Prologue to the Presidential Address

Prologue to the Presidential Address* Lordinges: If that I speke after my fantasye, As taketh nat agrief of that I saye, For myn entente nis but for to playe ... Experience, though noon auctor­ itee Were in this world, is right ynough for me To speke of Talbot Donaldson-a worthy man That fro the time that he first bigan To writen bookes, he loved chivalrye, Trouthe and honour, freedom and curteisye ... Ful worthy is he, in his bookes lore, And therto hath he writen, no man more, As we! in Chaucer as in Langland's dresse, And evere honoured hem for hir worthinesse. For lordinges, sith he 16 yere were of age (Thanked be God that is eterne on live) Universites hath he had five, And alle were worthy in hir degre, (If he so ofte mighte ytenured be) Columbia, Harvard, Yale, as I gesse, Eek Michigan and Indiana's gentilesse Hath hadde him alle, as in his time, ful fayn. (For certain!y, as that thise clerkes sayn, Wher as a man may have non audi­ ence, Nought helpeth it to tellen his sen­ tence. ) Diverse scoles maken parfit clerkes And diverse practikes in sondry werkes Maken the werkman parfit, sikerly. Of five universites than comth he: Welcom the sixth, whan that ever he shal! In swich estaat as God hath cleped us, He wol persevere; he is nat pre­ cious ... Herken eek, lo, swich a sharp word for the nones Biside a welle Talbot hath spoken ones: Men may divine and glosen up and doun, But we! I woot, expres, withoutenlie, God bad him for to teche and multi­ plye *The Presidential Address given to members of the New Chaucer Society at their International Chaucer Conferences will be published in the subsequent year's issue of SAC. Included here is the text ofthe first presidentialaddress, "Chaucerin the Twentieth Century," delivered by Professor E. Talbot Donaldson on April 21st, 1979, in Washing­ ton, D.C. The witty and charming Chaucerian pastiche with which Alice Miskimin of Yale University introduced Professor Donaldson onthat occasion was somuchenjoyed by her audience that it is reproduced here for the benefit of those unable to attend. 3 STUDIES IN THE AGE OF CHAUCER His students, and his bookes, by de­ gree: That gentil text can he wel under­ stonde. God clepeth folk to him in sondry wise, And everich hath of God a propre yifte, Som this, som that, as him liketh shifte. Scolership is greet perfeccioun, And criticism eek, with textual de­ vocioun, But Crist, that ofperfeccioun is welle, Bad nat every wight he sholde go selle Al that he hadde and yive it to the pore, And in swich wise folwe him and his fore, And lordinges, by your leve, that is nat he ... He wol bistowe the flour of al his age On Langland's book, write in newe langage, And Chaucer's, though he can but lewedly On metres and on riming craftily; Talbot wol saye hem in swich Englissh as he can Of olde time, as knoweth many a man, And if he have nat said hem, leve brother, In oo book, he wol saye hem in another. For he hath told ofpoetes up and down Mo than Caxton made of mencioun, In his articles that been ful olde. What sholde I tellen hem, sin they ben tolde? In youth he made The C Text and its 4 Poet, And sithen hath he spoke of othere yet, Beowulf and Chaucer's Poetry, Speaking ofChaucer, and Piers Plowman B With Kane, his leve olde freend, And of his bookes, I saye of hem no end ... Butcertainlyno word ne writethhe Of exegetical interpretatiouns, ne Nolde nevere speke in noon of his sermouns Of othere unkinde abhominaciouns, Ne wolde I noon reherce hem, ifthat I may, Though that I come after him with hawe bake (I speke in prose, and lat hym rimes make). But now sires, lat see, what shal I sayn? Aha, by God, I have my tale agayn. For every night and day was his cus­ tume Whanne he had leiser and vacacioun From other worldly occupacioun To reden in his book of olde alle­ goriesHe knew ofhem mo...