The Monk's Prologue
Folio 227r
3 of 3 folios
Religious folk for þay may bettre paye
Of venus payementes þan may we
God woot no lusscheburgħes paye ȝe /
75
Beþ nouȝt wroþ my lord þough I play
For oft in game a soth I haue herd say
This worþy monk took al in pacience /
And saide I wol doon al my diligence
Als fer as souneþ in to honeste /
80
To telle ȝow a tale or tuo or þre
And if ȝow lust to herken hiderward
I wil ȝow say þe lif of seint Edward
Or elles first tredis wil I ȝow telle /
Of which I haue an hundred in my celle /
85
Tregedis is to sayn a certeyn storie
As olde bookes maken vs memorie
Of hem þat stood in greet prosperite
And is fallen out of heigh degre
In to miserie and endith wrecchedly
90
And þay ben versifyed comunly
Of six feet which men clepe exametron
In prose ben eek endited many oon
And in metre eek and in sondry wise
Lo þis declaring ougħt ynough suffise /
95
Now herkneþ if ȝow likith for to heere
But first I ȝow biseche in þis matiere /
Þough I by ordre telle not þise þinges
Be it of popes emperours or kynges
After her age as men may write fynde
100
But telle hem som bifore and som by hynde /
As it comeþ now / to my remembraūce
Haueþ me excused of myn ignoraūce
I wol bywaile in maner of tregedye
The harm of hem þat stood in heigħ degre
And fallen so þe is no remedye
To bring hem out of her aduersite
5
For certeynly whan fortune lust to flee
Ther may no man þe cours of hir whiel holde