But I am not going to be a measure of popular reaction.
Wow
How is this even possible ?.
25:04, is he actually swearing or did it just sound similar?
A lot of our modern swear words are borne by the period.
😭
Fought was pronounced differently
Sorry, but I have to ask: was he nervous, or was the shaking due to something else?
05:28
Do you have Script?
I love that "manly man" was a saying in the 1300s.
very much respect this actor (wish I knew his name) but there are a few times where the pronounciation is questionable. The Chaucerian metre is stuck to consistantly and laudably, but words like 'face' should be 'farce' in the middle english. 'love' should be 'luuve'. perhaps he made a conscious decision to deliver some words on modern pronouncation for audience comprehension. Tremendous effort nevertheless.
pronunciation*
@@Danny87R ooof
Why is he scacan
povero...sta tremando dall'agitazione
Richard Dawkins brought me here
"Knight" [k ə ' n i t] ... So when Monty Python's french guard said "kanigit" he wasn't far off 😆
In Germany they say knee with the k but knight is Ritter like ridder
Nc
He hasn’t quite nailed the rhotic ‘R’.
The Rhotic 'R' was extremely prevalent in middle English. Also were trilled ones. There is another great reader of you type in Canterbury tales in middle English the prologue (not complete). The man that reads the one I just described draws out the speech in a very guttural way and it can be likened to many Northern regional dialects in England today. I find it fascinating that the way in which words were used and pronounced was in accordance with where in the country people were from (as is everywhere).
I don't know why, but this sounds strangely Hungarian.
sounds like Scots
this is terible i got set this fo school and now have perminant eye damadge