For I am shave as neigh as any frere.
But yit I praye unto youre curteisye:
Beeth hevy again, or elles moot I die.
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)
nat every wight he sholde go selle
Al that he hadde and yive it to the poore,
And in swich wise folwe him and his fore:
He spak to hem that wolde live parfitly—
And lordinges, by youre leve, that am nat I.
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)