The Clerk's Tale
Folio 98v
23 of 29 folios
¶ The folk hir folwe / wepynge in hir weye
And Fortune ay they cursen / as they goon
But she fro wepyng kepte hir eyen dreye
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Ne in this tyme / word ne spak she noon
Hir fader / that this tidynge herde anoon
Curseth the day / and tyme that nature
Shoope hym / to been a lyues creature
For out of doute / this olde poure man
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Was euere / in suspect of hir mariage
For euere he demed / sith that it bigan
That whan the lord / fulfild hadde his corage
Hym wolde thynke / it were a disparage
To his estaat / so lowe for taligħte
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And voyden hir / as soone as euer he mygħte
Agayns his doghter / hastiliche goth he
For he by noyse of folk / knew hir comynge
And with hir olde coote / as it myghte be
He couered hir / ful sorwefully wepynge
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But on hir body / mygħte he it nat brynge
For rude was the clooth / and she moore of age
By dayes fele / than at hir mariage
¶ Thus with hir fader / for a certeyn space
Dwelleth this flour / of wyfly pacience
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That neither by hir wordes / ne hir face
Biforn the folk / ne eek in hir absence
Ne shewed she / that hir was doon offence
Ne of hir heighe estaat . no remembraūce
Ne hadde she / as by hir contenaūce
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No wonder is / for in hir grete estaat
Hir goost was euere / in pleyn humylitee
No tendre mouth / noon herte delicaat
No pompe / no semblant of roialtee
But ful / of pacient benyngnytee
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Discreet and pridelees / ay honurable
And to hir housbonde / euere meke and stable
¶ Men speke of Iob / and moost for his humblesse
As clerkes whan hem list konne wel endite
Namely of men / but as in soothfastnesse
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Though clerkes / preise wōmen but alite
Ther kan no man / in humblesse hym acquite
As wōman kan / ne been half so trewe
As wōmen been / but it be falle of newe