that Duchess of Tintagel upon whom dear Uther afterwards begot Arthur, that is now king. Therefore, I beg you, sir, to come to thine aunt; make merry in my house; my people love thee, and I like thee as well, sir, by my faith as I do any man under God for thy great truth."

But he answered him nay, he would in no wise. They embraced and kissed, each entrusted other to the Prince of Paradise, and they parted right there in the cold. Gawain on horse full fair rides boldly to the king's court, and the knight all in green whithersoever he would.

21. Wild ways in the world Gawain now rides on Gringolet, he who had got the boon of his life. Oft he harboured in houses, and oft without; and many an adventure in vale he had, and won oft; but that I care not at this time to mention in my tale. The hurt was whole that he had got in his neck; and he bare the glistening belt about him, crossed obliquely like a baldric, the lace fastened under his left arm with a knot, in token that he was taken in a fault. And thus he comes to the court, the knight all sound. There wakened joy in that dwelling when the great ones knew that good Gawain had come; joyous it seemed to them. The king kisses the knight, and the queen also; and afterwards many a sure knight, who sought to embrace him and asked him of his journey. And wondrously he tells it, confessing all the trials that he had, the adventure of the chapel, the behavior of the knight, the love of the lady — and, at the last, the lace. He showed them the nick in his neck

that he caught at the lord's hands for his unloyalty. He grieved when he had to tell it; he groaned for sorrow, and the blood rushed to his face for shame when he declared it.

22. "Lo! lord," quoth the hero, as he handled the lace, "this that I bear in my neck is the badge of this blame. This is the evil and the loss that I have got from the cowardice and covetousness that I showed there. This is the token of untruth that I am taken in, and I must needs wear it while I may last; for none may hide his shame without mishap, for where it once is incurred, depart will it never."

The king and all the court comfort the knight. They laugh loud at his tale, and lovingly agree that the lords and ladies that belong to the Table, each knight of the brotherhood, should have a baldric, an oblique band about him of a bright green, and wear that for the sake of the hero. And that emblem was accorded the renown of the Round Table, and he was ever after honoured that had it.

As it is told in the best book of romance, thus in Arthur's day this adventure betid, which the Brutus books bear witness of. After Brutus the bold hero first came hither, when the siege and the assault had ceased at Troy, many adventures of this sort happened. Now may He that bore the crown of thorns bring us to his bliss. AMEN.

HONY SOIT QUI MAL PENCE.

I saw in that assembly, as ye shall hear hereafter.

100

Bakers, butchers, and brewers many, Woollen weavers, and weavers of linen, Tailors, tanners, and fullers also, Masons, miners, and many other crafts, Ditchers and delvers, that do their work ill, And drive forth the long day with "Dieu vous sauve, dame Emma."4

Cooks and their boys cry "Hot pies, hot! Good geese and pigs, go dine, go dine!" Taverners to them told the same tale With good wine of Gascony and wine of Alsace,

Of Rhine and of Rochelle, the roast to digest.

All this I saw sleeping, and seven times

more.

PASSUS I

What this mountain meaueth, and this dark dale,

And this fair field full of folk, fairly I shall you show.

3 Getting money singing anniversary maɛses for the dead.

"God save you, dame Einma "-apparently a popu lar soug.

And said, “Pardon, madame, what does this mean?"

"This tower and this hill," quoth she, "Truth is therein,

And would that ye wrought as his word teacheth,

For he is Father of faith, that formed you all Both with skin and with face, and gave you five senses

For to worship him therewith, while ye be bere,

And because he commanded the earth to serve you each one

With woollen, with linen, with livelihood at need,

In moderate manner, to put you at ease, And commanded of his courtesy in common three things,

20

Their names are needful and to name them I propose

By rule and by reason, to rehearse them as

"Ah, madame, merci," quoth I, "thy words please me well.

But the money on this earth, that men so fast hold,

Tell me to whom that treasure belongeth." "Go to the Gospel," quoth she, "that God speaks himself,

When the people asked him about a penny in the temple,

If they should honor there with Caesar their king.

And he asked of them of whom spake the lettering,

And whom the image was like that thereon stood.

'Caesar,' they said, 'we see well, each one.' Reddite ergo quae sunt Caesaris Caesari et quae sunt Dei Deo.1

'Then render,' quoth Christ,' what to Caesar belongeth,

50

And what is God's to God, or else ye do ill.'

For Right Reason should rule you all, And Common Sense be warden, our wealth to guard,

And tower of our treasure to give it you at need;

For whoso is true of his tongue, and telleth naught else,

Doth his work with truth, and doth no man ill;

He is accounted of the Gospel, on earth and above,

And also likened to our Lord, by Saint Luke's words.

Clerks that know it should teach it about, 90 For Christians and non-Christians, each claims it for himself.

Kings and knights should conduct themselves reasonably,

And rightly roam the realms about,
And take trespassers and tie them fast
Till truth had determined the trespass to

the end.

For David, in his days, he dubbed knights, Made them swear on their sword to serve

truth ever,

That is plainly the profession that pertaineth to knights,

And not to fast one Friday in five score years,

But to hold with men and women that seek the truth,

100

And leave off for no love nor grasping of gifts;

And he that oversteps that point is apostate of the order,

For Christ, king of kings, knighted ten, Cherubim and Seraphim, seven such and another,1

And gave them mastery and might, in his majesty,

And over his army made them archangels, And taught them through the Trinity truth to know,

And to be obedient to his bidding, he bade them naught else.

Lucifer with legions learned it in heaven. He was loveliest to see, after our Lord, 110 Till he broke obedience through boast of himself.

Then fell he with his fellows, and fiends they became,

Out of heaven into hell hobbled fast, Some into the air, and some to the earth, and some into hell deep;

But Lucifer lieth lowest of them all; For pride that he put on, his pain hath no end.

And all that work wrong, wend they shall, After their death day, and with that devil dwell.

But they that work that word that Holy

Writ teacheth,