The Pardoner's Prologue & Tale
Folio 139r
9 of 14 folios
Out of the harde bones knokke they
The mary / for they caste nogħt a wey
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That may go thurgħ the golet softe and swoote
Of spicerie / of leef / and bark and roote
Shal been his sauce ymaked by delit
To make hym yet a newer Appetit
But certes / he that haunteth swiche delices
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Is deed / whil þt he lyueth in tho vices
¶ A lecherous thyng is wyn and dronkenesse
Is ful of stryuyng and of wrecchednesse
O dronke man / disfigured is thy face
Sour is thy breetħ / foul artow to embrace
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And thurgħ thy dronke nose / semeth the soun
As thougħ thou seydest ay Sampsoū Sampsoū
And yet god woot Sampsou drank neuere no wyn
Thou fallest as it were a styked swyn
Thy tonge is lost and al thyn honeste cure
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For dronkenesse / is verray sepulture
Of mannes wit and his discreciou
In whom þt drynke hath dominacioū
He kan no conseil kepe / it is no drede
Now kepe yow / fro the white and fro the rede
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And namely / fro the white wyn of lepe
That is to selle / in Fyssħstrete / or in Chepe
This wyn of Spaigne / crepeth subtilly
In othere wynes / growynge faste by
Of which / ther ryseth swich fumositee
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That whan a man hath dronken draughtes thre
And weneth / that he be at hoom in Chepe
He is in Spaigne / rigħt at the toune of lepe
Nat at the Rochele / ne at Burdeux toun
And thanne wol he seye / Sampsoū Sampsoū
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¶ But herkneth lordes / o word I yow preye
That alle the souereyn Actes dar I seye
Of victories / in the olde testament
Thurgħ verray god / þt is omnipotent
Were doon in Abstinence / and in preyere
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Looketh the Bible / and ther ye may it leere
¶ Looke Attilla the grete Conquerour
Deyde in his sleepe / w shame and dishonour
Bledynge ay at his nose in dronkenesse
A Capitayn / sholde lyue in sobrenesse
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And ouer al this / auyseth yow rigħt wel
What was comaunded / vn to Lamwel
Nat Samuel / but Lamwel seye I
Redeth the Bible / and fynde it expersly
Of wyn yeuyng to hem þt han Iustise
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Namoore of this / for it may wel suffise