The Monk's Tale
Folio 181v
16 of 18 folios
For whan fortune / wil a man forsake
She beretħ a wey his regne / & his richesse
245
And eke hise frendes / bothe more & lesse
For what man þt hatħ frendes / thurgħ fortune
Misha
pe / wyl make hem enemys
/ I gesse
¶ Cenobia
This prouerbe is ful sotħ / & ful comune
¶ Cenobia / of Palymerie Quene
250
As wryten Persiens / in here noblesse
So worthy was in armes / & so kene
That no wigħt passed hire / in hardynesse
Ne in lynage / ne Corrected from: īī~ other gentillesse
Of kynges blod of Perce / is she descended
255
I sey nat / þt she had / moost fairestnesse
But of hire shape / she mygħt nat ben amended
¶ From hire childhode / I fynde þt she fledde
Office of wōmen / and to wode she went
And many a wylde hertes blood / she shedde
260
Witħ arwes brode / þt she to hē sente
She was so swift / þt she a noon hē hente
And whan þt she was eldre / she wolde kille
Leones / lepardes / and Beres al to rente
And in hire armes / welde hē at hire wille
265
¶ She durste / wilde Bestes dennes / seke
And rennen in the Mountaignes / al the nygħt
And slepe vnder the Bussħ / & she coude eke
Wrastlen by verrey force / and verry mygħt
W any ȝonge man / were he neuere so wygħt
270
There mygħt no thyng / in hire armes stonde
She kept hire maydenhode / from euery wigħt
To no man deigned hire / for to be bonde
¶ But atte laste / hire frendes han hire maried
To Onedake / a Pince of that contree
275
Al were it so / þt she hē longe taried
And ȝe shuln vnderstonde / how that he
Hadde suche fantasies / as hadde she
But nathelees
/ whan they were knytte in fere
¶ id est simul.
They lyued in ioye / and in felicitee
280
For ecħ of hē had other / lief & dere
¶ Saue oo thyng / þt she wolde neuere assent
By no wey / þt he shulde by hire lye
But oones / for it was hire pleyn entent
To haue a child / the world to multiplie
285
And also sone / as þt she mygħt espie
That she was nat witħ childe / wt þat dede