The Merchant's Tale
Folio 110r
27 of 27 folios
To my purpos / Placebo what seye ȝe
I seye it is a cursed man / qd he
That lettitħ Matrimoyne / sekerly
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And witħ that word / they resyn sodeynly
And ben assentid fully / that he shulde
Be wedded / whan hī list / and where he wolde
Heigħ fantasie / and curious besynesse
Fro day to day / gan in the soule impresse
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Of Ianuarie / a boute his mariage
Many fair shape / and many a fair visage
There passetħ thurgħ his hert / nygħt be nygħt
As who toke a Myrour / polysshed brygħt
And sette it / in a comune / Market place
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Than shuld he se / ful many a fygure pace
By his Mirour / and in this same wyse
Gan Ianuarie / witħ Inne his þouȝt deuyse
Of Maydenes / whicħ that dwelt hi beside
He wyst nougħt where / that he mygħt a byde
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For if that on / haue beaute in hire face
A nother stondetħ so / in the peeples grace
For hire sadnes / and hire benignitee
That of the peeple / the grettest voys hatħ she
And sōme were riche / and had a bad name
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But natheles / betwixt ernest and game
He at the last / a poyntetħ hī oon one
And lete alle othere / from his hert gone
And chesitħ hire / of his owen auctorite
For loue is blynde / al day / and may nat Corrected from: wel<nothing> wel se
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And whan that he was / in his bed brougħt
He portrayed in his hert / and in his thougħt
¶ Hire Fress
ħ beaute
/ and hire age tendre
¶ Nota
Hire mydel smal / and hire armes sklendre
Hire wys gouernaūce / hire gentilnesse
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Hire wōmanly beryng / and hire sadnesse
And whan that he / on hire was condescended
Hym thougħt his choys / mygħt nat ben amended
For whan þat he hi self / concluded had
Hi thougħt / eche other mānys wyt so bad
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That inpossible it were / to replie
A geyn his choise / this was his fantasie
Hise frendes sent he to / at his instaunce
And preyed hem / to do hī that plesaunce
That hastily they woldyn / to hī come
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He wold a quyt here labour / al and some