The Canon's Yeoman's Prologue
Folio 202v
2 of 5 folios
The hakeneye eke / þat his ȝeman rod vp oon
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So swatte / that vnethe mygħt it gon
A male tweyfold / vp on his croper lay
It semed that he caried / litel array
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Al ligħt for somer / rod this worthy man
And in myn herte / to wondre I began
What that he was / til that I vnderstode
How þt his cloke / was sowed to his hode
For whicħ / whan I had longe a vysed me
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I demed hī som Chanoū / for to be
His hat heng at his bak / doun by a lace
For he had ryden more / than trot or pace
He had ay / priked / lyke as he were wood
A clote leef he hadde / vnder his hood
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For swete / and for to kepe / his hed from hete
But it was ioye / for to sen hī swete
His forhe dropped / as a stillatorie
Were ful of plaunteyn / and of peritorie
And whan þt he was come / he gan to crie
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God saue quod he / this ioly compaignye
Fast haue I pryked qd he / for ȝoure sake
By cause / that I wolde / ȝow a take
To ryden in the same / myrie compaignye
His ȝeman was eke / ful of curteisie
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And seide sirx x now in the morwe tyde
Out of ȝoure hostelrie / I saw ȝow ride
And warned heere my lord / & my souerayn
Whicħ that to riden witħ ȝow / is ful fayn
For his disport / he louetħ daliaunce
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¶ Frend for thy warnynge
/ god
ȝeue the good chaunce
Indication in the left margin for a paragraph mark to be included. But the paraph was not executed.MP
Thāne seide oure hoost / for certeyn it wolde seme
Thy lord were wys / and so I may wel deme
He is ful iocunde / also dar I leye
Can he ougħt telle / a mery tale or tweye
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Witħ whicħ he glade may / this compaignye
Who sire my lord / ȝa ȝa witħ outen lye
He can of myrthe / and eke of iolytee
Nat but I now / also sire trustetħ me
And ȝe hī knew / as wel as do I
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Ȝe wolde wondre / how wel and craftily
He coude werke / and that in sondry wyse