Charles Brockden Brown (1771–1810). Edgar Huntley; or, Memoirs of a Sleep-Walker. 1857.
The Canterbury TalesThe Franklin’s Prologue
The Prologe of the Frankeleyns Tale.
THISE olde gentil Britons in hir dayesOf diverse aventures maden layes,Rymeyed in hir firste Briton tonge;Which layes with hir instruments they songe,Or elles redden hem for hir plesaunce;And oon of hem have I in remembraunce,Which I shal seyn with good wil as I can.But, sires, by-cause I am a burel man,At my biginning first I yow bisecheHave me excused of my rude speche;I lerned never rethoryk certeyn;Thing that I speke, it moot be bare and pleyn.I sleep never on the mount of Pernaso,Ne lerned Marcus Tullius Cithero.Colours ne knowe I none, with-outen drede,But swiche colours as growen in the mede,Or elles swiche as men dye or peynte.Colours of rethoryk ben me to queynte;My spirit feleth noght of swich matere.But if yow list, my tale shul ye here.