The Summoner's Prologue Folio 85v 1 of 2 folios
360
The fend / that ȝow wol make / thral & bonde
He may nat tempten ȝow / ouer ȝoure mygħ t
For crist wol be ȝoure chaumpioū / & ȝoure knygħ t
And preyetħ that theise Sompnours / hem repent
Of here mysdedis / or that the fend hem hent
Et incipit pro logus Sū monitoris
TH is Sompnor / in hise stiropes heye stode
Vp on this frere / his hert was so wode
That like an Aspen lef / he quok for ire
Lordynggis qd he / but o thyng
5
I ȝow byseche / that of ȝoure curteisye
Syn ȝe han herd / this fals frere lye
As suffretħ me / I may my tale telle
This frere bostetħ / that he knowetħ helle
And god it woot / that is but litel wonder
10
Freres and fendes / ben but lite a sonder
For per de / ȝe han ofte tyme herd telle
How that a frere / rauysshed was to helle
In Spirit oones / by a vysiou
15
To shewen hī / the peynes that there were
In al that place / saw he nat a frere
Of othere folk / he saw I nowe in woo
Vn to this Aungel / spak this frere thoo
20
That noone of hē / shal comen in this place
Ȝis qd this Aungel / many a myliouñ
And vn to Sathanas / he led hī doun
And now hatħ Sathanas / seitħ he / a tayle
Braddere than of a Caryk / is the Sayle
25
Hold vp thy tayl / thow Sathanas qd he
Shewe fortħ thyn Ars / and late the frere se
Where is the nest / of freres in this place
And er that half a furlong weye / of space
Rigħ t so as Bees / out swarmen of an hyue
30
Out of Deueles Ars / they gonne dryue
Twenty thousand freres / on a route
And thurgħ out helle / they swarmed al a boute
And comen a geyn / as fast as they mouñ goū
35
He clapte his tayl a geyn / & lay ful stille
This frere / whan he loked had / his fille
Vp on the turmentes / of this sory place