Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Charles Brockden Brown (1771–1810). Edgar Huntley; or, Memoirs of a Sleep-Walker. 1857.

The Canterbury Tales

Epilogue to the Marchantes Tale

‘EY! goddes mercy!’ seyde our Hoste tho,‘Now swich a wyf I pray god kepe me fro!Lo, whiche sleightes and subtiliteesIn wommen been! for ay as bisy as beesBen they, us sely men for to deceyve,And from a sothe ever wol they weyve;By this Marchauntes Tale it preveth weel.But doutelees, as trewe as any steelI have a wyf, though that she povre be;But of hir tonge a labbing shrewe is she,And yet she hath an heep of vyces mo;Ther-of no fors, lat alle swiche thinges go.But, wite ye what? in conseil be it seyd,Me reweth sore I am un-to hir teyd.For, and I sholde rekenen every vyceWhich that she hath, y-wis, I were to nyce,And cause why; it sholde reported beAnd told to hir of somme of this meynee;Of whom, it nedeth nat for to declare,Sin wommen connen outen swich chaffare;And eek my wit suffyseth nat ther-toTo tellen al; wherfor my tale is do.’