The Boy's King Arthur: Sir Thomas Malory's History of King Arthur and His Knights of the Round TableMalory, Thomas, Sir
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The Boy's King Arthur: Sir Thomas Malory's History of King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table
Malory, Thomas, Sir
Arthur, King -- Legends; Arthurian romances -- Adaptations; Folklore -- England; Knights and knighthood -- Folklore
Then on the third day Sir Launcelot called to the kings, dukes, earls,
and barons, and said thus: "My fair lords, I thank you all of your
coming into this country with me. But we come too late, and that shall
repent me while I live. But sithen it is so, I will myself ride and
seek my lady Queen Guenever, for as I hear say she hath great pain and
much disease, and I heard say that she is fled into the west country,
therefore ye all abide me here, and but if I come within fifteen days,
then take your ships and your fellowship, and depart into your country."
* * * * *
Then came Sir Bors de Ganis, and said, "My lord Sir Launcelot, what
think ye for to do, now to ride in this realm? wit thou well, ye shall
find few friends."
"Be as be may," said Sir Launcelot, "keep you still here, for I will
forth on my journey, and no man nor child shall go with me."
So it was no boot to strive, but he departed and rode westerly, and
there he sought a seven or eight days, and at the last he came unto
a nunnery. And then was Queen Guenever ware of Sir Launcelot as she
walked in the cloister; and when she saw him there, she swooned three
times, that all the ladies and gentlewomen had work enough for to
hold the queen up. So when she might speak, she called ladies and
gentlewomen unto her, and said, "Ye marvel, fair ladies, why I make
this cheer. Truly," said she, "it is for the sight of yonder knight
which yonder standeth; wherefore I pray you all to call him unto me."
And when Sir Launcelot was brought unto her, then she said: "Sir
Launcelot, I require thee and beseech thee heartily, for all the love
that ever was between us two, that thou never look me more in the
visage. And furthermore I command thee on God's behalf right straitly,
that thou forsake my company, and that unto thy kingdom shortly thou
return again, and keep well thy realm from war and wreck. For as well
as I have loved thee, Sir Launcelot, now mine heart will not once serve
me to see thee. Therefore, Sir Launcelot, go thou unto thy realm, and
there take thee a wife, and live with her in joy and bliss. And I
beseech you heartily, pray for me unto our Lord God, that I may amend
my misliving."
"Now, sweet madam," said Sir Launcelot, "would ye that I should now
return again into my country, and there to wed a lady? Nay, madam, wit
you well that shall I never do: but the same destiny that ye have taken
you to, I will take me unto, for to please Jesu, and ever for you I
cast me specially to pray. And if I had found you now so disposed, I
had cast me to have had you into mine own realm."
[Then] there was lamentation as they had been stung by spears, and the
ladies bare the queen to her chamber.
And Sir Launcelot took his horse and rode all that day and all that
night in a forest, weeping. And at last he was ware of a hermitage and
a chapel between two cliffs, and then he heard a little bell ring to
mass.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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