The Merchant's Tale
Folio 117v
17 of 27 folios
1015
Vn to this olde / blynde / worthy knygħt
That he shal haue / a ȝein / his eyen sigħt
And whan that his wyf / wold don hī velanye
Than shal he knowe / al hire harlotrye
Bothe in repreef of hire / and othere moo
1020
¶ Ȝee shal qd Proserpyne / wyl ȝe so
Now be my modres soule / sire I ȝow swere
That I shal ȝeuen hire / sufficeaūt answere
And alle wōmen after / for hire sake
That thougħ they be / in ony gilt take
1025
Witħ face bold / they shuln hē self excuse
And beren hē doun / that wolden hē accuse
For lakke of answere / noon of hē shal deyen
Al had a man / sen a thyng / witħ hise eyen
Ȝet shuln we wōmen / visage it hardily
1030
And wepe and swere / and chide sotelly
So that ȝe men / shuln ben as lewed as gees
What rekketħ me / of ȝoure auctorites
I wot wel / that this Iew / this Salamou
Fond of vs wyues / fooles / manyou
1035
But thougħ that he fond / no good wōman
Ȝet hatħ there founden / many a nother man
Wōmen ful trewe / ful goode and vertuous
Wytnesse of hem / that dwellen / in cistis hous
Witħ martirdom / they preeued heere constaunce
1040
The Romayns Iestes / eke / make remembraunce
Of many a verrey / trewe wyf / also
But sire be nat wrotħ / al be it so
Thougħ that he seide / he fond no trewe wōman
I prey ȝow take this sentence / as I telle can
1045
She ment thus / that in soueraigne bounte
Nis noon but god / neither he ne she
Ey for verrey god / that nys but one
What make ȝe so meche / of Salamone
What thougħ he mad a temple / goddis hous
1050
What thougħ he were riche / and glorious
So mad he a temple eke / of fals goddis
Who mygħt don a thyng / that more for boden is
Pardee / as fair as ȝe / his name plaistre
He was a lecchour / and an Ydolatre
1055
And in his elde / he verray god forsoke
And if that god ne hadde / as seitħ the boke
Spared hī / for his fadres sake / he shulde
Haue lost his regne / rather than he wolde
I sette nougħt / of al the velanye