MY KATE.

I.She was not as pretty as women I know,And yet all your best made of sunshine and snowDrop to shade, melt to nought in the long-trodden ways,While she’s still remembered on warm and cold days—My Kate.5II.Her air had a meaning, her movements a grace;You turned from the fairest to gaze on her face:And when you had once seen her forehead and mouth,You saw as distinctly her soul and her truth—My Kate.10III.Such a blue inner light from her eyelids outbroke,You looked at her silence and fancied she spoke:When she did, so peculiar yet soft was the tone,Though the loudest spoke also, you heard her alone—My Kate.15IV.I doubt if she said to you much that could actAs a thought or suggestion; she did not attractIn the sense of the brilliant or wise: I infer’Twas her thinking of others made you think of her—My Kate.20V.She never found fault with you, never impliedYour wrong by her right; and yet men at her sideGrew nobler, girls purer, as through the whole townThe children were gladder that pulled at her gown—My Kate.25VI.None knelt at her feet confessed lovers in thrall;They knelt more to God than they used,—that was all;If you praised her as charming, some asked what you meant,But the charm of her presence was felt when she went—My Kate.30VII.The weak and the gentle, the ribald and rude,She took as she found them, and did them all good;It always was so with her—see what you have!She has made the grass greener even here with her grave—My Kate.35VIII.My dear one!—when thou wast alive with the rest,I held thee the sweetest and loved thee the best;And now thou art dead, shall I not take thy partAs thy smiles used to do for thyself, my sweet HeartMy Kate.40

She was not as pretty as women I know,

And yet all your best made of sunshine and snow

Drop to shade, melt to nought in the long-trodden ways,

While she’s still remembered on warm and cold days—

My Kate.5

II.

Her air had a meaning, her movements a grace;

You turned from the fairest to gaze on her face:

And when you had once seen her forehead and mouth,

You saw as distinctly her soul and her truth—

My Kate.10

III.

Such a blue inner light from her eyelids outbroke,

You looked at her silence and fancied she spoke:

When she did, so peculiar yet soft was the tone,

Though the loudest spoke also, you heard her alone—

My Kate.15

IV.

I doubt if she said to you much that could act

As a thought or suggestion; she did not attract

In the sense of the brilliant or wise: I infer

’Twas her thinking of others made you think of her—

My Kate.20

She never found fault with you, never implied

Your wrong by her right; and yet men at her side

Grew nobler, girls purer, as through the whole town

The children were gladder that pulled at her gown—

My Kate.25

VI.

None knelt at her feet confessed lovers in thrall;

They knelt more to God than they used,—that was all;

If you praised her as charming, some asked what you meant,

But the charm of her presence was felt when she went—

My Kate.30

VII.

The weak and the gentle, the ribald and rude,

She took as she found them, and did them all good;

It always was so with her—see what you have!

She has made the grass greener even here with her grave—

My Kate.35

VIII.

My dear one!—when thou wast alive with the rest,

I held thee the sweetest and loved thee the best;

And now thou art dead, shall I not take thy part

As thy smiles used to do for thyself, my sweet Heart

My Kate.40

ROSABELLE.

Oh listen, listen, ladies gay!No haughty feat of arms I tell;Soft is the note and sad the layThat mourns the lovely Rosabelle.“Moor, moor the barge, ye gallant crew!5And, gentle ladye, deign to stay!Rest thee in Castle Ravensheuch,Nor tempt the stormy firth to-day.“The blackening wave is edged with white;To inch and rock the sea-mews fly;10The fishers have heard the Water-Sprite,Whose screams forbode that wreck is nigh.“Last night the gifted Seer did viewA wet shroud swathed round ladye gay;Then stay thee, Fair, in Ravensheuch;15Why cross the gloomy firth to-day?”—“’Tis not because Lord Lindesay’s heirTo-night at Roslin leads the ball,But that my ladye-mother thereSits lonely in her castle-hall.20“’Tis not because the ring they ride,And Lindesay at the ring rides well,But that my sire the wine will chideIf ’tis not fill’d by Rosabelle.”—O’er Roslin all that dreary night25A wondrous blaze was seen to gleam;’Twas broader than the watch-fire’s light,And redder than the bright moonbeam.It glared on Roslin’s castled rock,It ruddied all the copse-wood glen;30’Twas seen from Dryden’s groves of oak,And seen from cavern’d Hawthornden.Seem’d all on fire that chapel proud,Where Roslin’s chiefs uncoffin’d lie,Each Baron, for a sable shroud,35Sheathed in his iron panoply.Seem’d all on fire, within, around,Deep sacristy and altar’s pale;Shone every pillar foliage-bound,And glimmer’d all the dead men’s mail.40Blazed battlement and pinnet high,Blazed every rose-carved buttress fair—So still they blaze, when fate is nighThe lordly line of high Saint Clair.There are twenty of Roslin’s barons bold45Lie buried within that proud chapelle;Each one the holy vault doth hold—But the sea holds lovely Rosabelle!And each Saint Clair was buried thereWith candle, with book, and with knell;50But the sea-caves rung, and the wild winds sungThe dirge of lovely Rosabelle!

Oh listen, listen, ladies gay!

No haughty feat of arms I tell;

Soft is the note and sad the lay

That mourns the lovely Rosabelle.

“Moor, moor the barge, ye gallant crew!5

And, gentle ladye, deign to stay!

Rest thee in Castle Ravensheuch,

Nor tempt the stormy firth to-day.

“The blackening wave is edged with white;

To inch and rock the sea-mews fly;10

The fishers have heard the Water-Sprite,

Whose screams forbode that wreck is nigh.

“Last night the gifted Seer did view

A wet shroud swathed round ladye gay;

Then stay thee, Fair, in Ravensheuch;15

Why cross the gloomy firth to-day?”—

“’Tis not because Lord Lindesay’s heir

To-night at Roslin leads the ball,

But that my ladye-mother there

Sits lonely in her castle-hall.20

“’Tis not because the ring they ride,

And Lindesay at the ring rides well,

But that my sire the wine will chide

If ’tis not fill’d by Rosabelle.”—

O’er Roslin all that dreary night25

A wondrous blaze was seen to gleam;

’Twas broader than the watch-fire’s light,

And redder than the bright moonbeam.

It glared on Roslin’s castled rock,

It ruddied all the copse-wood glen;30

’Twas seen from Dryden’s groves of oak,

And seen from cavern’d Hawthornden.

Seem’d all on fire that chapel proud,

Where Roslin’s chiefs uncoffin’d lie,

Each Baron, for a sable shroud,35

Sheathed in his iron panoply.

Seem’d all on fire, within, around,

Deep sacristy and altar’s pale;

Shone every pillar foliage-bound,

And glimmer’d all the dead men’s mail.40

Blazed battlement and pinnet high,

Blazed every rose-carved buttress fair—

So still they blaze, when fate is nigh

The lordly line of high Saint Clair.

There are twenty of Roslin’s barons bold45

Lie buried within that proud chapelle;

Each one the holy vault doth hold—

But the sea holds lovely Rosabelle!

And each Saint Clair was buried there

With candle, with book, and with knell;50

But the sea-caves rung, and the wild winds sung

The dirge of lovely Rosabelle!

LOCHINVAR.

O, young Lochinvar is come out of the west,Through all the wild border his steed was the best;And, save his good broadsword, he weapons had none,He rode all unarm’d, and he rode all alone.So faithful in love, and so dauntless in war,5There never was knight like the young Lochinvar.He staid not for brake, and he stopp’d not for stone,He swam the Esk river where ford there was none;But ere he alighted at Netherby gate,The bride had consented, the gallant came late;10For a laggard in love and a dastard in war,Was to wed the fair Ellen of brave Lochinvar.So boldly he enter’d the Netherby Hall,Among bride’s-men, and kinsmen, and brothers, and all:Then spoke the bride’s father, his hand on his sword,15(For the poor craven bridegroom said never a word,)“O come ye in peace here, or come ye in war,Or to dance at our bridal, young Lord Lochinvar?”—“I long wooed your daughter, my suit you denied;—Love swells like the Solway, but ebbs like its tide—20And now am I come, with this lost love of mineTo lead but one measure, drink one cup of wine.There are maidens in Scotland more lovely by farThat would gladly be bride to the young Lochinvar.”The bride kiss’d the goblet: the knight took it up,25He quaffed off the wine, and he threw down the cup.She look’d down to blush, and she look’d up to sigh,With a smile on her lips, and a tear in her eye,He took her soft hand, ere her mother could bar,—“Now tread we a measure!” said young Lochinvar.30So stately his form, and so lovely her face,There never a hall such a galliard did grace;While her mother did fret and her father did fume,And the bridegroom stood dangling his bonnet and plume;And the bride-maidens whispered, “’Twere better by far35To have match’d our fair cousin with young Lochinvar.”One touch to her hand, and one word in her ear,When they reach’d the hall-door, and the charger stood near;So light to the croupe the fair lady he swung,So light to the saddle before her he sprung!40“She is won! we are gone, over bank, bush, and scaur;They’ll have fleet steeds that follow,” quoth young Lochinvar.There was mounting ’mong Græmes of the Netherby clan;Forsters, Fenwicks, and Musgraves, they rode and they ran;There was racing and chasing on Cannobie Lee,45But the lost bride of Netherby ne’er did they see.So daring in love, and so dauntless in war,Have ye e’er heard of gallant like young Lochinvar?

O, young Lochinvar is come out of the west,

Through all the wild border his steed was the best;

And, save his good broadsword, he weapons had none,

He rode all unarm’d, and he rode all alone.

So faithful in love, and so dauntless in war,5

There never was knight like the young Lochinvar.

He staid not for brake, and he stopp’d not for stone,

He swam the Esk river where ford there was none;

But ere he alighted at Netherby gate,

The bride had consented, the gallant came late;10

For a laggard in love and a dastard in war,

Was to wed the fair Ellen of brave Lochinvar.

So boldly he enter’d the Netherby Hall,

Among bride’s-men, and kinsmen, and brothers, and all:

Then spoke the bride’s father, his hand on his sword,15

(For the poor craven bridegroom said never a word,)

“O come ye in peace here, or come ye in war,

Or to dance at our bridal, young Lord Lochinvar?”—

“I long wooed your daughter, my suit you denied;—

Love swells like the Solway, but ebbs like its tide—20

And now am I come, with this lost love of mine

To lead but one measure, drink one cup of wine.

There are maidens in Scotland more lovely by far

That would gladly be bride to the young Lochinvar.”

The bride kiss’d the goblet: the knight took it up,25

He quaffed off the wine, and he threw down the cup.

