The Knight's Tale
Folio 14v
10 of 48 folios
425
Thow walkest now in Thebes at thy large
And of my wo / thow yeuest litel charge
Thou mayst syn thou hast wisdom & manhede
Assemblen / alle the folk / of oure kynrede
And make a werre / so sharpe on this Citee
430
That by som auenture / or som tretee
Thow mayst haue hir to lady and to wyf
For whom / þt I moste nedes lese my lyf
For / as by wey of possibilitee
Sith thou art at thy large / of prisoū free
435
And art a lord / greet is thyn auauntage
Moore than is myn / þt sterue here in a cage
For I moot wepe / and wayle whil I lyue
W al the wo / þt prison may me yeue
And eek wt peyne / þt loue me yeueth also
440
That doubleth / al my torment / and my wo
Ther with / the fyr of Ialousie vp sterte
With Inne his brest and hente hī by the herte
So woodly / that he lyk was to biholde
The Boxtree / or the Asshen dede and colde
445
¶ Thanne seyde he / o crueel goddes þt gouerne
This world / wt byndyng of youre word eterne
And writen in the table of Atthamaunt
Youre parlement and youre eterne graunt
What is mankynde / moore vn to you holde
450
Than is the sheepe / þt rouketh in the folde
For slayn is man / right as another beest
And dwelleth eek / in prison and arreest
And hath siknesse / and greet aduersitee
And ofte tymes / giltlees pardee
455
¶ What gouernance / is in this perscience
That giltlees / tormenteth Innocence
And yet encresseth this / al my penaunce
That man is bounden / to his obseruaūce
For goddes sake / to letten of his wille
460
Ther as a beest / may al his lust fulfille
And whan a beest is deed / he hath no peyne
But after his deeth / man moot wepe and pleyne
Though in this world / he haue care and wo
With outen doute / it may stonden so
465
The answere of this / lete I to dyuynys
But wel I woot þt in this world greet pyne ys
Allas / I se a serpent or a theef /
That many a trewe man / hath doon mescheef
Goon at his large / and where hym list may turne
470
But I moot been in prisoū / thurgħ Saturne
And eek thurgħ Iuno / Ialous and eek wood
That hath destroyed / wel ny al the blood