The Pardoner's Prologue & Tale
Folio 137r
12 of 14 folios
25
If that this boon / be wassħe in any welle
If Cow / or Calf or Sheepe / or Oxe swelle
That any worm hath ete / or worm ystonge
Taak water of that welle / and wassħ his tonge
And it is hool anon / and forthermoor
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Of pokkes / and of Scabbe / and euery soor
Shal euery sheepe be hool / þt of this welle
Drynketh a draugħte / taak kepe eek what I telle
¶ If that the goode man / that the beestes oweth
Wol euery wyke / er that the Cok hym croweth
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Fastynge drynke / of this welle a draugħte
As thilke hooly Iew / oure eldres taugħte
Hise beestes and his stoor shal multiplie
¶ And sire / also / it heeleth Ialousie
For thougħ a man / be falle in Ialous rage
40
Lat maken / with this water his potage
And neuere shal he moore / his wyf mystriste
Though he the soothe / of hir defaute wiste
Al had she / taken preestes / two or thre
¶ Heere is a Miteyn eek / that ye may se
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He þt his hand wol putte in this Mitayn
He shal haue / multipliyng of his grayn
Whan he hath sowen / be it whete or Otes
So þt he offre / pens / or elles grotes
¶ Goode men and wōmen / o thyng warne I yow
50
If any wigħt / be in this chirche now
That hath doon synne horrible þt he ;
Dar nat for shame / of it yshryuen be
Or any wōman / be she yong or old
That hath ymaked / hir housbonde Cokewold
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Swich folk shal haue no power ne no grace
To offren / to my relikes in this place
And who so fyndeth hym / out of swicħ fame
They wol come vp / and offre on goddes name
And I assoille hem / by the Auctoritee
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Which that by bulle / ygraunted was to me
¶ By this gaude / haue I wonne / yeer by yeer
An hundred mark sith I was Pardoner
I stonde lyk a clerk in my pulpet
And whan the lewed peple / is doun yset
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I preche so / as ye han herd bifoore
And telle / an hundred false Iapes moore
Thanne peyne I me / to strecche forth the nekke
And Est & West vp on the peple I bekke
As dooth a dowue / sittynge / on a berne
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Myne handes and my tonge goon so yerne
That it is ioye / to se my bisynesse
Of Auarice / and of swich cursednesse