The Shipman's Tale
Folio 208r
9 of 11 folios
Til it was day / that daun Ioħn wente his way
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And bad the meynee / fare wel haue good day
For noon of hem / ne no wight in the town
Hath of Daun Ioħn / right no suspecioun
And forth he rydeth hom / til his Abbeye
Or where hym list namoore of hym I seye
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¶ This Marchant whan þt ended was the faire
To Seint Denys / he gan for to repaire
And with his wyf / he maketh feste and cheere
And telleth hir / that chaffare is so deere
That nedes / moste he make a cheuyssance
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For he was bounden / in a reconyssance
To paye / twenty thousand sheeld anon
For which / this Marchant is to Parys gon
To borwe / of certeyne freendes / that he hadde
A certeyn frankes / and sōme wt hym he ladde
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And whan þt he was come / in to the town
For greet chiertee / and greet affeccioun
Vn to Daun Ioħn / he first goth / hym to pleye
Nat for to axe / or borwe of hym moneye
But for to wite / and seen of his welfare
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And for to tellen hym / of his chaffare
As freendes doon / whan they been met yfeere
Daun Ioħn / hym maketh feste / and murye cheere
And he hym tolde agayn / ful specially
How he hadde / wel yboght and gaciously
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Thanked be god / al hool his marchandise
Saue þt he moste / in alle maner wyse
Maken a cheuyssance / as for his beste
And thanne / he sholde been / in ioye and reste
¶ Daun Ioħn answerde / certes I am fayn
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That ye in heele / ar comen hom agayn
And if þt I were riche / as haue I blisse
Of twenty thousand sheeld / sholde ye nat mysse
For ye so kyndely / this oother day
Lente me gold / and as I kan and may
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I thanke yow / by god / and by Seint Iame
But nathelees / I took vn to oure dame
Yowre wyf at hom / the same gold agayn
Vp on youre bencħ / she woot it wel certayn