The Monk's Tale
Folio 183v
3 of 18 folios
¶ This Seneka / of whicħ that I deuyse
By cause Nero hadde of hī / swicħ drede
For he fro Vxxesvxxes vices / wolde hī ay chastise
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Discretly as by word / and nat be dede
Sire wolde he seyn / an Emperour mot nede
Be vertuous / and hate tirannye
For whicħ / he in a batħ / made hī to blede
On bothe hise armes / til he muste dye
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¶ This Nero had eke / of a Custemauñce
In ȝouthe / a geyns his maister / for to ryse
Whicħ afterward / hī þougħte a gret greuaūce
Therfore he made hī dyen / in this wyse
But nathelees / this Seneka / this wyse
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Ches in a bathe / to dye in this manere
Rathere / than han / a nother turmentrie
And thus hatħ Nero / slayn / his maister dere
¶ Now fel it so / that fortune list no lengere
The heye pride / of Nero to cherice
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For thougħ þt he was stong / ȝet was she strengere
She thougħte thus / by god I am to nyce
To sette a man / that is fulfilled of vice
In hey degree / and Emperour hī calle
By god / out of his Sete / I wol hī trice
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Whan he leest wenetħ / Sonest shal he falle
¶ The peeple roos vp on hī / on a nygħt
For his defaute / and whan he it espied
Out at his doores / a noon he hatħ hī digħt
Allone / and there he wende / han ben allied
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He knokked faste / and ay the more he cried
The fastere shette they / here doores alle
Tho wiste he wel / he hadde hī self mys gyed
And went his wey / no lengere durst he calle
¶ The peeple criede / and rombled vp & doun
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That wt hise Eres / herd he how they seide
Where is this fals tyraunt / this Neroū
For fere almost / out of his wyt he breide
And to hise goddes / pitously he preyde
For Socour / but it mygħt nougħt betide
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For drede of this / hī þougħt þt he deyde
And ran in to a Gardyne / hī to hide
¶ And in this Gardyne / fond he cherles tweye
That setyn by a fir / gret and red
And to theise cherles / he gan to preye
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To slen hī / & to girden of / his hed
That to his body / whan þt he were ded