The Knight's Tale
Folio 20v
2 of 35 folios
¶ Who coude ryme / in englyssħ proprely
Hys martirdom / by god it am nat I
Therfore I passe / as lightly as I may
It fel / that in the / vij / ȝere / in May
605
The thridde nygħt / as olde bokes seyn
That al this storie / tellen more pleyn
Were it by auentre / or destyne
As whan a
þing
is shapen
/ it shal be
¶ verum est
That sone after the mydnygħt / Palamoū
610
By helpyng of a frende / brake his prisoū
And fleeth the Citee / as fast as he may go
For he had ȝeue / his Iayler drynke so
Of Clarry / mad of a certeyn wyne
W Nerkotikes and opye
/ of Thebes fyne
¶ Operum Thebaicum
615
That al
þt nyg
ħt
/ þoug
ħ þt men wold h
ī shake
There is a cross in dry point in the left margin.ODR
The Iayler slep so / he mygħt nouȝt wake
¶ And thus he fleeth / as fast as euere he may
The nygħt was short / and fast by the day
That nedes cost / he must hī seluen hyde
620
And to a groue / fast there besyde
W dredful fote / than walketh Palamoū
For shortly / this was his oppinyoū
That in þat groue / he wold hī hyde al day
And in the nygħt / þan wold he take his wey
625
To Thebes ward / his frendes for to pray
On Theseus to helpen hī / to werrey
And shortly / eiþer he wold lese hise lyf
Or wynnen Emelye / vn to his wyf
This is þe effect / and his entent pleyn
630
¶ Now wyl I trne / to Arcite a geyn
That litel wyst / how ny þt was his care
Til þt fortune / had brougħt hī in þe snare
The besy larke / the messanger of day
Saleweth in hir song / the morwe gray
635
And verray Phebus
/ riseth vp so bryg
ħt
This line is inserted with a lighter shade of ink which suggests that there was a gap in the text and the scribe filled it in later.ODR
That al þe orient / laugheth of þe ligħt
And wt hise stremes / drieth in the greues
The siluer dropes / hangyng on the leues
And Arcite þat is / in the court rial
640
With Theseus / the squyer principal
Ys rysen and loketh / on the mery day
And for to doū / his obseruaūce to May
Remembryng on þe poynt / of his desyre