The General Prologue
Folio 8r
5 of 22 folios
As brood as is / a Bokeler / or a Targe
A foot mantel / aboute hir hypes large
475
And on hir feet a peyre of spores sharpe
In felaweshipe / wel koude she laughe .xx and carpe
Of remedies of loue / she knew par .xx chaunce
For she koude of that art the olde daunce
¶ A good man / was ther / of Religioun
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And was a poure person / of a toun
But riche he was / of holy thoght and werk
He was also / a lerned man a Clerk
That Cristes gospel / trewely wolde perche
His parisshens / deuoutly wolde he teche
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Benygne he was / and wonder diligent
And in aduersitee / ful pacient
And swich he was proeued / ofte sythes
Ful looth weere hym / to cursen for his tythes
But rather wolde he yeuen / out of doute
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Vn to his poure parisshens aboute
Of his offrynge / and eek of his substaunce
He koude in litel thyng / haue suffisaunce
Wyd was his parisshe / and houses fer a sonder
But he ne lafte noght for reyn ne thonder
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In siknesse / nor in meschief to visite
The ferreste in his parisshe / muche and lyte
Vp on his feet and in his hond a staf
This noble ensample / to his sheep he yaf
That first he wroghte / and afterward he taughte
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Out of the gospel / he tho wordes caughte
And this figure / he added eek ther to
That if gold ruste / what sholde Iren do
For if a preest be foul / in whom we truste
No wonder is / a lewed man to ruste
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And shame it is / if a preest take keepe
A shiten Shepherde / and a clene sheepe
Wel oghte a preest ensample for to yiue
By his clennesse / how þt his sheep sholde lyue
He sette noght. his benefice to hyre
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And leet his sheep / encombred in the Myre
And ran to Londoū / vn to Seint Poules
To seeken hym / a Chauntrye for soules