She look’d down to blush, and she look’d up to sigh,

With a smile on her lips, and a tear in her eye,

He took her soft hand, ere her mother could bar,—

“Now tread we a measure!” said young Lochinvar.30

So stately his form, and so lovely her face,

There never a hall such a galliard did grace;

While her mother did fret and her father did fume,

And the bridegroom stood dangling his bonnet and plume;

And the bride-maidens whispered, “’Twere better by far35

To have match’d our fair cousin with young Lochinvar.”

One touch to her hand, and one word in her ear,

When they reach’d the hall-door, and the charger stood near;

So light to the croupe the fair lady he swung,

So light to the saddle before her he sprung!40

“She is won! we are gone, over bank, bush, and scaur;

They’ll have fleet steeds that follow,” quoth young Lochinvar.

There was mounting ’mong Græmes of the Netherby clan;

Forsters, Fenwicks, and Musgraves, they rode and they ran;

There was racing and chasing on Cannobie Lee,45

But the lost bride of Netherby ne’er did they see.

So daring in love, and so dauntless in war,

Have ye e’er heard of gallant like young Lochinvar?

TO A SKYLARK.

Hail to thee, blithe spirit!Bird thou never wert,That from heaven or near itPourest thy full heartIn profuse strains of unpremeditated art.5Higher still and higherFrom the earth thou springestLike a cloud of fire;The deep blue thou wingest,And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest.10In the golden lightningOf the sunken sunO’er which clouds are brightening,Thou dost float and run,Like an unbodied joy whose race has just begun.15The pale purple evenMelts around thy flight;Like a star of heavenIn the broad daylightThou art unseen, but yet I hear thy shrill delight;20Keen as are the arrowsOf that silver sphere,Whose intense lamp narrowsIn the white dawn clearUntil we hardly see, we feel that it is there.25All the earth and airWith thy voice is loud,As, when night is bare,From one lonely cloudThe moon rains out her beams, and heaven is overflow’d.30What thou art we know not;What is most like thee?From rainbow clouds there flow notDrops so bright to seeAs from thy presence showers a rain of melody.35Like a poet hiddenIn the light of thought,Singing hymns unbidden,Till the world is wroughtTo sympathy with hopes and fears it heeded not:40Like a high-born maidenIn a palace tower,Soothing her love-ladenSoul in secret hourWith music sweet as love which overflows her bower:45Like a glow-worm goldenIn a dell of dew,Scattering unbeholdenIts aerial hueAmong the flowers and grass which screen it from the view:50Like a rose emboweredIn its own green leaves,By warm winds deflowered,Till the scent it givesMakes faint with too much sweet these heavy-wingéd thieves.55Sound of vernal showersOn the twinkling grass,Rain awaken’d flowers,All that ever wasJoyous and clear and fresh thy music doth surpass.60Teach us, sprite or bird,What sweet thoughts are thine;I have never heardPraise of love or wineThat panted forth a flood of rapture so divine:65Chorus hymenealOr triumphant chauntMatch’d with thine, would be allBut an empty vaunt,A thing wherein we feel there is some hidden want.70What objects are the fountainsOf thy happy strain?What fields or waves or mountains?What shapes of sky or plain?What love of thine own kind? what ignorance of pain?75With thy clear keen joyanceLanguor cannot be:Shadow of annoyanceNever came near thee:Thou lovest; but ne’er knew love’s sad satiety.80Waking or asleepThou of death must deemThings more true and deepThan we mortals dream,Or how could thy notes flow in such a crystal stream?85We look before and after,And pine for what is not.Our sincerest laughterWith some pain is fraught;Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.90Yet if we could scornHate and pride and fear;If we were things bornNot to shed a tear,I know not how thy joy we ever should come near.95Better than all measuresOf delightful sound,Better than all treasuresThat in books are found,Thy skill to poets were, thou scorner of the ground!100Teach me half the gladnessThat thy brain must know,Such harmonious madnessFrom my lips would flow,The world should listen then, as I am listening now!105

Hail to thee, blithe spirit!

Bird thou never wert,

That from heaven or near it

Pourest thy full heart

In profuse strains of unpremeditated art.5

Higher still and higher

From the earth thou springest

Like a cloud of fire;

The deep blue thou wingest,

And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest.10

In the golden lightning

Of the sunken sun

O’er which clouds are brightening,

Thou dost float and run,

Like an unbodied joy whose race has just begun.15

The pale purple even

Melts around thy flight;

Like a star of heaven

In the broad daylight

Thou art unseen, but yet I hear thy shrill delight;20

Keen as are the arrows

Of that silver sphere,

Whose intense lamp narrows

In the white dawn clear

Until we hardly see, we feel that it is there.25

All the earth and air

With thy voice is loud,

As, when night is bare,

From one lonely cloud

The moon rains out her beams, and heaven is overflow’d.30

What thou art we know not;

What is most like thee?

From rainbow clouds there flow not

Drops so bright to see

As from thy presence showers a rain of melody.35

Like a poet hidden

In the light of thought,

Singing hymns unbidden,

Till the world is wrought

To sympathy with hopes and fears it heeded not:40

Like a high-born maiden

In a palace tower,

Soothing her love-laden

Soul in secret hour

With music sweet as love which overflows her bower:45

Like a glow-worm golden

In a dell of dew,

Scattering unbeholden

Its aerial hue

Among the flowers and grass which screen it from the view:50

Like a rose embowered

In its own green leaves,

By warm winds deflowered,

Till the scent it gives

Makes faint with too much sweet these heavy-wingéd thieves.55

Sound of vernal showers

On the twinkling grass,

Rain awaken’d flowers,

All that ever was

Joyous and clear and fresh thy music doth surpass.60

Teach us, sprite or bird,

What sweet thoughts are thine;

I have never heard

Praise of love or wine

That panted forth a flood of rapture so divine:65

Chorus hymeneal

Or triumphant chaunt

Match’d with thine, would be all

But an empty vaunt,

A thing wherein we feel there is some hidden want.70

What objects are the fountains

Of thy happy strain?

What fields or waves or mountains?

What shapes of sky or plain?

What love of thine own kind? what ignorance of pain?75

With thy clear keen joyance

Languor cannot be:

Shadow of annoyance

Never came near thee:

Thou lovest; but ne’er knew love’s sad satiety.80

Waking or asleep

Thou of death must deem

Things more true and deep

Than we mortals dream,

Or how could thy notes flow in such a crystal stream?85

We look before and after,

And pine for what is not.

Our sincerest laughter

With some pain is fraught;

Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.90

Yet if we could scorn

Hate and pride and fear;

If we were things born

Not to shed a tear,

I know not how thy joy we ever should come near.95

Better than all measures

Of delightful sound,

Better than all treasures

That in books are found,

Thy skill to poets were, thou scorner of the ground!100

Teach me half the gladness

That thy brain must know,

Such harmonious madness

From my lips would flow,

The world should listen then, as I am listening now!105

ENID.

