The Friar's Prologue Folio 81r 1 of 2 folios
Cast vp the curtyn / loke how that it is
And whan þ t the knygħ t / saw verreyly al this
That she so fair was / & so ȝong
1225
For ioye he hent hire / in hise armes two
His hert bathed / in a batħ of blisse
A thousand tymes a rowe / he gan hire kysse
And she obeyed hī / in euer y thyng
That mygħ t don hī plesaunce / or likyng
1230
In par fyt ioye / and iħ u crist vs sende
Husbondes meke / ȝonge and fressħ a bedde
And grace to ouer byde hem / that we wedde
1235
That nougħ t wyl be gouer ned / by here wyues
And olde and angry / nygardes of despence
God sende hem sone / verray pestilence
Th is worthy L ymytour / this noble frere
He made alwey / a maner louryng
Vp on this Sompnour / but for honeste
No vyleyns word / to hī as ȝet spak he
5
But at the laste / he seide vn to the wyf
Dame qd he / god ȝeue ȝow rigħ t good lyf
Ȝe han here touched / also mot I the
In Scole mater / a greet difficultee
Ȝe han seid meche thyngħ t wel I seye
10
But Dame / here as we riden / by the weye
Vs nedetħ nougħ t to speken / but of game
And lete auctorites be / a goddes name
To per chynge and to scole / of clergie
And if it like / vn to this compaignye
15
I wyl ȝow of a Sompnour / Corrected from: tx lletelletlle a game
The first e in telle seems to have been written on an erasure.
Parde ȝe may wel knowen / by the name
That of a Sompnour / may no good be seide
I preye that
A Sompnour is a rennere / vp and doun
20
Witħ maundementez / for Fornicacioū
And is I bete / at euer y tounes ende
And curteys / as a man of ȝoure estat
In compaignye / we wyln haue noon debat