The Knight's Tale
Folio 32r
45 of 48 folios
¶ Ne how sōme caste hir sheeld / and sōme hir spere
And of hir vestimentz / whiche þt they were
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And coppes fulle of wyn / and Milk and blood
In to the fyr / that brente / as it were wood
Ne how the grekes / with an huge route
Tries riden / al the place aboute
Vp on the left hand / wt a loud shoutynge
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And thries / with hir speres claterynge
And thries / how the ladyes gonne crye
And how / þt lad was homward Emelye
Ne how Arcite / is brent to Asshen colde
Ne / how that lych wake / was yholde
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Al thilke nygħt / ne how the grekes pleye
The wake pleyes / ne kepe I nat to seye
Who wrastleth best naked / with oille enoynt
Ne who that baar hym best in no disioynt
¶ I wol nat tellen eek how that they goon
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Hoom til Atthenes / whan the pley is doon
But shortly to the point thanne wol I wende
And maken / of my longe tale an ende
By processe / and by lengthe of certeyn yeres
Al stynted is / the moornynge & the teres
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Of grekes / by oon general assent
Thanne semed me / ther was a parlement
At Atthenes / vp on certein pointz and caas
Among the whiche pointz / yspoken was
To haue / with certein contrees alliaūce
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And haue fully / of Thebans obeisaūce
For which / this noble Theseus anon
Leet senden / after gentil Palamon
Vnwist of hym / what was the cause and why
But in hise blake clothes / sorwefully
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He cam / at his comandement in hye
Tho sente / Theseus for Emelye
Whan they were set and hust was al the place
And Theseus / abiden hadde a space
Er any word / cam fram his wise brest
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Hise eyen sette he / ther as was his lest
And with a sad visage / he siked stille
And after that rigħt thus he seyde his wille
The firste moeuere / of the cause aboue
Whan he first made / the faire cheyne of loue
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Greet was theffect and heigh was his entente
Wel wiste he why / and what ther of he mente
For with that faire cheyne of loue he bond
The fyr the eyr / the water and the lond
In certeyn boundes / that they may nat flee
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That same prince / and that same moeuere quod he