The Story of King Arthur and his KnightsPyle, Howard
General
The Story of King Arthur and his Knights
Pyle, Howard
Arthur, King -- Legends; Arthurian romances -- Adaptations; Folklore -- England; Knights and knighthood -- Folklore
Now when the word of all this reached the ears of Queen Morgana le Fay
she was greatly affronted that Sir Baudemagus, her son, should have been
passed by and that another should have been chosen in his stead.
Wherefore she cried out against King Arthur in the hearing of several
people, saying: “Ha! how is this! is blood and kinship of no account in
the eyes of this King that he passes by so worthy a knight as his own
nephew to choose one who is not of lawful birth in his stead? Now, my
husband’s house has suffered many grievous ills at the hands of King
Arthur, for, lo! he hath taken away our royal power and hath made us all
little better than captives in his own Court. This in itself is as great
an affront as though we were his bitter enemies instead of his nigh of
kin. But this that he hath now done to my son in thus passing him by is
a greater affront than that other.”
And Queen Morgana le Fay spake in this wise not only to King Uriens, who
was her husband, but to Sir Ewaine and to Sir Baudemagus, who were her
sons. But King Uriens of Gore rebuked her for her speech, for he had
grown to love King Arthur very much because of the high nobility of his
nature, and likewise Sir Ewaine rebuked her saying that he would listen
to no ill thing said of King Arthur, for that not only did he love King
Arthur better than anyone else in all the world, but that the King was
at once the looking-glass of all knighthood and likewise the very
fountain-head of honor.
So spake these two; but Sir Baudemagus hearkened to what his mother
Queen Morgana said, for he was very angry with King Arthur because the
King had passed him by. Wherefore he took his departure from the Court
without asking leave of King Arthur and went errant in quest of
adventure, and at this King Arthur was very sorry.
Now, as aforesaid, Queen Morgana le Fay spake her indignation to several
other people of the Court, so that word thereof came at last to the ears
of King Arthur and grieved him a very great deal. So when Queen Morgana
came to him one day and besought his leave for to quit the Court, he
spake to her with great sadness of spirit, saying, “My sister, I am
very sorry that you are not pleased with what I have done in this
matter, for God knows that I have endeavored to do to the best of my
power. And though I would rather a great deal that Sir Baudemagus were
fellow of the Round Table, yet it was my very honest belief that, for
several reasons, Sir Tor had the best right to a seat at that Table. Now
if I chose otherwise than according to my right judgment, what virtue
would the Round Table have, seeing that I should have shown favor unto a
man because of his kinship to me?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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