Literature, Medieval -- History and criticism; Literature, Medieval -- Translations into English
This the father refuses to do, and has Nicolette shut up in a
tower. But the son stubbornly persists. At last it is agreed that
if Aucassin returns from fighting he may see and kiss his lover.
Sec. 9.--
Aucassin heard of the kiss
Which on return shall be his.
Had one given him of pure gold
Marks a hundred thousand told,
Not so blithe of hear he were.
Rich array he bade them bear:
They made ready for his wear.
He put on a hauberk lined,
Helmet on his head did bind,
Girt his sword with hilt pure gold,
Mounted on his charger bold;
Spear and buckler then he took;
At his two feet cast a look:
They trod in the stirrups trim.
Wondrous proud he carried him
His dear love he thought upon,
And his good horse spurred anon,
Who right eagerly went on.
Through the gate he rode straightway,
Into the fray.
Aucassin was greatly successful, but on his return his father
would not keep his promise, and shut him up in prison.
Sec. 12.--
Aucassin was put in prison, as you have listened and heard, and
Nicolette on the other hand, was in the chamber. It was in the
summer-time, in the month of May, when the days are warm, long,
and bright, and the nights still and cloudless. Nicolette lay one
night on her bed and saw the moon shine bright through a window,
and heard the nightingale sing in the garden, and then she
bethought her of Aucassin, her friend, whom she loved so much.
She began to consider of the Count Garin of Beaucaire, who hated
her to death; and she thought to herself that she would remain
there no longer; since if she were betrayed, and the Count Garin
knew it, he would make her to die an evil death. She perceived
that the old woman who was with her was asleep. She got up, and
put on a gown which she had, of cloth-of-silk and very good; and
she took bedclothes and towels, and tied one to another, and made
a rope as long as she could, and tied it to the pillar of the
window, and let herself down into the garden; and she took her
dress in one hand before and in the other behind, and tucked it
up, because of the dew which she saw thick on the grass, and she
went away down in the garden.
Her hair was golden and in little curls, and her eyes blue-gray
and laughing, and- her face oval, and her nose high and well set,
and her lips vermeil, so as is no rose nor cherry in summertime,
and her teeth white and small, and her bosom was firm, and heaved
her dress as if it had been two walnuts; and atween the sides she
was so slender that you could have clasped her in your two hands;
and the daisy blossoms which she broke off with the toes of her
feet, which lay fallen over on the bend of her foot, were right
black against her feet and her legs, so very white was the
maiden.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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