The brave Geraint, a knight of Arthur’s court,A tributary prince of Devon, oneOf that great Order of the Table Round,Had wedded Enid, Yniol’s only child,And loved her, as he loved the light of Heaven.5And as the light of Heaven varies, nowAt sunrise, now at sunset, now by nightWith moon and trembling stars, so loved GeraintTo make her beauty vary day by day,In crimsons and in purples and in gems.10And Enid, but to please her husband’s eye,Who first had found and loved her in a stateOf broken fortunes, daily fronted himIn some fresh splendour; and the Queen herself,Grateful to Prince Geraint for service done,15Lov’d her, and often with her own white handsArray’d and deck’d her, as the loveliest,Next after her own self, in all the court.And Enid loved the Queen, and with true heartAdored her, as the stateliest and the best20And loveliest of all women upon earth.And seeing them so tender and so closeLong in their common love rejoiced Geraint.But when a rumour rose about the Queen,Touching her guilty love for Lancelot,25Though yet there lived no proof, nor yet was heardThe world’s loud whisper breaking into storm,Not less Geraint believed it; and there fellA horror on him, lest his gentle wife,Through that great tenderness for Guinevere,30Had suffer’d, or should suffer any taintIn nature: wherefore going to the King,He made this pretext, that his princedom layClose on the borders of a territory,Wherein were bandit earls, and caitiff knights,35Assassins, and all fliers from the handOf Justice, and whatever loathes a law:And therefore, till the King himself should pleaseTo cleanse this common sewer of all his realm,He craved a fair permission to depart,40And there defend his marches; and the KingMused for a little on his plea, but, last,Allowing it, the Prince and Enid rode,And fifty knights rode with them, to the shoresOf Severn, and they pass’d to their own land;45Where, thinking, that if ever yet was wifeTrue to her lord, mine shall be so to me,He compass’d her with sweet observancesAnd worship, never leaving her, and grewForgetful of his promise to the King,50Forgetful of the falcon and the hunt,Forgetful of the tilt and tournament,Forgetful of his glory and his name,Forgetful of his princedom and its cares.And this forgetfulness was hateful to her.55And by and by the people, when they metIn twos and threes, or fuller companies,Began to scoff and jeer and babble of himAs of a prince whose manhood was all gone,And molten down in mere uxoriousness.60And this she gather’d from the people’s eyes;This too the women who attired her head,To please her, dwelling on his boundless love,Told Enid, and they sadden’d her the more:And day by day she thought to tell Geraint,65But could not out of bashful delicacy;While he that watch’d her sadden, was the moreSuspicious that her nature had a taint.At last it chanced that on a summer morn(They sleeping each by other) the new sun70Beat through the blindless casement of the room,And heated the strong warrior in his dreams;Who, moving, cast the coverlet aside,And bared the knotted column of his throat,The massive square of his heroic breast,75And arms on which the standing muscle sloped,As slopes a wild brook o’er a little stone,Running too vehemently to break upon it.And Enid woke and sat beside the couch,Admiring him, and thought within herself,80Was ever man so grandly made as he?Then, like a shadow, pass’d the people’s talkAnd accusation of uxoriousnessAcross her mind, and bowing over him,Low to her own heart piteously she said:85“O noble breast and all-puissant arms,Am I the cause, I the poor cause that menReproach you, saying all your force is gone?Iamthe cause, because I dare not speakAnd tell him what I think and what they say.90And yet I hate that he should linger here;I cannot love my lord and not his name.Far liefer had I gird his harness on him,And ride with him to battle and stand by,And watch his mightful hand striking great blows95At caitiffs and at wrongers of the world.Far better were I laid in the dark earth,Not hearing any more his noble voice,Not to be folded more in these dear arms,And darken’d from the high light in his eyes,100Than that my lord through me should suffer shame.Am I so bold, and could I so stand by,And see my dear lord wounded in the strife,Or maybe pierc’d to death before mine eyes,And yet not dare to tell him what I think,105And how men slur him, saying all his forceIs melted into mere effeminacy?O me, I feel that I am no true wife.”Half inwardly, half audibly she spoke,And the strong passion in her made her weep110True tears upon his broad and naked breast,And these awoke him, and by great mischanceHe heard but fragments of her later words,And that she fear’d she was not a true wife.And then he thought, “In spite of all my care,115For all my pains, poor man, for all my pains,She is not faithful to me, and I see herWeeping for some gay knight in Arthur’s hall.”Then, though he lov’d and reverenc’d her too muchTo dream she could be guilty of foul act,120Right through his manful breast darted the pangThat makes a man, in the sweet face of herWhom he loves most, lonely and miserable.At this he hurl’d his huge limbs out of bed,And shook his drowsy squire awake and cried,125“My charger and her palfrey;” then to her,“I will ride forth into the wilderness;For though it seems my spurs are yet to win,I have not fall’n so low as some would wish.And you put on your worst and meanest dress130And ride with me.” And Enid ask’d, amaz’d,“If Enid errs, let Enid learn her fault.”But he, “I charge you, ask not, but obey.”Then she bethought her of a faded silk,A faded mantle and a faded veil,135And moving toward a cedarn cabinet,Wherein she kept them folded reverentlyWith sprigs of summer laid between the folds,She took them, and array’d herself therein,Remembering when first he came on her140Drest in that dress, and how he lov’d her in it,And all her foolish fears about the dress,And all his journey to her, as himselfHad told her, and their coming to the court.For Arthur on the Whitsuntide before145Held court at old Caerleon upon Usk.There on a day, he sitting high in hall,Before him came a forester of Dean,Wet from the woods, with notice of a hartTaller than all his fellows, milky white,150First seen that day: these things he told the King.Then the good King gave order to let blowHis horns for hunting on the morrow morn.And when the Queen petition’d for his leaveTo see the hunt, allow’d it easily.155So with the morning all the court were gone.But Guinevere lay late into the morn,Lost in sweet dreams, and dreaming of her loveFor Lancelot, and forgetful of the hunt;But rose at last, a single maiden with her,160Took horse, and forded Usk, and gain’d the wood;There, on a little knoll beside it, stay’dWaiting to hear the hounds; but heard insteadA sudden sound of hoofs, for Prince Geraint,Late also, wearing neither hunting-dress165Nor weapon, save a golden-hilted brand,Came quickly flashing through the shallow fordBehind them, and so gallop’d up the knoll.A purple scarf, at either end whereofThere swung an apple of the purest gold,170Sway’d round about him, as he gallop’d upTo join them, glancing like a dragon-flyIn summer suit and silks of holiday.Low bow’d the tributary Prince, and she,Sweetly and statelily, and with all grace175Of womanhood and queenhood, answer’d him:“Late, late, Sir Prince,” she said, “later than we!”“Yea, noble Queen,” he answer’d, “and so lateThat I but come like you to see the hunt,Not join it.” “Therefore wait with me,” she said;180“For on this little knoll, if anywhere,There is good chance that we shall hear the hounds:Here often they break covert at our feet.”And while they listen’d for the distant hunt,And chiefly for the baying of Cavall,185King Arthur’s hound of deepest mouth, there rodeFull slowly by a knight, lady, and dwarf;Whereof the dwarf lagg’d latest, and the knightHad vizor up, and show’d a youthful face,Imperious, and of haughtiest lineaments.190And Guinevere, not mindful of his faceIn the King’s hall, desired his name, and sentHer maiden to demand it of the dwarf;Who being vicious, old and irritable,And doubling all his master’s vice of pride,195Made answer sharply that she should not know.“Then will I ask it of himself,” she said.“Nay, by my faith, thou shalt not,” cried the dwarf;“Thou art not worthy ev’n to speak of him;”And when she put her horse toward the knight,200Struck at her with his whip, and she return’dIndignant to the Queen; at which GeraintExclaiming, “Surely I will learn the name,”Made sharply to the dwarf, and ask’d it of him,Who answer’d as before; and when the Prince205Had put his horse in motion toward the knight,Struck at him with his whip, and cut his cheek.The Prince’s blood spirted upon the scarf,Dyeing it; and his quick, instinctive handCaught at the hilt, as to abolish him:210But he from his exceeding manfulnessAnd pure nobility of temperament,Wroth to be wroth at such a worm, refrain’dFrom ev’n a word, and so returning said:“I will avenge this insult, noble Queen,215Done in your maiden’s person to yourself:And I will track this vermin to their earths;For though I ride unarmed, I do not doubtTo find, at some place I shall come at, armsOn loan, or else for pledge; and, being found,220Then will I fight him, and will break his pride,And on the third day will again be here,So that I be not fall’n in fight. Farewell.”“Farewell, fair Prince,” answered the stately Queen,“Be prosperous in this journey, as in all;225And may you light on all things that you love,And live to wed with her whom first you love.But ere you wed with any, bring your bride,And I, were she the daughter of a king,Yea, though she were a beggar from the hedge,230Will clothe her for her bridals like the sun.”And Prince Geraint, now thinking that he heardThe noble hart at bay, now the far horn,A little vex’d at losing of the hunt,A little at the vile occasion, rode,235By ups and downs, through many a grassy gladeAnd valley, with fix’d eye following the three.At last they issued from the world of wood,And climb’d upon a fair and even ridge,And show’d themselves against the sky, and sank.240And thither came Geraint, and underneathBeheld the long street of a little townIn a long valley, on one side of which,White from the mason’s hand, a fortress rose;And on one side a castle in decay,245Beyond a bridge that spann’d a dry ravine:And out of town and valley came a noiseAs of a broad brook o’er a shingly bedBrawling, or like a clamour of the rooksAt distance, ere they settle for the night.250And onward to the fortress rode the threeAnd enter’d, and were lost behind the walls.“So,” thought Geraint, “I have track’d him to his earth.”And down the long street riding wearily,Found every hostel full, and everywhere255Was hammer laid to hoof, and the hot hissAnd bustling whistle of the youth who scour’dHis master’s armour; and of such a oneHe ask’d, “What means the tumult in the town?”Who told him, scouring still, “The sparrow-hawk!”260Then riding close behind an ancient churl,Who, smitten by the dusty sloping beam,Went sweating underneath a sack of corn,Ask’d yet once more what meant the hubbub here?Who answer’d gruffly, “Ugh! the sparrow-hawk,”265Then riding farther past an armourer’s,Who, with back turn’d, and bow’d above his work,Sat riveting a helmet on his knee,He put the self-same query; but the manNot turning round, nor looking at him, said:270“Friend, he that labours for the sparrow-hawkHas little time for idle questioners.”Whereat Geraint flash’d into sudden spleen:“A thousand pips eat up your sparrow-hawk!Tits, wrens, and all wing’d nothings peck him dead!275Ye think the rustic cackle of your bourgThe murmur of the world! What is it to me?O wretched set of sparrows, one and all,Who pipe of nothing but of sparrow-hawks!Speak, if you be not like the rest, hawk-mad,280Where can I get me harbourage for the night?And arms, arms, arms to fight my enemy? Speak!”At this the armourer, turning all amazedAnd seeing one so gay in purple silks,Came forward with the helmet yet in hand,285And answer’d, “Pardon me, O stranger knight;We hold a tourney here to-morrow morn,And there is scantly time for half the work.Arms? truth! I know not: all are wanted here.Harbourage? truth, good truth, I know not, save,290It may be, at Earl Yniol’s, o’er the bridgeYonder.” He spoke and fell to work again.Then rode Geraint, a little spleenful yet,Across the bridge that spann’d the dry ravine.There musing sat the hoary-headed Earl295(His dress a suit of fray’d magnificence,Once fit for feasts of ceremony), and said:“Whither, fair son?” to whom Geraint replied,“O friend, I seek a harbourage for the night.”Then Yniol, “Enter, therefore, and partake300The slender entertainment of a houseOnce rich, now poor, but ever open-door’d.”“Thanks, venerable friend,” replied Geraint;“So that you do not serve me sparrow-hawksFor supper, I will enter, I will eat305With all the passion of a twelve hours’ fast.”Then sigh’d and smil’d the hoary-headed Earl,And answer’d, “Graver cause than yours is mineTo curse this hedgerow thief, the sparrow-hawk.But in, go in; for save yourself desire it,310We will not touch upon him ev’n in jest.”Then rode Geraint into the castle court,His charger trampling many a prickly starOf sprouted thistle on the broken stones.He look’d, and saw that all was ruinous.315Here stood a shatter’d archway plumed with fern;And here had fall’n a great part of a tower,Whole, like a crag that tumbles from the cliff,And like a crag was gay with wilding flowers:And high above a piece of turret stair,320Worn by the feet that now were silent, woundBare to the sun, and monstrous ivy-stemsClaspt the gray walls with hairy-fibred arms,And suck’d the joining of the stones, and look’dA knot, beneath, of snakes, aloft, a grove.325And while he waited in the castle court,The voice of Enid, Yniol’s daughter, rangClear through the open casement of the hall,Singing; and as the sweet voice of a bird,Heard by the lander in a lonely isle,330Moves him to think what kind of bird it isThat sings so delicately clear, and makeConjecture of the plumage and the form,—So the sweet voice of Enid moved Geraint;And made him like a man abroad at morn335When first the liquid note beloved of menComes flying over many a windy waveTo Britain, and in April suddenlyBreaks from a coppice gemm’d with green and red,And he suspends his converse with a friend,340Or it may be the labour of his hands,To think or say, “There is the nightingale,”—So fared it with Geraint, who thought and said,“Here, by God’s grace, is the one voice for me.”It chanced the song that Enid sang was one345Of Fortune and her wheel, and Enid sang:“Turn, Fortune, turn thy wheel and lower the proud;Turn thy wild wheel through sunshine, storm, and cloud;Thy wheel and thee we neither love nor hate.“Turn, Fortune, turn thy wheel with smile or frown;350With that wild wheel we go not up or down;Our hoard is little, but our hearts are great.“Smile and we smile, the lords of many lands;Frown and we smile, the lords of our own hands;For man is man and master of his fate.355“Turn, turn thy wheel above the staring crowd;Thy wheel and thou are shadows in the cloud;Thy wheel and thee we neither love nor hate.”“Hark, by the bird’s song you may learn the nest,”Said Yniol; “enter quickly.” Entering then,360Right o’er a mount of newly-fallen stones,The dusky-rafter’d many-cobwebb’d hall,He found an ancient dame in dim brocade;And near her, like a blossom vermeil-white,That lightly breaks a faded flower-sheath,365Moved the fair Enid, all in faded silk,Her daughter. In a moment thought Geraint,“Here by God’s rood is the one maid for me.”But none spake word except the hoary Earl:“Enid, the good knight’s horse stands in the court;370Take him to stall, and give him corn, and thenGo to the town and buy us flesh and wine;And we will make us merry as we may.Our hoard is little, but our hearts are great.”He spake: the Prince, as Enid pass’d him, fain375To follow, strode a stride; but Yniol caughtHis purple scarf, and held, and said, “Forbear!Rest! the good house, though ruin’d, O my son,Endures not that her guest should serve himself.”And reverencing the custom of the house,380Geraint, from utter courtesy, forbore.So Enid took his charger to the stall;And after went her way across the bridge,And reach’d the town, and while the Prince and EarlYet spoke together, came again with one,385A youth, that following with a costrel boreThe means of goodly welcome, flesh and wine.And Enid brought sweet cakes to make them cheer,And in her veil enfolded, manchet bread.And then, because their hall must also serve390For kitchen, boil’d the flesh and spread the board,And stood behind, and waited on the three.And seeing her so sweet and serviceable,Geraint had a longing in him evermoreTo stoop and kiss the tender little thumb,395That crost the trencher as she laid it down:But after all had eaten, then Geraint,For now the wine made summer in his veins,Let his eye rove in following, or restOn Enid at her lowly handmaid-work,400Now here, now there, about the dusky hall;Then suddenly addrest the hoary Earl:“Fair Host and Earl, I pray your courtesy;This sparrow-hawk, what is he? tell me of him.His name? but no, good faith, I will not have it;405For if he be the knight whom late I sawRide into that new fortress by your town,White from the mason’s hand, then have I swornFrom his own lips to have it—I am GeraintOf Devon—for this morning when the Queen410Sent her own maiden to demand the name,His dwarf, a vicious under-shapen thing,Struck at her with his whip, and she return’dIndignant to the Queen; and then I sworeThat I would track this caitiff to his hold,415And fight and break his pride, and have it of him.And all unarm’d I rode, and thought to findArms in your town, where all the men are mad;They take the rustic murmur of their bourgFor the great wave that echoes round the world;420They would not hear me speak; but if you knowWhere I can light on arms, or if yourselfShould have them, tell me, seeing I have swornThat I will break his pride and learn his name,Avenging this great insult done the Queen.”425Then cried Earl Yniol, “Art thou he indeed,Geraint, a name far sounded among menFor noble deeds? and truly I, when firstI saw you moving by me on the bridge,Felt you were somewhat, yea, and by your state430And presence might have guess’d you one of thoseThat eat in Arthur’s hall at Camelot.Nor speak I now from foolish flattery;For this dear child hath often heard me praiseYour feats of arms, and often when I paused435Had ask’d again, and ever loved to hear;So grateful is the noise of noble deedsTo noble hearts who see but acts of wrong:Oh, never yet had woman such a pairOf suitors as this maiden; first Limours,440A creature wholly given to brawls and wine,Drunk even when he woo’d; and be he deadI know not, but he pass’d to the wild land.The second was your foe, the sparrow-hawk,My curse, my nephew—I will not let his name445Slip from my lips if I can help it—he,When I that knew him fierce and turbulentRefused her to him, then his pride awokeAnd since the proud man often is the mean,He sow’d a slander in the common ear450Affirming that his father left him gold,And in my charge, which was not render’d to him;Bribed with large promises the men who serv’dAbout my person, the more easilyBecause my means were somewhat broken into455Through open doors and hospitality;Rais’d my own town against me in the nightBefore my Enid’s birthday, sack’d my house;From mine own earldom foully ousted me;Built that new fort to overawe my friends,460For truly there are those who love me yet;And keeps me in this ruinous castle here,Where doubtless he would put me soon to death,But that his pride too much despises me:And I myself sometimes despise myself;465For I have let men be, and have their way;Am much too gentle, have not used my power:Nor know I whether I be very baseOr very manful, whether very wiseOr very foolish; only this I know,470That whatsoever evil happen to me,I seem to suffer nothing heart or limb,But can endure it all most patiently.”