The Merchant's Tale
Folio 114v
10 of 27 folios
Heere may ȝe se / how excellent fraunchise
In wōman is / whan they hē narwe a vyse
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Som tyraunt is / as there be many oone
That hatħ an herte / as hard as ony stone
Whicħ wold han lete hī / sterue in the place
Wel rather / than haue gaunt hi hire grace
And hem reioysen / in here cruel pride
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And rekke nat / to ben an homycide
This gentil Mayus / fulfilled of pitee
Rigħt of hire hond / a ƚre maketħ she
In whicħ she gaunted hi / hire verray grace
There lakketħ nougħt / oonly / but day and space
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There as she mygħt / vn to his lust suffice
For it shal be / rigħt as he wol deuyse
And whan she saw hire tyme / vp oon a day
To visite this Damyan / gotħ this May
And softly this ƚre / doun she threst
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Vnder his Pilewe / rede it if hī list
She taketħ hī by the hond / and hard hī twist
So secrely / that no wygħt it wyst
And bad hī be al hole / and fortħ she went
To Ianuarie / whan that he for hire sent
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Vp risitħ Damyan / the next morwe
Al passed is / his syknes / and his sorwe
He kembetħ / he proyneth hī / and pyketħ
He dotħ / al that his lady lust / and lyketħ
And eke to Ianuarie / he gotħ as lowe
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As euere dide a dogge / for the bowe
He is so plesaunt / to euery man
For craft is al / who so that do yt can
That euery wygħt is fayn / to speke hī good
And fully / in hise ladies grace / he stod
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Thus lete I Damyan / a boute his nede
And in my tale / fortħ I wyl procede
¶ Sōme Clerkys holden / that felicite
Stant in delite / and therfore certeyne he
This noble Ianuarie / witħ al his mygħt
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In honest wyse / as longetħ to a knygħt
Shope hī to lyue / ful deliciously
His housyng is arrayed / as honestly
To his degree / was maked / as a kynges
A monges othere / of hise honest thynges
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He mad a gardeyne / walled al witħ stone
A fairere gardeyne / wot I no wher noone
For out of doute / I verraily suppose
That he that wrot / the Romauns of the Rose