The Knight's Tale
Folio 16v
14 of 48 folios
¶ And fleeth the Citee / faste as he may go
For he hadde yeue / his gayler drynke so
Of a Clarree maad / of a certeyn wyn
Of Nercotikes / and Opie of Thebes fyn
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That al that nygħt thogħ þt men wolde hī shake
This gayler sleepe / he myghte nat awake
¶ And thus he fleeth / as faste as euere he may
The nygħt was short and faste by the day
That nedes cost he moot hym seluen hyde
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And til a groue / faste ther bisyde
W dredeful foot thanne stalketh Palamon
For shortly / this was his opiniou
That in that groue / he wolde hym hyde al day
And in the nyght / thanne wolde he take his way
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To Thebes ward / his freendes for to preye
On Theseus / to helpe hym to werreye
And shortly / outher he wolde lese his lif
Or wynnen Emelye / vn to his wyf
This is theffect and his entente pleyn
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¶ Now wol I turne / to Arcite ageyn
That litel wiste / how ny þt was his care
Til þt Fortune / had brogħt hī in the snare
The bisy larke / messager of day
Salueth in hir song / the morwe gray
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And firy Phebus / riseth vp so brigħte
That al the Orient laugheth of the ligħte
And wt hise stremes / dryeth in the greues
The siluer dropes / hangynge on the leues
And Arcita / that is in the court Roial
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With Theseus / his Squier principal
Is risen / and looketh on the myrie day
And for to doon / his obseruaunce to May
Remembrynge / on the poynt of his desir
He on a Courser startlynge as the fir
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Is riden in to the feeldes / hym to pleye
Out of the Court were it a myle or tweye
And to the groue / of which þt I yow tolde
By auenture / his wey / he gan to holde
To maken hym / a gerland / of the greues
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Were it of wodebynde / or hawethorn leues
And loude he song ayeyn the sonne shene
May / wt alle thy floures and thy grene
Wel come be thou / faire fresshe May
In hope / þt I som grene gete may
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And from his courser / with a lusty herte
In to a groue / ful hastily he sterte
And in a path / he rometh vp and doun
Ther as by auenture / this Palamou