The Knight's Tale
Folio 13v
44 of 58 folios
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And of this cry / they nolde neuere stenten
Til they / the reynes of his brydel henten
¶ What folk been ye / þt at myn hom comynge
Perturben so my feste / with cryynge
Quod Theseus / haue ye so greet envie
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Of myn honour / that thus compleyne & crye
Or who hath yow mysboden / or offended
And telleth me / if it may been amended
And why þt ye / been clothed thus in blak /
The eldeste lady / of hem alle spak
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Whan she hadde swowned / wt a deedly cheere
That it was routhe / for to seen and heere
¶ She seyde / lord / to whom Fortune hath yiuen
Victorie / and as a Conquerour to lyuen
Noght greueth vs youre glorie / and youre honor
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But we biseken / mercy and socour
Haue mercy on oure wo / and oure distresse
Som drope of pitee / thurgh thy gentillesse
Vp on vs wrecched wommen / lat thow falle
For certes lord / ther is noon of vs alle
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That she ne hath been / a duchesse / or a queene
Now be we caytyues / as it is wel seene
Thanked be Fortune / and hir false wheel
That noon estaat assureth to been weel
Now certes lord / to abiden your persence
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Heere in this temple / of the goddesse clemence
We haue been waytynge / al this fourtenyght
Now help vs lord / syth it is in thy myght
¶ I wrecche / which þt wepe and waille thus
Was whilom wyf / to kyng Cappaneus
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That starf at Thebes / cursed be the day
And alle we / þt been in this array
And maken / al this lamentacioun
We losten alle oure housbondes / at that town
Whil þt the sege / ther aboute lay
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And yet now / the olde Creou weylaway
That lord is now / of Thebes the Citee
Fulfild of Ire / and of Iniquitee
He for despit and for his tyrannye
To doon / the dede bodyes vileynye