The Manciple's Tale
Folio 109v
3 of 7 folios
Xx fostre it tendrely / with mete and drynke
Of alle deyntees / þt thow kanst bithynke
And kepe it also clenly as thow may
Al though his Cage / of gold / be neuer so gay
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Yet hath this bryd / by .xx. thousand fold
Leuere in a Forest þt is rude and cold
Gon ete wormes / and swich wrecchednesse
For euere this bryd / wol doon his bisynesse
To eschape out of his Cage / if he may
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His libertee / this bryd desireth ay
¶ Lat take a Cat and fostre hym wel wt Milk
And tendre flessh / and make his couche of silk
And lat hym seen a Mous / go by the wal
Anon he weyueth / Milk / and flessh and al
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And euery deyntee / þt is in that hous
Swich appetit hath he / to ete a Mous
Lo / heere hath lust his domynacioū
And appetit flemeth discrecioū
¶ A she wolf hath also / a vileyns kynde
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The lewedeste wolf þt she may fynde
And leest of reputacioū / that wol she take
In tyme / whan hir lust to han a make
¶ Alle thise ensamples / speke I by thise men
That ben vntrewe / but no thyng by wōmen
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For men han euere / a likerous appetit
On lower thyng / to parformen hir delit
Than on hire wyues / be they neuer so faire
Ne neuer so trewe / ne so debonaire
Flessħ is so newfangel / with meschaūce
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That we ne konne / in no thyng han plesaūce
That sowneth in to vertu / any while
¶ This Phebus / which þt thoughte vp on no gile
Deceyued was / for al his iolitee
For vnder hym / another hadde she
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A man / of litel reputacioū
Nat worth to Phebus in comparisoū
The moore harm is / it happeth ofte so
Of which ther cometh / muchel harm and wo
And so bifel / whan Phebus was absent
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His wyf anon / hath for hire lemman sent