The Monk's Tale
Folio 170r
3 of 19 folios
¶ And slepynge in hir barm / vp on a day
She made to clippe / or shere / hise heres away
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And made hise foomen / al this craft espyen
And whan þt they / hym foond in this array
They bounde hym faste / and putten out hise eyen
But er his heer were clipped or yshaue
Ther was no boond / wt which men mygħte hī bynde
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But now is he / in pison in a Caue
Where as they made hym / at the Queerne grynde
O noble Sampsoū / strongest of mankynde
O whilom / Iuge in glorie and in richesse
Now maystow wepen / wt thyne eyen blynde
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Sith thou fro wele / art falle in wrecchednesse
The ende of this caytyf was as I shal seye
Hise foomen / made a feeste vp on a day
And made hym as a fool / biforn hem pleye
And this was / in a temple of greet array
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But atte laste / he made a foul affray
For he / the pilers shook / and made hem falle
And doun fil Temple and al / and ther it lay
And slow hym self and eek his foomen alle
This is to seyn / the Prynces euerichoon
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And eek / thre thousand bodyes were ther slayn
With fallynge / of the grete Temple of stoon
Of Sampson / now wol I namoore sayn
Beth war by this ensample oold and playn
That no men / telle hir conseil til hir wyues
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Of swich thyng as they wolde han secree fayn
If þt it touche / hir lymes or hir lyues
OF Hercules / the souereyn Conquerour
Syngen hise werkes / laude and heigħ renoun
For in his tyme / of strengthe he was the flour
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He slow / and rafte the skyn of the leoun
He of Centauros / leyde the boost adoun
He arpies slow / the crueel bryddes felle
He golden apples / refte of the dragoun
He drow out Cerberus / the hound of helle
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He slow the crueel tyrant Busirus
And made his hors / to frete hym flessħ and boon
He slow / the firy serpent venymus
Of Acheloys hornes two / he brak oon
And he slow Cacus / in a Caue of stoon
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He slow the geant Antheus the stronge