The Canon's Yeoman's Prologue
Folio 203v
4 of 5 folios
Werfore in that / I holde hī lewed and nice
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For whan a man hatħ / ouer gret a wit
Ful ofte hī happetħ / to mys vsen it
So dotħ my lord / and that me greuetħ sore
God it amende / I can sey nomore
¶ Ther of no fors / good ȝeman / qd oure hoost
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Syn of the conynge / of thy lord þu woost
Telle how he dotħ / I preye the hertly
Syn that he is / so crafty / and so sly
Where dwelle ȝe / if it to telle be
In the Subarbes of a Toun / quod he
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Lurkynge in hernes / and in lanes blynde
Where as theise robbours / & theise theues by kynde
Holden here pryue / ferful residence
As they that durn nat shewen / here persence
So faren we / if I shal seye the sothe
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Ȝet quod oure hoost / lat me talke to the
Why artow so discoloured / of thy face
Peter quod he / god ȝeue it harde grace
I am so vsed / in the fir to blowe
That it hatħ chaunged / my colour I trowe
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I nam nat wont / in no myrour to prye
But swynke sore / and lerne multiplie
We blundren euere / and pouren in the fyre
And for al that / we faille of oure desire
For euere we lakke / oure conclusioū
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To mechel folk / we don illusioū
And borwe gold / be it a pound or two
Or ten or twelue / and manye sōmes moo
And maken hem wenen / atte leest weye
That of a pound / we coude make tweye
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Ȝet is it fals / and ay we han good hope
It for to doon / and after it we grope
But that science / is so fer vs biforñ
We moun nat / al thougħ we hadden sworñ
It ouer take / it slit a wey so faste
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It wol us make beggers / atte laste
Whil this ȝeman was thus / in this talkyng
This Chanoun drow hī nere / & herd al thyng
Whicħ this ȝeman spak / for suspecioū
Of mēnes speche / euere hadde this Chanoū
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For Catoū seitħ / that he that gilty is