The Merchant's Tale
Folio 148v
22 of 30 folios
xxt atte laste / after a Monthe or tweye
xis sorwe gan aswage / sooth to seye
For whan he wiste / it may noon oother be
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He paciently / took his aduersitee
Saue out of doute / he may nat forgoon
That he nas Ialous / euere moore in oon
Which Ialousye / it was so outrageous
That neither in halle / ne in noon oother hous
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Ne in noon oother place / neuer the mo
He nolde suffre hir / for to ryde or go
But if þt he / hadde hond on hir alway
For which / ful ofte / wepeth fresshe May
That loueth Damyan / so benygnely
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That she moot outher dyen sodeynly
Or ellis / she moot han hym as hir leste
She wayteth / whan hir herte wolde breste
¶ Vp on that oother syde / Damyan
Bicomen is / the sorwefulleste man
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That euere was / for neither nyght ne day
Ne myghte he speke a word to fresshe May
As to his purpos / of no swich matere
But if þt Ianuarie / moste it heere
That hadde an hand / vp on hir euere mo
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But nathelees / by writyng to and fro
And pryuee signes / wiste he what she mente
And she knew eek / the fyn of his entente
¶ O. Ianuaire / what myghte it thee auaille
Thow myghtest se / as fer as shippes saille
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For as good / is blynd deceyued be
As to be deceyued / whan a man may se
Lo Argus / which þt hadde an hundred eyen
For al that euere / he koude poure or pryen
Yet was he blent and god woot so been mo
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That weneth wisly / that it be nat so
Passe ouer is an ese / and sey namoore
¶ This fresshe May / that I spak of so yoore
In warm wex / hath pernted the Clyket
That Ianuarie bar / of that smale wyket
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By which / in to his gardyn / ofte he wente
And Damyan / that knew al his entente