Ther shul ye seen expres that it no drede is
That he is gentil that dooth gentil dedis.
And therfore, leeve housbonde, I thus conclude:
Al were it that myne auncestres were rude,
Yet may the hye God, and so hope I,
Grante me grace to lyven vertuously.
Thanne am I gentil, whan that I bigynne
To lyven vertuously and weyve synne.
– Geoffrey Chaucer
The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Tale. Towards the end of a long speech to her husband on their wedding night, the Knight’s wife believes she has proved that, despite her ancestors being rude, she may be called "gentil" or noble. She is noble if the high God grants her the grace to live virtuously and abandon sin, the Loathly Lady tells him.