The Merchant's Tale
Folio 108r
23 of 27 folios
They ben so knyt / there may noon harm betide
And namely vp oon / the wyues syde
¶ This olde knygħt Ianuare / of whicħ I tolde
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Considered hatħ / witħ Inne his dayes olde
The lusty lyf / the vertuouse quiete
That is in mariage / hony swete
And for hise frendes / oon a day he sent
To tellen hem / the effect / of his entent
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Witħ face sad / this tale he hatħ hē told
He seide frendes / I am hore and old
And almost god wot / oon pittis brynke
Vpon my soule / somwhat must I thynke
I haue my body / fouly dispended
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Blissed be god / that it shal be amended
For I wol be certeyn / a wedded man
And that a noon / in al the hast that I can
Vn to sum Maide / fair and tendre of age
I preye ȝow shapetħ / for my mariage
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Al sodeynly / for I wol nat a bide
And I wyl fond / to spien of my syde
To whom I may be wedded / hastily
But for as mecħe / as ȝe ben moo than I
Ȝe shuln rather / swicħ a thyng a spien
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Than I / and where / me best were to allien
But oo thyng warne I ȝow / my frendes deere
I wol noon old wyf haue / in no manere
She shal nat passe / sextene ȝer certeyn
Olde fyssħ and ȝonge flessħ / wolde I haue fayn
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Bet qd he is a Pyke / than a Pykereƚƚ
And bet than olde Beef / is the tendre weƚƚ
I wol no wōman / thretty ȝer of age
It is but benstraw / and gret forage
And eke theise olde wydewes / god it wot
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They knowe so meche craft / on wades bot
So meche broken harm / whan hem liste
That witħ hem / shuld I neuere lyue in reste
For sondry scoles / maken subtil clerkes
A wōman of many scoles / half a clerk is
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But certeynly / a ȝonge thyng / moun men gye
Rigħt as men moun warme wex / wt hondis plye
Wherfore I seye ȝow / pleynly in a clause
I wol noon olde wyf haue / rigħt for this cause
For if so were / I had swicħ myschaunce
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That I in hire / coude haue no plesaunce
Than shuld I lede my lyf / in a voutreea / xijë