[6-text p 176]
¶ This noble marchant / gentilly anon
Answerde / and seyde o cosyn myn Daun Iohn
Line 1472
Now sikerly / this is a smal requeste [folio 150b]
My gold is youres / whan þat it yow leste
And nat oonly my gold / but my chaffare
Take what yow list god shilde þat ye spare
Line 1476
¶ But o thyng is / ye knowe it wel ynogh
Of Chapmen / that hir moneie is hir plogh
We may creaunce / whil we haue a name
But goldlees for to be / it is no game
Line 1480
Paye it agayn / whan it lith in youre ese
After my myght / ful fayn wolde I yow plese
¶ Thise hundred frankes / he fette hym forth anon
And priuely / he took hem to daun Iohn
Line 1484
No wight in al this world / wiste of this loone
Sauynge this Marchant / and daun Iohn alloone
They drynke / and speke / and rome a while and pleye
Til þat daun Iohn / rideth to his Abbeye
Line 1488
The morwe cam / and forth this Marchant rideth
To fflaundres ward / his prentys wel hym gydeth
Til he cam / in to Brugges murily
Now gooth this Marchant faste and bisily
Line 1492
Aboute his nede / and byeth and creaunceth
He neither / pleyeth at dees ne daunceth
But as a Marchant shortly for to telle
He let his lyf / and there I lete hym dwelle
Line 1496
The sonday next this Marchant was agon
To seint Denys / ycomen is Daun Iohn
With crowne and berde all fressh and newe y-shaue
In al the hous / ther nas so litel a knaue
Line 1500
Ne no wight elles / þat he nas ful fayn
That my lord Daun Iohn / was come agayn
And shortly / right to the point for to gon
This faire wyf accorded with daun Iohn
Line 1504
That for thise hundred frankes / he sholde al nyght
Haue hire in hise armes / bolt upright
