The Monk's Tale
Folio 94v
12 of 20 folios
In youthe / a maister hadde this Emperour
410
To teche hym lettrure / and curteisye
For of moralitee / he was the flour
As in his tyme / but if bookes lye
And whil this maister / hadde of hym maistrye
He maked hym / so louyng and so souple
415
That longe tyme it was / er tirannye
Or any vice / dorste in hym vncouple
¶ This Seneca / of which þt I deuyse
By cause Nero / hadde of hym swich drede
For he fro vices / wolde hym ay chastise
420
Discretly / as by word / and nat by dede
Sire wolde he seyn / an Emperour moot nede
Be vertuous / and hate tirannye
For which he in a bath / made hym to blede
On bothe hise armes / til he moste dye
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¶ This Nero / hadde eek of acustumance
In youthe / agayns his maister for to rise
Which afterward / hym thoughte a greet greuance
Ther fore / he made hym dyen in this wise
But nathelees / this Seneca the wise
430
Chees / in a bath / to dye in this manere
Rather than han / another tormentrise
And thus hath Nero / slayn his maister deere
¶ Now fil it so / that Fortune liste no lenger
The hye pride of Nero / to cherice
435
For thogh þt he was strong yet was she strenger
She thoghte thus / by god I am to nyce
To sette a man / that is fulfild of vice
In heigh degree / and Emperour hym calle
By god / out of his sete / I wol hym trice
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Whan he leest weneth / sonnest shal he falle
¶ The peple roos / vp on hym / on a nyght
For his defaute / and whan he it espied
Out of his dores / anon he hath hym dight
Allone / and there he wende han been allyed
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He knokked faste / and ay the moore he cryed
The faster shette they / the dores alle
For drede of this / hym thoughte þt he dyed
And wente his wey / no lenger dorste he calle