The Miller's Tale
Folio 43v
4 of 18 folios
Do wey youre handes / for youre curteisye
¶ This Nicholas / gan mercy for to crye
And spak so faire / and profred hym so faste
That she hir loue / hym graunted atte laste
105
And swoor hir ooth / by Seint Thomas of Kent
That she wolde been / at his comaundement
Whan þt she may / hir leyser wel espie
Myn housbonde / is so ful of Ialousie
That but ye waite wel / and been pryuee
110
I woot right wel / I nam but deed quod she
Ye moste been ful derne / as in this cas
¶ Nay ther of / care thee noght quod Nicholas
A clerc hadde lutherly / biset his while
But if he koude / a Carpenter bigyle
115
And thus they been / acorded and ysworn
To waite a tyme / as I haue told biforn
Whan Nicholas / hadde doon thus euerydel
And thakked hire / vp on the lendes wel
He kiste hir sweete / and taketh his sautrye
120
And pleyeth faste / and maketh melodye
¶ Thanne fil it thus / þt to the parissh chirche
Cristes owene werkes / for to wirche
This goode wyf / wente on an haliday
Hir forheed shoon / as bright as any day
125
So was it wasshen / whan she leet hir werk
¶ Now was ther of that chirche a parissh clerk
The which / þt was yclepid Absolon
Crul was his heer / and as the gold it shoon
And strouted as a Fanne / large and brode
130
Ful streight and euene / lay his ioly shode
His rode was reed / hise eyen greye as goos
With Poules wyndow / coruen on his shoos
In hoses rede / he wente fetisly
Yclad he was / ful smal and proprely
135
Al in a kirtel / of a light waget set
Ful faire and thikke been the pointes
And ther vp on / he hadde a gay surplys
As whit as is the blosme vp on the rys
A murye child he was / so god me saue
140
Wel koude he laten blood / and clippe and shaue