The Nun's Priest's Tale
Folio 243r
10 of 16 folios
And after wol I telle his aduenture
When þat þe moneth in which þe world bigan
That highte march whan god maked first man
Was complet and passed were also
370
Syn march bygan tway monþes and dayes tuo
Byfeƚƚ þat Chauntecler in al his pride
His seuen wyues walkyng by his syde
Cast vp his eyȝen to þe brighte sonne
That in þe signe of Taurus had I ronne
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Twenty degrees and oon and som what more
And knew by kynde and by noon oþer lore
Þat it was prime and crew with blisful steuen
The sonne he sayde is clomben vpon heuen
Twenty degrees and oon and som what more I wis
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Ma dame pertelot my worldes blis
Herknith þese blisful briddes how þay synge
And seth þese freissche floures how þay springe
Ful is myn hert of reuel and solaas
But sodeinly him fel a sorwful caas
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For euer þe latter end of ioye is wo
God wot þat worldly ioye is soone ago
And if Rethor couþe faire endite
Hem a Croniqz saufly migħt he write
As for a souerayn notabilite
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Now euery wys man let him herkne me
This story is also trewe I vndertake
As þe book is of launcelot þe lake
That wōman huld in ful gret reuerence
Now wol I torne agayn to my sentence
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A Colefox ful / sleigh of iniquite
That in þe groue had woned ȝeres þre
By heigh ymaginacioū forncast
The same nighte þurgh þe hegge brast
In to þe ȝerd þer Chaunteclere þe faire
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Was went and eek his wyues to repair
And in a bed of wortes stille he lay
Til it was passed vndern of þe day
Waytyng his tyme on Chaunteclere to falle /