The Miller's Tale
Folio 36v
5 of 15 folios
That chaunteth thus / vnder oure boures wal
And she answerde hir housbonde / ther with al
Yis god woot Ioħn / I heere it euery deel
¶ This passeth forth / what wol ye bet than weel
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Fro day to day / to day / this ioly Absolon
So woweth hir / that hym is wo bigon
He waketh / al the nygħt / and al the day
He kembeth hise lokkes brode / and made hym gay
He woweth hir / by meenes / and brocage
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And swoor / he wolde been hir owene page
He syngeth brokkynge / as a nyghtyngale
He sente hir pyment Meeth and Spiced Ale
And wafres / pipyng hoot out of the gleede
And for she was of towne / he profreth meede
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For som folk wol ben wonnen for richesse
And sōme for strokes / and sōme for gentillesse
¶ Somtyme / to shewe his lightnesse and maistrye
He pleyeth herodes vp on a Scaffold hye
But what auailleth hym / as in this cas
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She loueth so / this hende Nicholas
That Absolon / may blowe the bukkes horn
He ne hadde / for his labour but a scorn
And thus / she maketh Absolon hir Ape
And al his ernest turneth til a Iape
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Ful sooth is this prouerbe / it is no lye
Men seyn rigħt thus / alwey the nye slye
Maketh / the ferre leeue to be lootħ
For though that Absolon / be wood or wrootħ
By cause / that he fer was from hir sigħte
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This nye Nicholas / stood in his ligħte
NOw bere thee wel / thou hende Nicholas
For Absolon / may waille and synge allas
And so bifel it on a Saterday
This Carpenter / was goon til Osenay
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And hende Nicholas and Alisoū
Acorded been / to this conclusioū
That Nicholas / shal shapen hym a wyle
This sely Ialous housbonde to bigyle
And if so be / the game wente arigħt /
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She sholde slepen / in his Arm al nygħt
For this was / his desir and hir also
And rigħt anon / with outen wordes mo
This Nicholas no lenger wolde tarie
But dooth ful softe / vn to his chambre carie
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Bothe mete and drynke / for a day or tweye
And to hir housbonde / bad hir for to seye
If that he axed / after Nicholas
She sholde seye / she nyste where he was