The Cambridge ms. Dd. 4. 24. of Chaucer's Canterbury tales, completed by the Egerton ms. 2726 (the Haistwell ms) Ed. by Frederick J. Furnivall ...

                                
                                     [6-text p 581] 
                                  
                                  White was this Crowe / as is a snowe-white swan
                                
                                  And countrefete þe speche of euery man
                                
                                  He coude / whan he shold tell a tale
                                
                                  There-with in all þis werld / no nyghtyngale
                                  Line 136 
                                
                                  Ne cowde by an hundred thousand dele [Eg. 2726 folio 238a] 
                                
                                  Syngen so wonder merely and wele
                                
                                  Now had this Phebus / in his hous a wyf/
                                
                                  Which that he loved more than his lyf/
                                  Line 140 
                                
                                  And nyght and day / dyd ever his diligence
                                
                                  Hir for to plese / and doon hir reuerence
                                
                                  Save onely / yf the soth / that I shall seyn
                                
                                  Ielous he was / and wold haue kept hir feyn
                                  Line 144 
                                
                                  ffor hym were loth byiaped / for to be
                                
                                  And so is euery wight / in soch degree
                                
                                  But all for nought / for it availeth nought/
                                
                                  A gode wyf / þat is clene / of werk and thought/
                                  Line 148 
                                
                                  Shold nat be kept / in noon awaite certein
                                
                                  And truely / the labour is in veyn
                                
                                  To kepe a shrewe for it woll nat be.
                                
                                  This hold I. for a verray nycetee
                                  Line 152 
                                
                                  To spille labour / for to kepe wyves
                                
                                  Thus writen old clerkes in her lyves
                                
                                  But now to purpos / as I first began
                                
                                  This worthy Phebus / doth all þat he can
                                  Line 156 
                                
                                  To plese hir / wenyng þat soch plesaunce
                                
                                  And for his manhode / and his gouernaunce
                                
                                  That no man shold / haue put hym from his grace
                                
                                  But god it wote / there may no man embrace
                                  Line 160 
                                
                                  As to destreyne / a thyng/ which þat nature
                                
                                  Hath naturelly / sette in a creature
                                
                                  Take ony bird / and put it in a kage
                                
                                  And do all thyn intent / and þy corage
                                  Line 164 
                                
                                  To fustre it tenderly / with mete and drynk/
                                
                                  Of all deyntees / þat þou canst bethynk/
                                
                                  And kepe it as clenly / as þou may
                                
                                  All-though his cage of gold be neuere so gay

                                  Line 168

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Title: The Cambridge ms. Dd. 4. 24. of Chaucer's Canterbury tales, completed by the Egerton ms. 2726 (the Haistwell ms) Ed. by Frederick J. Furnivall ...
Author: Chaucer, Geoffrey, d. 1400.
Canvas: Page 576
Publication: London,: Pub. for the Chaucer Society by K. Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co.,; 1902.

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Collection: Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse
Link to this Item: https://name.umdl.umich.edu/ash3725.0001.001
Link to this scan: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cme/ash3725.0001.001/598:12

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Full citation: "The Cambridge ms. Dd. 4. 24. of Chaucer's Canterbury tales, completed by the Egerton ms. 2726 (the Haistwell ms) Ed. by Frederick J. Furnivall ..." In the digital collection Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/ash3725.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed May 22, 2025.

The Cambridge ms. Dd. 4. 24. of Chaucer's Canterbury tales, completed by the Egerton ms. 2726 (the Haistwell ms) Ed. by Frederick J. Furnivall ...

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