Here the Host 'stynteth' Chaucer's Tale of Sir Thopas
Folio 215v
2 of 3 folios
So wery / of thy verray lewednesse
That also wisly / god my soule blesse
5
Myne erys aken / of thy drasty speche
Now swich a rym / the deuel I biteche
This may wel be / rym dogerel quod he
¶ Why so quod I / why wiltow lette me
Moore of my tale / than another man
10
Syn that it is / the beste rym I kan
¶ By god quod he / for pleynly at o word
Thy drasty rymyng is nat worth a tord
Thow doost noght ellis / but despendest tyme
Sire at o word / thow shalt no lenger ryme
15
Lat se / wher thow kanst tellen aught in geste
Or tel in prose / som what at the leeste
In which ther be som myrthe / or som doctrine
¶ Gladly quod I / by goddes swete pyne
I wol yow telle / a litel thyng in prose
20
That oghte like yow / as I suppose
Or ellis certes / ye be to daungerous
It is a moral tale vertuous
Al be it toold som tyme in sondry wise
Of sondry folk / as I shal yow deuyse
25
¶ As thus / ye woot þt euery Euangelist
That telleth vs / the peyne of Ihū Crist
Ne seith nat alle thyng as his felawe dooth
But nathelees / hir sentence is al sooth
And alle acorden / as in hir sentence
30
Al be ther / in hir tellyng difference
For sōme of hem seyn moore / & sōme seyn lesse
Whan they / his pitous passion expersse
I mene / of Mark / Mathew / Luk and Ioħn
But doutelees / hir sentence is al oon
35
¶ Therfore / lordynges alle / I yow biseche
If þt ye thynke / I varie / as in my speche
As thus / thogh þt I telle somwhat moore
Of prouerbes / than ye han herd bifore
Comperhended / in this litel tretys heere
40
To enforcen with / theffect of my matere
And thogh I nat the same wordes seye
As ye han herd / yet to yow alle I preye