The Merchant's Tale
Folio 117r
16 of 27 folios
970
Wel betir than Ianuarie / hire owen make
For in a ƚre / she had told hī alle
Of this matere / how he werken shalle
And thus I lete hī sitte / vp oon this Perie
And Ianuarie and May / romyng ful merye
975
¶ Brigħt was the day / and blew the firmament
Phebus hatħ of gold / hise stremes doun sent
That gladen euery flour / witħ hise warmnes
He was that tyme / in gemine as I gesse
But litel from his / declinaciou
980
Of Cancer / Iouis exaltacioū
And so byfel / in that brigħt morwe tyde
That in that gardeyn / in the ferther syde
Pluto that is kyng / of fayrie
And many a lady / in his companye
985
Folwyng his wyf / the Quene of Proserpyne
Ecħ after other / as rigħt as a lyue
While that she gadered / floures in the mede
In Claudian / ȝe moun the stories rede
How in his grisly Cart / he hire fette
990
¶ The kyng of fayrie / doun hī sette
Vp on a benche / of torues faire and grene
And rigħt a noon / thus seide he to the Quene
Now wyf qd he / there may no wygħt sey nay
The experience / so preeuetħ it euery day
995
The tresoū / whicħ that wōman dotħ to man
Ten hondred thouȝsand / wel tellen I can
Notable / of ȝoure vntrewthe / and brotilnes
O noble Salamoū / richest of Ryches
Fulfilled of sapience / and of worldly glorie
1000
Ful worthy ben thyne wordes / to memorie
To euery wygħt / that wyt and resoū can
Thus preisetħ he ȝet / the bounte of man
Among a thouȝsand men / ȝet fond I one
But of wōmen alle / ȝet fond I noone
1005
Thus seitħ the kyng / that knowetħ ȝoure wykkednes
And Iħc filius Sirac / as I gesse
Ne speketħ of ȝow / but selde reuerence
A wylde fyre / and corupte pestilence
So fal vp oon ȝoure bodyes / ȝet to nygħt
1010
Ne se ȝe nougħt / this honrable knygħt
By cause allas / that he is blynd and old
His owen man / shal make hī cokewold
Lo where he syt / the lechour oon the tree
Now wol I gaunte / of my mageste