And I seyde his opinion was good;
What sholde he studie and make hymselven wood,
Upon a book in cloystre alwey to poure,
Or swynken with his handes, and laboure
As Austyn bit? How shal the world be served?
Lat Austyn have his swynk to him reserved!
– Geoffrey Chaucer
The Canterbury Tales, General Prologue. The Narrator (Chaucer) is being ironic and sarcastic when he says he agrees with the Monk that hunting and sport are preferable to performing his religious duties. Why should the Monk study and make himself crazy, pore over books in the cloister, or labor and work with his hands, writer and man of books Chaucer asks in a passage dripping with irony.