The Knight's Tale
Folio 10v
2 of 48 folios
Ech after oother / clad in clothes blake
But swich a cry / and swich a wo they make
That in this world / nys creature lyuynge
That herde / swich another waymentynge
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And of this cry / they nolde neuere stenten
Til they / the reynes of his brydel henten
¶ What folk been ye / that at myn hom comynge
Perturben so my feste / with criynge
Quod Theseus / haue ye so greet enuye
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Of myn honour / þt thus compleyne and crye
Or who hath yow / mysboden or offended
And telleth me / if it may been amended
And why / þt ye been / clothed thus in blak
¶ The eldeste lady of hem alle spak
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Whan she hadde swowned / wt a deedly cheere
That it was routhe / for to seen and heere
And seyde lord / to whom Fortune hath yeuen
Victorie / and as a Conquerour to lyuen
Nat greueth vs / youre glorie and youre honour
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But we / biseken mercy and socour
Haue mercy on oure wo / and oure distresse
Som drope of pitee / thurgh thy gentillesse
Vp on vs wrecched wōmen / lat thou falle
For certes lord / ther is noon of vs alle
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That she ne hath been / a duchesse / or a queene
Now be we caytyues / as it is wel seene
Thanked be Fortune / and hir false wheel
That noon estaat assureth to be weel
And certes lord / to abyden youre persence
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Heere in the temple / of the goddesse clemence
We han been waitynge / al this fourtenygħt
Now help vs lord / sith it is in thy mygħt
¶ I wrecche / which þt wepe and crie thus
Was whilom wyf / to kyng Cappaneus
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That starf at Thebes / cursed be that day
And alle we / that been in this array
And maken / al this lamentacioū
We losten / alle oure housbondes at that toun
Whil that the seege / ther aboute lay
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And yet now the olde Creon weylaway
That lord is now / of Thebes the Citee
Fulfild of Ire / and of Iniquitee
He for despit and for his tirannye
To do the dede bodyes vileynye
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Of alle oure lordes / whiche that been slawe
He hath alle the bodyes / on an heepe ydrawe
And wol nat suffren hem / by noon assent
Neither to been yburyed nor ybrent