The Clerk's Tale
Folio 93v
4 of 27 folios
¶ O noble Markys / ȝoure humanyte
Assuretħ vs / and ȝeuetħ vs hardynesse
As ofte / as tyme is / of necessite
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That we to ȝow mow telle / oure heuynesse
Acceptetħ lord / thanne of ȝoure gentilnesse
That if we / wt pytous hert / vn to ȝow pleyne
And lete ȝoure Eeres / nat my voys desdeyne
¶ Al haue I nat to done / in this matere
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More than a nother man / hatħ in this place
Ȝet for as meche / as ȝe / my lord so deere
Han alwey shewed me / fauour and grace
I dar the betre / aske of ȝow a space
Of audience / to shewen oure request
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And ȝe my lord / to don rigħt as ȝow list
¶ For certes lord / so wel vs lyketħ ȝow
And alle ȝoure werke / and euere han don / that we
Ne coude nat / oure self / deuysen how
We mygħten lyuen / in more felicite
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Saue o thyng lord / if it ȝowre wylle be
That for to be / a wedded man / ȝow list
Than were ȝoure peeple / in souerayne hertis rest
¶ Bowetħ ȝoure nekke / vnder that blisseful ȝok
Of Souereyntee / nougħt of seruyse
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Whicħ that men clepen / spousaile or wedlak
And thynketħ lord / a mong ȝoure thougħtes wyse
How that oure dayes / passe in sondry gyse
For thougħ we slepe or wake / or rome or ryde
Ay fleetħ the tyme / it wyl noman a byde
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¶ And thougħ ȝoure grene ȝouthe / floure as ȝet
In crepetħ age alwey / as stille as ston
And detħ manacetħ euere age / and smyt
In ecħ estate / for there eskapetħ noon
And also certeyn / as we knowen echoū
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That we shuln deye / and vncerteyne we alle
Ben of that day / whan detħ shal on vs falle
¶ Acceptetħ thanne of vs / the trewe entent
That neuere ȝet / refuseden ȝoure heeste
And we wyln lord / if that ȝe wyln assent
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Chese ȝow a wyf / in short tyme at the leste
Borñ of the gentillest / and of the meste
Of al this lond / so that it ougħt seme
Honour to god and ȝow / as we can deme
¶ Delyuere vs out / of al this besi drede
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And take a wyf / for heye goddis sake
For if it so byfel / as god for bede
That thurgħ ȝoure detħ / ȝoure lynage shuld slake
And that a straunge successour / shuld take