The Physician's Tale
Folio 192v
3 of 8 folios
xOwther / for ye han kept youre honestee
Or ellis / ye han falle in freletee
And knowen wel ynow / the olde daunce
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And han forsaken fully / swich meschaunce
For euere mo / therfore / for Cristes sake
To teche hem vertu / looke þt ye ne slake
¶ A theef of venyson / that hath forlaft
His likerousnesse / and al his olde craft
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Kan kepe a Forest best of any man
Now kepeth wel / for if ye wole ye kan
Looke wel þt ye / vn to no vice assente
Lest ye be dampned / for youre wikke entente
For who so dooth / a traytour is certeyn
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And taketh kepe / of that þt I shal seyn
Of alle tresoū / souerayn pestilence
Is / whan a wight bitrayseth Innocence
¶ Ye fadres / and ye modres eek also
Thogh ye han children / be it oon or mo
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Youre is the charge / of al hir surueaūce
Whil þt they been / vnder youre gouernaūce
Beth war / if by ensample of youre lyuynge
Or by youre necligence / in chastisynge
That they perisse / for I dar wel seye
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If þt they doon / ye shul it deere abeye
Vnder a Shepherde / softe and necligent
The wolf hath many a sheepe / and lomb to rent
Suffiseth oon ensample / now as heere
For I moot turne agayn to my matere
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¶ This mayde / of which / I wol this tale expersse
So kepte hir self hir neded no maistresse
For in hir lyuyng maydens myghten rede
As in a book euery good word / or dede
That longeth / to a mayden vertuous
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She was so prudent and so boūteuous
For which the fame out sproong on euery syde
Bothe of hir beautee / and hir boūtee / wyde
That thurgh that land / they preysed hir echone
That loued vertu / saue enuye allone
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That sory is / of oother mennes wele
And glad is / of his sorwe / and his vnheele The doctor maketh