The language of each era offers its own inflections and insights. From the first days of print, the oyster was at hand.
Chaucer had it as a useful rhyme here quite interestingly elastic:
In the Summoners Tale
For many a muscle and many an oystre,
Whan othere men han ben ful wel at eyse,
Hath been oure foode,
And in the Monk’s Tale
“Know that a monk when he is cloister-less
Is likened to a fish that is water-less
This is to seyn, a monk out of his cloister
But thilke text held he not worth an oyster
And I seyde his opinion was good.”
Chaucer had it as a useful rhyme here quite interestingly elastic:
In the Summoners Tale
For many a muscle and many an oystre,
Whan othere men han ben ful wel at eyse,
Hath been oure foode,
And in the Monk’s Tale
“Know that a monk when he is cloister-less
Is likened to a fish that is water-less
This is to seyn, a monk out of his cloister
But thilke text held he not worth an oyster
And I seyde his opinion was good.”
