'I acorde me,' quod I; 'but I desire gretly that shrewes
losten sone [thilke unselinesse], that is to seyn, that shrewes weren
despoyled of mowinge to don yvel.'
'[So shullen] they,' quod she, 'soner, per-aventure, than thou
woldest; or soner than they hem-self wene to lakken mowinge to
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don yvel. [For ther] nis no-thing so late in so shorte boundes of
this lyf, that is long to abyde, nameliche, to a corage inmortel;
of whiche shrewes the grete hope, and the hye compassinges of
shrewednesses, is ofte destroyed by a sodeyn ende, or they ben