“Well said, true heart,” replied Geraint, “but arms,That if, as I suppose, your nephew fights475In next day’s tourney I may break his pride.”And Yniol answer’d, “Arms, indeed, but oldAnd rusty, old and rusty, Prince Geraint,Are mine, and therefore at your asking, yours.But in this tournament can no man tilt,480Except the lady he loves best be there.Two forks are fix’d into the meadow ground,And over these is laid a silver wand,And over that is placed a sparrow-hawk,The prize of beauty for the fairest there.485And this, what knight soever be in fieldLays claim to for the lady at his side,And tilts with my good nephew thereupon,Who being apt at arms and big of boneHas ever won it for the lady with him,490And toppling over all antagonismHas earn’d himself the name of sparrow-hawk.But you, that have no lady, cannot fight.”To whom Geraint with eyes all bright replied,Leaning a little toward him, “Your leave!495Letmelay lance in rest, O noble host,For this dear child, because I never saw,Though having seen all beauties of our time,Nor can see elsewhere, anything so fair.And if I fall her name will yet remain500Untarnish’d as before; but if I live,So aid me Heaven when at mine uttermost,As I will make her truly my true wife.”Then, howsoever patient, Yniol’s heartDanced in his bosom, seeing better days.505And looking round he saw not Enid there(Who hearing her own name had slipt away),But that old dame, to whom full tenderlyAnd fondling all her hand in his he said,“Mother, a maiden is a tender thing,510And best by her that bore her understood.Go thou to rest, but ere thou go to restTell her, and prove her heart toward the Prince.”So spake the kindly-hearted Earl, and sheWith frequent smile and nod departing found,515Half-disarray’d as to her rest, the girl;Whom first she kiss’d on either cheek, and thenOn either shining shoulder laid a hand,And kept her off and gazed upon her face,And told her all their converse in the hall,520Proving her heart: but never light and shadeCoursed one another more on open groundBeneath a troubled heaven, than red and paleAcross the face of Enid hearing her;While slowly falling as a scale that falls,525When weight is added only grain by grain,Sank her sweet head upon her gentle breast;Nor did she lift an eye nor speak a word,Rapt in the fear and in the wonder of it.So moving without answer to her rest530She found no rest, and ever fail’d to drawThe quiet night into her blood, but layContemplating her own unworthiness;And when the pale and bloodless east beganTo quicken to the sun, arose, and raised535Her mother too, and hand in hand they movedDown to the meadow where the jousts were held,And waited there for Yniol and Geraint.And thither came the twain, and when GeraintBeheld her first in field awaiting him,540He felt, were she the prize of bodily force,Himself beyond the rest pushing could moveThe chair of Idris. Yniol’s rusted armsWere on his princely person, but through thesePrincelike his bearing shone; and errant knights545And ladies came, and by and by the townFlow’d in, and settling circled all the lists.And there they fix’d the forks into the ground,And over these they placed a silver wand,And over that a golden sparrow-hawk.550Then Yniol’s nephew, after trumpet blown,Spake to the lady with him and proclaim’d,“Advance and take as fairest of the fair,For I these two years past have won it for thee,The prize of beauty.” Loudly spake the Prince,555“Forbear; there is a worthier,” and the knight,With some surprise and thrice as much disdain,Turn’d, and beheld the four, and all his faceGlow’d like the heart of a great fire at Yule,So burnt he was with passion, crying out,560“Do battle for it then,” no more; and thriceThey clash’d together, and thrice they brake their spears.Then each, dishorsed and drawing, lash’d at eachSo often and with such blows, that all the crowdWonder’d, and now and then from distant walls565There came a clapping as of phantom hands.So twice they fought, and twice they breathed, and stillThe dew of their great labour, and the bloodOf their strong bodies, flowing, drain’d their force.But either’s force was match’d till Yniol’s cry,570“Remember that great insult done the Queen,”Increased Geraint’s, who heaved his blade aloft,And crack’d the helmet through, and bit the bone,And fell’d him, and set foot upon his breast,And said, “Thy name?” To whom the fallen man575Made answer, groaning, “Edyrn, son of Nudd!Ashamed am I that I should tell it thee.My pride is broken: men have seen my fall.”“Then, Edyrn, son of Nudd,” replied Geraint,“These two things shalt thou do, or else thou diest.580First, thou thyself, thy lady, and thy dwarf,Shalt ride to Arthur’s court, and being there,Crave pardon for that insult done the Queen,And shalt abide her judgment on it; next,Thou shalt give back their earldom to thy kin.585These two things shalt thou do, or thou shalt die.”And Edyrn answer’d, “These things will I do,For I have never yet been overthrown,And thou hast overthrown me, and my prideIs broken down, for Enid sees my fall!”590And rising up, he rode to Arthur’s court,And there the Queen forgave him easily.And being young, he changed himself, and grewTo hate the sin that seem’d so like his ownOf Modred, Arthur’s nephew, and fell at last595In the great battle fighting for the King.But when the third day from the hunting-mornMade a low splendour in the world, and wingsMoved in her ivy, Enid, for she layWith her fair head in the dim yellow light,600Among the dancing shadows of the birds,Woke and bethought her of her promise givenNo later than last eve to Prince Geraint—So bent he seem’d on going the third day,He would not leave her, till her promise given—605To ride with him this morning to the court,And there be made known to the stately Queen,And there be wedded with all ceremony.At this she cast her eyes upon her dress,And thought it never yet had look’d so mean.610For as a leaf in mid-November isTo what it was in mid-October, seem’dThe dress that now she look’d on to the dressShe look’d on ere the coming of Geraint.And still she look’d, and still the terror grew615Of that strange bright and dreadful thing, a court,All staring at her in her faded silk;And softly to her own sweet heart she said;“This noble prince who won our earldom back,So splendid in his acts and his attire,620Sweet heaven, how much I shall discredit him!Would he could tarry with us here awhile,But being so beholden to the Prince,It were but little grace in any of us,Bent as he seem’d on going this third day,625To seek a second favour at his hands.Yet if he could but tarry a day or two,Myself would work eye dim, and finger lame,Far liefer than so much discredit him.”And Enid fell in longing for a dress630All branch’d and flower’d with gold, a costly giftOf her good mother, given her on the nightBefore her birthday, three sad years ago,That night of fire, when Edyrn sack’d their house,And scatter’d all they had to all the winds:635For while the mother show’d it, and the twoWere turning and admiring it, the workTo both appear’d so costly, rose a cryThat Edyrn’s men were on them, and they fledWith little save the jewels they had on,640Which being sold and sold had bought them bread:And Edyrn’s men had caught them in their flight,And placed them in this ruin; and she wish’dThe Prince had found her in her ancient home;Then let her fancy flit across the past,645And roam the goodly places that she knew;And last bethought her how she used to watch,Near that old home, a pool of golden carp;And one was patch’d and blurr’d and lustrelessAmong his burnish’d brethren of the pool;650And half asleep she made comparisonOf that and these to her own faded selfAnd the gay court, and fell asleep again;And dreamt herself was such a faded formAmong her burnish’d sisters of the pool;655But this was in the garden of a king;And though she lay dark in the pool, she knewThat all was bright; that all about were birdsOf sunny plume in gilded trellis-work;That all the turf was rich in plots that look’d660Each like a garnet or a turkis in it;And lords and ladies of the high court wentIn silver tissue talking things of state;And children of the King in cloth of goldGlanced at the doors or gamboll’d down the walks;665And while she thought, “They will not see me,” cameA stately queen whose name was Guinevere,And all the children in their cloth of goldRan to her, crying, “If we have fish at allLet them be gold; and charge the gardeners now670To pick the faded creature from the pool.And cast it on the mixen that it die.”And therewithal one came and seized on her,And Enid started, waking, with her heartAll overshadow’d by the foolish dream,675And lo! it was her mother grasping herTo get her well awake: and in her handA suit of bright apparel, which she laidFlat on the couch, and spoke exultingly:“See here, my child, how fresh the colours look,680How fast they hold like colours of a shellThat keeps the wear and polish of the wave!Why not? It never yet was worn, I trow:Look on it, child, and tell me if you know it.”And Enid look’d, but all confus’d at first,685Could scarce divide it from her foolish dream;Then suddenly she knew it and rejoiced,And answer’d, “Yea, I know it; your good gift,So sadly lost on that unhappy night;Your own good gift!” “Yea, surely,” said the dame,690“And gladly given again this happy morn.For when the jousts were ended yesterday,Went Yniol through the town, and everywhereHe found the sack and plunder of our houseAll scatter’d through the houses of the town;695And gave command that all which once was oursShould now be ours again: and yester-eve,While you were talking sweetly with your Prince,Came one with this and laid it in my hand,For love or fear, or seeking favour of us,700Because we have our Earldom back again.And yester-eve I would not tell you of it,But kept it for a sweet surprise at morn.Yea, truly is it not a sweet surprise?For I myself unwillingly have worn705My faded suit, as you, my child, have yours,And howsoever patient, Yniol his.Ah, dear, he took me from a goodly house,With store of rich apparel, sumptuous fare,And page, and maid, and squire, and seneschal,710And pastime both of hawk and hound, and allThat appertains to noble maintenance.Yea, and he brought me to a goodly house;But since our fortune slipt from sun to shade,And all through that young traitor, cruel need715Constrain’d us, but a better time has come;So clothe yourself in this, that better fitsOur mended fortunes and a Prince’s bride:For though you won the prize of fairest fair,And though I heard him call you fairest fair,720Let never maiden think, however fair,She is not fairer in new clothes than old.And should some great court-lady say, the PrinceHath pick’d a ragged-robin from the hedge,And like a madman brought her to the court,725Then were you shamed, and, worse, might shame the PrinceTo whom we are beholden; but I know,When my dear child is set forth at her best,That neither court nor country, though they soughtThrough all the provinces like those of old730That lighted on Queen Esther, has her match.”Here ceased the kindly mother out of breath;And Enid listen’d brightening as she lay;Then, as the white and glittering star of mornParts from a bank of snow, and by and by735Slips into golden cloud, the maiden rose,And left her maiden couch, and robed herself,Help’d by the mother’s careful hand and eye,Without a mirror, in the gorgeous gown;Who, after, turn’d her daughter round and said,740She never yet had seen her half so fair;And call’d her like that maiden in the tale,Whom Gwydion made by glamour out of flowers,And sweeter than the bride of Cassivelaun,Flur, for whose love the Roman Cæsar first745Invaded Britain, “But we beat him back,As this great Prince invaded us, and we,Not beat him back, but welcomed him with joy.And I can scarcely ride with you to court,For old am I, and rough the ways and wild;750But Yniol goes, and I full oft shall dreamI see my princess as I see her now,Clothed with my gift, and gay among the gay.”But while the women thus rejoiced, GeraintWoke where he slept in the high hall, and call’d755For Enid; and when Yniol made reportOf that good mother making Enid gayIn such apparel as might well beseemHis princess, or indeed the stately Queen,He answer’d: “Earl, entreat her by my love,760Albeit I give no reason but my wish,That she ride with me in her faded silk.”Yniol with that hard message went; it fellLike flaws in summer laying lusty corn:For Enid, all abash’d she knew not why,765Dared not to glance at her good mother’s face,But silently, in all obedience,Her mother silent too, nor helping her,Laid from her limbs the costly-broider’d gift,And robed them in her ancient suit again,770And so descended. Never man rejoicedMore than Geraint to greet her thus attired;And glancing all at once as keenly at herAs careful robins eye the delver’s toil,Made her cheek burn and either eyelid fall,775But rested with her sweet face satisfied;Then seeing cloud upon the mother’s brow,Her by both hands he caught, and sweetly said:“O my new mother, be not wroth or grievedAt your new son, for my petition to her.780When late I left Caerleon, our great Queen,In words whose echo lasts, they were so sweet,Made promise, that whatever bride I brought,Herself would clothe her like the sun in Heaven.Thereafter, when I reach’d this ruin’d hold,785Beholding one so bright in dark estate,I vow’d that could I gain her, our kind Queen,No hand but hers, should make your Enid burstSunlike from cloud—and likewise thought, perhaps,That service done so graciously would bind790The two together; for I wish the twoTo love each other: how should Enid findA nobler friend? Another thought I had;I came among you here so suddenly,That though her gentle presence at the lists795Might well have served for proof that I was loved,I doubted whether filial tenderness,Or easy nature, did not let itselfBe moulded by your wishes for her weal;Or whether some false sense in her own self800Of my contrasting brightness, overboreHer fancy dwelling in this dusky hall;And such a sense might make her long for courtAnd all its dangerous glories: and I thought,That could I someway prove such force in her805Link’d with such love for me, that at a word(No reason given her) she could cast asideA splendour dear to women, new to her,And therefore dearer; or if not so new,Yet therefore tenfold dearer by the power810Of intermitted custom; then I feltThat I could rest, a rock in ebbs and flows,Fix’d on her faith. Now, therefore, I do rest,A prophet certain of my prophecy,That never shadow of mistrust can cross815Between us. Grant me pardon for my thoughts;And for my strange petition I will makeAmends hereafter by some gaudy-day,When your fair child shall wear your costly giftBeside your own warm hearth, with, on her knees,820Who knows? another gift of the high God,Which, maybe, shall have learn’d to lisp you thanks.”He spoke: the mother smil’d, but half in tears,Then brought a mantle down and wrapt her in it,And claspt and kiss’d her, and they rode away.825Now thrice that morning Guinevere had climb’dThe giant tower, from whose high crest, they say,Men saw the goodly hills of Somerset,And white sails flying on the yellow sea;But not to goodly hill or yellow sea830Look’d the fair Queen, but up the vale of Usk,By the flat meadow, till she saw them come;And then descending met them at the gates,Embrac’d her with all welcome as a friend,And did her honour as the Prince’s bride,835And cloth’d her for her bridals like the sun;And all that week was old Caerleon gay,For by the hands of Dubric, the high saint,They twain were wedded with all ceremony.And this was on the last year’s Whitsuntide.840But Enid ever kept the faded silk,Remembering how first he came on her,Drest in that dress, and how he loved her in it,And all her foolish fears about the dress,And all his journey toward her, as himself845Had told her, and their coming to the court.And now this morning when he said to her,“Put on your worst and meanest dress,” she foundAnd took it, and array’d herself therein.

