The Clerk's Tale
Folio 94r
5 of 27 folios
Ȝoure heritage / O woo were vs on lyue
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Wherfore we preye ȝow / hastily to wyue
¶ Here meke preyere / and here pytous chere
Made the Markys hert / haue pytee
Ȝe wyln qd he / myn owen peeple deere
To that I neuere erst thougħt / streyne me
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I me reioysed / of my liberte
That selde tyme / is founde in mariage
Ther I was free / I must ben in seruage
¶ But nathelees / I see ȝoure trewe entent
And troste vp on ȝoure wyt / and haue don ay
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Wherfore / of my free wyl / I wol assent
To wedde me / as sone as euere I may
But there as ȝe han / profred me to day
To chese me a wyf / I ȝow relesse
That choys / and prey ȝow / of that profre cese
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¶ For god it wot / that children often been
Vnlyke / here worthy elders / hem byfore
Bounte cometħ al of god / nat of the streen
Of whicħ / they ben I gendred / and I bore
I troste in goddis bounte / and therfore
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My mariage / and myn estate and reste
I hym bytake / he may do as hī leste
¶ Lat me a lone / in chesyng of my wyf
That charge vp on my bak / I wol endure
But I ȝow preye and charge / vp on ȝoure lyf
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That what wyf that I take / ȝe me assure
To worshipe hire / whyle that hire lyf may dure
In word and werk / bothe heere and euerywhere
As she an Emperoures dougħter / were
¶ And forthermore / this shuln ȝe swere / that ȝe
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A geyn my choys / shuln neuere grucche ne stryue
For syn I shal for go / my libertee
At ȝoure request / as euere mot I thryue
There as myn hert is sette / there wol I wyue
And but ȝe wyln assent / in swicħ manere
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I preye ȝow / speketħ nomore / of this matere
¶ Witħ hertly wyl / they sworñ and assenten
To al this thyng / there seide no wygħt nay
Bysekyng hī of grace / or þt they wenten
That he wolde graunte hē / a certeyn day
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Of his spousaille / as sone as euere he may
For ȝet alwey / the peeple sumwhat Corrected from: drededreddedredde
Lest that the Markys / no wyf wold wedde
¶ He gaunted hem a day / swicħ as hī list
On whicħ he wolde / be wedded sekerly