The Miller's Tale
Folio 39r
10 of 15 folios
¶ And seyde allas / go forth thy wey anon
Help vs to scape / or we been lost echon
I am thy trewe / verray wedded wyf
Go deere spouse / and help to saue oure lyf
425
LO which a greet thyng / is Affecciou
Men may dyen / of ymaginacioū
So depe / may impressioū be take
This sely Carpenter / bigynneth quake
Hym thynketh verraily / that he may see
430
Noees flood / come walwynge as the see
To drenchen Alisoū / his hony deere
He wepeth / weyleth / maketh sory cheere
He siketh / wt ful many a sory swogħ
He gooth / and geteth hym a knedyng trogħ
435
And after that a tubbe and a kymelyn
And pryuely / he sente hem to his In
And heng hem / in the roof in pryuetee
His owene hand made laddres thre
To clymben / by the ronges and the stalkes
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In to the tubbes / hangynge in the balkes
And hem vitailleth / bothe trogh and tubbe
W breed and chese / and good Ale in a Iubbe
Suffisynge right ynogh / as for a day
But er that he / hadde maad al this array
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He sente his knaue / and eek his wenche also
Vp on his nede / to London for to go
And on the Monday / whan it drow to nygħt
He shette his dore / with oute candel lygħt
And dresseth alle thyng as it shal be
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And shortly / vp they clomben alle thre
They sitten stille / wel a furlong way
¶ Now Pater noster / clom seyde Nicholay
And clom quod Ioħn / and clom seyde Alisoū
This Carpenter / seyde his deuocioū
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And stille he sit and biddeth his preyere
Awaitynge on the reyn / if he it heere
¶ The dede sleepe / for wery bisynesse
Fil on this Carpenter / rigħt as I gesse
Aboute corfew tyme / or litel moore
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For trauaille of his goost he groneth soore
And eft he routeth / for his heed myslay
Doun of the laddre / stalketh Nicholay
And Alisoū / ful softe adoun she spedde
With outen wordes mo / they goon to bedde
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Ther as the Carpenter / is wont to lye
Ther was the reuel / and the melodye
And thus Alison / and Nicholas
In bisynesse / of myrthe and of solas