weird greenish creatures

“You can’t compare gas to moonlight, it’s something more . . . it’s this wan greenish thing that stupefies you . . . floors you . . . you see strange things . . . people not quite dead, not quite alive, not quite anything . . . At the time these weird greenish creatures gave me hallucinations . . . there were so many of them!”

—Louis-Ferdinand C’line, Fable For Another Time, 1952, translated by Mary Hudson, 2003.

eyen of his mynde

“And ny the castel swiche ther dwelten three;
That oon of hem was blynd, and myghte nat see,
But it were with thilke eyen of his mynde,
With whiche men seen, after that they ben blynde.”

—Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, c. 1400.

eyesight of the mind

“There happened near the castle, to be three,
One among whom was blind and could not see,
Save with that inward eyesight of the mind
That still can shed its light upon the blind.”

—Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, translated by Neville Coghill, 1952.

The gold of hem

“The gold of hem hath now so badde alayes
With bras, that thogh the coyne be fair at eye,
It wolde rather breste atwo than plye.”

—Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, c. 1400.

What gold they have

“What gold they have is mixed with such allays
Of brass, that, though the coin looks right perhaps,
When you begin to bend the thing it snaps.”

—Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, translated by Neville Coghill, 1952.

hoor

“Though I be hoor, I fare as dooth a tree
That blosmeth er that fruyt ywoxen bee;
And blosmy tree nys neither drye ne deed.
I feele me nowhere hoor but on myn heed;”

—Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, c. 1400.

hoary

“I may seem hoary, but I’m like a tree
That blossoms white before the fruit can be;
Blossoming trees are neither dry nor dead
And I am only hoary on my head.”

—Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, translated by Neville Coghill, 1952.

Phebus

“Bright was the day, and blew the firmament;
Phebus hath of gold his stremes doun ysent,
To gladen every flour with his warmnesse.
He was that tyme in Geminis, as I gesse,”

—Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, c. 1400.

Phoebus

“Bright was the day and blue the firmament,
Down fell the golden flood that Phoebus sent
To gladden every flower with his beams;
He was in Gemini at the time, it seems,”

—Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, translated by Neville Coghill, 1952.

Cecilie the white

“And right so as thise philosophres write
That hevene is swift and round and eek brennynge,
Right so was faire Cecilie the white
Ful swift and bisy evere in good werkynge,
And round and hool in good perseverynge,
And brennynge evere in charite ful brighte.
Now have I yow declared what she highte.”

—Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, c. 1400.