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

                                  
                                       [6-text p 255] 
                                    
                                    This maketh / þat oure heires beth so sklendre
                                  
                                    And feble / þat they may nat wel engendre
                                    Line 3148 
                                  
                                    This maketh / þat oure wyues wole assaye
                                  
                                    Religious folk / for ye mowe bettre paye
                                  
                                    Of Venus paiementz / than may we
                                  
                                    God woot no lussheburgh payen ye
                                    Line 3152 
                                  
                                    But be nat wrooth my Lord / thogh þat I pleye
                                  
                                    fful ofte in game / a sooth I haue herd seye
                                  
                                    ¶ This worthy Monk / took al in pacience [folio 89a] 
                                  
                                    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 hiderward
                                  
                                    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 bokes / maken vs memorie
                                    Line 3164 
                                  
                                    Of hym / þat stood in greet prosperitee
                                  
                                    And is yfallen / out of heigh degree
                                  
                                    In to myserie / and endeth wrecchedly
                                  
                                    And they been / versified comunly
                                    Line 3168 
                                  
                                    Of .vj. feet whiche men clepyn Exametron
                                  
                                    In prose eek been endited many oon
                                  
                                    And eek in metre / in many a sondry wise
                                  
                                    Lo this declaryng oghte ynogh suffise
                                    Line 3172 
                                  
                                    ¶ Now herkneth / if yow liketh for to heere
                                  
                                    But first I yow biseke / in this matere
                                  
                                    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 telle hem / som bifore / and som bihynde
                                  
                                    As it now cometh / vn-to my remembrance
                                  
                                    Haueth me excused / of myn ignorance

                                    Line 3180

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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 199
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/agz8233.0001.001/225:4

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Manifest: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/api/manifest/cme:agz8233.0001.001

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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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