The Miller's Tale
Folio 42v
12 of 15 folios
220
She shulde slepe / in his arme al nigħt
For this was hire desir / and his also
And rigħt a non / with oute wordes moo
This Nicholas / no lengere wold tarie
But doth ful softe / vn to his chaumbre carie
225
Bothe mete and drynk / for a day or twey
And to hire husbonde / bad hire for to sey
If þat he axed / after Nicholas
She shulde seye / she nyst where he was
Of al that day / she sey hī nat with eye
230
She trowed þat he was / in sum maladye
For for no cry
/ hire mayde koude h
ī calle
¶ quia. pro.
He nolde answere / for thyng þt mygħt falle
This passeth fortħ / al thilk Satirday
That Nicholas stille / in his chaumbre lay
235
And ete and slepe / or dede what hī list
Til Sonday / that Corrected from: <nothing> þeþe Sonne gotħ to rest
¶ This sely Carpenter / hath gret merueylle
Of Nicholas / or what thyng mygħt hī eylle
And seide / I am a drad / by Seynt Thomas
240
It stondeth nat a rigħt / with Nicholas
God shilde / þat he deyed sodeynly
This world is now / ful tekil sekerly
I saw to day / a cors I borñ to chirche
That now on monday last / I saw hī werche
245
Go vp qd he / vn to his knaue a non
Clepe at the dore / and knokke wt a ston
Loke how it is / and telle me boldely
¶ This knaue goth hī vp / ful sturdily
And at the chaumbre dore / while þt he stode
250
He cryed and knokked / as he were wode
What how / what do ȝe / Maister Nicholay
How may ȝe Corrected from: sh<nothing> sh slepen / al the long day
But al for nouȝt / he seide nat a worde
An hole he fond / ful lowe vp on the borde
255
There as the Cat / was wont / In / for to crepe
And at that hole / he loked In / ful depe
And at the last / he had of hī a sigħt
This Nicholas sat euere / gapyng vp rigħt
As he had loked / on the newe Mone
260
A doun he gotħ / and telleth his maister Sone
In what array / he saugħ this ilke man
¶ This Carpenter / to blissen hī / bygan
And seide / helpe vs / Seynt Fredeswyde