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

                                
                                     [6-text p 367] 
                                  
                                  To doon / of gentilesse / the faire office
                                
                                  They myghte do / no vileynye or vice
                                
                                  ¶ Taak fyr / and bere it in the derkeste hous
                                
                                  Bitwix this / and the mount of kaukasous
                                  Line 1140 
                                
                                  And lat men shette the dores / and go thenne
                                
                                  Yet wol the fyr / as faire lye and brenne
                                
                                  As twenty thousand men / myghte it biholde
                                
                                  His office naturel / ay wol it holde
                                  Line 1144 
                                
                                  Vp peril of my lyf til that it dye
                                
                                  Here may ye se wel / how þat genterye
                                
                                  Is nat annexed / to possession
                                
                                  Sith folk ne doon hir operacion
                                  Line 1148 
                                
                                  Alwey / as dooth the fyr lo in his kynde
                                
                                  ffor god it woot men may wel often fynde
                                
                                  A lordes sone / do shame and vileynye
                                
                                  And he þat wol han prys / of his gentrye
                                  Line 1152 
                                
                                  ffor he was born / of a gentil hous
                                
                                  And hadde hise eldres / noble and vertuous
                                
                                  And nyl hym seluen / do no gentil dedis
                                
                                  Ne folwen his gentil Auncestre / that deed is
                                  Line 1156 
                                
                                  He nys nat gentil / be he duc or Erl
                                
                                  ffor vileynes synful dedes / maken a cherl
                                
                                  ffor gentilesse / nys but renomee
                                
                                  Of thyne Auncestres / for hir hye bountee
                                  Line 1160 
                                
                                  Which is straunge thyng for thy persone
                                
                                  Thy gentilesse / cometh fro god allone
                                
                                  Thanne comth / oure verray gentilesse of grace
                                
                                  It was no thyng biquethe vs / with oure place
                                  Line 1164 
                                
                                  Thenketh how noble / as seith Valerius
                                
                                  Was thilke / Tullius hostillius
                                
                                  That out of pouerte / roos to heigh noblesse
                                
                                  Redeth Senek and redeth eek Boece
                                  Line 1168 
                                
                                  Ther shul ye seen expres / þat no drede is
                                
                                  That he is gentil / that dooth gentil dedis
                                
                                  And ther-fore / leue housbonde / I thus conclude
                                
                                  Al were it that myne Auncestres weren rude

                                  Line 1172

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Title: The Hengwrt ms of Chaucer's Canterbury tales / edited by Frederick J. Furnivall.
Author: Chaucer, Geoffrey, d. 1400.
Canvas: Page 162
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/agz8233.0001.001
Link to this scan: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cme/agz8233.0001.001/188:4

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Full citation: "The Hengwrt 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/agz8233.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed May 17, 2025.

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

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