The Merchant's Tale
Folio 148r
21 of 30 folios
Aboute that welle / and daunced as men tolde
This noble knyght this Ianuarie the olde
Swich deyntee hath / in it to walke and pleye
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That he wol no wight suffre bere the keye
Saue he hym self for of the smal wyket
He bar alwey / of siluer a Clyket
With which / whan þt hym leste / he it vnshette
And whan he wolde / paye his wyf hir dette
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In somer seson / thider wolde he go
And May his wyf and no wight but they two
And thynges / whiche þt were nat doon abedde
He in the gardyn / parfourned hem and spedde
And in this wise / many a murye day
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Lyued this Ianuarie / and fresshe May
But worldly ioye / may nat alwey dure
To Ianuarie / ne to no creature
¶ O. sodeyn hape / o. thow Fortune vnstable
Lyk to the Scorpion / so deceyuable
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That flaterest wt thyn heed / whan thow wolt stynge
Thy tayl is deeth / thurgh thyn enuenymynge
O. brotil ioye / o. swete venym queynte
O. Monstre / that so subtilly kanst peynte
Thy yiftes / vnder hewe of stedefastnesse
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That thow deceyuest bothe moore and lesse
Why hastow Ianuarie / thus deceyued
That haddest hym / for thy fulle freend receyued
And now thow hast biraft hym / bothe his eyen
For sorwe of which / desireth he to dyen
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Allas / this noble Ianuarie free
Amydde his lust and his prosperitee
Is woxen blynd / and that al sodeynly
He wepeth / and he waileth pitously
And ther with al / the fyr of Ialousye
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Lest that his wyf sholde falle in som folye
So brente his herte / þt he wolde fayn
That som man / bothe hir and hym had slayn
For neither after his deeth / ne in his lyf
Ne wolde he / þt she were loue ne wyf
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But euere lyue as wydwe / in clothes blake
Soul as the turtle / that lost hath hir make