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1. The General Prologue
2. The Knight's Tale
3. The Miller's Prologue
4. The Miller's Tale
5. The Reeve's Prologue
6. The Reeve's Tale
7. The Cook's Prologue
8. The Cook's Tale
9. Introduction to the Man of Law's Tale
10. The Man of Law's Tale
11. The Wife of Bath's Prologue
12. The Wife of Bath's Tale
13. The Friar's Prologue
14. The Friar's Tale
15. The Summoner's Prologue
16. The Summoner's Tale
17. The Clerk's Tale
18. Lenvoye de Chaucer
19. Words of the Host
20. The Merchant's Prologue
21. The Merchant's Tale
22. Epilogue to the Merchant's Tale
23. The Squire's Tale
24. The Franklin's Tale
25. The Physician's Tale
26. Introduction to the Pardoner's Tale
27. The Pardoner's Prologue & Tale
28. The Shipman's Tale
29. The Prioress' Tale
30. The Tale of Sir Thopas
31. Here the Host 'stynteth' Chaucer's Tale of Sir Thopas
32. The Tale of Melibeus
33. The Monk's Prologue
34. The Monk's Tale
35. The Nun's Priest's Prologue
36. The Nun's Priest's Tale
37. Epilogue to the Nun's Priest's Tale
38. The Second Nun's Tale
39. The Canon's Yeoman's Prologue
40. The Canon's Yeoman's Tale
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 ther to
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 chere
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 thyng / rigħ 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.ODR
Parde ȝe may wel knowen / by the name
That of a Sompnour / may no good be seide
I preye that noon of ȝow / be euele a payde
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