The Merchant's Tale
Folio 150v
26 of 30 folios
xotable / of your vntrouthe and brotelnesse
O Salomon / wys / and richest of richesse
Fulfild of Sapience / and of worldly glorie
1000
Ful worthy been thy wordes / to memorie
To euery wight that wit and reson kan
Thus preyseth he yet the boūtee of man
¶ Amonges a thousand men / yet foond I oon
But of wommen alle / foond I noon
1005
¶ Thus seith the kyng þt knoweth youre wikkednesse
And Iħc filius Syrak as I gesse
Ne speketh of yow / but selde reuerence
A wilde fyr / and corrupt pestilence
So falle vp on youre bodyes / yet to nyght
1010
Ne se ye noght this honurable knyght
By cause allas / þt he is blynd and old
His owene man / shal make hym Cokewold
Lo where he sit the lechour in the tree
Now wol I graunten / of my magestee
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Vn to this olde / blynde worthy knyght
That he shal haue ayein / his eyen syght
Whan þt his wyf wolde doon hym vileynye
Thanne shal he knowen / al hir harlotrye
Bothe in repreue of hir / and othere mo
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¶ Ye shal quod Proserpyne / wol ye so
Now by my modres sires soule / I swere
That I shal yeuen hire / suffisant answere
And alle wommen after / for hir sake
That thogh they be / in any gilt ytake
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With face bold / they shul hem self excuse
And bere hem doun / that wolde hem accuse
For lakke of answer / noon of hem shal dyen
Al hadde man seyn a thyng with bothe his eyen
Yet shal we wommen / visagen it hardily
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And wepe and swere / and chide subtilly
So that ye men / shul been as lewed as gees
What rekketh me / of youre auctoritees
¶ I woot wel / þt this Iew / this Salomon
Fand of vs wommen / folyes many oon
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But thogh þt he / ne fand no good womman
Yet hath ther founde / many another man