The Monk's Prologue
Folio 168v
2 of 3 folios
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It is a gentil pasture / ther thow goost
Thou art nat lyk a penant or a goost
Vpon my feith / thou art som Officer
Som worthy Sexteyn / or som Celerer
For by my fader soule / as to my doom
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Thou art a maister whan thou art at hoom
No poure cloystrer ne no Novys
But a gouernour / wily and wys
And therw al / of brawnes and of bones
A wel farynge persone / for the nones
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I pray to god / yeue hym confusioū
That first thee brogħte / vn to Religioū
Thou woldest han been / a tredefowel arigħt
Haddestow / as greet a leeue / as thou hast mygħt
To parfourne al thy lust / in engendrure
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Thou haddest bigeten / ful many a creature
Allas / why werestow / so wyd a Cope
God yeue me sorwe / but and I were a pope
Nat oonly thou / but euery myghty man
Thougħ he were shorn / ful hye vp on his pan
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Sholde haue a wyf / for al the world is lorn
Religioū / hath take vp al the corn
Of tredyng. and we borel men been shrympes
Of fieble trees / ther comen wrecched ympes
This maketh / that oure wyues wole assaye
Religious folk for ye mowe bettre paye
Of Venus paiementz / than mowe we
God woot no Lussħeburgħ payen ye
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But be nat wrooth / my lord for þt I pleye
Ful ofte in game / a sooth I haue herd seye
¶ This worthy Monk / took al in pacience
And seyde / I wol doon al my diligence
As fer as sowneth / in to honestee
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To telle yow a tale / or two / or three
And if yow list to herkne hyderward
I wol seyn the lyf / of seint Edward
Or ellis / first Tragedies wol I telle
Of whiche / I / haue an hundred in my Celle
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¶ Tragedie is to seyn / a certeyn storie
As olde bookes / maken vs memorie
Of hym / that stood / in greet prosperitee
And is yfallen / out of heigħ degree
In to myserie / and endeth wrecchedly
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And they been versified cōmunely
Of .vj. feet. which men clepen Exametroū
In prose eek / been endited many oon
And eek in meetre / in many a sondry wyse
Lo / this declaryng ogħte ynogħ suffise