9. Beowulf - President Bartlet Asks Donna's Teacher If She Taught This Book In "Middle English"... Even Though It Was Written In "Old English"
"Stirred" (Season 3, Episode 18) sees Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman's assistant Donna Moss attempt to have a special proclamation recognising the work of her favourite high-school teacher, Mrs Morello, granted. Although President Bartlet cannot grant a proclamation, he does surprise Donna by ringing Mrs Morello - before discussing "Beowulf" with the English teacher. Bartlet asks Mrs Morello if she had taught her children the book in the "original Middle English", but Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf was actually written in Old English sometime during the 8th or 9th Centuries. Middle English was not actually spoken for another 300 years, following the Norman Conquest of England, so this was not the original language the poem was written in.