The Wife of Bath's Prologue
Folio 72r
3 of 20 folios
The transcription of the Wife of Bath's Prologue was created by Orietta Da Rold and has no relationship to the transcription which appears on the Cambridge University Press CD-ROM.
420
For thougħ the Pope / had siten hem beside
I wold nat spare hem / at here owen bord
For be my trouthe / I quyt hem word for word
As help me verray god / omnipotent
Thougħ I rigħt now / shulde make my testament
425
I owe hem nat a word / that it nys quytte
I brought it so a boute / be my wytte
That they must ȝeue it vp / for the best
Or elles had we neuere / ben in rest
For thougħ he loked / as a wod lyou
430
Ȝet shulde he faile / of his conclusiou
Than wold I sey / good lef take kepe
How mekely loketħ / wylkyn oure shepe
Come neer my spouse / lat me ba thy cheke
Ȝe shulden be / al pacient and meke
435
And han a swete / spiced conscience
Sithe ȝe so preche / of Iobes pacience
Suffretħ al wey / syn ȝe so wel can preche
And but ȝe do / certeyn we shuln ȝow teche
That it is fair / to han a wyf in pees
440
Oon of vs two / must bowen doutelees
And sithe a man / is more resonable
Than womman is / ȝe must ben suffrable
What eyletħ ȝow / to grucche thus and grone
It is for ȝe wolde / han my queynte allone
445
We take it al / lo haue it euerydele
Petir I shrewe ȝow / but ȝe loue it wele
For if I wolde selle / my beal Chose
I coude walke / as fressħ as any Rose
But I wol kepe it / for ȝoure owen totħ
450
Ȝe be to blame / by god I seye ȝow sotħ
Swiche maner wordes / had we on honde
Now wol I speke / of my first husbonde
¶ My first husbonde / was a reuelour
This is to seyn / he had a paramour
455
And I was ȝong / and ful of ragerie
Stiburne and strong / and ioly as a Pye
Tho coude I daunce / to an harp smale
And synge I wysse / as any nytynggale
Whan I had dronke / a draugħt of swete wyn
460
Metellius the foul cherl / the swyn
That witħ a staf / by reft his wyf hishirhisr lif
For she drank wyn / thougħ I had ben his wyf
He shulde nat han daunted / me fro drynke
And after wyn / on venus must I thynke
465
For also siker / as cold / engenderetħ hail