The Wife of Bath's Tale
Folio 77r
3 of 10 folios
In vndermeles / and in morwenynges
850
And seitħ hise matynes / & his holy thynges
As he gotħ / in his lymytaciou
Wommen moun go now / safly vp & doun
In euery bussħ / and vnder euery tree
There is noon other / Incubus but he
855
And he ne wyl do hem / but dishonour
¶ And so byfel / that this kyng Arthour
Had in his hous / a lusty bacheler
That on a day / cam ridyng fro ryuer
And happed that allone / as he was born
860
He saw a mayde / walkyng hī byforñ
Of whiche mayde / a noon maugre hire hede
By verray force / byraft hire maydenhede
For whicħ oppression / was swicħ clamour
And swicħ pursute / vn to the kyng Arthour
865
That dampned was this knygħt / for to be deed
By cours of lawe / and shuld han loost his heed
Parauenture / swicħ was the statute thoo
But that the Quene / and othere ladies moo
So longe preyeden / the kyng of grace
870
Til he his lyf / hī gaunted in the place
And ȝaf hī to the Quene / al at hire wylle
To chese wheither she wolde / hī saue or spille
The Quene thanketħ the kyng / wt al hire mygħt
And aftir this / thus spak she to the knygħt
Whan that she saw hire tyme / vp on a day
875
Thow stondest ȝet qd she / in swicħ array
That of thy lif / ȝet hast þu non seurte
I gaunte the lif / if thow canst telle me
What thyng is it / that wommen most desiren
Be war / & kepe thyn nekke bon / from Ireñ
880
And if þu canst nat / telle it me anoon
Ȝet wol I ȝeue the / leue for to goon
A twelwemonet
ħ & a day
/ to seche
& leere
A mark on the left margin goes from line 872 to 882, made in brown ink. ODR
An answere sufficeant / in this matere
And seurte wol I haue / er that thow pace
885
Thy body for to ȝelden / in this place
Wo was this knygħt / and sorwefully he syketħ
But what / he may nat do / al as hī liketħ
And at the last / he ches hī for to wende
And come a geyn / rigħt at the ȝeres ende
890
Witħ swicħ answere / as god hī wold purueye
And taketħ his leue / and wendetħ fortħ his weye
He seketħ euery hous / and euery place