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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 Tale Folio 77r 3 of 10 folios
850
And seitħ hise matynes / & his holy thynges
As he gotħ / in his lymytaciou
Wommen moun go now / safly vp & doun
In euer y bussħ / and vnder euer y tree
There is noon other / Incubus but he
855
And he ne wyl do hem / but dishonour
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 knygħ t / for to be deed
By cours of lawe / and shuld han loost his heed
But that the Quene / and othere ladies moo
So longe preyeden / the kyng of grace
870
Til he his lyf / hī ga unted 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 mygħ t
And aftir this / thus spak she to the knygħ t
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 þ u non seurte
I ga unte 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 þ u canst nat / telle it me anoon
Ȝet wol I ȝeue the / leue for to goon
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 knygħ t / 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 / rigħ t at the ȝeres ende
890
Witħ swicħ answere / as god hī wold purueye
And taketħ his leue / and wendetħ fortħ his weye
He seketħ euer y hous / and euer y place