The Merchant's Tale
Folio 113r
22 of 26 folios
For in a lettre / she hadde toold hym al
Of this matere / how he werchen shal
And thus I lete hym sitte / vp on the pyrie
And Ianuarie and May romynge myrie
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Bright was the day / and blew the firmament
Phebus hath of gold / hise stremes doun ysent
To gladen euery flour with his warmnesse
He was that tyme / in Geminis as I gesse
But litel / fro his declynaciou
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Of Cancer / Iouis exaltaciou
And so bifel / that brighte morwetyde
That in that gardyn / in the ferther syde
Pluto / that is kyng of Fairye
And many a lady / in his compaignye
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Folwynge his wyf / the queene Proserpyne
Ech after oother / rigħt as a lyne
Whil þt she gadered / floures in the mede
In Claudyan / ye may the stories rede
And in his grisly Carte / he hir sette
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This kyng of Fairye / thanne adoun hym sette
Vp on a bench of turues / fressħ and grene
And rigħt anon / thus seyde he to his queene
¶ My wyf quod he / ther may no wigħt seye nay
Thexperience / so preueth euery day
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The tresons / whiche þt wōmen doon to man
Ten hondred thousand / tellen I kan
Notable / of youre vntrouthe and brotilnesse
O Salomon / wys / and richest of richesse
Fulfild of sapience / and of worldly glorie
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Ful worthy been thy wordes to memorie
To euery wigħt þt wit and reson kan
Thus preiseth he yet the boūtee of man
¶ Amonges a thousand men / yet foond I oon
But of wōmen alle / foond I noon
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¶ Thus seith the kyng þt knoweth your wikkednesse
And Iħus fiius Syrak as I gesse
Ne speketh of yow / but seelde reuerence
A wylde fyr / and corrupt pestilence
So falle vp on youre bodyes yet to nyght
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Ne se ye nat this honurable knygħt
By cause allas / that he is blynd and old
His owene man / shal make hym Cokewold
Lo heere he sit / the Lechour in the tree
Now wol I graunten / of my magestee
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Vn to this olde blynde worthy knygħt
That he shal haue ayeyn hise eyen sygħt
Whan þt his wyf / wold doon hym vileynye
Thanne shal he knowen / al hir harlotrye