The Knight's Tale
Folio 18v
32 of 35 folios
More þan myn / þt sterueth here in a cage
For I mote wepe / and wayle while I leue
With al the woo / þt prison may me ȝeue
And eke wt peyne / that loue me ȝeueth also
440
That doubleth al my trment / and my woo
¶ Ther with / the fyr of ielousie vp stirte
With Inne his brest / & hent hī by the herte
So wodly / þt he lyke was / to be hold
The Box tre / or the asshen / dede and cold
445
¶ Thāne seide he / O cruel goddes þt gouerne
This world wt byndyng / of ȝoure word et erne
And wryte in the table / of Athamante
Ȝoure parlament / and ȝoure et erne gaunte
What is man kynde more / vn to ȝow hold
450
Than is a shepe / that rukketh in the fold
For slayn is man / rigħt as an other best
And dwelleth eke / x x in prisoū / and arrest
And hath seknes / and gret aduersitee
And often tymes / giltlees perde
455
What gouernance is / in this prescience
That giltles / trmentist Innocence
And ȝet encreseth this / al my penaunce
That man is bounde / to his obseruance
For goddes sake / to letten of his wylle
460
There as a best may / al his lust fulfille
And whan a best is ded / he hath no peyne
But after his deth / a man mote wepe & pleyne
Though in þis world / he haue care and woo
W oute doute / it may stonde so
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The answere of þis / lete I to deuynes
But wel I wot / in þis world gret peyne is
¶ Allas / I se a serpent or a thef
That many a trewe man / hath do . myschef
Gon at his large / & where hī list may trne
470
But I mot be in prisoū / thurugh Satrne
And eke þurugħ Iuno Ielous / and eke wode
That hath wel ny destroyed / al the blode
Of Thebes / with his wast walles wyde
And venus sleth me / on þt other syde
475
For ielousye / and feer of þis Arcite
Now wyl I stynt / of Palamoū a lyte