The Reeve's Tale
Folio 56r
11 of 13 folios
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With panade or with knyf or boydekyn
For Ielous folk ben perilous eueremo
Algate þei wolde here wyues wenden so
And eek for sche was somdel smoterlich
Sche was as digne as water in a dich
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And ful of hoker and of bisemare
Hire þoughte þat a lady schulde hir spare
What for hire kynrede and hire nortelrie
That sche hadde lerned in þe nonnerie
A doughter hadde þe betwixe hem tuo
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Of twenty ȝer wiþouten eny moo
Sauyng a childe þat was of half ȝeer age
In cradel it lay it was a proper page /
This wenche þikke and wel ygrowen was
Wiþ Camoys nose and eyen grey as glas
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Wiþ buttokes brode and brestes rounde and hye
But right fair was hire heer I wol nougħt lye
¶ The persoū of þe toun for sche was fair
In purpos was to maken hire his hair
Boþe of his catel and his mesuage
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And strange he made it / of hire mariage
His purpos was for to bistowe hire hye
In to som worþi blood of auncetrie /
For holy chirches good moot ben dispended
On holy cherche blood þat is descended
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Therfore he wolde his holy blood honoure /
Þough þat þe holy chirche scholde deuoure
Gret soken haþ þis meller out of doute
Wiþ whete and malt of aƚƚ þe land aboute
And nameliche þer was a gret collegge
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Men clepeþ þe Soler halle of Cantabregge
Þere was here whete and eek here malt y grounde
And on a day it happeþ in a stounde
Syk lay þe manciple on a maladie
Men wenden wisly þat he schulde dye
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For which þis mellere stal boþe mele and corn