The Nun's Priest's Tale
Folio 240r
5 of 16 folios
And if it do I dar wel lay a grote /
That ȝe schul haue a feuer terciane
140
Or an agu þat may be ȝoure bane
A day or tuo ȝe schul haue digestiues
Of wormes er ȝe take ȝour laxatiues
Of lauriol Century and fumytere
Or elles of Elder bery þat growith þere /
145
Of Catapus or of gaytre berijs
Of erbe yue þat groweþ in our ȝerd þer mery is
Pike hem vpright as þay growe and et hem In
Be mery housbond for ȝour fader kyn
Drediþ non dremes I can say no more
150
Ma dame quod he graunt mercy of ȝour lore
But naþeles as touching daun Catoun
That hath of wisdom such a gret renou~
Thougħ þat he bad no dremes for to drede
By god men may in olde bookes rede
155
Of many a man more of auctorite
Than euer catoun was so mot I the
That al þe reuers sayn of his sentence
And han wel founden by experience
That dremes ben significacioūs
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As wel of ioye as of tribulacioūs
That folk enduren in þis lif present
Ther nedeth make of þis noon argumēt
The verray preue schewith it in dede
Oon of þe grettest auctorite þat men rede
165
Saith þus . þat whilom tway felawes wente
On pylgrimage in a ful good entente /
And happed so þay com in to a toun
Wher as þer was such congregaciou~
Of poeple and eek so streyt of herbergage
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Þat þay fond nouȝt as moche as oon cotage /
In which þat þay might boþe I logged be
Wherfor þay mosten of necessite
As for þat night depart her compaignye
And ech of hem goþ to his hostelrye
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And took his loggyng as it wolde falle