The Nun's Priest's Tale
Folio 104r
10 of 16 folios
He fethered Pertelote / twenty tyme
And trad as ofte / er it was pryme
He looketh as it were a grym leoun
360
And on hise toos / he rometh vp and doun
Hym deyned nat to sette his foot to grounde
And chukketh whan he hath a corn yfounde
And to hym rennen thanne / hise wyues alle
Thus real / as a Prince is in his halle
365
Leue I this Chauntecler / in his pasture
And after / wol I telle his auenture
¶ Whan that the Monthe / in which the world bigan
That highte March / whan god first maked man
Was complet and passed were also
370
Syn March bigan / 30. dayes and two
Bifel / þt Chauntecler / in al his pryde
Hise seuene wyues / walkyng hym bisyde
Caste vp hise eyen / to the brighte sonne
That in the signe of Taurus / hadde yronne
375
xx. degrees and oon / and som what moore
And knew by kynde / and by noon oother loore
That it was pryme / and krew wt blisful steuene
The sonne he seyde / is clomben vp on heuene
40. degrees and oon / and moore ywis
380
Madame Pertelote / my worldes blys
Herkneth thyse blisful bryddes / how they synge
And se the fresshe floures / how they sprynge
Ful is myn herte / of reuel and solas
But sodeynly / hym fil a sorweful cas
385
For euere the latter ende of ioye / is wo
God woot þt worldly ioye / is soone ago
And if a Rethor / koude faire endite
He in a Cronycle / saufly myghte it write
As for a souereyn notabilitee
390
Now euery wys man / lat hym herkne me
This storie / is also trewe I vndertake
As is the book of Launcelot de Lake
That wommen holde / in ful gret reuerence
Now wol I / torne agayn to my sentence
395
¶ A Colfox / ful of sley Iniquitee
That in the groue / hadde woned yeres thre