The Manciple's Tale
Folio 212r
3 of 8 folios
And kepe it also clenly as thow may
Al thogh his cage of gold be neuer so gay
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Yit hath this brid bi twenty thousand fold
Leuer in a forest that is rud and cold
Gon ete wormes and swich wrecchednesse
For euer this brid wol doon his bisynesse
To eschape out of his cage if he may
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His liberte this brid desireth ay
¶ Lat take a Cat and fostre him wel with milke
And tendre flessh and make his couche of silke
And lat him seen a mous go bi the wal
Anon he weyueth milk and flessh and al
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And euery deyntee that is in that hous
Swich appetite hath he to ete a mous
Lo here hath lust his dominacioun
And appetite flemyth discrescioun
¶ A she wolf hath also a vileyns kynde
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The lewdest wolf that she may fynde
Or loost of reputacioun / that wol she take
In tyme whan hir lust to han a make
¶ Alle thise ensamples speke I bi thise men
That ben vntrewe but nothing bi wommen
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For men han euer a likerous appetite
On lower thing to parformen hir delite
Than on hir wyues been thei neuer so faire
Ne neuer so trewe ne so debonayre
Flessh is so newfangle with meschaunce
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That we ne konne in no thing han plesaunce
That sowneth in to vertue any while
¶ This phebus which that thoght vpon no gile
Desceyued was for al his Iolite
For vnder him a nother had she
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A man of litel reputacioun
Noght worth to phebus in comparisoun
Moore harme is it happeth ofte so
Of which ther cometh muchel harm and wo .
¶ And so bifel whan phebus was absent
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His wif a non hath for hir lemman sent
Hir lexxan certes this is a knauyssh speche