Narrative and Lyric Poems (Second Series) for Use in the Lower School
General
Narrative and Lyric Poems (Second Series) for Use in the Lower School
English poetry
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 worn 705
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 need 715
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 old 730
That lighted on Queen Esther, has her match.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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