The Pardoner's Prologue & Tale
Folio 148v
6 of 16 folios
A thyng / that also god my soule saue
In al this world / there is no creature
That ete or dronke hatħ / of this confiture
535
Nat but the mountaunce / of a corñ of whete
That he ne shal / his lyf / a non for lete
Ȝa sterue he shal / and that in lasse while
Than thow wolt gon a pase / nat but amyle
The poysoū is so strong / and violent
540
This cursed man / hatħ in his hand I hent
This poysoū in a box / and sithe he ran
In to the next strete / vn to a man
And borwed hī / large botelles thre
And in the two / hise poysoū poured he
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The thridde he kept clene / for his drynke
For al the nygħt / he shope hī for to swynke
In cariyng of the gold / out of that place
And whan this Riotour / witħ sory grace
Had filled witħ wyn / hise grete botelles thre
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To hise felawes / a geyn repairetħ he
What nedetħ it / to Sermone of it more
For rigħt as they had cast / his detħ bifore
Rigħt so they han hi slayn / and that a noon
And whan that this was don / thus spak that oon
555
Now late vs sitte and drynke / and make vs merie
And afterward / we wyln his body berie
And witħ that word / it happed hi par caas
To take the botel / there the poysoū was
And drank / and ȝaf his felawe drynke also
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For whicħ a noon / they storuen bothe two
But certes I suppose / that Auycen
Wroot neuere in no canou / ne in no fen
Moo wonder signes / of empoysonyng
Than hadde theise wrecches two / or here endyng
565
Thus ended ben / theise homycydes twoo
And eke the false empoysonere / also
O cursed synne / of alle cursednesse
O . traytours homycyde / O wykkednesse
O glotonye / luxurie / and hasardye
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Thow blasfemour / of crist / witħ vilenye
And othes grete / of vsage and of pride
Allas mankynde / how may it betyde
That to thy creature / whicħ that the wrougħte
And witħ his percious hert blod / the bougħte