The brave Geraint, a knight of Arthur’s court,

A tributary prince of Devon, one

Of that great Order of the Table Round,

Had wedded Enid, Yniol’s only child,

And loved her, as he loved the light of Heaven.5

And as the light of Heaven varies, now

At sunrise, now at sunset, now by night

With moon and trembling stars, so loved Geraint

To make her beauty vary day by day,

In crimsons and in purples and in gems.10

And Enid, but to please her husband’s eye,

Who first had found and loved her in a state

Of broken fortunes, daily fronted him

In some fresh splendour; and the Queen herself,

Grateful to Prince Geraint for service done,15

Lov’d her, and often with her own white hands

Array’d and deck’d her, as the loveliest,

Next after her own self, in all the court.

And Enid loved the Queen, and with true heart

Adored her, as the stateliest and the best20

And loveliest of all women upon earth.

And seeing them so tender and so close

Long in their common love rejoiced Geraint.

But when a rumour rose about the Queen,

Touching her guilty love for Lancelot,25

Though yet there lived no proof, nor yet was heard

The world’s loud whisper breaking into storm,

Not less Geraint believed it; and there fell

A horror on him, lest his gentle wife,

Through that great tenderness for Guinevere,30

Had suffer’d, or should suffer any taint

In nature: wherefore going to the King,

He made this pretext, that his princedom lay

Close on the borders of a territory,

Wherein were bandit earls, and caitiff knights,35

Assassins, and all fliers from the hand

Of Justice, and whatever loathes a law:

And therefore, till the King himself should please

To cleanse this common sewer of all his realm,

He craved a fair permission to depart,40

And there defend his marches; and the King

Mused for a little on his plea, but, last,

Allowing it, the Prince and Enid rode,

And fifty knights rode with them, to the shores

Of Severn, and they pass’d to their own land;45

Where, thinking, that if ever yet was wife

True to her lord, mine shall be so to me,

He compass’d her with sweet observances

And worship, never leaving her, and grew

Forgetful of his promise to the King,50

Forgetful of the falcon and the hunt,

Forgetful of the tilt and tournament,

Forgetful of his glory and his name,

Forgetful of his princedom and its cares.

And this forgetfulness was hateful to her.55

And by and by the people, when they met

In twos and threes, or fuller companies,

Began to scoff and jeer and babble of him

As of a prince whose manhood was all gone,

And molten down in mere uxoriousness.60

And this she gather’d from the people’s eyes;

This too the women who attired her head,

To please her, dwelling on his boundless love,

Told Enid, and they sadden’d her the more:

And day by day she thought to tell Geraint,65

But could not out of bashful delicacy;

While he that watch’d her sadden, was the more

Suspicious that her nature had a taint.

