Thus Chauser about Sir Thopas, the gallant hero of an entire tale in his name, according to one of the questions in the final examination for a bachelor’s degree in English language and literature, which I am invigilating this morning. It is remarkable how much more chaste and how much less of a lecher Sir Thopas appears to be in Chauser’s archaic spelling than he would have been without this unintended prop. Will the words we commit to writing today sound so much more vibrant and apt in a thousand odd years?