The General Prologue
Folio 4r
7 of 18 folios
But looked holwe / and ther to sobrely
Ful thredbare / was his ouereste courtepy
For he hadde geten hym yet no benefice
Ne was so worldly / for to haue office
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For hym was leuere / haue at his beddes heed
Twenty bookes / clad in blak or reed
Of Aristotle / and his Philophie
Than robes riche / or fithele / or gay Sautrie
But al be / that he was a Philosophre
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Yet hadde he / but litel gold in cofre
But al þt he mygħte / of his freendes hente
On bookes / and on lernynge he it spente
And bisily / gan for the soules preye
Of hem / þt yaf hym wher wt to scoleye
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Of studie took he moost cure & moost heede
Nogħt o word / spak he moore than was neede
And that was seyd / in forme and reuerence
And short and quyk and ful of hy sentence
Sownynge in moral vertu / was his speche
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And gladly wolde he lerne and gladly teche
A Sergeant of the lawe / war and wys
That often hadde been at the Parvys
Ther was also / ful riche of excellence
Discreet he was / and of greet reuerence
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He semed swich / hise wordes weren so wise
Iustice he was / ful often in Assise
By patente / and by pleyn cōmissioū
For his science / and for his heigħ renoū
Of fees and robes / hadde he many oon
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So greet a purchasour / was nowher noon
Al was fee symple to hym in effect
His purchasyng myghte nat been infect
Nowher so bisy a man as he ther nas
And yet he semed / bisier than he was
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In t ermes hadde he caas and doomes alle
That from the tyme / of kyng william were yfalle
Ther to / he koude endite and make a thyng
Ther koude no wigħt / pynchen at his writyng
And euery statut / koude he pleyn by rote
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He rood but hoomly / in a medlee cote
Girt wt a ceint of silk wt barres smale
Of his array telle I no lenger tale
A Frankeleyn / was in his compaignye
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Of his complexioū / he was sangwyn
Wel loued he by the morwe a sope in wyn
To lyuen in delit was euere his wone
For he was / Epicurus owene sone