Here the Host 'stynteth' Chaucer's Tale of Sir Thopas
Folio 153r
1 of 2 folios
¶ Vp on his Creest he bar a tour
195
And ther Inne / stiked a lilie flour
God shilde his cors fro shonde
¶ And for he was / a knygħt Auntrous
He nolde slepen / in noon hous
200
¶ His brigħte helm / was his wonger
And by hym / baiteth his dextrer
¶ Hym self / drank water of the weƚƚ
As dide the knygħt Sir Percyueƚƚ
¶ Heere the Hoost stynteth Chaucer / of his tale of Thopas ~
Namoore of this / for goddes dignitee
Quod oure hoost for thou makest me ;
So wery / of thy verray lewednesse
That also wisly / god my soule blesse
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Myne eres aken / of thy drasty speche
Now swich a Rym / the deuel I biteche
This may wel / be Rym dogerel quod he
¶ Why so quod I / why wiltow lette me ;
Moore of my tale / than another man
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Syn that it is / the beste tale I kan
¶ By god quod he / for pleynly at a word
Thy drasty rymyng / is nat worth a toord
Thou doost noght elles / but despendest tyme
Sir at o word / thou shalt no lenger ryme
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Lat se / wher thou kanst tellen augħt in geeste
Or telle in prose / somwhat at the leeste
In which ther be som murthe / or som doctryne
¶ Gladly quod I / by goddes sweete pyne
I wol yow telle / a litel thyng in prose
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That ogħte liken yow / as I suppose
Or elles certes / ye been to daungerous
It is a moral tale vertuous
Al be it take somtyme in sondry wyse
Of sondry folk as I shal yow deuyse
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¶ As thus / ye woot þt euery Euangelist
That telleth vs / the peyne of Iħu crist
Ne seith nat alle thyng as his felawe dootħ
But nathelees / hir sentence is al sootħ
And alle acorden / as in hir sentence
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Al be ther / in hir tellyng difference
For sōme of hē seyn moore / and sōme seyn lesse
Whan they / his pitous passioū expersse
I meene / of Mark Mathew / Luc and Ioħn
But doutelees / hir sentence is al oon