The Prioress' Tale
Folio 148v
2 of 7 folios
Wherfore in Laude / as I best kan or may
Of thee / and of the lylye flour
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Which that the bar / and is a mayde alway
To telle a storie / I wol do my labour
Nat that I may / encreessen hir honour
For she hir self / is honor and the roote
Of boūtee next hir sone / and soules boote
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O mooder mayde / o mayde mooder free
O bussħ vnbrent brennynge in Moyses sigħte
That rauysedest doun fro the deitee
Thurgħ thyn hūblesse / the goost þt in thaligħte
Of whos vertu / whan he thyn herte ligħte
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Conceyued was / the fadres sapience
Helpe me / to telle it in thy reuerence
Lady / thy boūtee / thy magnificence
Thy vertu / and thy grete humylitee
Ther may no tonge expersse / in no science
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For somtyme lady / er men praye to thee
Thou goost biforn / of thy benyngnytee
And getest vs / thurgħ lygħt / of thy preyere
To gyden vs / vn to thy sone so deere
My konnyng is so wayk o blisful queene
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For to declare / thy grete worthynesse
That I ne may / the weighte nat susteene
But as a child / of twelf monthe oold or lesse
That kan vnnethe / any word expersse
Rigħt so fare I / and therfore I yow preye
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Gydeth my song þt I shal of yow seye
¶ Heere bigynneth the Prioresses tale ~
Ther was in Asye / in a greet Citee
Amonges cristene folk / a Iewerye
Sustened / by a lord / of that contree
For foul vsure / and lucre of vileynye ¶ trpe lucrum ~
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Hateful / to Crist and to his compaignye
And thurgħ this strete / men mygħte ride or wende
For it was free / and open at eyther ende