The General Prologue
Folio 8r
15 of 18 folios
This Somonor / bar to hym a stif burdoun
Was neuere trompe / of half so greet a soun
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This Pardoner hadde heer / as yelow as wex
But smothe it heeng as dooth a strike of flex
By ounces / henge hise lokkes þt he hadde
And ther with / he hise shuldres ouerspradde
But thynne it lay / by colpons oon and oon
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But hood for Iolitee / wered he noon
For it was trussed / vp in his walet
Hym thoughte / he rood / al of the newe Iet
Discheuelee saue his cappe / he rood al bare
Swiche glarynge eyen hadde he as an hare
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A vernycle hadde he sowed / vp on his cappe
His walet biforn hym / in his lappe
Bret ful of pardoū / comen from Rome al hoot /
A voys he hadde / as smal as hath a goot /
No berd hadde he / ne neuere sholde haue
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As smothe it was / as it were late shaue
I trowe / he were a geldyng or a mare
But of his craft fro Berwyk / in to Ware
Ne was ther / swich another Pardoner
For in his male / he hadde a pilwe beer
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Which þt he seyde was oure lady veyl
He seyde he hadde / a gobet of the seyl
That seint Peter hadde / whan þt he wente
Vp on the see / til Ihū crist hym hente
He hadde a croys of latoū / ful of stones
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And in a glas / he hadde pigges bones
But wt thise relikes / whan þt he fond
A poure persou / dwellynge vpon lond
Vp on a day / he gat hym moore moneye
Than þt the person gat / in Monthes tweye
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And thus / with feyned flaterye and Iapes
He made the persou and the peple his Apes
But trewely / to tellen atte laste
He was in chirche a noble ecclesiaste
Wel koude he rede / a lessoū or a storie
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But alderbest / he song an Offertorie
For wel he wiste / whan þt song was songe
He moste perche / and wel affile his tonge
To wynne siluer / as he ful wel koude
Therfore he song the murierly and loude
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NOw haue I toold yow shortly in a clause
Thestaat tharray / the nombre & eek the cause
Why þt assembled was this compaignye
In Southwerk / as this gentil hostelrye
That highte the Tabard / faste by the belle
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But now is tyme / to yow for to telle