The Reeve's Tale
Folio 54r
7 of 12 folios
Ye kan by argumentz / make a place
A myle brood / of twenty foot of space
205
Lat se now / if this place may suffise
Or make it rowm with speche / as is your gyse
¶ Now Symond seyde this Ioħn / by Seint Cutberd
Ay is thou myrie / and that is faire answerd
I haue herd seye / men sal tak of twa thynges
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Swilk as he fyndes / or tak swilk as he brynges
But specialy / I pray thee hoost deere
Get vs som mete and drynke / and make vs cheere
And we wol payen / trewely atte fulle
With empty hand / men may none haukes tulle
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Lo heere oure siluer / redy for to spende
¶ This Millere in to town / his doghter sende
For ale and breed / and rosted hem a goos
And boond hir hors / it sholde namoore go loos
And in his owene chambre / hem made a bed
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With shetes and wt chalons / faire yspred
Noght from his owene bed / but ten foot or twelue
His doghter hadde a bed / al by hir selue
Right in the same chambre by and by
It myghte be no bet and cause why
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Ther was no rowmer herberwe / in the place
They soupen / and they speken / hem to solace
And drynken euere stroong ale / at the beste
Aboute mydnyght / wente they to reste
Wel hath this Millere / vernysshed his heed
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Ful pale he was for dronke / and noght reed
He yexeth / and he speketh thurgh the nose
As he were / on the quakke / or on the pose
To bedde he goth / and wt hym goth his wyf
As any Iay / she light was and iolyf
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So was / hir ioly whistle / wel ywet
The Cradel / at hir beddes feet is set
To rokken / and to yeue the child to sowke
And whan þt dronken / al was in the Crowke
To bedde wente / the doghter right anon
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To bedde gooth Aleyn / and also Ioħn
Ther nas namoore / hem neded no dwale
This Millere / hath so wisly bibbed ale