The Shipman's Tale
Folio 144v
3 of 10 folios
And hath hise thynges seyd / ful curteisly
¶ This goode wyf cam walkynge pryuely
In to the gardyn / ther he walketh softe
And hym saleweth / as she hath doon ofte
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A mayde child / cam in hir compaignye
Which as hir list she may gouerne and gye
For yet vnder the yerde was the mayde
O deere cosyn myn / Daun Ioħn she sayde
What eyleth yow / so rathe for to ryse
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¶ Nece quod he / it ogħte ynougħ suffise
Fyue houres for to slepe / vp on a nygħt
But it were / for an old apalled wigħt
As been thise wedded men / þt lye and dare
As in a fourme / sit a wery hare
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Were al forstraugħt / wt houndes grete & smale
But deere Nece / why be ye so pale
I trowe certes / that oure goode man
Hath yow laboured / sith the nygħt bigan
That yow were nede / to resten hastily
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And wt that word / he lougħ ful murily
And of his owene thougħt he wax al reed
¶ This faire wyf gan for to shake hir heed
And seyde thus / ye god woot al quod she
Nay nay cosyn myn / it stant nat so wt me
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For by that god / that yaf me soule and lyf /
In al the Reawme of France / is ther no wyf
That lasse lust hath / to that sory pley
For I may synge / allas and weylawey
That I was born / but to no wigħt quod she
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Dar I nat telle / how that it stant wt me
Wherfore I thynke / out of this land to wende
Or elles / of my self to make an ende
So ful am I / of drede / and eek of care
¶ This Monk bigan vp on this wyf to stare
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And / seyde / allas my Nece god forbede
That ye / for any sorwe / or any drede
Fordo your self but tel me of your grief
Parauenture / I yow may / in your meschief
Conseille or helpe / and therfore telleth me
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Al your anoy / for it shal been secree
For on my Porthors / I make an ooth
That neuere in my lyf / for lief ne looth
Ne shal I / of no conseil yow biwreye
¶ The same agayn / . to yow quod she I seye
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By god / and by this Porthors I yow swere
Thougħ men me wolde / al in to pieces tere
Ne shal I neuere / for to goon to helle
Biwreye a word / of thyng þt ye me telle