The Merchant's Tale
Folio 151r
27 of 30 folios
Wommen ful trewe / ful goode and vertuous
Witnesse on hem / that dwelle in Cristes hous
With martirdom / they proued hir constaunce
1040
The Romayn geestes / eek maken remembraunce
Of many a verray / trewe wyf also
But sire ne be nat wrooth / al be it so
Thogh þt he seyde / he foond no good womman
I pray yow / taak the sentence of the man
1045
He mente thus / þt in souerayn boūtee
Nys noon but god / but neither he ne she
¶ Ey for verray god / that nys but oon
What make ye / so muche of Salomon
What thogh / he made a temple goddes hous
1050
What thogh he were riche and glorious
So made he eek a temple / of false goddys
How myghte he do a thyng þt moore forbode is
Pardee / as faire / as ye his name emplastre
He was a lechour / and an ydolastre
1055
And in his elde / he verray god forsook
And if god ne hadde / as seith the book
Yspared hym / for his fadres sake / he sholde
Haue lost his regne / rather than he wolde
I sette right noght of al the vileynye
1060
That ye of wommen write / a Boterflye
I am a womman / nedes moot I speke
Or ellis swelle / til myn herte breke
For sithen he seyde / þt we been Iangleresses
As euere hool / I mote brouke my tresses
1065
I shal nat spare / for no curteisye
To speke hym harm / þt wolde vs vileynye
¶ Dame quod this Pluto / be no lenger wrooth
I yeue it vp / but sith I swoor myn ooth
That I wolde graunten hym / his sighte ayein
1070
My word shal stonde / I warne yow certeyn
I am a kyng it sit me noght to lye
¶ And I quod she / a queene of Fairye
Hir answere shal she haue / I vndertake
Lat vs namoore wordes / her of make
1075
For sothe / I wol no lenger yow contrarie
¶ Now lat vs / turne agayn to Ianuarie