The Man of Law's Tale
Folio 47v
8 of 16 folios
Uitailled is the ship it is no drede
Habundantly for hir ful longe space
And other necessaryes that shulde nede
She hed I nogh heryed bi goddes gace
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For wynde and wedyr almyghti god purchace
And brynge hir hoom I kan no better seye
But in the see she dryueth forth hir weye
Alla the kyng comth home sone after this
Vn to his Castel of the which I tolde
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And asketh where his wyf and his child is
The Constable gan aboute his hert colde
And pleynly al the maner he him tolde
As ye han herd I can telle hit no bettre
And sheweth the kyng his seel and ek his lettre
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And seide lord as ye commaunded me
Vp peyn of deth so haue y doon certeyn
This Messager tormented was til he
Moste be know and tellen plat and pleyn
Fro nyght to nyght in what place he hed leyn
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And thus bi wit and subtil enquerynge
Imagened was by whom this harm gan spryng
The hond was knowen that the letter wroote
And al the venym of this cursed dede
But in what wyse certeynly I not
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Theffect is this that alla out of drede
His moder slow that many men pleynly rede
For that she traitour was to hir ligeance
Thus endyth old domegild wyth meschaunce
The sorwe that this alla nyght and day
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Maketh for his wyf and for his child also
Ther is no thing that it telle may
But now wol I vnto Custance go
That fleteth in the see in peyn and wo
Fyve yeer and moore as lyked cristes sonde
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Er that hir ship approched to the londe