Sample Texts
Several sample texts in Old, Middle, Early Modern, and Modern English are provided here for practice, reference, and reading.
Old English
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle - a part of the Peterborough Chronicle of the history of England in the year 1066.
Orosius - King Alfred's translation of a fanciful Latin history of the Amazons.
Middle English
Canterbury Tales: Prologue - the prologue to Chaucer's famous story-poem about tales told by pilgrims on their way to Canterbury.
Gawain & the Green Knight - a portion of a Medieval story about Sir Gawain of the Round Table.
Early Modern English
The Tempest - part of one of the immortal Shakespeare's best-loved plays.
Osborne's Letters - one of Dorothy Osborne's love letters to her paramour and future husband, William Temple.
Modern English
George Washington's Journal - written by the USA's first president around the time of the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794.
Lady Chatterly's Lover -
an extract from DH Lawrence's famous novel.