The Merchant's Tale
Folio 104r
4 of 26 folios
O blisful ordre of wedlok percious
Thou art so murye / and eek so vertuous
105
And so cōmended / and appreued eek
That euery man / þt halt hym worth a leek /
Vp on his bare knees / oughte al his lyf /
Thanken his god / þt hym hath sent a wyf /
Or elles preye to god / hym for to sende
110
A wyf / to laste / vn to his lyues ende
For thanne his lyf / is set in sikernesse
He may nat be deceyued as I gesse
So þt he werke / after his wyues reede
¶ Lo how þt Iacob / as thise clerkes rede
By good conseil / of his mooder Rebekke
120
Boond the kydes skyn / aboute his nekke
Thurgħ which / his fadres benysou he wan
¶ Lo Iudith / as the storie eek telle kan
By wys conseil / she goddes peple kepte
And slow hym Olofernus / whil he slepte
125
¶ Lo Abigayl / by good conseil / how she
Saued hir housbonde Nabal / whan þt he ;
Sholde han be slayn / and looke Ester also
By good conseil / delyuered out of wo
The peple of god / and made hym Mardochee
130
Of Assuer / enhaunced for to be
¶ Ther nys no thyng in gree superlatyf
As seith Senek aboue an humble wyf
¶ Suffre thy wyues tonge / as Catoū bit
She shal comande / and thou shalt suffren it
135
And yet she wole obeye of curteisye
A wyf is keper / of thyn housbondrye
Wel may the sike man / biwaille & wepe
Ther as ther nys no wyf / the hous to kepe
I warne thee / if wisely / thou wolt wirche
140
Loue wel thy wyf as crist loued his chirche
If thou louest thy self thou louest thy wyf
No man hateth his flessħ / but in his lyf / ;
He fostreth it and therfore bidde I thee
Cherisse thy wyf / or thou shalt neuere thee
145
Housbonde and wyf what so men iape or pleye
Of worldly folk / holden the siker weye
They been so knyt ther may noon harm bityde
And namely / vpon the wyues syde
For which this Ianuarie / of whom I tolde
150
Considered hath / inwith hise dayes olde
The lusty lyf / the vertuous quyete
That is in mariage / hony sweete
And for hise freendes / on a day he sente
To tellen hem theffect of his entente