The Pardoner's Prologue & Tale
Folio 199r
14 of 17 folios
255
¶ And ouer al this / auyseth yow right wel
What was comaunded / vn to Lamwel
Nat Samuel / but Lamwel seye I
Redeth the Bible / and fynd it expersly
Of wyn yeuynge / to hem þt han Iustise
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Namoore of this / for it may wel suffise
¶ And now / that I haue spoken of glotonye
Now wol I / yow defende hasardrye
Hasard / is verray moder of lesynges
And of deceite / and cursed forswerynges
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Blaspheme of Crist manslaughtre / and wast also
Of catel / and of tyme / and forthermo
It is reproue / and contrarie of honour
For to ben holden / a cōmune hasardour
And euere the hyer / he is of estaat
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The moore is he holden desolat
If þt a Prynce / vseth hasardrye
In alle gouernance / and policye
He is / as by cōmune opynyoū
Yholde / the lasse in reputacioū
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¶ Stilbon / that was a wys Embassadour
Was sent to Corynthe / in ful gret honour
Fro lacedomye / to make hirö alliaūce
And whan he cam / hym happed par chaunce
That alle the gretteste / þt were of that lond
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Pleiynge at the hasard / he hem fond
For which as soone / as it myghte be
He stal hym hom agayn / to his contree
And seyde / ther wol I nat lese my name
Ny wol nat take on me / so greet defame
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Yow for to allie / vn to none hasardours
Sendeth / othere wise Embassadours
For by my trouthe / me were leuere dye
Than I yow sholde / to hasardours allye
For ye that been / so glorious in honours
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Shal nat allye yow / with hasardours
As by my wyl / ne as by my tretee
This wise Philosophre / thus seyde he
¶ Looke eek / that to the kyng Demetrius
The kyng of Parthes / as the book seith vs