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[6-text p 500]
[THE PROEM.] ¶ The Prologe / of the ffrankeleyns tale . [folio 127b]
THise olde gentil Britons / in hir dayes
Of diuerse auentures / maden layes
Rymeyed / in hir firste Briton tonge
Whiche layes / with hir Instrumentz they songe
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Or elles redden hem / for hir plesance
And oon of hem / haue I in remembrance
Which I shal seyn / with good wyl as I kan
¶ But sires / by cause I am a burel man
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At my bigynnyng first I yow biseche
Haue me excused / of my rude speche
I lerned neuere Rethorik certeyn
Thyng þat I speke / it moot be bare and pleyn
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I sleepe neuere / on the Mount of Pernaso [¶ Vnde Persius ‖ fonte labra prolui caballino / nec in bicipite parnaso me memini sompniasse.]
Ne lerned / Marcus Tullius Scithero
Colours ne knowe I none with outen drede
But swiche colours / as growen in the Mede
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Or elles swiche / as men dye or peynte
Colours of Rethoryk/ been to queynte
My spirit feeleth noght of swich mateere
But if yow list my tale shul ye heere
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