The Ellesmere ms of Chaucer's Canterbury tales / edited by Frederick J. Furnivall.

                                
                                     [6-text p 353] 
                                  
                                  ¶ And eek/ ther was som tyme / a clerk at Rome
                                
                                  A Cardinal / that highte Seint Ierome
                                
                                  That made a book agayn Iouinian
                                
                                  In which book eek ther was Tertulan
                                  Line 676 
                                
                                  Crisippus / Trotula / and Helowys
                                
                                  That was Abbesse / nat fer fro Parys
                                
                                  And eek the Parables of Salomon
                                
                                  Ouides Art and bookes many on
                                  Line 680 
                                
                                  And alle thise / were bounden / in o volume
                                
                                  And euery nyght and day / was his custume
                                
                                  Whan he hadde leyser / and vacacion
                                
                                  ffrom oother / worldly / occupacion
                                  Line 684 
                                
                                  To reden on this book / of wikked wyues
                                
                                  He knew of hem / mo legendes and lyues
                                
                                  Than been / of goode wyues in the Bible.
                                
                                  ffor trusteth wel / it is an impossible
                                  Line 688 
                                
                                  That any clerk wol speke good of wyues
                                
                                  But if it be / of hooly seintes lyues
                                
                                  Ne noon oother womman / neuer the mo
                                
                                  Who peynted the leon / tel me who? [¶ Quis pinxit leonem] 
                                  Line 692 
                                
                                  By god / if wommen / hadde writen stories
                                
                                  As clerkes han / with-Inne hire oratories
                                
                                  They wolde han writen / of men moore wikkednesse
                                
                                  Than all the mark/ of Adam may redresse
                                  Line 696 
                                
                                  The children / of Mercurie and Venus
                                
                                  Been in hir wirkyng ful contrarius
                                
                                  Mercurie / loueth wysdam and science
                                
                                  And Venus / loueth ryot and dispence
                                  Line 700 
                                
                                  And for hire diuerse disposicion
                                
                                  Ech falleth / in otheres exaltacion [¶ Vterque cadit vbi alia exaltatur] 
                                
                                  And thus god woot Mercurie is desolat
                                
                                  In Pisces / wher Venus is exaltat
                                  Line 704 
                                
                                  And Venus falleth / ther Mercurie is reysed [.i. in Virgine]  [folio 74b]  [¶ In libro Mansor primo ‖ Vniuscujusque planetarum. 4. ‖ Exaltacio illo in loco fore dicitur in quo subito patitur ab alio contrarium & cetera / Velut Mercurius in virgine que est casus veneris ‖. Alter. scilicet. Mercurius significat scientiam & philosophiam ‖. Alter vero cantus & alacritates & quicquid est sapiferum corpori] 
                                
                                  Therfore no womman / of no clerk is preysed
                                
                                  The clerk whan he is oold / and may noght do
                                
                                  Of Venus werkes / worth his olde sho

                                  Line 708

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Title: The Ellesmere ms of Chaucer's Canterbury tales / edited by Frederick J. Furnivall.
Author: Chaucer, Geoffrey, d. 1400.
Canvas: Page 186
Publication: London :: Published for the Chaucer Society by N. Trübner,; 1868-1879.

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Collection: Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse
Link to this Item: https://name.umdl.umich.edu/agz8232.0001.001
Link to this scan: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cme/agz8232.0001.001/216:5.1.1

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Full citation: "The Ellesmere ms of Chaucer's Canterbury tales / edited by Frederick J. Furnivall." In the digital collection Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/agz8232.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 2, 2025.

The Ellesmere ms of Chaucer's Canterbury tales / edited by Frederick J. Furnivall.

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