The Nun's Priest's Tale
Folio 106r
14 of 16 folios
For yet ne was ther no man / þt hym sewed
¶ O destynee / þt mayst nat ben eschewed
Allas þt Chauntecler / fly fro the bemes
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Allas / his wif / ne roghte nat of dremes
And on a friday / fil al this meschaūce
¶ O Venus / þt art goddesse of plesaūce
Syn þt thy seruant was this Chauntecler
And in thy seruyce / dide al his power
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Moore for delit than world to multiplie
Why woldestow suffre hym / on thy day to dye
¶ O Gaufred / deere maister souerayn
That whan / thy worthy kyng Richard was slayn
With shot compleynedest his deth so soore
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Why ne hadde I now / thy sentence and thy loore
The friday for to chide / as diden ye
For on a Friday / soothly slayn was he
Thanne wolde I shewe yow / how þt I kowde pleyne
For Chaunteclerys drede / and for his peyne
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¶ Certes / swich cry / ne lamentacioū
Was neuere of ladyes maad / whan ylioū
Was wonne / and Pirrë / wt his streite swerd
Whanne he hadde hent kyng Priam by the berd
And slayn hym / as seith vs Eneydos
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As maden / alle the hennes in the cloos
Whan they hadde seyn / of Chauntecler the sighte
But souereynly / dame Pertelote shrighte
Ful louder / than dide hasdrubales wyf
Whan þt hire housbonde / hadde ylost his lyf
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And þt the Romayns / hadden brend Cartage
She was so ful of torment and of rage
That wilfully / vn to the fyr she sterte
And brende hir seluen / wt a stedefast herte
¶ O woful hennes / right so cryden ye
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As / whan þt Nero / brende the Citee
Of Rome / cryden the senatours wyues
For þt hir housbondes / losten aƚƚ hir lyues
With outen gilt this Nero hath hem slayn
Now wol I turne / to my tale agayn
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¶ The sely widwe / and eek hire doghtres two
Herden thise hennes crye / and maken wo