The Monk's Tale
Folio 91r
5 of 20 folios
¶ But natheles / sōme clerkes hir excusen
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By oon þt highte Nessus / þt it maked
Be as be may / I wol hir noght accusen
But on his bak the sherte he wered al naked
Til þt his flessh / was for the venym blaked
And whan he say / noon oother remedie
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In hote coles / he hath hym seluen raked
For with no venym / deigned hym to dye
¶ Thus starf / this worthy myghty Hercules
Lo who may truste on Fortune / any throwe
For hym þt folweth / al this world of prees
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Er he be war / is ofte yleyd ful lowe
Ful wys is he / þt kan hym seluen knowe
Beth war / for whan þt Fortune list to glose
Thanne waiteth she / hir man to ouerthrowe
By swich a wey / as he wolde leest suppose
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The myghty trone / the percious tresor
The glorious ceptre / and roial maiestee
That hadde / the kyng Nabugodonosor
With tonge / vnnethe / may discryued be
He twies / wan Ierusalem the Citee
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The vessel of the temple / he with hym ladde
At Babiloigne / was his souereyn see
In which / his glorie / and his delit he hadde
¶ The faireste children / of the blood roial
Of Israel / he leet do gelde anon
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And maked ech of hem / to been his thral
Amonges othere / Danyel was oon
That was / the wiseste child of euerychoon
For he the dremes / of the kyng expowned
Ther as in Chaldeye / clerk / ne was ther noon
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That wiste / to what fyn his dremes sowned
¶ This proude kyng leet make a Statue of gold
Sixty cubites long and Seuene in brede
To which ymage / he bothe yong and old
Comanded to loute / and haue in drede
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Or in a fourneys / ful of flambes rede
He shal be brend / that wolde noght obeye
But neuere / wolde assente to that dede
Danyel / ne hise yonge felawes tweye