The Franklin's Tale
Folio 161r
5 of 24 folios
And preyed hire on knees for goddes sake
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To come and rome hire in companye
Away to dryue hire derke fantasye
And fynally sche gaunted þat requeste
For wel sche sawe it was for þe beste
Now stood hire castel faste by þe see
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And often wiþ hire freendes walked sche
Hire to disporte on þe banke on heih
Wher as sche many schippe and barge seih
Seylinge here cours where hem luste to go
But ȝit was þere a parcelle of hir wo
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For to hirself fuloften seyde sche
Is þer no schippe of so many as I se
Wole brynge home my lord þen wolde myn herte
Al waryssche of þis bitter peynes smerte
Anoþer tyme þer wole sche sitte and þinke
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And caste hire eyen dounward fro þe brynke
But whan sche saugħ þe grisly rokkes blake
For verray fere so wolde hire herte quake
Þat on hire feet sche mighte nougħt hire sustene
Thenne wolde sche sitte a doun vpon þe grene
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And pitously in to þe see byholde
And sayn right þus wiþ sorowful hertes colde
Eterne god þat þurgh þy puruyaunce
Ledest þe world by certein gouernaunce
In ydelnesse as men sayn ȝe no þing make
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But lord þese grisely feendly rokkes blake
That semen raþer a foul confusioū
Of werk þen any fayr creacioū
Of whiche a parfyt god and a stable
Why han ȝe wrouȝt þis werk vnresonable
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For by þis werke south north est and west
Ther nys y fostred man ne bryd ne best
Hit doþ no good to my witt but annoyeþ
Se ȝe nouȝt lorde how mankynde it destroyeþ
An hundred þousand bodyes of mankynde /