The Reeve's Prologue Folio 47v 1 of 2 folios
Wh ā ne folk han laughen / at þ is nyce cas
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Of Absoloū / and hende Nicholas
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Dyuer se folk / diuersly they seyde
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But for the more part / they loughe & pleyde
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5
Ne at this tale / I saw noman hi
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But it were oonly / Oswold the Reue
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By cause he was / of Carpenteres craft
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A litel Ire / is / in his hert laft
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He gan to grocche / and blamed it a lyte
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10
So thike qd he / ful wel coude I the quyte
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With bleryng
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If þ at me list / to speke of rybaudye
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But ik am old / me list nat pleye for age
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Gras tyme is doū / my foder is now forage
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This white tope / wrytetħ myne olde ȝeres
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Myn hert is also / mouled / as myne heeres
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But if I fare / as doth an open ars
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That ilke fruyt / is euer e lengere the wers
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Til it be roten / in mullok or in stree
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We olde men / I drede / so fare we
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Til we be roten / kan we nat be rype
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We hope alwey / while þ t the world wol pipe
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For in oure wyl / there stekith euer e a nayl
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To han an hore heer / and a grene tayl
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25
As hath a leek / for though oure mygħ t be gon
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Oure wyl / desireth folye / euer e in on
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For whā ne we moun nat don / than wol we speke
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Ȝet in oure asshen old / ys fire I reke
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Foure gledes han we / which I shal deuyse
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Auauntyng
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Theise foure sparcles / longen vn to elde
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Oure olde lymes / moun wel ben vn welde
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But wyl ne shal faylen / that is soth
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And ȝet haue ik alwey / a coltyssħ toth
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As many a ȝere / as it is passed henne
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Sithe that my tappe / of lyf / bygan to renne
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For sekirly / whan yk was born / a non
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Detħ drougħ the tappe of lyf / and let it gon
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And euer e sithe / hath so / the tappe I ronne
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40
Til that almost / al empty is the tonne
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The streme of lyf / now droppeth on the chyme
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The sely tonge / may wel rynge & chymbe
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Of wrecchednesse / that passed is ful ȝore
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With olde folk / saue / dotage is na more
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45
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He gan to speke / as lordly as a kyng
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