The Knight's Tale
Folio 20v
2 of 35 folios
¶ Who coude ryme / in englyssħ proprely
Hys martirdom / by god it am nat I
Therfore I passe / as lightly as I may
It fel / that in the / vij / ȝere / in May
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The thridde nygħt / as olde bokes seyn
That al this storie / tellen more pleyn
Were it by auentre / or destyne
As whan a þing is shapen / it shal be
That sone after the mydnygħt / Palamoū
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By helpyng of a frende / brake his prisoū
And fleeth the Citee / as fast as he may go
For he had ȝeue / his Iayler drynke so
Of Clarry / mad of a certeyn wyne
W Nerkotikes and opye / of Thebes fyne
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That al þt nygħt / þougħ þt men wold hī shake
The Iayler slep so / he mygħt nouȝt wake
¶ And thus he fleeth / as fast as euere he may
The nygħt was short / and fast by the day
That nedes cost / he must hī seluen hyde
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And to a groue / fast there besyde
W dredful fote / than walketh Palamoū
For shortly / this was his oppinyoū
That in þat groue / he wold hī hyde al day
And in the nygħt / þan wold he take his wey
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To Thebes ward / his frendes for to pray
On Theseus to helpen hī / to werrey
And shortly / eiþer he wold lese hise lyf
Or wynnen Emelye / vn to his wyf
This is þe effect / and his entent pleyn
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¶ Now wyl I trne / to Arcite a geyn
That litel wyst / how ny þt was his care
Til þt fortune / had brougħt hī in þe snare
The besy larke / the messanger of day
Saleweth in hir song / the morwe gray
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And verray Phebus / riseth vp so brygħt
That al þe orient / laugheth of þe ligħt
And wt hise stremes / drieth in the greues
The siluer dropes / hangyng on the leues
And Arcite þat is / in the court rial
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With Theseus / the squyer principal
Ys rysen and loketh / on the mery day
And for to doū / his obseruaūce to May
Remembryng on þe poynt / of his desyre