Geoffrey Chaucer in M. J. Trow novel talking about Old English, Middle English, and Modern English:

This is in Trow's THE KNIGHT'S TALE, 163-164: "MY GRASP OF OLD ENGLISH IS SECOND ONLY TO MY GRASP OF MIDDLE ENGLISH." Is this Herschel Walker and vampires causing abortions? No. Trow is a military historian and novelist. Some years ago the author or co-author (mother-son collaborators, then just the son) of a series set in the years after World War One in England referred to Queen Elizabeth I. I wrote to the son pointing out that there was only one Queen Elizabeth then. He said he knew, but his publisher required him to make it clear that he was not talking about the living queen in his book set in 1920 or so. Time to change publishers? I stopped reading the series. Still, good to know that Chaucer had a good grasp of Middle English.