The Summoner's Prologue
Folio 79r
1 of 2 folios
For pardee / ye han ofte tyme herd telle
How that a frere / rauysshed was to helle
In Spirit ones / by avisioun
And as an Aungel / ladde hym vp and down
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To shewen hym / the peynes þt ther were
In al the place / say he nat a frere
Of oother folk / he say ynowe in wo
Vn to this Aungel / spak the frere tho
¶ Now sire quod he / han freres swich a gace
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That noon of hem / shal come to this place
¶ Yis quod this Aungel / many a Milioun
And vn to Sathanas / he ladde hym doun
And now hath Sathanas / seith he a tayl
Brodder / than of a Carryk is the sayl
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Hold vp thy tayl / thow Sathanas quod he
Shewe forth thyn ers / and lat the frere se
Where is the nest of freres / in this place
And er þt / half a furlong wey of space
Right so as bees / out swarmen from an hyue
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Out of the deueles ers / ther gonne dryue
Twenty thousand freres / on a route
And thurgh out helle / swarmeden aboute
And comen again / as faste as they may gon
And in his ers / they crepten euerychon
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He clapte his tayl agayn / and lay ful stille
This frere / whan he looked hadde his fille
Vp on the tormentz / of this sory place
His spirit god restored of his grace
Vn to his body agayn / and he awook
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But nathelees / for fere yet he quook
So was the deueles ers / ay in his mynde
That is his heritage / of verray kynde
God saue yow alle / saue this cursed frere
My prologe / wol I ende / in this manere
¶ Here endeth the prologe of the Somnors tale ~