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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 72r 3 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.
420
For thougħ the Pope / had siten hem beside
I wold nat spare hem / at here owen bord
For be my trouthe / I quyt hem word for word
As help me verray god / omnipotent
Thougħ I rigħ t now / shulde make my testament
425
I owe hem nat a word / that it nys quytte
I brought it so a boute / be my wytte
That they must ȝeue it vp / for the best
Or elles had we neuer e / ben in rest
For thougħ he loked / as a wod lyou
430
Ȝet shulde he faile / of his conclusiou
Than wold I sey / good lef take kepe
How mekely loketħ / wylkyn oure shepe
Come neer my spouse / lat me ba thy cheke
Ȝe shulden be / al pacient and meke
435
And han a swete / spiced conscience
Sithe ȝe so preche / of Iobes pacience
Suffretħ al wey / syn ȝe so wel can preche
That it is fair / to han a wyf in pees
lines 440-450 are bracketed in margin.ODR
440
Oon of vs two / must bowen doutelees
And sithe a man / is more resonable
Than womman is / ȝe must ben suffrable
What eyletħ ȝow / to grucche thus and grone
It is for ȝe wolde / han my queynte allone
445
We take it al / lo haue it euer ydele
Petir I shrewe ȝow / but ȝe loue it wele
For if I wolde selle / my beal Chose
I coude walke / as fressħ as any Rose
But I wol kepe it / for ȝoure owen totħ
450
Ȝe be to blame / by god I seye ȝow sotħ
Swiche maner wordes / had we on honde
Now wol I speke / of my first husbonde
This is to seyn / he had a paramour
455
And I was ȝong / and ful of ragerie
Stiburne and strong / and ioly as a Pye
Tho coude I daunce / to an harp smale
And synge I wysse / as any nytynggale
Whan I had dronke / a draugħ t of swete wyn
460
Metellius the foul cherl / the swyn
That witħ a staf / by reft his wyf Corrected from: hishirhis r lif
For she drank wyn / thougħ I had ben his wyf
He shulde nat han daunted / me fro drynke
And after wyn / on venus must I thynke
465
For also siker / as cold / engenderetħ hail