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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 Wife of Bath's Prologue Folio 71v 2 of 20 folios
The transcription of the Wife of Bath's Prologue was created by Orietta Da Rold and has no relationship to the transcription which appears on the Cambridge University Press CD-ROM.
Thow seist rigħ t as wormes / shenden a tree
Rigħ t so a wyf / destroyetħ hire husbonde
This knowen they / that ben to wyues bonde
Lordynges rigħ t thus / as ȝe han vnderstonde
380
Bar I stifly / myne olde husbondes on honde
That thus they seiden / in here dronkenesse
And al was fals / but that I tok wytnesse
On Iankyn / and on my nece also
O lord the peyne / I dide hem and the woo
385
Ful giltlees / by goddes swete pyne
For as an hors / I coude byte and whyne
I coude pleyne / and I was in the gilt
There is a cross in dry point in the left margin, it takes 4-5 lines.ODR
Or elles often tyme / I had ben spilt
Who so that first cometħ to the mylle / first he grynt
390
I pleyned first / so was oure werre I stynt
They weren ful glad / to excuse hem ful blife
Of thyng / of whiche / they gilten neuer e in here lyue
Of wenches wold I beren hem on honde
Whan that for seke / they mygħ t vnethes stonde
395
Ȝet tikeled I his hert / for that he
Wende / that I of hī had / so gret chierte
I swor that al my walkyng / out be nygħ t
There is a cross in dry point in the left margin, it takes 12 lines.ODR
Was for to aspien / wenches that he digħ t
Vnder that colour / had I many a myrthe
400
For al swicħ wyt / is ȝeuen vs in oure birthe
Disceite / wepyng / spynnyng / god hath ȝeuen
To wommen kyndely / while that they moun lyuen
And thus of on thyng / I auaunt me
At the ende / I had the beter / in icħ degree
405
Be sleigħ t or force / or sum maner thyng
As by contenuel murmur / and grucchyng
Namely a bedde / there had they myschaunce
There wold I chide / and do hem no plesaunce
I wold no lengere / in the bed a byde
410
If that I felt / his arme al ouer my syde
Til that he had mad / his raunsou vn to me
Than wold I suffren hī / to doon his nycete
Wynne who so may / for aƚƚ is for to selle
415
Witħ empty hond / men moun noone haukes lure
For wynnynge wold I / al his lust endure
And make me / a feyned appetit
And ȝet in bacoū / had I neuer e delit
That made me / þ t euer e / I wold hem chide
This folio is extremely dirty. This is the last paper folio of the quire.ODR