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

                                
                                     [6-text p 304] 
                                  
                                  My lord and I / been ful of oon accord
                                
                                  I made hire / to the worshipe of my lord
                                
                                  So do I / alle myne othere creatures
                                
                                  What colour that they han / or what figures
                                  Line 28 
                                
                                  Thus semeth me / that Nature wolde seye [folio 137b] 
                                
                                  ¶ This mayde of Age .xij. yeer was and tweye
                                
                                  In which þat Nature / hadde swich delit
                                
                                  ffor right as she kan peynte a lilie whit
                                  Line 32 
                                
                                  And reed a Rose / right with swich peynture
                                
                                  She peynted hath this noble creature
                                
                                  Er she were born / vp-on hir lymes fre
                                
                                  Where as by right / swiche colours sholde be
                                  Line 36 
                                
                                  And Phebus dyed hath / hire treses grete
                                
                                  Lyk to the stremes / of his burned heete
                                
                                  And if þat excellent was hire beautee
                                
                                  A thousand foold / moore vertuous was she
                                  Line 40 
                                
                                  In hire / ne lakked no condicion
                                
                                  That is to preyse / as by discrecion
                                
                                  As wel in goost as body / chast was she
                                
                                  ffor which / she floured in virginitee
                                  Line 44 
                                
                                  With alle humylitee / and Abstinence
                                
                                  With alle attemperaunce and pacience
                                
                                  With mesure eek / of beryng and array
                                
                                  Discreet she was / in answeryng alway
                                  Line 48 
                                
                                  Though she were wise Pallas dar I seyn
                                
                                  Hir facound eek / ful wommanly a pleyn
                                
                                  No countrefeted termes / hadde she
                                
                                  To seme wys / but after hir degree
                                  Line 52 
                                
                                  She spak / and alle hire wordes moore and lesse
                                
                                  Sownynge in vertu / and in gentillesse
                                
                                  Shamefast she was / [in] maydens shamefastnesse
                                
                                  Constant in herte / and euere in bisynesse
                                  Line 56 
                                
                                  To dryue hire / out of ydel slogardye
                                
                                  Bacus hadde of hire mouth / right no maistrie
                                
                                  ffor wyn and youthe / dooth Venus encresse
                                
                                  As man in fyr / wol wasten oille or greesse

                                  Line 60

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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 362
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/agz8232.0001.001/392

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Manifest: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/api/manifest/cme:agz8232.0001.001

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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 20, 2025.

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

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