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

                                
                                     [6-text p 377] 
                                  
                                  ¶ What maketh yow / to han al this labour
                                
                                  ¶ fful many a cause / leeue sire Somonour
                                
                                  Seyde this feend / but alle thyng hath tyme
                                
                                  The day is short and it is passed pryme
                                  Line 1476 
                                
                                  And yet ne wan I no-thyng in this day
                                
                                  I wol entende / to wynnen if I may
                                
                                  And nat entende / hir wittes to declare
                                
                                  ffor brother myn / thy wit is al to bare
                                  Line 1480 
                                
                                  To vnderstonde / al-thogh I tolde hem thee
                                
                                  But for thou axest why labouren we
                                
                                  ffor som tyme / we been goddes Instrumentz
                                
                                  And meenes / to doon hise comandementz
                                  Line 1484 
                                
                                  Whan that hym list vp-on his creatures
                                
                                  In diuers art and in diuerse figures
                                
                                  With-outen hym / we haue no myght certayn
                                
                                  If that hym list to stonden ther agayn
                                  Line 1488 
                                
                                  And som tyme / at oure prayere / han we leue
                                
                                  Oonly the body / and nat the soule greue
                                
                                  Witnesse on Iob / whom that we diden wo
                                
                                  And som tyme / han we myght of bothe two
                                  Line 1492 
                                
                                  This is to seyn / of soule and body eke
                                
                                  And somtyme / be we suffred for to seke
                                
                                  Vp-on a man / and doon his soule vnreste
                                
                                  And nat his soule / and al is for the beste
                                  Line 1496 
                                
                                  Whan he withstandeth oure temptacioun [folio 83a] 
                                
                                  It is / cause / of his sauacioun
                                
                                  Al be it that it was nat oure entente
                                
                                  He sholde be sauf but þat we wolde hym hente
                                  Line 1500 
                                
                                  And som tyme / be we seruant vn-to man
                                
                                  As to the Bisshope / Seint Dunstan
                                
                                  And to the Apostles / seruant eek was .I.
                                
                                  ¶ Yet tel me / quod the Somonour feithfully
                                  Line 1504 
                                
                                  Make ye yow newe bodies / thus alway
                                
                                  Of Elementz? the feend answerde nay /
                                
                                  Som tyme we feyne / and som tyme we aryse
                                
                                  With dede bodyes / in ful sondry wyse

                                  Line 1508

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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 210
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/agz8232.0001.001/240:5

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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 May 14, 2025.

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

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