The Pardoner's Prologue & Tale
Folio 202v
4 of 19 folios
O lord quoþ he if so were þat I migħt
Al þis tresour wynne to my self allone
Þer nys no man þat lyueþ vnder þe trone /
515
Of god þat scholde lyue as mery as I
And at þe laste þe feend oure enemy
Putte in his þouȝt þat he schulde poysoū beye
With which he migħte sleen his felawes tweye
For why þe feend fand him in such lyuyng
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That hadde leue him to sorwe brynge
For þis was vtterly his entent
To slen hem boþe and neuer to repent
And forþ he goþ no lenger nolde he tarye
In to þe toun vnto a potycarie /
525
And preyde him þat he him wolde selle
Som poysoun þat he might his rattes quelle
And eek þer was a polkat in his hawe
Þat as he sayde his Capons had y slawe /
And sayde he wolde wreken him if he migħt
530
Of vermyn þat distroyed him by nigħt
Þe apotykaries answerde þou schalt haue
A þing þat als god my soule saue
In al þis world þer nys no creature
Þat eten or drunken haþ of þis confecture
535
Nougħt but þe mountaunce of a corn of whete
Þat he ne schal his lyf anon forlete
Ȝe sterue he schal and þat in lasse while /
Þenne þou wolt gon a pace nougħt but a myle
Þis poysoun is so strong and so vyolent
540
Þis cursed man haþ in his hand y hent
Þis poysoun in a box and seþenes he ran
In to þe nexte strete vnto a man
And borwed him large botelles þre
And in þe tweyne þis poysoū poured he
545
Þe þridde he keped clene for his drynke
For al þe night he schop him to swynke