[6-text p 255]
This makeþ þat oure heires ben so sclendre
And feble þat þay may not wel engendre
Line 3148
This makeþ þat oure wyfes wol assay
Religious folk for þey may bettre pay
Of venus payement þen mowen we
God woot no lussheburghes paye ȝe
Line 3152
But beþ nought wroþ my lord þough þat I play
fful ofte in game a soþ I haue herd say
This worþy monk took al in pacience
And sayde I wil do al my diligence
Line 3156
As fer as sowneþ in to honeste
To telle ȝou a tale or tuo or þre
And if ȝou liste herkne hiderward [folio 236a]
I wol ȝou seyn þe lyf of seint Edward
Line 3160
Or elles tregedys first wol I telle
Of whiche I haue an hundred in my selle
Tregedye is for to telle a certein storye
As olde bookes maken memorie
Line 3164
Of hem þat stood in gret prosperite
And is y-falle out of heigh degre
In-to miserie and endeþ wrecchedly
And þey ben vercefyed comenly
Line 3168
Of sixe foote whiche þat men clepen examytron
In proce eek ben endited many oon
And eek in metre in many a sondry wyse
Lo þis aughte ȝou ynough suffyse
Line 3172
Now herkneþ if ȝou liste for to heere
But first I ȝou beseche in þis mateere /
þough I by ordre telle nouȝt þese þinges
Be it of Popes Emperours or Kynges
Line 3176
And after here ages as men writen fynde
But telle hem some bifore some behinde
As it comeþ now to my remembrance
Haueþ me excused of myn ignorance
¶ Explicit prologus monachi
