5. [& Incipit prologus de le ffrankelyn
[Brit. Mus. Addit. MS 5140 folio 181b]
IN feith squyer / ye haue you wel y-quyt
And gentylly / y preyse wel your wyt
Quod the ffrankelyn / consideryng your youth
So felyngly / ye speke / sir y a-lowgh
Line 676
As to my dome / ther is non that is her
Of eloquence / that shalbe your peer
Yf that ye lyve / god yeve you good chaunce
And yn vertue / sende you contynuaunce
Line 680
ffor of your speche / y haue gret deynte
I haue sene / and by the Trynyte
I hadde levir / than xxli worth londe
Thouh it ryht nowe / wer fallen in myn honde
Line 684
He wer a man / of suche discrecion
As that ye ben / fy on possession
But yf a man / be vertuous wythall /
I haue my sone snybbed / and yit shall [Addit. 5140 folio 182a]
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ffor he to vertue / lustyth nat to entende
But for to pleye at Dyse / and spende
And lese all that he hath / is his vsage
And he had lever / talkyn with a page
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Than to comon / wyth any gentyl wyht
Wher he myht lerne / gentylnesse aryht
Strawe for gentylnesse / quod our ost
what frankelyn parde / wel thou wost
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That eche of you / mot tellen at lest
A tale or too / or brekyn his behest
That know y wel / sir / quod the ffrankelyn
I pray you / haueth me nat in disdeyne
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