The Monk's Tale
Folio 89r
1 of 20 folios
¶ This worthy Monk / took al in pacience
And seyde / I wol doon al my diligence
As fer / as sowneth in to honestee
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To telle yow a tale / or two / or three
And if yow list to herkne hiderward
I wol yow seyn / the lyf of Seint Edward
Or ellis first tragedies wol I telle
Of whiche / I haue an hundred in my Celle
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Tragedie is to seyn / a certeyn storie
As olde bokes / maken vs memorie
Of hym / þt stood in greet prosperitee
And is yfallen / out of heigh degree
In to myserie / and endeth wrecchedly
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And they been / versified comunly
Of .vj. feet whiche men clepyn Exametron
In prose eek been endited many oon
And eek in metre / in many a sondry wise
Lo this declaryng oghte ynogh suffise
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¶ Now herkneth / if yow liketh for to heere
But first I yow biseke / in this matere
Though I by ordre / telle nat thise thynges
Be it of Popes / Emperours / or kynges
After hir ages / as men writen fynde
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But telle hem / som bifore / and som bihynde
As it now cometh / vn to my remembrance
Haueth me excused / of myn ignorance
¶ Here bigynneth / the Monkes tale ~
I Wol biwaille / in manere of Tragedie
The harm of hem / that stoode in heigh degree
And fillen so / that ther nas no remedie
To brynge hem / out of hir aduersitee
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For certeyn / whan þt Fortune list to flee
Ther may no man / the cours of hir withholde
Lat no man triste / on blynd prosperitee
Beth war / by thise ensamples / trewe and olde