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1. The General Prologue
2. The Knight's Tale
3. The Miller's Prologue
4. The Miller's Tale
5. The Reeve's Prologue
6. The Reeve's Tale
7. The Cook's Prologue
8. The Cook's Tale
9. Introduction to the Man of Law's Tale
10. The Man of Law's Tale
11. The Wife of Bath's Prologue
12. The Wife of Bath's Tale
13. The Friar's Prologue
14. The Friar's Tale
15. The Summoner's Prologue
16. The Summoner's Tale
17. The Clerk's Tale
18. Lenvoye de Chaucer
19. Words of the Host
20. The Merchant's Prologue
21. The Merchant's Tale
22. Epilogue to the Merchant's Tale
23. The Squire's Tale
24. The Franklin's Tale
25. The Physician's Tale
26. Introduction to the Pardoner's Tale
27. The Pardoner's Prologue & Tale
28. The Shipman's Tale
29. The Prioress' Tale
30. The Tale of Sir Thopas
31. Here the Host 'stynteth' Chaucer's Tale of Sir Thopas
32. The Tale of Melibeus
33. The Monk's Prologue
34. The Monk's Tale
35. The Nun's Priest's Prologue
36. The Nun's Priest's Tale
37. Epilogue to the Nun's Priest's Tale
38. The Second Nun's Tale
39. The Canon's Yeoman's Prologue
40. The Canon's Yeoman's Tale
The Prioress' Tale Folio 156r 1 of 4 folios
Thy vertu / and thyn gret humylite
There may no tonge expresse / in no science
25
For som tyme lady / or men preyen to the
Thow gost biforñ / of thyn benygnytee
And getest vs the ligħ t / of thyn preyere
To gyden vs / vn to thy sone so deere
30
For to declare / thyn gret worthynesse
That I ne may / the weigħ t nat Sustene
But as a child / of twelmonetħ old or lasse
That can vnethe / any word exper sse
Rigħ t so fare I / & therfore I ȝow preye
35
Gydetħ my song / that I shal of ȝow seye
There was in Assye / in a gret Citee
A monges ci stene folk / a Iewerie
Sustened by a lord / of that contree
For foul vsure / and lucre of vilenye ¶ turpe lucrum
40
Hateful to crist / and to his compaignye
And thurgħ this strete / men mygħ t ride or wende
For it was free / annd open at either ende
45
Children an hepe / I comen of ci stene blode
That lerned in that scole / ȝer by ȝere
Swicħ manere docti ne / as men vsed there
This is to seyn / to syngen and to rede
As smale children doon / in here childhede
50
That day by day / to scole was his wone
And eke also / where as he sey the ymage
Of cristes moder / had he in vsage
55
His Aue marie / as he gotħ by the weye
Oure blisseful lady / cristes moder deere
To worshipe ay / and forgat it nougħ t
60
For sely Child / wil alwey sone lere
But ay whan I remembre / on this matere
Seynt Nicholas stant euer e / in my per sence