The Summoner's Tale
Folio 86v
12 of 13 folios
495
Is ther oght elles / telle me feithfully
¶ Madame quod he / how thynke ye her by ;
¶ How that me thynketh quod she ; so god me speede
I seye / a cherl hath doon / a cherles dede
What shold I seye / god lat hym neuere thee
500
His sike heed / is ful of vanytee
I holde hym / in a manere frenesye
¶ Madame quod he / by god I shal nat lye
But I on hym / oother weyes be wreke
I shal disclaundre hym / ouer al ther I speke
505
This false blasphemor / that charged me
To parte / that wol nat departed be
To euery man yliche / with meschaunce
¶ The lord sat stille / as he were in a traunce
And in his herte / he rolled vp and doun
510
How hadde the cherl / this ymaginacioun ;
To shewe swich a probleme / to a frere
Neuere erst er now / herde I of swich mateere
I trowe / the deuel / putte it in his mynde
In Ars Metrik shal ther no man fynde
515
Biforn this day / of swich a questiou
Certes / it was a shrewed conclusiou
That euery man / sholde haue yliche his part
As of the soun / or sauour / of a fart
O vile proude cherl / I shrewe his face
520
Lo sires quod the lord / with harde grace
Who herde euere / of swich a thyng er now
To euery man ylike / tel me how ;
It is an inpossible / it may nat be
Ey nyce cherl / god lete thee neuere thee
525
The rumblynge of a fart / and euery soun
Nis but of Eir reuerberacioun
And euere it wasteth / litel and litel awey
Ther is no man kan deemen by my fey
If that it were departed equally
530
What lo my cherl / lo yet how shrewedly
Vn to my confessour / today he spak
I holde hym certeyn / a demonyak
Now ete your mete / and lat the cherl go pleye
Lat hym go honge hym self a deuel weye
¶ The wordes of the lordes Squier and his keruere / for departynge ~ of the fart on twelue ~
535
NOw stood the lordes Squier at the bord
That karf his mete / and herde word by word
Of alle thynges / whiche that I haue sayd
My lord quod he / beth nat yuele apayd