Shakespeare is from around the same time period as Rabelais in OP. If you haven't read Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, As You Like It, they also take some getting used to but are worth it in the end.

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pklausler 2 hours ago | parent [-]

I don't think that English changed as much, but I could be wrong. Shakespeare's not hard for a modern English reader, given a decent edition with vocabulary hints in the footnotes. I got through most of it as a sophomore.

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	▲	pessimizer 9 minutes ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		I'm pretty sure English changed a lot more than French from the same period.
	▲	miltonlost 20 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		A good middle point would be Chaucer then who had Middle English vs Beowolf''s Old and Shakespeare's Early Modern. The Canterbury Tales is frequently found in translations now, but that's also due to the lack of spelling standardization until 17th and 18th centuries in addition to just vast vocabulary differences.