The Manciple's Tale
Folio 110r
4 of 7 folios
Hir lemman / certes this a knauyssh speche
Foryeueth it me / and that I yow biseche
The wise Plato seith / as ye may rede
The word moot nede / acorde wt the dede
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If men shal telle / proprely a thyng
The word / moot cosyn be to the werkyng
I am a boystous man / right thus seye I
Ther nys no difference / trewely
Bitwix a wyf / þt is of heigh degree
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If of hire body / deshoneste she be
And a poore wenche / oother than this
If it so be / they werke bothe amys
But þt the gentile / in estat aboue
She shal be clepid his lady / as in loue
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And for that oother / is a poore womman
She shal be clepid / his wenche / or his lemman
And god it woot myn owene deere brother
Men leyn þt oon / as lowe as lyth that oother
¶ Right so / bitwix a titlelees sine titulo tiraūt
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And an Outlawe / or a theef erraūt
The same I seye / ther is no difference
To Alisandre / was told this sentence
That for the tiraūt / is of gretter myght
By force of meyne / for to sleen doun right
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And brennen hous and hoom / and make al playn
Lo / ther fore / is he clepid a Capitayn
And for the Outlawe / hath but smal meynee
And may nat doon / so gret an harm as he
Ne brynge a contree / to so gret meschief
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Men clepen hym / an Outlawe or a theef
But for I am a man / noght textuel
I wol noght telle of textes / neuer a del
I wol go to my tale / as I bigan
¶ Whan Phebus wyf / hadde sent for hire lemman
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Anon they wroghte / al hire lust volage
The white Crowe / þt heng ay in the Cage
Biheld hir werk / and seyde neuer a word
And whan that hoom was come / Phebus the lord
This Crowe sang Cokkow / Cokkow Cok xxxxx kow
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¶ What bryd / quod Phebus / what song syngestow