The Merchant's Tale
Folio 106v
12 of 27 folios
Were it for holynesse / or for dotage
10
I can nat sey / but swicħ a grete corage
Had this knygħt / to ben a wedded man
That day and nygħt / he dotħ al that he can
To spye / where he mygħt / wedded be
Preying oure lord / to graunte hī that he
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Mygħt ones knowe / of thilk blisful lyf
That is bytwix / an husbonde and his wyf
And for to lyue / vnder that holy bond
Witħ whicħ / that first / god / man and wōman bond
Noon other lyf seide he / is wortħ a bene
20
For wedlak is so esy / and so clene
That in this world / it is a Paradyse
Thus seide this olde knygħt / that was so wyse
And certeynly as sotħ / as god is kyng
To take a wyf / it is a glorious thyng
25
And namely whan a man / is old and hore
Than is a wyf / the fruyt of his tresore
Than shuld he take / a ȝong wyf and a feyre
On whicħ he mygħt / engender hī an Eyre
And lede his lyf / in Ioye and solace
30
Where alle theise bacheleres / syngen allas
Whan that they fynd / any aduersitee
In loue / whicħ is but childissħ vanyte
And trewely it syt wel / to be so
That bacheleres / han oft tymetyme peyne and woo
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On brotel ground / they bilde / and brothilnessebrotilnessebrothilnesse
They fynde / whan they wene sekernesse
They lyue but as a brid / or as a beest
In liberte / and vnder noon a reest
There as a wedded man / in his estate
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Lyuetħ a lyf blisseful / and ordinate
Vnder this ȝok / of mariage I bounde
Wel may his hert / in Ioye and blisse habounde
For who can be / so buxum as a wyf
Who is so trewe / and eke so ententyf
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To kepe hī syke and hole / as is his make
For wel or woo / she wyl hī nat forsake
She nys nat wery / hī to loue and serue
Thougħ that he lye / bedrede / til he sterue
And ȝet sōme Clerkes seyn / it is nat so
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Of whicħ / Theofaste / is onõononõ of thoo
What force / thougħ Theofaste list lye
Ne take þu no wyf qd he / for husbondrye
As for to spare / in houshold thyn dispence
A trewe seruaūt / dotħ more diligence
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Thy good to kepe / than thyn owen wyf