The Pardoner's Prologue & Tale
Folio 138r
3 of 14 folios
Al were it yeuen / of the pouereste page
Or of the pouereste wydwe / in a village
Al sholde hir children sterue / for famyne
Nay / I wol drynke / licour of the vyne
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And haue a ioly wenche / in euery toun
But herkneth lordynges in conclusioun
¶ Your likyng is / that I shal telle a tale
Now / haue I dronke a draugħte of corny Ale
By god / I hope / I shal yow telle a thyng
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That shal by resou / been at youre likyng
For thougħ my self be a ful vicious man
A moral tale / yet I yow telle kan
Which I am wont to preche / for to wynne
Now hoold your pees / my tale I wol bigynne
¶ Heere bigynnetħ the Pardoners tale ~
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IN Flaundres whilom was a compaignye
Of yonge folk that haunteden folye
As Riot hasard / Stywes / and Tauernes
Wher / as with Harpes / Lutes and Gyternes
They daunce / and pleyen at dees / bothe day and nygħt
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And eten also / and drynken ouer hir mygħt /
Thurgh which / they doon the deuel sacrifise
With Inne that deueles temple in cursed wise
By superfluytee abhomynable
Hir othes / been so grete and so dampnable
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That it is grisly / for to heere hem swere
Oure blissed lordes body / they to tere
Hem thoughte / þt Iewes / rente hym nogħt ynougħ
And ech of hem / at otheres synne lougħ
And rigħt anon / thanne comen Tombesteres
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Fetys and smale / and yonge Frutesteres
Syngeres w harpes / Baudes / Wafereres
Whiche been / the verray deueles Officeres
To kyndle and blowe / the fyr of lecherye
That is annexed vn to glotonye
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The hooly writ / take I to my witnesse
That Luxurie / is in wyn and dronkenesse
Lo how þt dronken Lootħ vnkyndely
Lay by hise doghtres two vnwityngly
So dronke he was / he nyste what he wrogħte
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¶ Herodes / who so / wel the stories sogħte
Whan he of wyn / was repleet at his feeste
Rigħt at his owene table / he yaf his heeste
To sleen the Baptist Ioħn / ful giltelees
¶ Senec seith a good word doutelees