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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 Merchant's Tale Folio 109v 26 of 27 folios
To whom I ȝoue / my good a wey fro me
Wel meche more I ougħ t / a vysen me per de
285
To whom I ȝeue my body / for alwey
I warne ȝow wele / it is no childes pley
To take a wyf / witħ outen a vysement
Men must enquere / this is myn assent
Wheiþ er she be wys / and sobre / or dronkelewe
290
Or proud / or ellis / other weyes a shrewe
A chidere / or a wastour of thy good
Or riche or poore / or ellis mannyssħ wood
Al be it so / that no man fynden shal
Noon in this world / that trottetħ hool in al
295
But natheles / it ougħ t I now suffise
Witħ any wyf / if so were that she had
Moo goode thewes / than hire vices bad
300
For god it woot / I haue wept many a tere
Ful preuyly / syn that I hadde a wyf
Preyse who so wyl / a wedded mā nys lyf
Certeyn I fynde in it / but cost and care
And obseruaunces / of alle blisses bare
305
And ȝet god wot / myne neygħ ebores a boute
And namely of wō men / many a route
Seyn / that I haue / the most stedefast wyf
And eke the mekest / on that beritħ lyf
But I wot best / where wryngetħ me my sho
310
Ȝe moun for me / rigħ t as ȝow liketħ do
There is a cross in the left margin.ODR
Auysetħ ȝow / ȝe ben a man of age
How that ȝe entren / in to mariage
315
The ȝongest man that is / in al this route
Is besy I now / to bryngen it a boute
To han his wyf a lone / trostetħ me
Ȝe shuln nat plese hire / fully ȝeres thre
This is to seyn / to don hire ful plesaunce
320
A wyf asketħ / ful many an obseruaunce
I pray ȝow / that ȝe be nat / euele a paid
Straw for thy xxxxx Senek / and for thyne pro uer bes
I counte it nat xxxxx a panyere ful of herbes
325
Of scole ter mes xxxxx wysere men than thow
As þ u hast xxxxx herd / assentyd rigħ t now