The Shipman's Tale
Folio 206r
5 of 11 folios
And hasteth yow / and goth awey anon
¶ My deere loue quod she / o my Daun Ioħn
Ful lief were me / this conseil for to hyde
160
But out it moot I may namoore abyde
¶ Myn housbonde is to me / the worste man
That euere was / sith þt the world bigan
But sith I am a wyf / it sit nat me
To tellen no wight of oure piuetee
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Neither abedde / ne in noon oother place
God shilde / I sholde it tellen for his gace
A wyf ne shal nat seyn / of hir housbonde
But al honour / as I kan vnderstonde
Saue vn to yow / thus muche I tellen shal
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As help me god / he is noght worth at al
In no degree / the value of a flye
But yet me greueth moost his nygardye
And wel ye woot þt wommen naturelly
Desiren thynges .vj. as wel as I
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They wolde / þt hir housbondes sholde be
¶ Hardy and wise / and riche / and ther to free
And buxom vn to his wyf / and fressh abedde
But by that ilke lord / that for vs bledde
For his honour / my self for to arraye
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A sonday next I moot nedes paye
An hundred frankes / or ellis am I lorn
Yet were me leuere / þt I were vnborn
Than me were doon / a sclaundre / or vileynye
And if myn housbonde eek / myghte it espye
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I nere but lost and ther fore I yow preye
Lene me this sōme / or ellis moot I deye
Daun Ioħn I seye / lene me thise hundred frankes
Pardee / I wol noght faile yow my thankes
If þt yow list to doon / that I yow praye
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For at a certeyn day / I wol yow paye
And doon to yow / what plesance and seruyse
That I may doon / right as yow list deuyse
And but .I. do / god take on me vengeance
As foul / as euere hadde Genelou of France
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¶ This gentil Monk answerde in this manere
Now trewely / myn owene lady deere
I haue quod he / on yow so gret a routhe
That I yow swere / and plighte yow my trouthe