The Summoner's Tale
Folio 83v
9 of 15 folios
xxd to another knyght comanded he
Go leed hym to the deeth / I charge thee
And happed / as they wente by the weye
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Toward the place / ther he sholde deye
The knyght cam / which men wenden had be deed
Thanne thoghten they / it were the beste reed
To lede hem bothe / to the Iuge agayn
They seyden / lord / the knyght ne hath nat slayn
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His felawe / heere he stant hool alyue
¶ Ye shul be deed quod he / so moot I thryue
This is to seyn / bothe oon and two and thre
And to the firste knyght right thus spak / he
¶ I dampned thee / thou most algate be deed
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And thow also / most nedes lese thyn heed
For thow art cause / why thy felawe deyth
And to the thridde knyght right thus he seith
Thow hast nat doon / that I comanded thee
And thus he dide / do sleen hem alle thre
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¶ Irous Cambyses / was eek dronkelewe
And ay delited hym / to been a shrewe
And so bifel / a lord of his meynee
That louede / vertuous moralitee
Seyde on a day / bitwix hem two right thus
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¶ A lord is lost if he be vicius
And dronkenesse / is eek a foul record
Of any man / and namely in a lord
Ther is ful many an eighe / and many an ere
Awaityng on a lord / xxx he noot nat where
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For goddes loue / drynk moore attemprely
Wyn maketh man / to lesen wrecchedly
His mynde / and eek his lymes euerychon
¶ The reuers shaltow se / quod he anon
And preue it by thyn owene experience
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That wyn ne dooth to folk no swich offence
Ther is no wyn / bireueth me my myght
Of hond ne foot ne of myne eyen sight
And for despit he drank ful muchel moore
An hundred part than he hadde doon bifore
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And right anon / this Irous cursed wrecche
Leet this knyghtes sone / bifore hym fecche