[6-text p 255]
. . . . .
. . . . . [no gap in the MS.]
Line 3148
This maketh / that oure wyues wole assaye
Religious folk for ye mowe bettre paye
Of Venus paiementz / than mowe we
God woot no lussheburgh payen ye
Line 3152
But be nat wrooth / my lord for þat I pleye
fful ofte in game / a sooth I haue herd seye
¶ This worthy Monk / took al in pacience
And seyde I wol doon al my diligence
Line 3156
As fer as sowneth / in-to honestee
To telle yow a tale / or two / or three
And if yow list to herkne hyderward
I wol [yow] seyn the lyf / of seint Edward
Line 3160
Or ellis / first Tragedies wol I telle
Of whiche /I/ haue an hundred in my Celle
¶ Tragedie is to seyn / a certeyn storie
As olde bookes / maken vs memorie
Line 3164
Of hym / that stood / in greet prosperitee
And is yfallen / out of heigh degree
In to myserie / and endeth wrecchedly
And they ben versified communely
Line 3168
Of .vj. feet. which men clepen Exametron
In prose eek / been endited many oon
And eek in meetre / in many a sondry wyse
Lo / this declaryng oghte ynogh suffise
Line 3172
Now herkneth / if yow liketh for to heere [folio 173a]
But first / I yow biseeke / in this mateere
Though I by ordre / telle nat thise thynges
Be it of Popes / Emperours / or kynges
Line 3176
After hir ages / as men writen fynde
But tellen hem / som bifore and som bihynde
As it now comth / vn-to my remembraunce
Haue me excused of min ignoraunce
Line 3180
¶ Explicit
