The Knight's Tale
Folio 14r
60 of 63 folios
And aƚƚ we þat ben in þis array
And maken al þis lamentacioū
We losten aƚƚ our housbondes at þat toū
Whil þat þassege þer aboute lay
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And yet now þe olde Creon weiloway
That lord is now of Thebes þe Cite
Fulfild of Ire and of Iniquite
He for despite and for his Tyrannie
To don þe deede bodies vilenye
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Of aƚƚ our lordes whiche þat ben slawe /
Haþ aƚƚ þe bodies on an heep y drawe
And wol nought suffre hem by non assent
Neither to ben y buried noþer y brent
But makeþ houndes ete hem in despyt
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And with þat word wiþoute more respit
Thei fellen gruf and cryden pitously
Haue on vs wrecchede wōmen som mercy
And lat our sorwe synken in þin herte /
This gentil duk doun from his courser sterte
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With herte pitous whan he herde hem speke
Him þoughte þat his herte wolde breke
Whan he saugh hem so pite and so mate
That whilom were of so gret astate
And in his armes he hem aƚƚ vp hente
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And hem conforteþ in ful good entente
And swor his oth as he was trewe knight
He wolde don so ferforþly his might
Vpon þe tyrant hem to wreke
That aƚƚ þe poeple of grece scholde speke
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How Creon was of Theseus y serued
As he þat hadde his deþ ful wel deserued
And right anon wiþouten more abod
His baner he displaied and forth rood
To Thebes ward and al his host biside
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No nerre Athenes wolde he go ne ride
Ne take his ease fully half a day