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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 Monk's Prologue Folio 178r 3 of 4 folios
No poore Cloistrer / ne no nowys
But a gouer nour / wyly and wys
And there wt al / of braunes & of bones
55
I preye to god / ȝeue hī confusioū
That first the brougħ t / vn to Religioū
Thow woldest han ben / a tredfoul a rigħ t
Hadestow as gret a leue / as þ u hast mygħ t
To par fourme thy lust / in engendrure
60
Thow haddest bygeten / ful many a creature
Allas / why werest þ u / so wyde a cope
God ȝeue me sorwe / but and I were Pope
Nat oonly þ u / but euer y mygħ ty man
Thougħ he were shore ful heye / vp oon his pan
65
Shulde haue a wyf / for al the world is lorñ
Religion hatħ take vp / al the corñ
Of tredynge / & we borel men ben shrympes
Of feble trees / there come wrecched ympes
This maketħ þ t oure Eyres / ben so sklendre
70
This maketħ þ t oure wyues / woln assaie
Religious folk / for they moun bettre paie
Of venus paiementz / than moun we
God wot / no lussħ burgħ / payen ȝe
75
But be nat wrotħ my lord / thougħ þ t I pleye
Ful ofte in game / a sootħ I haue herd seye
And seide / I wol doon al my diligence
As fer as sovnetħ / in to honestee
80
To telle ȝow a tale / or two or three
And if ȝow list / to herken hiderward
I wyl ȝow seyn / the lif of Seynt Edward
Or elles first / ta gedies wol I telle
Of whicħ I haue an .C. / in my celle
85
Tragedy is to seyn / a certeyn storie
Of hī þ t stood / in gret pro sper itee
And is I fallen / out of heigħ degree
In to Miser ie / and endetħ wrecchedly
90
And they ben versified / comunly
Of sexe feet / whicħ men clepen exametron
In prose eke / ben endited many oon
And eke in metre / in many a sondry wyse
Loo this declaryng / ougħ t I now suffise