The Shipman's Tale
Folio 153r
6 of 9 folios
220
Come doun to day / and late ȝoure bagges stonde
Ne be ȝe nat a shamed / that Daun Ioħn
Shal fastynge al this day / elenge goon
What late vs heere a masse / and go we dyne
Wyf qd this man / litel canstow deuyne
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The curious besynesse / that we haue
For of vs chapmen / also god me saue
And by that lord / that cleped is Seynt Yue
Scarsly a monges twewe / ten shuln thryue
Contynuely lastyng / vn to oure age
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We moun wel make chiere / and good visage
And dryue fortħ the world / as it may be
And kepen oure estat / in pryuetee
Til we be ded / or elles that we pleye
A Pilgrimage / or gon out of the weye
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And therfore haue I / gret necessite
Vp on this queynt world / to auyse me
For euere mot we / stonde in drede
Of hap and fortune / in oure chapmanhede
To Flaundres wol I go / to morwe atat day
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And come a geyn as sone / as euere I may
For whicħ my deere wyf / I the by seke
bAssbe to euery wygħt / buxome & meke
FAnd for to kepe oure good / be curious
And honestly gouerne wel / oure hous
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Thow hast I now / in euery manere wyse
That to a thrifty houshold / may suffise
The lakketħ noon array / ne no vitaille
Of Siluer in thy purs / shaltow nat faille
And witħ that word / his Countour dore he shette
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And doun he gotħ / no lengere wold he lette
But hastily / a masse / was there seyde
And spedily the tables / were I leyde
And to the dynere / faste they hē spedde
And richely this Monk / the Chapman fedde
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¶ At after dyner / Daun Ioħn sobrely
This Chapman toke a part / and preuyly
He seid hī thus / Cosyn it stonditħ so
That wel I se / to Brugges wyl ȝe go
God and Seynt Austyn / spede ȝow and gyde
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I preye ȝow Cosyn / wysely that ȝe ride
Gouernetħ ȝow also / of ȝoure dyete
A temprely / and namely in this hete