At last it chanced that on a summer morn

(They sleeping each by other) the new sun70

Beat through the blindless casement of the room,

And heated the strong warrior in his dreams;

Who, moving, cast the coverlet aside,

And bared the knotted column of his throat,

The massive square of his heroic breast,75

And arms on which the standing muscle sloped,

As slopes a wild brook o’er a little stone,

Running too vehemently to break upon it.

And Enid woke and sat beside the couch,

Admiring him, and thought within herself,80

Was ever man so grandly made as he?

Then, like a shadow, pass’d the people’s talk

And accusation of uxoriousness

Across her mind, and bowing over him,

Low to her own heart piteously she said:85

“O noble breast and all-puissant arms,

Am I the cause, I the poor cause that men

Reproach you, saying all your force is gone?

Iamthe cause, because I dare not speak

And tell him what I think and what they say.90

And yet I hate that he should linger here;

I cannot love my lord and not his name.

Far liefer had I gird his harness on him,

And ride with him to battle and stand by,

And watch his mightful hand striking great blows95

At caitiffs and at wrongers of the world.

Far better were I laid in the dark earth,

Not hearing any more his noble voice,

Not to be folded more in these dear arms,

And darken’d from the high light in his eyes,100

Than that my lord through me should suffer shame.

Am I so bold, and could I so stand by,

And see my dear lord wounded in the strife,

Or maybe pierc’d to death before mine eyes,

And yet not dare to tell him what I think,105

And how men slur him, saying all his force

Is melted into mere effeminacy?

O me, I feel that I am no true wife.”

Half inwardly, half audibly she spoke,

And the strong passion in her made her weep110

True tears upon his broad and naked breast,

And these awoke him, and by great mischance

He heard but fragments of her later words,

And that she fear’d she was not a true wife.

And then he thought, “In spite of all my care,115

For all my pains, poor man, for all my pains,

She is not faithful to me, and I see her

Weeping for some gay knight in Arthur’s hall.”

Then, though he lov’d and reverenc’d her too much

To dream she could be guilty of foul act,120

Right through his manful breast darted the pang

That makes a man, in the sweet face of her

Whom he loves most, lonely and miserable.

At this he hurl’d his huge limbs out of bed,

And shook his drowsy squire awake and cried,125

“My charger and her palfrey;” then to her,

“I will ride forth into the wilderness;

For though it seems my spurs are yet to win,

I have not fall’n so low as some would wish.

And you put on your worst and meanest dress130

And ride with me.” And Enid ask’d, amaz’d,

“If Enid errs, let Enid learn her fault.”

But he, “I charge you, ask not, but obey.”

Then she bethought her of a faded silk,

A faded mantle and a faded veil,135

And moving toward a cedarn cabinet,

Wherein she kept them folded reverently

With sprigs of summer laid between the folds,

She took them, and array’d herself therein,

Remembering when first he came on her140

Drest in that dress, and how he lov’d her in it,

And all her foolish fears about the dress,

And all his journey to her, as himself

Had told her, and their coming to the court.

For Arthur on the Whitsuntide before145

Held court at old Caerleon upon Usk.

There on a day, he sitting high in hall,

Before him came a forester of Dean,

Wet from the woods, with notice of a hart

Taller than all his fellows, milky white,150

First seen that day: these things he told the King.

Then the good King gave order to let blow

His horns for hunting on the morrow morn.

And when the Queen petition’d for his leave

To see the hunt, allow’d it easily.155

So with the morning all the court were gone.

But Guinevere lay late into the morn,

Lost in sweet dreams, and dreaming of her love

For Lancelot, and forgetful of the hunt;

But rose at last, a single maiden with her,160

Took horse, and forded Usk, and gain’d the wood;

There, on a little knoll beside it, stay’d

Waiting to hear the hounds; but heard instead

A sudden sound of hoofs, for Prince Geraint,

Late also, wearing neither hunting-dress165

Nor weapon, save a golden-hilted brand,

Came quickly flashing through the shallow ford

Behind them, and so gallop’d up the knoll.

A purple scarf, at either end whereof

There swung an apple of the purest gold,170

Sway’d round about him, as he gallop’d up

To join them, glancing like a dragon-fly

In summer suit and silks of holiday.

Low bow’d the tributary Prince, and she,

Sweetly and statelily, and with all grace175

Of womanhood and queenhood, answer’d him:

“Late, late, Sir Prince,” she said, “later than we!”

“Yea, noble Queen,” he answer’d, “and so late

That I but come like you to see the hunt,

Not join it.” “Therefore wait with me,” she said;180

“For on this little knoll, if anywhere,

There is good chance that we shall hear the hounds:

Here often they break covert at our feet.”

And while they listen’d for the distant hunt,

And chiefly for the baying of Cavall,185

King Arthur’s hound of deepest mouth, there rode

Full slowly by a knight, lady, and dwarf;

Whereof the dwarf lagg’d latest, and the knight

Had vizor up, and show’d a youthful face,

Imperious, and of haughtiest lineaments.190

And Guinevere, not mindful of his face

In the King’s hall, desired his name, and sent

Her maiden to demand it of the dwarf;

Who being vicious, old and irritable,

And doubling all his master’s vice of pride,195

Made answer sharply that she should not know.

“Then will I ask it of himself,” she said.

“Nay, by my faith, thou shalt not,” cried the dwarf;

“Thou art not worthy ev’n to speak of him;”

And when she put her horse toward the knight,200

Struck at her with his whip, and she return’d

Indignant to the Queen; at which Geraint

Exclaiming, “Surely I will learn the name,”

Made sharply to the dwarf, and ask’d it of him,

Who answer’d as before; and when the Prince205

Had put his horse in motion toward the knight,

Struck at him with his whip, and cut his cheek.

The Prince’s blood spirted upon the scarf,

Dyeing it; and his quick, instinctive hand

Caught at the hilt, as to abolish him:210

But he from his exceeding manfulness

And pure nobility of temperament,

Wroth to be wroth at such a worm, refrain’d

From ev’n a word, and so returning said:

“I will avenge this insult, noble Queen,215

Done in your maiden’s person to yourself:

And I will track this vermin to their earths;

For though I ride unarmed, I do not doubt

To find, at some place I shall come at, arms

On loan, or else for pledge; and, being found,220

Then will I fight him, and will break his pride,

And on the third day will again be here,

So that I be not fall’n in fight. Farewell.”

“Farewell, fair Prince,” answered the stately Queen,

“Be prosperous in this journey, as in all;225

And may you light on all things that you love,

And live to wed with her whom first you love.

But ere you wed with any, bring your bride,

And I, were she the daughter of a king,

Yea, though she were a beggar from the hedge,230

Will clothe her for her bridals like the sun.”

And Prince Geraint, now thinking that he heard

The noble hart at bay, now the far horn,

A little vex’d at losing of the hunt,

A little at the vile occasion, rode,235

By ups and downs, through many a grassy glade

And valley, with fix’d eye following the three.

At last they issued from the world of wood,

And climb’d upon a fair and even ridge,

And show’d themselves against the sky, and sank.240

And thither came Geraint, and underneath

Beheld the long street of a little town

In a long valley, on one side of which,

White from the mason’s hand, a fortress rose;

And on one side a castle in decay,245

Beyond a bridge that spann’d a dry ravine:

And out of town and valley came a noise

As of a broad brook o’er a shingly bed

Brawling, or like a clamour of the rooks

At distance, ere they settle for the night.250

And onward to the fortress rode the three

And enter’d, and were lost behind the walls.

“So,” thought Geraint, “I have track’d him to his earth.”

And down the long street riding wearily,

Found every hostel full, and everywhere255

Was hammer laid to hoof, and the hot hiss

And bustling whistle of the youth who scour’d

His master’s armour; and of such a one

He ask’d, “What means the tumult in the town?”

Who told him, scouring still, “The sparrow-hawk!”260

Then riding close behind an ancient churl,

Who, smitten by the dusty sloping beam,

Went sweating underneath a sack of corn,

Ask’d yet once more what meant the hubbub here?

Who answer’d gruffly, “Ugh! the sparrow-hawk,”265

Then riding farther past an armourer’s,

Who, with back turn’d, and bow’d above his work,

Sat riveting a helmet on his knee,

He put the self-same query; but the man

Not turning round, nor looking at him, said:270

“Friend, he that labours for the sparrow-hawk

Has little time for idle questioners.”

Whereat Geraint flash’d into sudden spleen:

“A thousand pips eat up your sparrow-hawk!

Tits, wrens, and all wing’d nothings peck him dead!275

Ye think the rustic cackle of your bourg

The murmur of the world! What is it to me?

O wretched set of sparrows, one and all,

Who pipe of nothing but of sparrow-hawks!

Speak, if you be not like the rest, hawk-mad,280

Where can I get me harbourage for the night?

And arms, arms, arms to fight my enemy? Speak!”

At this the armourer, turning all amazed

And seeing one so gay in purple silks,

Came forward with the helmet yet in hand,285

And answer’d, “Pardon me, O stranger knight;

We hold a tourney here to-morrow morn,

And there is scantly time for half the work.

Arms? truth! I know not: all are wanted here.

Harbourage? truth, good truth, I know not, save,290

It may be, at Earl Yniol’s, o’er the bridge

Yonder.” He spoke and fell to work again.

Then rode Geraint, a little spleenful yet,

Across the bridge that spann’d the dry ravine.

There musing sat the hoary-headed Earl295

(His dress a suit of fray’d magnificence,

Once fit for feasts of ceremony), and said:

“Whither, fair son?” to whom Geraint replied,

“O friend, I seek a harbourage for the night.”

Then Yniol, “Enter, therefore, and partake300

The slender entertainment of a house

Once rich, now poor, but ever open-door’d.”

“Thanks, venerable friend,” replied Geraint;

“So that you do not serve me sparrow-hawks

For supper, I will enter, I will eat305

With all the passion of a twelve hours’ fast.”

Then sigh’d and smil’d the hoary-headed Earl,

And answer’d, “Graver cause than yours is mine

To curse this hedgerow thief, the sparrow-hawk.

But in, go in; for save yourself desire it,310

We will not touch upon him ev’n in jest.”

Then rode Geraint into the castle court,

His charger trampling many a prickly star

Of sprouted thistle on the broken stones.

