The General Prologue
Folio 12r
7 of 9 folios
And spak of mirthe / a mong other thynges
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Whan þt he had mad / our rekenynges
And seide / lo lordyngges trewely
Ȝe ben to me / rigħt welcome hertily
For be my treuth / if that I shal nat lye
I sey nat þis ȝere / so merie a companye
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At ones / in this herberwe / as is nowe
Fayn wold I do ȝow myrthe / & I wist howe
And of a mirthe / I am ryght now be þouȝt
To don ȝow ease / and it shal cost nouȝt
¶ Ȝe gon to Caunterbury / god ȝow spede
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That blisful martir / quyte ȝow ȝoure mede
And wel I wot / as ȝe gon by the weye
Ȝe shapen ȝow to talken / and to pleye
For trewely / comfort ne mirthe is non
To ride by the weye / as dom as it were a ston
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And þerfore wyl I / maken ȝow disport
As I seide erst / and do ȝow som comfort
And if ȝow like / alle be one assent
To stonden / at my Iuggement
And for to werken / as I shal ȝow sey
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To morwe / whan ȝe riden by the wey
Now be my faders soule / þat is dede
But ȝe be merie / I wyl ȝeue ȝow myn hede
Holde vp ȝoure hondes / wt oute more speche
Oure conseil was nouȝt / longe for to seche
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Vs þouȝt it was nat worthy / to make it nyce
And gaunted hī / wt oute more a vyse
And bad hī sey / his verdyt as hī lest
¶ Lordynggis quod he / now herkeneth for the best
But take it nougħt / I prey ȝow in disdeyn
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This is þe poynt / to speke it short & pleyn
That eche of ȝow / to short with ȝoure weye
In this viage / shal telle tales tweye
To Caunterburyward / I mene it so
And homward / he shal telle othere two
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Of auentures / that whilom / han byfalle
And which of ȝow / bereth hī best of alle
That is to seyn / that telleth in þis cas
Tales / of most sentence and solas
Shal haue a soper / at oure alder cost