Lord Byron, from a memorandum book dated 30 November 1807, in Letters and Journals of Lord Byron, ed. T. Moore (1830), p. 36

Chaucer, notwithstanding the praises bestowed on him, I think obscene and contemptible;—he owes his celebrity, merely to his antiquity, which he does not deserve so well as Pierce Plowman, or Thomas of Ercildoune.

— Lord Byron on Geoffrey Chaucer

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Chaucer, notwithstanding the praises bestowed on him, I think obscene and contemptible;—he owes his celebrity, merely to his antiquity, which he does not deserve so well as Pierce Plowman, or Thomas of Ercildoune." in the context of "Lord Byron, from a memorandum book dated 30 November 1807, in Letters and Journals of Lord Byron, ed. T. Moore (1830), p. 36" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Geoffrey Chaucer" (Quotes about Chaucer) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Lord Byron

About Lord Byron

George Gordon (Noel) Byron, 6th Baron Byron (January 22 1788 – April 19 1824), generally known as Lord Byron, was an English poet and leading figure in Romanticism. He was the father of the mathematician Ada Lovelace.