The Clerk's Tale
Folio 97r
20 of 29 folios
¶ Arrayed was toward hir mariage
This fresshe mayde / ful of gēmes cleere
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Hir brother / which þt .vij. yeer was of age
Arrayed eek / ful fressħ in his manere
And thus in greet noblesse / and wt glad cheere
Toward Saluces / shapynge hir iourney
Fro day to day / they ryden in hir wey
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Among al this / after his wikke vsage
This Markys yet his wyf to tempte moore
To the outtreste preeue / of hir corage
Fully / to han experience and loore
If that she were / as stidefast as bifoore
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He on a day / in open Audience
Ful boistously / haþ seyd hir this sentence
¶ Certes Grisilde / I hadde ynogħ plesance
To han yow to my wyf / for your goodnesse
As for youre trouthe / and for your obeisance
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Noght for your lynage / ne for youre richesse
But now knowe I / in verray soothfastnesse
That in greet lordshipe / if I wel auyse
Ther is greet seruitute / in sondry wyse
I may nat doon / as euery Plowman may
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My peple / me constreyneth for to take
Another wyf / and crien day by day
And eek the pope / rancour for to slake
Consenteth it that dar I vndertake
And treweliche / thus muche I wol yow seye
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My newe wyf is comynge by the weye
Be strong of herte / and voyde anon hir place
And thilke dower / that ye broghten me
Taak it agayn / I graunte it of my grace
Retourneth / to youre fadres hous quod he
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No man / may alwey han prosperitee
With euene herte / I rede yow tendure
This strook of Fortune / or of Auenture