The General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales
Lines 285-308: The Portrait of the Clerk of Oxford

285    A clerk ther was of oxenford also,
286    That unto logyk hadde longe ygo.
287    As leene was his hors as is a rake,
288    And he nas nat right fat, I undertake,
289    But looked holwe, and therto sobrely.
290    Ful thredbare was his overeste courtepy;
291    For he hadde geten hym yet no benefice,
292    Ne was so worldly for to have office.
293    For hym was levere have at his beddes heed
294    Twenty bookes, clad in blak or reed,
295    Of aristotle and his philosophie,
296    Than robes riche, or fithele, or gay sautrie.
297    But al be that he was a philosophre,
298    Yet hadde he but litel gold in cofre;
299    But al that he myghte of his freendes hente,
300    On bookes and on lernynge he it spente,
301    And bisily gan for the soules preye
302    Of hem that yaf hym wherwith to scoleye.
303    Of studie took he moost cure and moost heede,
304    Noght o word spak he moore than was neede,
305    And that was seyd in forme and reverence,
306    And short and quyk and ful of hy sentence;
307    Sownynge in moral vertu was his speche,
308    And gladly wolde he lerne and gladly teche.