[6-text p 404]
Als fer as resoun askith hardily
I wil ȝow telle a tale which þat I
lerned at Padowe of a worþy clerk
As prouyd by his wordes and his werk
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he is now deed and nayled in his chest
Now god ȝiue his soule wel good rest
Fraunces petrark þe laureat poete [folio 117a]
highte þis clerk/. whos rethorique swete
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Enlumynd al ytail of poetrie
As linian did of philosophie
Or lawue or other art particulere
But deth þat wol not suffre vs duellen heere
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But as it were a twyncling of an ye
hem boþe haþ slayn and alle schul dye
But forth to telle of this worþy man
That taughte me þis tale as I first bigan
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I say þat he first with heigh stile enditith
Er he þe body of his tale writith
A proheme in the which descriuith he
The mounde and of Saluces þe contre
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And spekith of appenyne þe hulles hye
That ben þe boundes of al west lombardye
And of mount vesulus in special
wher as þe poo out of a welle smal
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Takith his firste springyng and his sours
That estward ay encresceth in his cours
To Emyl-ward · to ferard and to venise
The which a long þing were to deuyse
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And trewely as to my Iuggement
Me thinkith it a þing Impertinent
Saue þat he wold conueyen his matiere
But þis is þe tale which þat ȝe schuln heere
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¶ Explicit prohemium [[No break in the MS. here, or between the Stanzas following.]]
