The Monk's Tale
Folio 174r
11 of 19 folios
In yowthe / a maister hadde this Emperour
410
To teche hym lettrure / and curteisye
For of moraltee / he was the flour
As in his tyme / but if bookes lye
And whil this maister hadde of hym maistrye
He maked hym / so konnyng and so sowple
415
That longe tyme it was / er tirannye
Or any vice / dorste on hym vncowple
This Seneca / of which that I deuyse
By cause Nero / hadde of hym swich drede
For he fro vices / wolde hym chastise
420
Discreetly / as by word / and nat by dede
Sire wolde he seyn / an Emperour moot nede
Be vertuous / and hate tirannye
For which / he in a bath / made hym to blede
On bothe hise armes / til he moste dye
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This Nero / hadde eek / of acustumaūce
In youthe / agayns his maister for to ryse
Which afterward / hym thougħte greet greuaūce
Therfore / he made hym dyen in this wise
But nathelees / this Seneca the wise
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Chees in a Bath to dye / in this manere
Rather than han / any oother tormentise
And thus hath Nero / slayn his maister deere
Now fil it so / that Fortune liste no lenger
The hye pryde of Nero to cherice
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For though þt he was strong yet was she strenger
She thoughte thus / by god I am to nyce
To sette a man / that is fulfild of vice
In heigħ degree / and Emperour hym calle
By god / out of his sete / I wol hym trice
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Whan he leest weneth / sonnest shal he falle
The peple roos vp on hym / on a nygħt
For his defaute / and whan he it espied
Out of hise dores / anon he hath hym digħt
Allone / and ther he wende han been allied
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He knokked faste / and ay the moore he cried
The faster shette they / the dores alle
For drede of this / hym thoughte þt he dyed
And wente his wey / no lenger dorste he calle
The peple cride / and rombled vp and doun
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That wt hise erys / herde he / how they seyde
Where is this false tiraunt this Neroun