The Franklin's Tale
Folio 129r
12 of 20 folios
¶ I wolde it yeue / if I were lord of it
This bargayn is ful dryue / for we been knyt
Ye shal be payed / trewely by my trouthe
But looketh now / for no necligence or slouthe
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Ye tarie vs heere / no lenger than to morwe
¶ Nay quod this clerk haue heer my feith to borwe
¶ To bedde is goon Aurelius / whan hym leste
And wel ny / al that nygħt he hadde his reste
What for his labour / and his hope of blisse
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His woful herte / of penaunce hadde a lisse
¶ Vpon the morwe / whan þt it was day
To Britaigne / tooke they the rigħte way
Aurelius / and this Magicien bisyde
And been descended / ther they wolde abyde
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And this was / as thise bookes me remembre
The colde frosty sesou of decembre
Phebus wax old / and hewed lyk latou
That in his hoote declynaciou
Shoon as the burned gold / with stremes brigħte
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But now in Capricorn / adoun he ligħte
Wher as he shoon ful pale / I dar wel seyn
The bittre frostes / with the sleet and reyn
Destroyed hath the grene / in euery yerd
Ianus sit by the fyr / with double berd
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And drynketh / of his bugle horn the wyn
Biforn hym / stant brawen / of the tusked swyn
And Nowel / crieth euery lusty man
¶ Aurelius / in al that euere he kan
Dooth to his Maister / chiere and reuerence
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And preyeth hym / to doon his diligence
To bryngen hym / out of his peynes smerte
Or with a swerd / þt he wolde slitte his herte
¶ This subtil clerk swich routhe had of this man
That nygħt and day / he spedde hym þt he kan
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To wayten a tyme / of his conclusioū
This is to seye / to maken illusioū
By swich a apparence of Iogelrye
I ne kan no termes / of Astrologye
That she and euery wigħt sholde wene & seye
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That of Britaigne / the Rokkes were aweye
Or ellis / they were sonken vnder grounde
So atte laste / he hath his tyme yfounde
To maken hise Iapes / and his wrecchednesse
Of swich a / supersticious cursednesse
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Hise tables tolletanes / forth he brougħt
Ful wel corrected / ne ther lakked nougħt
Neither his collect ne hise expans yeeris
Ne hise rootes / ne hise othere geeris