The Nun's Priest's Tale
Folio 180r
3 of 14 folios
We alle desiren / if it mygħte bee
To han housbondes / hardy wise and free
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And secree / and no Nygard / ne no fool
Ne hym / þt is agast of euery tool
Ne noon auauntour / by that god aboue
How dorste ye seyn for shame / vn to youre loue
That any thyng mygħte make yow aferd
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Haue ye no mannes herte / and han a berd
¶ Allas / and konne ye been agast of sweuenys
No thyng god woot / but vanitee in sweuene is
Sweuenes / engendren of repleccioūs
And ofte of fume / and of compleccioūs
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Whan humours / been to habundant in a wigħt
¶ Certes this dreem / which ye han met tonygħt
Cometh / of greet superfluytee
Of youre rede Colera pardee
Which causeth folk / to dreden in hir dremes
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Of arwes / and of fyr with rede lemes
Of grete beestes / that they wol hem byte
Of contekes and of whelpes / grete and lyte
Rigħt as the humour of Malencolie
Causeth ful many a man / in sleepe to crie
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For feere of blake beres / or boles blake
Or elles / blake deueles / wole hem take
¶ Of othere humours / koude I telle also
That werken many a man / in sleepe ful wo
But I wol passe / as ligħtly as I kan
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LO Catoū / which þt was so wys a man
Seyde he nat thus / ne do no fors of dremes
¶ Now sire quod she / whan ye flee fro the bemes
For goddes loue / as taak som laxatyf
Vp peril of my soule / and of my lyf
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I conseille yow the beste / I. wol nat lye
That bothe of Colere / and of Malencolye
Ye purge yow / and for ye shal nat tarie
Though in this toun / is noon Apothecarie
I shal my self. to herbes techen yow
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That shul been / for your heele / & for your prow
And in oure yeerd / tho herbes shal I fynde
The whiche han / of hir propretee by kynde
To purge yow / bynethe and eek aboue
Foryet nat this / for goddes owene loue
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Ye been ful coleryk of compleccioū
Ware the sonne / in his Ascencioū
Ne fynde yow nat repleet of humors hoote
And if it do / I dar wel leye a grote
That ye shul haue / a Feuere terciane
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Or an Agu / that may be youre bane