The Wife of Bath's Tale
Folio 74r
5 of 9 folios
¶ To euery wigħt / comanded was silence
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And that the knygħt / sholde telle in Audience
What thyng that worldly wōmen louen best
This knygħt ne stood nat stille / as doth a best
But to his questioū / anon answerde
W manly voys / that al the court it herde
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¶ My lige lady / generally / quod he
Wommen desiren haue souereynetee
As wel / ouer hir housbond as hir loue
And for to been / in maistrie hym aboue
This is youre mooste desir / thogh ye me kille
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Dooth as yow list I am at youre wille
¶ In al the court ne was ther wyf ne mayde
Ne wydwe / that contraried that he sayde
But seyden / he was worthy han his lyf
¶ And with that word / vp stirte the olde wyf
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Which that the knygħt / saugh sittynge in the grene
Mercy quod she my souereyn lady queene
Er that youre court departe / do me rigħt
I taughte this answere / vn to the knygħt
For which / he plighte me / his trouthe there
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The firste thyng I wolde hym requere
He wolde it do / if it lay in his mygħt
Bifore the court thanne preye I thee ser knygħt
Quod she / that thou me take vn to thy wyf
For wel thou woost that I haue kept thy lyf
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If I seye fals / sey nay vp on thy fey
¶ This knygħt answerde / allas and weylawey
I woot right wel / that swich was my biheste
For goddes loue / as chees a newe requeste
Taak al my good / and lat my body go
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¶ Nay thanne quod she / I shrewe vs bothe two
For thogh that I be foul / oold and poore
I nolde for al the metal / ne for oore
That vnder erthe is graue / or lith aboue
But if thy wyf I were / and eek thy loue
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¶ My loue quod he ; nay my dampnacioū
Allas / that any of my nacioū
Sholde euere so foule / disparaged be
But al for nogħt thende is this / that he
Constreyned was / he nedes moste hir wedde
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And taketh his olde wyf / and gooth to bedde
¶ Now wolden som men / seye perauenture
That for my necligence / I do no cure
To tellen yow / the ioye / and al tharray
That at the feeste was / that ilke day
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To which thyng shortly answere I shal
I seye / ther nas no ioye / ne feeste at al