The Reeve's Tale
Folio 53r
5 of 12 folios
In to the trogh / that sal be my desport
For Ioħn in faith / I may been of youre sort
125
I is as ille a Millere / as ar ye
¶ This Millere / smyled of hir nycetee
And thoghte / al this nys doon / but for a wyle
They wene / þt no man may hem bigile
But by my thrift / yet shal I blere hir Iye
130
For al the sleighte / in hir Phislophye
The moore queynte crekys / þt they make
The moore wol I stele / whan I take
In stede of flour / yet wol I yeue hem bren
The grettest clerkes / been noght the wisest men
135
As whilom to the wolf thus spak the mare
Of al hir art counte I noght a tare
Out of the dore / he gooth ful pryuely
Whan þt he saugh his tyme / softely
He looketh vp and doun / til he hath founde
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The clerkes hors / ther as it stood ybounde
Bihynde the Mille / vnder a leefsel
And to the hors / he gooth hym faire and wel
He strepeth of the bridel / right anon
And whan the hors was laus / he gynneth gon
145
Toward the fen / ther wilde mares renne
And forth with wehe / thurgh thikke and thenne
This Millere gooth ayein / no word he seyde
But dooth his note / and with the clerkes pleyde
Til þt hir corn / was faire and wel ygrounde
150
And whan the mele / was sakked and ybounde
¶ This Ioħn gooth out and fynt his hors away
And gan to crye / harrow and weilaway
Oure hors is lost. Alayn for goddes banes
Step on thy feet com of man al atanes
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Allas oure wardeyn / has his palfrey lorn
¶ This Alayn al forgat bothe mele and corn
Al was out of his mynde / his housbondrye
What whilk wey is he gane / he gan to crye
¶ The wyf cam lepyng Inward with a ren
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She seyde allas / youre hors gooth to the fen
With wilde mares / as faste as he may go
Vnthank come on his hand / þt boond hym so