| | Why so quod I why wolt thou let me | |
| | More of my tale than another man | |
| 10 | Syn it is the beste Ryme that I can | |
| | Be god quod he ful plainly at o worde | |
| | Thy drafty rymynge is not word a tord | |
| | Thou dost naught ellis but spendist tyme | |
| | Sir at o word thou shalt no lengir Ryme | |
| 15 | Let se wher thou canst aught telle in geste | |
| | Or tellen in prose sumwhat that the list | |
| | In whiche ther may be som mirthe or som doctrine | |
| | Gladly quod I be goddis swete pyne | |
| | I wol you telle a litil thyng in prose | |
| 20 | That oughte like you as I suppose | |
| | Or ellis certis ye been to daungerous | |
| | It is a moral tale vertuous | |
| | Albe it told somtyme in sondry wyse | |
| | Of sondry folk as I shal you deuyse | |
| 25 | And thus ye woot that euery euangelist | |
| | That telle vs the passyon of crist | |
| | Ne saith not al thing as his felow doth | |
| | But natheles her sentence is al soth | |
| | And al accordinge as in her sentence | |
| 30 | Al be ther in her telling difference | |
| | For som of hem saith more and som lesse | |
| | When they his pitous passion expresse | |
| | I mene of Mark Mathew Luke and Iohn | |
| | But doutles her sentence is al on | |
| 35 | Therfore lordingis I you beseche | |
| | If that ye thynke I vary in my speche | |