He look’d, and saw that all was ruinous.315

Here stood a shatter’d archway plumed with fern;

And here had fall’n a great part of a tower,

Whole, like a crag that tumbles from the cliff,

And like a crag was gay with wilding flowers:

And high above a piece of turret stair,320

Worn by the feet that now were silent, wound

Bare to the sun, and monstrous ivy-stems

Claspt the gray walls with hairy-fibred arms,

And suck’d the joining of the stones, and look’d

A knot, beneath, of snakes, aloft, a grove.325

And while he waited in the castle court,

The voice of Enid, Yniol’s daughter, rang

Clear through the open casement of the hall,

Singing; and as the sweet voice of a bird,

Heard by the lander in a lonely isle,330

Moves him to think what kind of bird it is

That sings so delicately clear, and make

Conjecture of the plumage and the form,—

So the sweet voice of Enid moved Geraint;

And made him like a man abroad at morn335

When first the liquid note beloved of men

Comes flying over many a windy wave

To Britain, and in April suddenly

Breaks from a coppice gemm’d with green and red,

And he suspends his converse with a friend,340

Or it may be the labour of his hands,

To think or say, “There is the nightingale,”—

So fared it with Geraint, who thought and said,

“Here, by God’s grace, is the one voice for me.”

It chanced the song that Enid sang was one345

Of Fortune and her wheel, and Enid sang:

“Turn, Fortune, turn thy wheel and lower the proud;

Turn thy wild wheel through sunshine, storm, and cloud;

Thy wheel and thee we neither love nor hate.

“Turn, Fortune, turn thy wheel with smile or frown;350

With that wild wheel we go not up or down;

Our hoard is little, but our hearts are great.

“Smile and we smile, the lords of many lands;

Frown and we smile, the lords of our own hands;

For man is man and master of his fate.355

“Turn, turn thy wheel above the staring crowd;

Thy wheel and thou are shadows in the cloud;

Thy wheel and thee we neither love nor hate.”

“Hark, by the bird’s song you may learn the nest,”

Said Yniol; “enter quickly.” Entering then,360

Right o’er a mount of newly-fallen stones,

The dusky-rafter’d many-cobwebb’d hall,

He found an ancient dame in dim brocade;

And near her, like a blossom vermeil-white,

That lightly breaks a faded flower-sheath,365

Moved the fair Enid, all in faded silk,

Her daughter. In a moment thought Geraint,

“Here by God’s rood is the one maid for me.”

But none spake word except the hoary Earl:

“Enid, the good knight’s horse stands in the court;370

Take him to stall, and give him corn, and then

Go to the town and buy us flesh and wine;

And we will make us merry as we may.

Our hoard is little, but our hearts are great.”

He spake: the Prince, as Enid pass’d him, fain375

To follow, strode a stride; but Yniol caught

His purple scarf, and held, and said, “Forbear!

Rest! the good house, though ruin’d, O my son,

Endures not that her guest should serve himself.”

And reverencing the custom of the house,380

Geraint, from utter courtesy, forbore.

So Enid took his charger to the stall;

And after went her way across the bridge,

And reach’d the town, and while the Prince and Earl

Yet spoke together, came again with one,385

A youth, that following with a costrel bore

The means of goodly welcome, flesh and wine.

And Enid brought sweet cakes to make them cheer,

And in her veil enfolded, manchet bread.

And then, because their hall must also serve390

For kitchen, boil’d the flesh and spread the board,

And stood behind, and waited on the three.

And seeing her so sweet and serviceable,

Geraint had a longing in him evermore

To stoop and kiss the tender little thumb,395

That crost the trencher as she laid it down:

But after all had eaten, then Geraint,

For now the wine made summer in his veins,

Let his eye rove in following, or rest

On Enid at her lowly handmaid-work,400

Now here, now there, about the dusky hall;

Then suddenly addrest the hoary Earl:

“Fair Host and Earl, I pray your courtesy;

This sparrow-hawk, what is he? tell me of him.

His name? but no, good faith, I will not have it;405

For if he be the knight whom late I saw

Ride into that new fortress by your town,

White from the mason’s hand, then have I sworn

From his own lips to have it—I am Geraint

Of Devon—for this morning when the Queen410

Sent her own maiden to demand the name,

His dwarf, a vicious under-shapen thing,

Struck at her with his whip, and she return’d

Indignant to the Queen; and then I swore

That I would track this caitiff to his hold,415

And fight and break his pride, and have it of him.

And all unarm’d I rode, and thought to find

Arms in your town, where all the men are mad;

They take the rustic murmur of their bourg

For the great wave that echoes round the world;420

They would not hear me speak; but if you know

Where I can light on arms, or if yourself

Should have them, tell me, seeing I have sworn

That I will break his pride and learn his name,

Avenging this great insult done the Queen.”425

Then cried Earl Yniol, “Art thou he indeed,

Geraint, a name far sounded among men

For noble deeds? and truly I, when first

I saw you moving by me on the bridge,

Felt you were somewhat, yea, and by your state430

And presence might have guess’d you one of those

That eat in Arthur’s hall at Camelot.

Nor speak I now from foolish flattery;

For this dear child hath often heard me praise

Your feats of arms, and often when I paused435

Had ask’d again, and ever loved to hear;

So grateful is the noise of noble deeds

To noble hearts who see but acts of wrong:

Oh, never yet had woman such a pair

Of suitors as this maiden; first Limours,440

A creature wholly given to brawls and wine,

Drunk even when he woo’d; and be he dead

I know not, but he pass’d to the wild land.

The second was your foe, the sparrow-hawk,

My curse, my nephew—I will not let his name445

Slip from my lips if I can help it—he,

When I that knew him fierce and turbulent

Refused her to him, then his pride awoke

And since the proud man often is the mean,

He sow’d a slander in the common ear450

Affirming that his father left him gold,

And in my charge, which was not render’d to him;

Bribed with large promises the men who serv’d

About my person, the more easily

Because my means were somewhat broken into455

Through open doors and hospitality;

Rais’d my own town against me in the night

Before my Enid’s birthday, sack’d my house;

From mine own earldom foully ousted me;

Built that new fort to overawe my friends,460

For truly there are those who love me yet;

And keeps me in this ruinous castle here,

Where doubtless he would put me soon to death,

But that his pride too much despises me:

And I myself sometimes despise myself;465

For I have let men be, and have their way;

Am much too gentle, have not used my power:

Nor know I whether I be very base

Or very manful, whether very wise

Or very foolish; only this I know,470

That whatsoever evil happen to me,

I seem to suffer nothing heart or limb,

But can endure it all most patiently.”

“Well said, true heart,” replied Geraint, “but arms,

That if, as I suppose, your nephew fights475

In next day’s tourney I may break his pride.”

And Yniol answer’d, “Arms, indeed, but old

And rusty, old and rusty, Prince Geraint,

Are mine, and therefore at your asking, yours.

But in this tournament can no man tilt,480

Except the lady he loves best be there.

Two forks are fix’d into the meadow ground,

And over these is laid a silver wand,

And over that is placed a sparrow-hawk,

The prize of beauty for the fairest there.485

And this, what knight soever be in field

Lays claim to for the lady at his side,

And tilts with my good nephew thereupon,

Who being apt at arms and big of bone

Has ever won it for the lady with him,490

And toppling over all antagonism

Has earn’d himself the name of sparrow-hawk.

But you, that have no lady, cannot fight.”

To whom Geraint with eyes all bright replied,

Leaning a little toward him, “Your leave!495

Letmelay lance in rest, O noble host,

For this dear child, because I never saw,

Though having seen all beauties of our time,

Nor can see elsewhere, anything so fair.

And if I fall her name will yet remain500

Untarnish’d as before; but if I live,

So aid me Heaven when at mine uttermost,

As I will make her truly my true wife.”

Then, howsoever patient, Yniol’s heart

Danced in his bosom, seeing better days.505

And looking round he saw not Enid there

(Who hearing her own name had slipt away),

But that old dame, to whom full tenderly

And fondling all her hand in his he said,

“Mother, a maiden is a tender thing,510

And best by her that bore her understood.

Go thou to rest, but ere thou go to rest

Tell her, and prove her heart toward the Prince.”

So spake the kindly-hearted Earl, and she

With frequent smile and nod departing found,515

Half-disarray’d as to her rest, the girl;

Whom first she kiss’d on either cheek, and then

On either shining shoulder laid a hand,

And kept her off and gazed upon her face,

And told her all their converse in the hall,520

Proving her heart: but never light and shade

Coursed one another more on open ground

Beneath a troubled heaven, than red and pale

Across the face of Enid hearing her;

While slowly falling as a scale that falls,525

When weight is added only grain by grain,

Sank her sweet head upon her gentle breast;

Nor did she lift an eye nor speak a word,

Rapt in the fear and in the wonder of it.

So moving without answer to her rest530

She found no rest, and ever fail’d to draw

The quiet night into her blood, but lay

Contemplating her own unworthiness;

And when the pale and bloodless east began

To quicken to the sun, arose, and raised535

Her mother too, and hand in hand they moved

Down to the meadow where the jousts were held,

And waited there for Yniol and Geraint.

And thither came the twain, and when Geraint

Beheld her first in field awaiting him,540

He felt, were she the prize of bodily force,

Himself beyond the rest pushing could move

The chair of Idris. Yniol’s rusted arms

Were on his princely person, but through these

Princelike his bearing shone; and errant knights545

And ladies came, and by and by the town

Flow’d in, and settling circled all the lists.

And there they fix’d the forks into the ground,

And over these they placed a silver wand,

And over that a golden sparrow-hawk.550

Then Yniol’s nephew, after trumpet blown,

Spake to the lady with him and proclaim’d,

“Advance and take as fairest of the fair,

For I these two years past have won it for thee,

The prize of beauty.” Loudly spake the Prince,555

“Forbear; there is a worthier,” and the knight,

With some surprise and thrice as much disdain,

Turn’d, and beheld the four, and all his face

Glow’d like the heart of a great fire at Yule,

So burnt he was with passion, crying out,560

“Do battle for it then,” no more; and thrice

They clash’d together, and thrice they brake their spears.

Then each, dishorsed and drawing, lash’d at each

So often and with such blows, that all the crowd

Wonder’d, and now and then from distant walls565

There came a clapping as of phantom hands.

So twice they fought, and twice they breathed, and still

The dew of their great labour, and the blood

Of their strong bodies, flowing, drain’d their force.

But either’s force was match’d till Yniol’s cry,570

“Remember that great insult done the Queen,”

Increased Geraint’s, who heaved his blade aloft,

And crack’d the helmet through, and bit the bone,

And fell’d him, and set foot upon his breast,

And said, “Thy name?” To whom the fallen man575

Made answer, groaning, “Edyrn, son of Nudd!

Ashamed am I that I should tell it thee.

My pride is broken: men have seen my fall.”

