The General Prologue
Folio 10v
18 of 22 folios
This Somonor baar to hym / a styf burdoun
Was neuere trompe / of half so greet a soun
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¶ This Pardoner / hadde heer / as yelow as wex
But smothe it heeng as dooth a stryke of flex
By ounces / henge his lokkes þt he hadde
And ther with / he his shuldres ouerspradde
But thynne it lay / by colpons oon and oon
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But hood for Iolitee / wered he noon
For it was trussed vp / in his walet
Hym thoughte / he rood al of the newe Iet
Discheuelee saue his cappe / he rood al bare
Swiche glarynge eyen / hadde he as an hare
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A vernycle / hadde he sowed / vp on his cappe
His walet biforn hym / in his lappe
Bretful of pardoū / comen from Rome al hoot
A voys he hadde / as smal / as hath a Goot
No berd hadde he / ne neuere sholde haue
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As smothe it was / as it were late yshaue
I trowe he were a geldyng or a Mare
But of his craft. fro Berwyk in to Ware
Ne was ther / swich another Pardoner
For in his Male / he hadde a pilwe beer
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Which þt he seyde / was oure lady veyl
He seyde he hadde / a gobet of the seyl
That Seint Peter hadde / whan þt he wente
Vp on the See / til Iħu Crist hym hente
He hadde a cros of latou / ful of stones
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And in a glas / he hadde pigges bones
But with thise relykes / whan þt he foond
A poure person / dwellyng vp on lond
Vp on a day / he gat hym moore moneye
Than þt the persou gat in Monthes tweye
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And thus / with feyned flaterye and Iapes
He made the person / and the peple his apes
But trewely / to tellen at the laste
He was in chirche / a noble Ecclesiaste
Wel koude he / rede a lesson / and a Storie
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But alderbest he soong an Offertorie
For wel he wiste / whan þt soong was songe
He moste perche / and wel affyle his tonge