The Clerk's Tale
Folio 186v
27 of 35 folios
890
xhe smok quod he / that thow hast on thy bak
Lat it be stille / and bere it forth with thee
But wel vnnethes / thilke word he spak
But wente his wey / for routhe and for pitee
Biforn the folk / hir seluen strepeth shee
895
And in hir smok / with heued & feet al bare
Toward hir fader hous / forth is she fare
¶ The folk hir folwen / wepynge in hir weye
And Fortune / ay they cursen as they goon
But she fro wepyng kepte hir eyen dreye
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Ne in this tyme / word ne spak she noon
Hir fader / that this tidynge herde anon
Curseth the day and tyme / þt nature
Shoop hym / to been a lyues creature
¶ For out of doute / this olde poure man
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Was euere / in suspect of hir mariage
For euere he demed / sith þt it bigan
That whan the lord / fulfild hadde his corage
Hym wolde thynke / it were a disparage
To his estat so lowe for talighte
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And voyden hir / as soone as euere he myghte
¶ Agayns his doghter / hastiliche goth he
For he by noyse of folk / knew hir comynge
And with hir olde cote / as it myghte be
He couered hire / ful sorwefully wepynge
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But on hir body / myghte he it nat brynge
For rude was the clooth / and she moore of age
By dayes fele / than at hir mariage
¶ Thus with hir fader / for a certein space
Dwelleth this flour / of wifly pacience
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That neyther / by hir wordes / ne hir face
Biforn the folk ne eek in hir absence
Ne shewed she / þt hir was doon offence
Ne of hir heighe estat no remembrance
Ne hadde she / as by hir contenance