The Nun's Priest's Tale
Folio 180v
4 of 14 folios
A day or two / ye shul haue digestyues
Of wormes / er ye take youre laxatyues
Of lawriol / Centaur / and Fumetere
Or elles of Ellebor / that groweth there
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Of Katapuce / or of Gaitrys beryis
Of ħbe yue growyng in oure yeerd ther mery is
Pekke hem vp rigħt as they growe and ete hem yn
Be myrie housbonde / for youre fader kyn
Dredeth no dreem / I kan sey yow namoore
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Madame quod he / graunt mercy of youre loore
But nathelees / as touchyng Daun Catoun
That hath of wysdom / swich a greet renoun
Thougħ that he bad / no dremes for to drede
By god / men may / in olde bookes rede
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Of many a man / moore of Auctorite
Than euere Caton was / so moot I thee
That al the reuers seyn / of this sentence
That han wel founden by experience
That dremes / been significacioūs
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As wel of Ioye / as of tribulacioūs
That folk enduren / in this lif persent
Ther nedeth / make of this noon Argument
The verray preeue / sheweth it in dede
¶ Oon / of the gretteste Auctour / þt men rede
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Seith thus / þt whilom two felawes wente
On pilgimage / in a ful good entente
And happed so / they coomen in a toun
Wher as ther was / swich congregacioun
Of peple / and eek so streit of herbergage
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That they ne founde / as muche as o cotage
In which they bothe / mygħte logged bee
Wherfore / they mosten of necessitee
As for that nygħt departen compaignye
And ech of hem / gooth to his hostelrye
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And took his loggyng as it wolde falle
That oon of hem / was logged in a stalle
Fer in a yeerd / with Oxen of the plougħ
That oother man / was logged wel ynougħ
As was his Auenture / or his fortune
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That vs gouerneth alle / as in cōmune
¶ And so bifel / that longe er it were day
This man mette .i. dremed in his bed ther as he lay
How þt his felawe / gan vp on hym calle
And seyde allas / for in an Oxes stalle
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This nygħt I shal be mordred / ther I lye
Now helpe me deere brother / or I dye
In alle haste / com to me he sayde
¶ This man out of his sleepe / for feere abrayde