The Clerk's Tale
Folio 189v
33 of 35 folios
1100
¶ And in hir swogħ / so sadly holdeth she
Hir children two / whan she gan hem tembrace
That with greet sleghte / and greet difficultee
The children from hir arm / they gonne arace
O. many a teer / o many a pitous face
1105
Doun ran / of hem þt stoden hir bisyde
Vnnethe aboute hir / myghte they abyde
¶ Walter hir gladeth / and hir sorwe slaketh
She riseth vp abaysed / from hir traunce
And euery wight hir ioye and feste maketh
1110
Til she / hath caught agayn hir contenaūce
Walter hir dooth / so feithfully plesaūce
That it was deyntee / for to seen the cheere
Bitwix hem two / now they ben met yfeere
¶ Thise ladies / whan þt they / hir tyme say
1115
Han taken hir / and in to chambre goon
And strepen hir / out of hir rude aray
And in a clooth of gold / þt brighte shoon
With a coroune / of many a riche stoon
Vp on hir hed / they in to halle hir broghte
1120
And ther she was / honured as hir oghte
¶ Thus hath this pitous day / a blisful ende
For euery man and womman / dooth his myght
This day / in murthe and reuel to dispende
Til on the welkne / shoon the sterres lyght
1125
For moore solempne / in euery mannes syght
This feste was / and gretter of costage
Than was / the reuel of hir mariage
¶ Ful many a yeer / in heigh prosperitee
Lyuen thise two / in concord and in reste
1130
And richely / his doghter maried he
Vn to a lord / oon of the worthyeste
Of al Ytaille / and thanne in pees and reste
His wyues fader / and his court he kepeth
Til that the soule / out of his body crepeth