The Friar's Tale
Folio 76v
5 of 10 folios
To vnderstonde / al thogh I tolde hem thee
But for thow axest why labouren we
For som tyme / we been goddes Instrumentz
And meenes / to doon his comandementz
185
Whan that hym list / vp on his creatures
In diuers art and in diuerse figures
With outen hym / we han no myght certayn
If that hym lyst to stonde ther agayn
And som tyme / at oure preyere / han we leue
190
Oonly the body / and nat the soule greue
Witnesse on Iob / whom þt we diden wo
And som tyme / han we myght of bothe two
This is to seyn / of soule and body eke
And som tyme / be we suffred for to seke
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Vp on a man / and do his soule vnreste
And nat his body / and al is for the beste
Whan he with standeth / oure temptacioū
It is / a cause / of his sauacioū
Al be it that it was / nat oure entente
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He sholde be sauf but þt we wolde hym hente
And somtyme / be we seruant vn to man
As to the Erchebisshope / Seint Dunstan
And to the Apostles / seruant eek was I
¶ Yet tel me / quod the Somnor feithfully
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Make ye yow newe bodyes / thus alway
Of Elementz ~ / the feend answerde nay
Som tyme we feyne / and som tyme we aryse
With dede bodyes / in ful sondry wyse
And speke as renably / and faire and wel
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As to the Phitonissa / dide Samuel
And yet wol som men seye / it was nat he
I do no fors / of youre dyuynytee
But o thyng warne I thee / I wol nat Iape
Thow wolt algates wite / how we be shape
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Thow shalt her afterwardes / my brother deere
Come there / thee nedeth nat of me to lere
For thow shalt by thyn owene experience
Konne in a chayer / rede of this sentence
Bet than Virgile / whil he was on lyue
220
Or Dant also / now lat vs ryde blyue