The Miller's Tale
Folio 42r
11 of 15 folios
¶ This Carpent
er a wo
ke
/ and
herd
hī syng
¶ nota in left margin.ODR
And spak vn to his wyf / and seide a non
180
What Alisoū / herest þu nat Absolou
That chaunteth thus / vnder oure boures walle
And she answered hire husbond / there wt alle
Ȝis god wot Ioħn / I here it euery dele
This passeth fortħ / what wyl ȝe bet than wele
185
Fro day to day / this Ioly Absolou
So wougheth hire / that hī is woo bygon
He waketh al the nygħt / and al the day
He kembeth hise lokkes brode / & mad hī gay
He wougheth hire by menes / and brocage
190
And swor he wolde ben / hire owen page
He syngeth brokkyng / as a Nyghttyngale
And sent hire pyment / Meth & Spiced ale
And waferes pypyng hote / ouȝt of the glede
And for she was of Toune / he profred mede
195
For s
ōme folk
/ wol be
Corrected from: woxnewōnewōxnen for richesse
¶ Vnde Ouidius , Ictibus
agrestis & cetera
And sōme for strokes / and sōme for gentilnesse
Somtyme to shewen / his ligħtnesse and maistrye
He pleyeth Heraudes / vp on a skaffold heye
¶ But what a vailletħ hī / as in this cas
200
She loueth so / this hende Nicholas
That Absolou may blowe / the bukkes horn
He ne had for his labour / but a skorn
And thus she maketh / Absolou hire Ape
And al his ernest / turneth to a Iape
205
Ful soth is this prouerbe / it is no lye
Men seyn rigħt thus / alwey the nye slye
Maketh the fer leef / to be loth
For thougħ þt Absolou / be wood or wroth
By cause þt he fer was / from hire sigħt
210
This nye Nicholas / stod in his ligħt
¶ Now bere the wel / thow hende Nicholas
For Absolou may waylle / and synge allas
And so byfel it / that on a Saterday
This Carpenter / was gon to Osney
215
And hende Nicholas / and Alisou
Accorded ben / to this conclusiou
That Nicholas / shal shapen hem a wyle
The sely Ielous husbonde / to begyle
And if so be / the game went a rigħt