The White Knight: Tirant Lo BlancMartorell, Joanot
General
The White Knight: Tirant Lo Blanc
Martorell, Joanot
Adventure and adventurers -- Fiction; Adventure stories; Knights and knighthood -- Fiction
The princess quickly took the mirror, and with hurried steps she
went into her chamber, thinking she would find a portrait of some
woman in the mirror. But she saw only her own face. Then she
was astonished that a lady could be courted in this way, without
words.
While she was happily reflecting on what Tirant had done, Widow
Repose and Stephanie came in. They found the princess sitting
with the mirror in her hands, and they said to her: "My lady,
where did you get such a pretty mirror?"
The princess told them about the way Tirant had declared his love
for her, and she said she had never heard of it being done
before:
"Not even in all the story books I've read have I ever found such
a graceful declaration. How knowledgeable these foreigners are!"
Widow Repose answered:
"Tell me, my lady, should Your Highness be paying as much
attention as you are to a servant your father has taken into his
house nearly out of charity, and who was thrown out by that
famous king of Sicily, along with other foreigners wearing gold
and silk clothes they've borrowed? Do you want to lose your good
reputation for a man like him?"
The princess was very upset by what the Widow had said, and she
went into her chambers nearly crying. Stephanie went with her,
telling her not to be so upset, and consoling her as best she
could.
"Isn't it terrible?" said the princess. "Here I am, scolded by
the very mistress who nursed me! What if she had seen me doing
something really bad? I believe she would have sent out a crier
to advertise it in the court and to the entire city. I trust God
that her wicked, dishonest, cursing tongue will have the
punishment it deserves."
"It's normal," said Stephanie, "for maidens in the court to be
loved and courted, and for them to have three kinds of love:
virtuous, profitable and vicious. The first one, which is
virtuous, is when some grandee loves a maiden, and she feels very
honored when others know that he dances, jousts, or goes into
battle for her love. The second is profitable, and it is when
some gentleman or knight of ancient and virtuous lineage loves a
maiden and sways her to him with gifts. The third is vicious,
when the maiden loves the gentleman or knight for her own
pleasure, and he is generous in words that give her life for a
year, but if they go too far they can end in a heavily curtained
bed among perfumed sheets where she can spend an entire winter's
night. This last kind of love seems much better to me than the
others."
When the princess heard Stephanie say such witty things, she
began to smile and most of her melancholy left her. While they
were talking the empress asked where her daughter was, since she
had not seen her for a long time. She went out into the hall and
met the empress who asked her why her eyes were red.
"My lady," said the princess, "all day long today I've had a
headache."
She made her sit on her knees, and kissed her at length.
The following day Tirant said to Diafebus:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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