The Squire's Tale
Folio 125v
5 of 16 folios
520
Vp on hise othes / and on his seurtee
Graunted hī loue / on this condiciou
That euere mo / myn honour & renouñ
Were saued / bothe pryue and apert
This is to seyn / that after his desert
525
I ȝaf hī al myn hert / & al my thougħt
God wot and he / andthatthat other weyes nougħt
And toke his herte / in chaunge of myn for ay
But sotħ is seide / gon sithen many a day
A trewe wygħt and a thef / thynke nat on
530
¶ And whan he sey the thyng / so fer I gon
That I had graunted hi/ fully my loue
I swicħIn swicħInswicħa gyse / as I haue seid a boue
And ȝeuen hī / my trewe herte / as free
As he swore / that he ȝaf his herte to me
535
A non this Tigre / ful of doublenesse
Fel on his knees / witħ so deuout humblesse
Witħ so heigħ reuerence / as by his chere
So like a gentil louere / of manere
So rauysshed / as it semed for the ioye
540
That neuere Iasoū / or Paris of Troye
Iasou certes / ne non other man
Syn lametħ was / that alderfirst bygan
To louen two / as wryten folk byforñ
Ne neuere syn / the first man was borñ
545
Ne coude man / by twenty thouȝsand parte
Countrefete the sophimes / of his arte
Ne were worthy / don bokelyn his galoche
There doublenesse or feynyng / shulde approche
Ne so coude thanke a wygħt / as he did me
550
His manere was an heuene / for to se
To any wōman / were she neuere so wys
So peynted he and kempt / at poynt deuys
As wel hise wordes / as his countenaunce
And so loued hi / for his obeisaunce
555
And for the trouthe / I demed in his herte
That if so were / that any thyng hi smerte
Al were it neuere so lite / and I it wiste
Me thougħt I felt detħ / myn herte twiste
And shortly so ferfortħ / this thyng is wente
560
That my wyl was / his willes Instrumente
This is to seyn / my wyl obeyed his wille
In alle thynge / as fer as resoū fille
Kepyng the boundes / of my worshipe euere
Ne neuere hadde I thyng / so lief ne leuere