The Canterbury Tales The Clerk of Oxford
by Geoffrey Chaucer

The Clerk is a student at Oxford; because he has no paying job, he is constantly impoverished. He is very thin and wears a threadbare cloak, and every time he gets a little money, he spends it on books rather than food or clothes. He is so highly educated that he is virtually unemployable, but he speaks carefully and will happily teach someone else anything he knows.