The Wife of Bath's Tale
Folio 72v
2 of 9 folios
Of which mayde / anon maugree hir heed
By verray force / birafte hir maydenhed
For which opperssioū / was swich clamour
And swich pursute / vn to the kyng Arthour
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That dampned was this knygħt for to be deed
By cours of lawe / and sholde han lost his heed
Par auenture / swich was the statut tho
But that the queene / and othere ladyes mo
So longe preyden / the kyng of grace
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Til he / his lyf / hym graunted in the place
And yaf hym to the queene / al at hir wille
To chese / wheither / she wolde hym saue or spille
¶ The queene / thanketh the kyng wt al hir mygħt
And after this / thus spak she to the knygħt
Whan þt / she saugh hir tyme vp on a day
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Thou standest yet quod she / in swich array
That of thy lyf / yet hastow no suretee
I grante thee lyf / if thou kanst tellen me
What thyng is it that wōmen moost desiren
Be war / and keepe thy nekke boon from Iren
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And if thou / kanst nat tellen it anon
Yet shal I yeue thee leue / for to gon
A twelf montħ and a day / to seche and leere
An answere suffisant in this mateere
And suretee wol I han / er þt thou pace
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Thy body / for to yelden in this place
WO was this knygħt and sorwefully he siketh
But he may nat do / al as hym liketh
And at the laste / he chees hym for to wende
And come agayn / right at the yeres ende
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With swich answere / as god wolde hym prueye
And taketh his leue / and wendeth forth his weye
¶ He seketh / euery hous / and euery place
Where as he hopeth / for to fynde grace
To lerne / what thyng wōmen louen moost
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But he ne koude / arryuen in no coost
Wher as he mygħte fynde / in this mateere
Two creatures / accordynge in feere
¶ Sōme seyde / wōmen / louen best richesse
Sōme seyde honour / sōme seyde Iolynesse
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Sōme riche array / sōme seyden lust abedde
And ofte tyme / to be wydwe and wedde
¶ Sōme seyde / þt oure hertes / been moost esed
Whan that we been / yflatered and yplesed
¶ He gooth ful ny the sothe / I wol nat lye
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A man / shal wynne vs best with flaterye
And with attendance / and with bisynesse
Been we ylymed / bothe moore and lesse