“Then, Edyrn, son of Nudd,” replied Geraint,

“These two things shalt thou do, or else thou diest.580

First, thou thyself, thy lady, and thy dwarf,

Shalt ride to Arthur’s court, and being there,

Crave pardon for that insult done the Queen,

And shalt abide her judgment on it; next,

Thou shalt give back their earldom to thy kin.585

These two things shalt thou do, or thou shalt die.”

And Edyrn answer’d, “These things will I do,

For I have never yet been overthrown,

And thou hast overthrown me, and my pride

Is broken down, for Enid sees my fall!”590

And rising up, he rode to Arthur’s court,

And there the Queen forgave him easily.

And being young, he changed himself, and grew

To hate the sin that seem’d so like his own

Of Modred, Arthur’s nephew, and fell at last595

In the great battle fighting for the King.

But when the third day from the hunting-morn

Made a low splendour in the world, and wings

Moved in her ivy, Enid, for she lay

With her fair head in the dim yellow light,600

Among the dancing shadows of the birds,

Woke and bethought her of her promise given

No later than last eve to Prince Geraint—

So bent he seem’d on going the third day,

He would not leave her, till her promise given—605

To ride with him this morning to the court,

And there be made known to the stately Queen,

And there be wedded with all ceremony.

At this she cast her eyes upon her dress,

And thought it never yet had look’d so mean.610

For as a leaf in mid-November is

To what it was in mid-October, seem’d

The dress that now she look’d on to the dress

She look’d on ere the coming of Geraint.

And still she look’d, and still the terror grew615

Of that strange bright and dreadful thing, a court,

All staring at her in her faded silk;

And softly to her own sweet heart she said;

“This noble prince who won our earldom back,

So splendid in his acts and his attire,620

Sweet heaven, how much I shall discredit him!

Would he could tarry with us here awhile,

But being so beholden to the Prince,

It were but little grace in any of us,

Bent as he seem’d on going this third day,625

To seek a second favour at his hands.

Yet if he could but tarry a day or two,

Myself would work eye dim, and finger lame,

Far liefer than so much discredit him.”

And Enid fell in longing for a dress630

All branch’d and flower’d with gold, a costly gift

Of her good mother, given her on the night

Before her birthday, three sad years ago,

That night of fire, when Edyrn sack’d their house,

And scatter’d all they had to all the winds:635

For while the mother show’d it, and the two

Were turning and admiring it, the work

To both appear’d so costly, rose a cry

That Edyrn’s men were on them, and they fled

With little save the jewels they had on,640

Which being sold and sold had bought them bread:

And Edyrn’s men had caught them in their flight,

And placed them in this ruin; and she wish’d

The Prince had found her in her ancient home;

Then let her fancy flit across the past,645

And roam the goodly places that she knew;

And last bethought her how she used to watch,

Near that old home, a pool of golden carp;

And one was patch’d and blurr’d and lustreless

Among his burnish’d brethren of the pool;650

And half asleep she made comparison

Of that and these to her own faded self

And the gay court, and fell asleep again;

And dreamt herself was such a faded form

Among her burnish’d sisters of the pool;655

But this was in the garden of a king;

And though she lay dark in the pool, she knew

That all was bright; that all about were birds

Of sunny plume in gilded trellis-work;

That all the turf was rich in plots that look’d660

Each like a garnet or a turkis in it;

And lords and ladies of the high court went

In silver tissue talking things of state;

And children of the King in cloth of gold

Glanced at the doors or gamboll’d down the walks;665

And while she thought, “They will not see me,” came

A stately queen whose name was Guinevere,

And all the children in their cloth of gold

Ran to her, crying, “If we have fish at all

Let them be gold; and charge the gardeners now670

To pick the faded creature from the pool.

And cast it on the mixen that it die.”

And therewithal one came and seized on her,

And Enid started, waking, with her heart

All overshadow’d by the foolish dream,675

And lo! it was her mother grasping her

To get her well awake: and in her hand

A suit of bright apparel, which she laid

Flat on the couch, and spoke exultingly:

“See here, my child, how fresh the colours look,680

How fast they hold like colours of a shell

That keeps the wear and polish of the wave!

Why not? It never yet was worn, I trow:

Look on it, child, and tell me if you know it.”

And Enid look’d, but all confus’d at first,685

Could scarce divide it from her foolish dream;

Then suddenly she knew it and rejoiced,

And answer’d, “Yea, I know it; your good gift,

So sadly lost on that unhappy night;

Your own good gift!” “Yea, surely,” said the dame,690

“And gladly given again this happy morn.

For when the jousts were ended yesterday,

Went Yniol through the town, and everywhere

He found the sack and plunder of our house

All scatter’d through the houses of the town;695

And gave command that all which once was ours

Should now be ours again: and yester-eve,

While you were talking sweetly with your Prince,

Came one with this and laid it in my hand,

For love or fear, or seeking favour of us,700

Because we have our Earldom back again.

And yester-eve I would not tell you of it,

But kept it for a sweet surprise at morn.

Yea, truly is it not a sweet surprise?

For I myself unwillingly have worn705

My faded suit, as you, my child, have yours,

And howsoever patient, Yniol his.

Ah, dear, he took me from a goodly house,

With store of rich apparel, sumptuous fare,

And page, and maid, and squire, and seneschal,710

And pastime both of hawk and hound, and all

That appertains to noble maintenance.

Yea, and he brought me to a goodly house;

But since our fortune slipt from sun to shade,

And all through that young traitor, cruel need715

Constrain’d us, but a better time has come;

So clothe yourself in this, that better fits

Our mended fortunes and a Prince’s bride:

For though you won the prize of fairest fair,

And though I heard him call you fairest fair,720

Let never maiden think, however fair,

She is not fairer in new clothes than old.

And should some great court-lady say, the Prince

Hath pick’d a ragged-robin from the hedge,

And like a madman brought her to the court,725

Then were you shamed, and, worse, might shame the Prince

To whom we are beholden; but I know,

When my dear child is set forth at her best,

That neither court nor country, though they sought

Through all the provinces like those of old730

That lighted on Queen Esther, has her match.”

Here ceased the kindly mother out of breath;

And Enid listen’d brightening as she lay;

Then, as the white and glittering star of morn

Parts from a bank of snow, and by and by735

Slips into golden cloud, the maiden rose,

And left her maiden couch, and robed herself,

Help’d by the mother’s careful hand and eye,

Without a mirror, in the gorgeous gown;

Who, after, turn’d her daughter round and said,740

She never yet had seen her half so fair;

And call’d her like that maiden in the tale,

Whom Gwydion made by glamour out of flowers,

And sweeter than the bride of Cassivelaun,

Flur, for whose love the Roman Cæsar first745

Invaded Britain, “But we beat him back,

As this great Prince invaded us, and we,

Not beat him back, but welcomed him with joy.

And I can scarcely ride with you to court,

For old am I, and rough the ways and wild;750

But Yniol goes, and I full oft shall dream

I see my princess as I see her now,

Clothed with my gift, and gay among the gay.”

But while the women thus rejoiced, Geraint

Woke where he slept in the high hall, and call’d755

For Enid; and when Yniol made report

Of that good mother making Enid gay

In such apparel as might well beseem

His princess, or indeed the stately Queen,

He answer’d: “Earl, entreat her by my love,760

Albeit I give no reason but my wish,

That she ride with me in her faded silk.”

Yniol with that hard message went; it fell

Like flaws in summer laying lusty corn:

For Enid, all abash’d she knew not why,765

Dared not to glance at her good mother’s face,

But silently, in all obedience,

Her mother silent too, nor helping her,

Laid from her limbs the costly-broider’d gift,

And robed them in her ancient suit again,770

And so descended. Never man rejoiced

More than Geraint to greet her thus attired;

And glancing all at once as keenly at her

As careful robins eye the delver’s toil,

Made her cheek burn and either eyelid fall,775

But rested with her sweet face satisfied;

Then seeing cloud upon the mother’s brow,

Her by both hands he caught, and sweetly said:

“O my new mother, be not wroth or grieved

At your new son, for my petition to her.780

When late I left Caerleon, our great Queen,

In words whose echo lasts, they were so sweet,

Made promise, that whatever bride I brought,

Herself would clothe her like the sun in Heaven.

Thereafter, when I reach’d this ruin’d hold,785

Beholding one so bright in dark estate,

I vow’d that could I gain her, our kind Queen,

No hand but hers, should make your Enid burst

Sunlike from cloud—and likewise thought, perhaps,

That service done so graciously would bind790

The two together; for I wish the two

To love each other: how should Enid find

A nobler friend? Another thought I had;

I came among you here so suddenly,

That though her gentle presence at the lists795

Might well have served for proof that I was loved,

I doubted whether filial tenderness,

Or easy nature, did not let itself

Be moulded by your wishes for her weal;

Or whether some false sense in her own self800

Of my contrasting brightness, overbore

Her fancy dwelling in this dusky hall;

And such a sense might make her long for court

And all its dangerous glories: and I thought,

That could I someway prove such force in her805

Link’d with such love for me, that at a word

(No reason given her) she could cast aside

A splendour dear to women, new to her,

And therefore dearer; or if not so new,

Yet therefore tenfold dearer by the power810

Of intermitted custom; then I felt

That I could rest, a rock in ebbs and flows,

Fix’d on her faith. Now, therefore, I do rest,

A prophet certain of my prophecy,

That never shadow of mistrust can cross815

Between us. Grant me pardon for my thoughts;

And for my strange petition I will make

Amends hereafter by some gaudy-day,

When your fair child shall wear your costly gift

Beside your own warm hearth, with, on her knees,820

Who knows? another gift of the high God,

Which, maybe, shall have learn’d to lisp you thanks.”

He spoke: the mother smil’d, but half in tears,

Then brought a mantle down and wrapt her in it,

And claspt and kiss’d her, and they rode away.825

Now thrice that morning Guinevere had climb’d

The giant tower, from whose high crest, they say,

Men saw the goodly hills of Somerset,

And white sails flying on the yellow sea;

But not to goodly hill or yellow sea830

Look’d the fair Queen, but up the vale of Usk,

By the flat meadow, till she saw them come;

And then descending met them at the gates,

Embrac’d her with all welcome as a friend,

And did her honour as the Prince’s bride,835

And cloth’d her for her bridals like the sun;

And all that week was old Caerleon gay,

For by the hands of Dubric, the high saint,

They twain were wedded with all ceremony.

And this was on the last year’s Whitsuntide.840

But Enid ever kept the faded silk,

Remembering how first he came on her,

Drest in that dress, and how he loved her in it,

And all her foolish fears about the dress,

And all his journey toward her, as himself845

Had told her, and their coming to the court.

And now this morning when he said to her,

“Put on your worst and meanest dress,” she found

And took it, and array’d herself therein.

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