The Physician's Tale Folio 139r 2 of 7 folios
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My lord and I / ben ful of oon accord
So do I / alle myne othere / creatures
What colour that they han / or what figures
Thus semetħ me / that nature wolde seye
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This mayde of age / twelue ȝer was and tweye
In whicħ that nature / hadde swicħ delit
For rigħ t as she kan peynte / a lilye whit
And reed as Rose / rigħ t witħ swicħ peynture
She peynted hatħ / this noble creature
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Er she were borñ / vp oon hire lymes free
Where as by rigħ t / swicħ coloures shulde bee
And Phebus dyed hatħ / hire tresses grete
Lyke to the stremes / of his burned hete
And if that excellent / was hir beaute
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In hire ne lakked / no condiciou
That is to preyse / as by discreciou
As wel in goost as body / chaast was she
For whicħ she floured / in virginite
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Witħ alle humylite / and abstinence
Witħ alle attemper ance / and pacience
Witħ mesure eke / of berynge and array
Thougħ she were wys Pallas / dar I seyn
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Hire facounde eke / ful wō manly and pleyn
Noo countrefeted termes / had she
To Corrected from: msemeseme &i;&i;ewys / but aftir hire degree
She spak / and alle hire wordes more & lesse
Sovnyng
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Shamefast she was / in maydens shamefastnesse
Constant in herte / and euer e in bisinesse
To dryue hir out / of ydel slogardye
Bacus had of hir moutħ / rigħ t no maistrie
For wyn and ȝouthe / dootħ Venus encrees
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As men in fyr / wol casten oille / or grees
She hatħ ful ofte tyme Syke / hir
For that she wolde fleen / the compaignye
Where likly was / to treten of folye
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As is at festes / reuels / and at daunces
That ben occasiouns / of daliaunces
Swicħ thyng
To sone rype / and bold as men moun se