The Monk's Tale
Folio 184v
5 of 18 folios
Witħ Iewes were / venquysshed mygħtily
Vn to the Iewes / swicħ an hate had he
That he bad / Greithe his Char / ful hastily
And swor and seide / ful dispitously
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Vn to Ierusalem / he wolde eft sone
To wreke his Ire on hit / ful crewelly
But of his prpos / he was lette ful sone
¶ God for his manace / hī so sore smote
Witħ invisible wounde / ay incurable
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That in hise guttes / karf it so & bote
That hise peynes / weren inportable
And certeynly the wrecche / was vnresounable
For manye a mānes guttes / did he peyne
But from his purpos cursed / and dampnable
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For al his smert / he wolde hī nat restreyne
¶ But bad a noon / apparailen his oost
And sodeynly / or he was of it war
God daunted al his pide / and al his boost
For he sore fil / out of his Char
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That it hise lymes / & his skyn to tar
So þt he neither / mygħt go ne ryde
But in a Char / men a boute hī bar
Al forbrused / bothe bak and syde
¶ The wreche of god / hī smote so cruelly
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That thurgħ his body / wykked wormes crepte
And ther witħ al / he stank so horribly
That noone of alle hise meyne / þt hī kepte
Wheither so he woke / or elles slepte
Ne mygħt nougħt the stynk / of hī / endure
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In this myschief / he wayled and eke wepte
And knew god / lord / of euery creature
¶ To al his oost / & to hī self also
Ful wlatsom was the stynk / of his careyne
No man ne mygħt hī bere / to ne froo
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And in this stynk / & this orrible peyne
He starf ful wrecchedly / in a Mounteigne
Thus hatħ this robbour / & this homycide
That many a man / made / to wepe & pleyne
Swic
ħ gerdou
ñ / as bilonget
ħ vn to pride
¶ De Alexandro
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¶ The storie of Alexandre / is so comune
That euery wygħt / þt hatħ discrecioū
Hatħ herd som what / or al / of his fortune
This wyde world / as in conclusioū
He wan by strengthe / or for his heigħ renouñ
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They were glad / for pees / vn to hī sende