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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 Reeve's Prologue Folio 47v 1 of 2 folios
Wh ā ne folk han laughen / at þ is nyce cas
Of Absoloū / and hende Nicholas
Dyuer se folk / diuersly they seyde
But for the more part / they loughe & pleyde
5
Ne at this tale / I saw noman hi greue
But it were oonly / Oswold the Reue
By cause he was / of Carpenteres craft
A litel Ire / is / in his hert laft
He gan to grocche / and blamed it a lyte
10
So thike qd he / ful wel coude I the quyte
With bleryng / of a proude Milleres eye
If þ at me list / to speke of rybaudye
But ik am old / me list nat pleye for age
Gras tyme is doū / my foder is now forage
15
This white tope / wrytetħ myne olde ȝeres
Myn hert is also / mouled / as myne heeres
But if I fare / as doth an open ars
That ilke fruyt / is euer e lengere the wers
Til it be roten / in mullok or in stree
20
We olde men / I drede / so fare we
Til we be roten / kan we nat be rype
We hope alwey / while þ t the world wol pipe
For in oure wyl / there stekith euer e a nayl
To han an hore heer / and a grene tayl
25
As hath a leek / for though oure mygħ t be gon
Oure wyl / desireth folye / euer e in on
For whā ne we moun nat don / than wol we speke
Ȝet in oure asshen old / ys fire I reke
Foure gledes han we / which I shal deuyse
30
Auauntyng / lying / Angyr / Coueytise ¶ Nota bene
The tale begins on fol. 47v. I suspect the prologue was copied before MI was finished on the recto. This is an additional bifolia inserted in the quire.ODR
Theise foure sparcles / longen vn to elde
Oure olde lymes / moun wel ben vn welde
But wyl ne shal faylen / that is soth
And ȝet haue ik alwey / a coltyssħ toth
35
As many a ȝere / as it is passed henne
Sithe that my tappe / of lyf / bygan to renne
For sekirly / whan yk was born / a non
Detħ drougħ the tappe of lyf / and let it gon
And euer e sithe / hath so / the tappe I ronne
40
Til that almost / al empty is the tonne
The streme of lyf / now droppeth on the chyme
The sely tonge / may wel rynge & chymbe
Of wrecchednesse / that passed is ful ȝore
With olde folk / saue / dotage is na more
45
He gan to speke / as lordly as a kyng