The Monk's Tale
Folio 97r
17 of 20 folios
To Rome agayn / repaireth Iulius
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With his triumphe / lauriat ful hye
But on a tyme / Brutus Cassius
That euere hadde / of his heighe estat enuye
Ful pryuely / hath maad conspiracie
Agayns this Iulius / in subtil wise
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And caste the place / in which he sholde dye
With Boydekyns / as I shal yow deuyse
¶ This Iulius / to the Capitolie wente
Vp on a day / as he was wont to goon
And in the Capitolie / anon hym hente
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This false Brutus / and hise othere foon
And stiked hym / with Boydekyns anon
With many a wounde / and thus they lete hym lye
But neuere gronte he / at no strook but oon
Or ellis at two / but if his storie lye
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¶ So manly / was this Iulius of herte
And so wel / louede estatly honestee
That thogh hise deedly woundes / so sore smerte
His mantel ouer his hipes / caste he
For no man / sholde seen his pryuetee
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And as he lay / of dyyng in a traunce
And wiste verraily / that deed was he
Of honestee / yet hadde he remembraunce
¶ Lucan . / to thee this storie I recomende
And to Sweton / and to Valerius also
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That of this storie / writen word & ende
How that to thise grete Conquerours two
Fortune / was first freend / and siththe a foo
No man ne triste / vp on hir fauour longe
But haue hire / in awayt for euere mo
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Witnesse / on alle thise Conquerours stronge
This riche Cresus / whilom kyng of Lyde
Of which Cresus / Cirus soore hym dradde
Yet was he caught amyddes al his pryde
And to be brent / men to the fyr hym ladde
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But swich a reyn / doun fro the welkne shadde
That slow the fyr / and made hym to escape
But to be war / no grace yet he hadde
Til Fortune / on the galwes made hym gape