The Nun's Priest's Tale
Folio 182v
8 of 14 folios
Aduersitee /. and I seye forthermoor
That I ne telle / of laxatyues no stoor
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For they been venymes / I woot it weel
I hem diffye / I loue hem neuer a deel
¶ Now lat vs speke of myrthe / and stynte al this
Madame Pertelote / so haue I blis
Of o thyng god hath sent me large grace
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For whan I se / the beautee of youre face
Ye been so scarlet reed / aboute your eyen
It maketh / al my drede for to dyen
For also siker / as In principio
Mulier est hominis confusio ;
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¶ Madame / the sentence / of this latyn is
Wōman is mannes Ioye / and al his blis
For whan I feele a nygħt your softe syde
Al be it that I may nat on yow ryde
For þt oure perche / is maad so narwe allas
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I am so ful of ioye / and of solas
That I diffye / bothe sweuene and dreem
And with that word / he fly doun fro the beem
For it was day / and eek hise hennes alle
And with a chuk / he gan hem for to calle
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For he hadde founde a corn / lay in the yerd
Real he was / he was namoore aferd
And fethered Pertelote / twenty tyme
And trad as ofte / er it was pryme
He looketh / as it were / a grym Leoun
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And on hise toos / he rometh vp and doun
Hym deigned nat to sette his foot to grounde
He chukketh / whan he hath a corn yfounde
And to hym rennen thanne / hise wyues alle
Thus roial / as a prince is in an halle
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Leue I this Chauntecleer / in his pasture
And after / wol I telle / his auenture
Whan þt the Monthe / in which the world bigan
That higħte Marcħ / whan god first maked man
Was compleet and passed were also
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Syn Marcħ bigan / thritty dayes and two
Bifel / that Chauntecleer in al his pryde
Hise seuene wyues / walkynge by his syde
Caste vp hise eyen / to the brigħte sonne
That in the signe of Taurus / hadde yronne
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Twenty degrees and oon / and som what moore
And knew by kynde / and by noon oother loore
That it was Pryme / and crew wt blisful steuene
The sonne he seyde / is clomben vp on heuene
Fourty degrees and oon / and moore ywis
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Madame Pertelote / my worldes blis