Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse

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

[6-text p 622] dagged clothynge to the pouere folk/ it is nat conuenient to were / for hire estat ne suffisant to beete hire necessitee / to kepe hem / fro the destemperance of the firmament [422] ¶ Vp on that oother syde / to speke of the horrible desordynat scantnesse of clothyng as ben thise kutted sloppes / or hanselyns / þat thurgh hire shortnesse / ne keuere nat the shameful membres of man to wikke entente / [423] Allas / somme of hem shewen the shape & the boce of hire horrible swollen membres / þat semeth lik the maladie of hirnia / in the wrappynge of hire hoses [424] and eek the buttokes of hem / þat faren as it were the hyndre part of a she Ape / in the fulle of the Moone ‖ [425] And moore ouer / the wrecched swollen membres / þat they shewe thurgh degisynge / in departynge of hire hoses in whit and reed / semeth / þat half hire shame|ful pryuee membres weren flayn / [426] ¶ [folio 247a] And if so be / þat they departen hire hoses in othere colours / as is whit & blew / or whit & blak / or blak & reed / & so forth / [427] thanne semeth it as by variance of colour / þat half the partie of hire pryuee membres / ben corrupt by the fyr of Seint Antony / or by cancre / or othere swiche meschances ‖ Yet [428] of the hyndre part of hire buttokes / it is ful horrible for to se / for certes in that partie of hire body / ther as they purgen hire stynkynge ordure / [429] that foule partie / shewe they to the peple proudly in despit of honestetee / which honestetee þat Ihu crist & hise frendes obseruede to shewen in his lyue [430] ¶ Now / as of the outrageous array of wommen / god woot þat thogh the visages of somme of hem / seme ful chaste & debonaire / 'yet notifie they in hire array of atyr / likerousnesse & pride [431] ¶ I seye nat þat honestetee in clothynge / of man or womman / is vncouen|able / but certes the superfluitee / or the desordinat skantitee of clothynge is reprouable / [432] ¶ Also / the synne of Aornement/ or of apparaille / as in thynges þat apertenen [pride in thinges t[hat] longeth to rydyn[ge]] to ridynge / as in to manye delicat horses þat ben holden
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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 589
Publication
London :: Published for the Chaucer Society by N. Trübner,
1868-1879.

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https://name.umdl.umich.edu/agz8233.0001.001
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https://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cme/agz8233.0001.001/619:12

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"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 June 6, 2025.
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