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Similarly, in the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, a young squire is described as conducting himself "in hope to stonden in his lady grace" (in the hopes of st
by gfaure 5y ago
Similarly, in the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, a young squire is described as conducting himself "in hope to stonden in his lady grace" (in the hopes of standing in his lady's grace).
Some take this to be a bawdy anatomical pun, expressing the young man's hopes of 'standing' in his lady's 'grass' — a distinction lost nowadays that the pronunciation of "grace" and "grass" have grown so far apart.
(Line 88 of Chaucer's General Prologue, https://chaucer.fas.harvard.edu/pages/general-prologue-0 https://chaucer.fas.harvard.edu/pages/general-prologue-0)