The Merchant's Tale
Folio 107r
21 of 27 folios
For she wyl cleyme half part / al hire lyf
And if þu be syke / so god me saue
Thyne verray frendes / or a trewe knaue
Wyln kepe the bet / than she that waytetħ ay
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After thy good / and hatħ don many a day
And if thow txketaketke a wyf / of heye lynage
She shal be hauteyn / and of gret costage
Theise sentences / and an hondred thynges worse
Wrytetħ this man / there god his soule curse
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But take no kepe / of aƚƚ swicħ vanyte
Diffye Theofaste / and herkene to me
A wyf is goddis ȝifte / verrayly
Alle othere manere ȝiftes / hardily
As / londes / Rentes / Pasture or Comune
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Or mebles / alle ben ȝiftes of fortune
That passen / as a shadewe on a wal
But drede nat / if pleynly speke I shal
A wyf wol last / and in thyn hous endure
Wel lengere / than the list perauenture
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Mariage is / a ful gret sacrament
He that hatħ no wyf / I holde hī shent
He lyuetħ helpelees / and al dissolate
I speke of folk / in seculer estate
And herkene why / I seye nat this for nougħt
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That wōman is / for mānes help I wrougħt
The heye god / whan he had Adam maked
And saw hī a lone / bely naked
God of his gret goodnes / seide than
Lat vs now make / an helpe vn to this man
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Lyke to hī self / and thāne he mad hī Eue
Here may ȝe se / and heere by may ȝe preeue
That wyf is mānes help / and his comfort
His paradise terrestre / and his disport
So buxum / and so vertuous is she
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They must nedes / lyue in vnite
O flessħ they ben / and oo flessħ as I gesse
Hatħ but on hert / in wele and in distresse
A wyf / a Seynt Mary benedicite
How mygħt a man / han ony aduersite
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That hatħ a wyf / certes I can nat sey
The blisse that is / be twix hem twey
There may no tonge telle / or herte thynke
If he be poore / she helpetħ hī to swynke
She kepetħ his good / and wastetħ neuere a dele
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Al that hire husbonde lust / hire liketħ wele