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The Testament of John Lydgate:
British Library Harley 218 Verses

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f.67 verso
Folio 52 VersoFolio 53 RectoFolio 53 VersoFolio 54 RectoFolio 54 VersoFolio 55 RectoFolio 55 VersoFolio 56 RectoFolio 56 VersoFolio 57 RectoFolio 57 VersoFolio 58 RectoFolio 58 VersoFolio 59 RectoFolio 59 VersoFolio 60 RectoFolio 60 VersoFolio 61 RectoFolio 61 VersoFolio 62 RectoFolio 62 VersoFolio 63 RectoFolio 63 VersoFolio 64 RectoFolio 64 VersoFolio 65 RectoFolio 65 VersoFolio 66 RectoFolio 66 VersoFolio 67 RectoFolio 67 VersoFolio 68 RectoFolio 68 VersoFolio 69 RectoFolio 69 VersoFolio 70 RectoFolio 70 VersoFolio 71 RectoFolio 71 VersoFolio 72 Recto

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Folio 67 Verso
Compare Witnesses: •
His holy rewle was onto me rad •
And expouned in ful notable wyse •
Be vertuous men / religious and sad •
Fful weel experte / discrete prudent and wys •
Of observaunces / of many gostly empryse •
I herd ałł weel / but towchyng to the dede •
Of that thei taught / I toke litel hede •
Of religioun1 I wered / a blak habite •
Only outward / as be apparence •
To folowe that charge / sauoured but fullyte •
Saue be a maner counterfete pretence •
But in effect ther was none existence •
Like the ymage2 / of pygmalyoun •
Shewed lyfly / and was made but of stoun •
Vpon the ladder / witħ staves thryves thre •
The .ix. degress / of vertuous mekenesse •
Called in the reule / grees of humylite •
Wheron3 tascende / my feet me lyst not dresse •
But be a maner / feyned fals humblenesse •
So couertly whan folkes were presente •
On to shewe outward / another in myn entent •
Notes
  1. There is a suspension mark here that has no obvious letter suspended. Thus, it is otiose. ↩
  2. The EETS edition has "image," but the manuscript has "ymage." ↩
  3. The rubricator only touched one half of the "w" glyph here. ↩

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