The Reeve's Tale
Folio 43v
4 of 10 folios
Hym boes serue hym selue / that has na swayn
Or elles / he is a fool / as clerkes sayn
Oure Manciple / I hope / he wil be deed
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Swa werkes ay / the wanges in his heed
And forthy / is I come / and eek Alayn
To grynde oure corn / and carie it ham agayn
I pray yow / spede vs heythen that ye may
¶ It shal be doon / quod Symkyn by my fay
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What wol ye doon / whil that it is in hande
¶ By god / rigħt by the hopur wil I stande
Quod Ioħn / and se / how that the corn gas In
Yet saugħ I neuere / by my fader kyn
How that the hopur / wagges til and fra
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¶ Aleyn answerde / Ioħn wiltow swa
Thanne wil I be bynetħ / by my croun
And se / how þt the Mele falles doun
In to the trougħ / that sal be my disport /
For Ioħn yfaith / I may been of your sort
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I is / as ille a Miller / as ar ye
¶ This Miller / smyled of hir nycetee
And thoghte / al this nys doon but for a wyle
They wene / þt no man may hem bigyle
But by my thrift / yet shal I blere hir eye
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For al the sleigħte / in hir Philosophye
The moore queynte crekes / that they make
The moore wol I stele / whan I take
In stide of flour / yet wol I yeue hem bren
The gretteste clerkes / been nogħt wisest men
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As whilom to the wolf / thus spak the Mare
Of al hir Art counte I noght a tare
¶ Out at the dore / he gooth ful pryuely
Whan þt he saugħ / his tyme softely
He looketh vp and doun / til he hath founde
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The clerkes hors / ther as it stood ybounde
Bihynde the Mille / vnder a lefsel
And to the hors / he goth hym faire and wel
He strepeth of the brydel / rigħt anon
And whan the hors was laus / he gynneth gon
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Toward the fen / ther wilde Mares renne
And forth with wehee / thurgh thikke & thurgh thenne
¶ This Miller gooth agayn / no word he seyde
But dooth his note / and with the clerkes pleyde
Til that hir corn / was faire and weel ygrounde
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And whan the Mele / is sakked and ybounde
This Ioħn goth out and fynt his hors away
And gan to crie / harrow and weylaway
Oure hors is lorn / Alayn for goddes banes
Stepe on thy feet com out man al atanes