The Clerk's Tale Folio 92v 2 of 27 folios
Sire Clerk of Oxenford / oure host sayde
Ȝe ride as stille and coy / as dootħ a mayde
Were newe spoused / syttynge at the bord
This day ne herd I / of ȝoure tonge a word
5
I trowe ȝe studye / a bouten som Sophyme
But Salamon seitħ / þ at euer y thyngħ tyme
For goddis sake / as betħ of betre cheere
It is no tyme / for to studyen heere
Telle vs som mery tale / be ȝoure feye
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For what man / that is entred / in a pleye
He nedes must / vn to the pley assent
But preechetħ nat / as freres don in lent
To make vs / for oure olde synnes wepe
Ne that thy tale / make vs nat to slepe
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Telle vs sum Corrected from: <nothing>merimeri thyng
Ȝoure termes / ȝoure coloures / and figures
Kepe hem in stoor / til so be / Corrected from: <nothing>þ tþ t ȝe endite
Heye stile / as whan þ t men / to kynges wryte
Spekitħ so pleyn / at this tyme / . we ȝow preye
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That we moun vnderstonde / what that ȝe seye
Host qd he / I am vnder ȝoure ȝerde
Ȝe han of vs / as now / the gouer naunce
And therfore wold I do ȝow / obeisaunce
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As fer as resoū axetħ / hardily
I wold ȝow telle a tale / whicħ that I
Lerned at Padowe / of a worthy Clerk
He is now deed / and nayled in his cheste
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I preye to god / so ȝeue his soule reste
Fraunceys Petrak / the laureat poete
Hygħ t this Clerk / whos Retoryk swete
Enlumyned al Itaille / of Poetrye
As lynyan dide / of Philosophye
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Or lawe / or other art particuler
But detħ that wol nat / suffren vs / dwellen heer
But as it were / a twynkelynge of an eye
Hem bothe hatħ slayn / and alle shuln we deye
But fortħ to tellen / of this worthy man
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That taugħ t me this tale / as I began
I seye / that first / he witħ Corrected from: hisheyehis eye stile enditetħ
Or he the Corrected from: xxx dety / of his tale wrytetħ
A pro bleme / in the whiche / descryuetħ he
Pomond and of Saluces / the contree
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That ben the boundes / of westlumbardye
And of Mount vesulus / in speciale
Where as the Poo / out of a welle smalle