Thursday, July 16, 2020

In the morning Lois and I prune back some shrubs in the back garden. In the afternoon we settle down on the sofa with a cup of Earl Grey tea and a slice of Lois’s delicious home-made walnut cake - yum yum! 

We listen to the radio discussion about Chaucer.

Lois and I didn’t realize that as early as the first 20 years after Chaucer’s death in 1400, authoritative people were already referring to him as the father of English poetry, and the man who had made writing in English “respectable”. 

The content of Chaucer's writings, especially the Canterbury Tales, was anything but respectable of course: they were very bawdy and hence incredibly popular. That’s why when Caxton started the first printing press in England he was more anxious to print the Canterbury Tales than anything else – he knew they would make him a lot of money.

It seems incredible that, while English was the language of more than 90% of the population, anything written down in English was assumed to be a load of crap. French, the language of the court, and Latin, the language of the church, were the only “respectable” mediums for literature, until Chaucer started his writing career.

17:00 We go round to our neighbour Frances’s house to water the plants in her garden and greenhouse. She is away for a few days staying with her daughter Elizabeth in Eastbourne.  It gives us a chance to see at close hand the bunch of horrible new houses that are being built next to Frances’s house and garden, great big monolithic walls only about 4 feet away from Frances’s house and back garden – my god, what a crazy world we live in !!!!!

20:00 We watch some TV, the final part of Ian Hislop’s interesting series on the British concept of the stiff upper lip.

In the 1920’s revolutions and unrest were spreading all over Europe, both communist and fascist. In Britain the general strike of 1926 was at first thought to herald a revolution in Britain. But a French journalist sent over here to cover the “revolution” discovered a football match in Plymouth where a team of strikers were playing a team of local police. He promptly went home to France in disgust, claiming that the British “weren’t serious about having a revolution”.

My god, what a crazy country we live in !!!!

22:00 It’s 10 o’ clock and here we are in bed again already.

Zzzzzzzzzzzz!!!!

Danish translation: Torsdag den 16. juli 2020

I formiddagen beskærer vi nogle buske i baghaven. Om eftermiddagen slår vi os ned i sofaen med en kop Earl Grey og en skive Lois's lækkre hjemmelavede valnødskage og lytter til radiodiskussionen om Chaucer.

Vi var ikke klar over, at folk allerede i de første 20 år efter Chaucer's død i 1400 allerede omtalte ham som far til engelsk poesi, den mand, der havde skrevet skrift på engelsk "respektabel". Indholdet af hans forfattere, især Canterbury Tales, var naturligvis alt andet end respektabelt: de var meget skæve og dermed utroligt populære. Det var derfor, da Caxton startede den første trykpresse i England, var han mere ivrig efter at trykke Canterbury Tales end noget andet - han vidste, at de ville tjene ham en masse penge.

Det forekommer utroligt, at selvom engelsk var sproget for mere end 90% af befolkningen, antages alt, der er skrevet ned på engelsk, at være en masse crap. Fransk, domstolens sprog og Latin, kirkens sprog var det eneste "respektable" medium for litteratur, indtil Chaucer startede sin forfatterkarriere.

17:00 Vi går rundt til vores nabo Frances Frances hus for at udvande planterne i hendes have og drivhus. Hun er væk et par dage og opholder sig hos sin datter Elizabeth i Eastbourne. Det giver os en chance for at se tæt på de forfærdelige nye huse, der bygges ved siden af ​​Frances 'hus og have, store store monolitiske vægge kun omkring 4 meter væk fra Frances' hus - sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!!

20:00 Vi ser noget TV, den sidste del af Ian Hislops interessante serie om det britiske koncept med den stive overlæbe.

I 1920'erne spredte revolutionerne og uroen sig over hele Europa, både kommunistisk og fascistisk. I Storbritannien blev generalstrejken i 1926 først overvejet at indlede en revolution i Storbritannien. Men en fransk journalist, der blev sendt her for at dække "revolutionen", opdagede en fodbold i Plymouth, hvor et hold strejkere spillede et hold af lokalt politi. Han gik straks hjem til Frankrig i afsky og hævdede, at briterne “ikke var seriøse med revolution”.

Herregud, hvilket skøre land vi lever i !!!!

22:00 Klokken er 10 og her er vi allerede i sengen igen.

Zzzzzzzzzzzz !!!!