The Clerk's Tale
Folio 173v
1 of 35 folios
¶ The prohemie of the Clerkys tale of Oxenford ~ f 173v|
SIre clerk of Oxenford / oure Hoost sayde
Ye ride as coy / and stille as dooth a mayde
Were newe spoused / sittyng at the bord
This day ne herde I / of your tonge a word
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I trowe ye studie / aboute som Sophyme
But Salomon seith / euery thyng hath tyme
¶ For goddes sake / as beth of bettre cheere
It is no tyme / for to studien heere
Tel vs som murie tale / by youre fey
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For what man / that is entred in a pley
He nedes moot vn to the pley assente
But percheth nat as freres doon in lente
To maken vs / for oure olde synnes wepe
Ne that thy tale / make vs nat to slepe
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¶ Tel vs / som murye thyng of auentures
Youre termes / your colours / and your figures
Kepe hem in stoor / til so be ye endite
Heigh stile / as whan þt men to kynges write
Speketh so pleyn at this tyme / we yow preye
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That we may vnderstonde / what ye seye
¶ This worthy clerk benygnely answerde
Hoost quod he / I am vnder your yerde
Ye han of vs / as now the gouernaūce
And therfore wol I do yow obeisaūce
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As fer / as reson asketh hardily
I wol yow telle a tale / which that I
Lerned at Padwe / of a worthy Clerk
As proued / by his wordes and his werk
He is now deed / and nayled in his Cheste
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I pray to god / so yeue his soule reste
¶ Fraunceys Petrak / the lauryat poete
Highte this clerk whos Rethoryk swete
Enlumyned al Ytaille / of Poetrie
As Lynyan dide / of Philosophie
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Or lawe / or oother art particuler
But deth / þt wol nat suffre vs dwellen her