The Physician's Tale
Folio 134r
3 of 7 folios
Outher / for ye han kept youre honestee
Or elles / ye han falle in freletee
And knowen wel ynougħ the olde daunce
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And han forsaken / fully swich meschaunce
For eueremo / therfore for Cristes sake
To teche hem vertu / looke þt ye ne slake
¶ A theef of venysoū / that hath forlaft
His likerousnesse / and al his olde craft
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Kan kepe a Forest best of any man
Now kepeth wel / for if ye wole ye kan
Looke wel / þt ye / vn to no vice assente
Lest ye be dampned / for your wikke entente
For who so dooth / a traitour is certeyn
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And taketh kepe / of that þt I shal seyn
Of alle tresons / souereyn pestilence
Is / whan a wigħt bitrayseth Innocence
¶ Ye fadres and ye moodres / eek also
Thougħ ye han children / be it oon or two
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Youre is the charge / of al hir surueiaūce
Whil þt they been / vnder youre gouernaūce
Beth war / if by ensample / of youre lyuynge
Or by youre necligence / in chastisynge
That they perisse / for I dar wel seye
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If þt they doon / ye shul it deere abeye
Vnder a shepherde / softe and necligent
The wolf / hath many a sheep and lamb to rent
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This mayde / of which I wol this tale expersse
So kepte hir self hir neded no maistresse
For in hir lyuyng maydens myghten rede
As in a book / euery good word or dede
That longeth / to a mayden vertuous
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She was so prudent and so boūteuous
For which / the fame / out sprong on euery syde
Bothe of hir beautee / and hir boūtee wyde
That thurgħ that land / they preised hir echone
That loued vertu / saue Enuye allone
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That sory is / of oother mennes wele
And glad is of his sorwe / and his vnheele
The doctour / maketh this descripcioū
This mayde vp on a day / wente in the toun
Toward a temple / with hir mooder deere
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As is / of yonge maydens the manere
¶ Now was ther thanne / a Iustice in that toun
That gouernour was / of that Regioun
And so bifel / this Iuge / hise eyen caste
Vp on this mayde / auysynge hym ful faste
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As she cam forby / ther as this Iuge stood
Anon / his herte chaunged and his mood