The Miller's Tale
Folio 35v
3 of 15 folios
85
NOw sire / and eft sire / so bifel the cas
That on a day / this hende Nicholas
Fil with this yonge wyf / to rage and pleye
Whil that hir housbonde was at Oseneye
As clerkes / been ful subtile / and ful queynte
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And piuely / he caughte hir by the queynte
And seyde ywis / but if ich haue my wille
For deerne loue of thee / lemman I spille
And heeld hir harde / by the haunche bones
And seyde / lemman loue me al atones
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Or I wol dyen / also god me saue
And she sproong as a colt dooth in the traue
And with hir heed / she wryed faste awey
She seyde I wol nat kisse thee / by my fey
Why lat be quod ich / lat be Nicholas
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Or I wol crie / out harrow / and allas
Do wey youre handes / for youre curteisye
¶ This Nicholas / gan mercy for to crye
And spak so faire / and profred hir so faste
That she hir loue / hym graunted atte laste
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And swoor hir ooth / by Seint Thomas of Kent
That she wol been / at his comandement
Whan þt she may / hir leyser wel espie
Myn housbonde / is so ful of Ialousie
That but ye wayte wel / and been piuee
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I woot rigħt wel / I nam but deed quod she
Ye moste been ful deerne / as in this cas
¶ Nay ther of / care thee noght / quod Nicholas
A clerk hadde lutherly / biset his whyle
But if he koude / a Carpenter bigyle
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And thus they been / accorded and ysworn
To wayte a tyme / as I haue told biforn
¶ Whan Nicholas / had doon thus euerideel
And thakked hire / aboute the lendes weel
He kiste hir sweete / and taketh his sawtrie
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And pleyeth faste / and maketh melodie
Thanne fil it thus / þt to the paryssħ chirche
Cristes / owene werkes / for to wirche
This goode wyf / wente on an haliday
Hir forheed shoon / as brigħt as any day
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So was it wassħen / whan she leet hir werk
¶ Now was ther of that chirche a parissħ clerk
The which / that was ycleped Absolon
Crul was his heer / and as the gold it shoon
And strouted as a Fanne / large and brode
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Ful streight and euene / lay his ioly shode
His rode was reed / hise eyen greye as goos
With Poules wyndow / coruen on his shoos