The Canon's Yeoman's Tale
Folio 204v
4 of 4 folios
Now is it wan / and of a leden hewe
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Who so it vsetħ / sore shal he rewe
And of my swynk / ȝet blered is myn eye
Lo whicħ a vauntage is / to multiplie
That slydyng science / hatħ me mad so bare
That I haue no good / where so euere I fare
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And ȝet I am endetted so / ther by
Of gold / that I haue borwed / trewely
That whil I lyue / I shal it quyte neuere
Lat euery man / be war by me / for euere
What maner man / þt castetħ hī ther to
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If he continue / I holde his thrift I do
For so helpe me god / þer by shal he nat wynne
But empte his purs / & make his wittes thȳne
And whan he thurgħ his madnesse / & folye
Hatħ loost his owne good / thurgħ Iupartie
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Thāne he excitetħ / othere folk ther to
To lese here good / as he hī self hatħ do
For vn to shrewes / ioye it is and ese
To haue here felawes / in peyne & dissese
Thus was I ones lerned / of a Clerk
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Of that / no charge / I wil speke of oure werk
¶ Whan we ben there / as we schuln exersise
Oure eluyssħ craft / we semen wonder wyse
Oure t ermes ben so clergeal / and queynte
I blowe the fyr / til that myn hert feynte
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What schulde I telle / eche proporcioū
Of thynges / whicħ that we / werche vp on
As on fyue / or sexe vnces / may wel be
Of siluer / or sum other quantitee
And bisie me / to telle ȝow the names
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Of Orpement / brent bones / Iren squames
That in to poudre / grounden be ful smal
And in an erthene pot / how put is al
And salt I put In / and also papere
Biforñ theise poudres / þt I speke of heere
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And wel I couered / wt a laumpe of glas
And meche other thyng / whicħ þt þere was
As of the pot / and glasses enlutynge
That of the eyr / mygħt passe out no thynge
And of the esy fyr / and smert also
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Whicħ þt was made / & of the care and woo
That we hadde / in oure maters sublymyng