The Franklin's Tale
Folio 160v
15 of 24 folios
xxxelius / and this Magicien bisyde
xnd been descended / ther they wolde abyde
535
And this was / as thise bookes me remembre
The colde / frosty seson of decembre
¶ Phebus wax old / and hewed lyk latoū
That in his hote declynacioū
Shoon as the burned gold / wt stremys brighte
540
But now in Capricorn / adoun he lighte
Wher as he shoon ful pale / I dar wel seyn
The bittre frostes / with the sleet and reyn
Destruyed hath the grene / in euery yerd
Ianus sit by the fyr / with double berd
545
And drynketh / of his bugle horn the wyn
Biforn hym stant brawen / of the tusked swyn
And Nowel / crieth euery lusty man
¶ Aurelius / al þt euere he kan
Dooth to this maister / cheere & reuerence
550
And preyeth hym / to doon his diligence
To bryngen hym / out of his peynes smerte
Or with a swerd / þt he wolde slytte his herte
¶ This subtil clerk swich routhe hadde of this man
That nyght and day / he spedde hym that he kan
555
To wayten a tyme / of his conclusioū
This is to seyn / to make illusioū
By swich an apparence / or Iogelrye
I ne kan / no termes of Astrologye
That she and euery wight sholde wene and seye
560
That of Britayne / the Rokkes were aweye
Or ellis / were sonken vnder grounde
So at the laste / he hath his tyme yfounde
To maken his Iapes / and his wrecchednesse
Of swich / a supersticious cursednesse
565
His tables tolletanes / forth he broght
Ful wel corrected / ne ther lakked noght
Neither his collect ne his expans yeris
Ne hise rootes / ne hise othere geris
As been his centris / and hise argumentz
570
And hise proporcionels conuenientz
For hise equacions / in euery thyng
And by his .8. speere / in his wirkyng