Tirant lo Blanch; a study of its authorship, principal sources and historical setting — John Shaqi
Tirant lo Blanch; a study of its authorship, principal sources and historical settingVaeth, Joseph Anthony
History
Tirant lo Blanch; a study of its authorship, principal sources and historical setting
Vaeth, Joseph Anthony
Martorell, Joanot, -1468. Tirant lo Blanch
At this council the earl gave instructions concerning the distribution
of the booty, and restored to the former ruler the crown, scepter,
and royal robes. He himself immediately put on again the garb of the
Franciscan order. The reinstated king begged him to remain at his
court. He offered him the principality of Wales, but he would not
accept it. All the members of the council besought him to stay, but
he answered that he must return to serve God. When the king realized
that he could not induce him to dwell amongst them, he gave half of
the kingdom of Cornwall to the earl’s son, to whom was also granted
the privilege of wearing an iron crown. The hermit gave thanks to the
king for the gift and the honors bestowed on his son, and then bade
farewell to His Majesty and his court. He went to a small villa in his
county, where he remained several days. The king sent him thirty carts
loaded with the most precious things contained in the booty captured
from the Moors, but he refused to accept any of it. When the king left
the city of Warwick he sent for the earl’s son, and, at the city gate,
he appointed him Grand Constable of all England. Then the king departed
for London. (Chap. 27)
The Countess visited her husband, the hermit, in the villa, and finally
persuaded him to have a hermitage built, which was to consist of a
church, with an apartment on each side of it, one for him and the
other for her. After its completion, and just about the time that they
were going to live there, the Earl of Northumberland came to them as an
ambassador of the king. His mission was to request the noble couple to
come to London. The king was going to marry the daughter of the King
of France, and was anxious that the Countess should instruct the queen
in the practices and customs of England. The hermit replied that he
must keep the vow that he had made to serve God, but he should be very
happy if the Countess would be willing to go. And the Countess, moved
by the wish of her husband and by a sense of duty to her sovereign
lord, expressed her willingness to comply with the king’s request. And
thus, William of Warwick and his wife were again separated; she went to
London, and he entered the new hermitage, which stood in a dense grove,
in which there was a clear spring, whose waters flowed with a gentle
murmur through the flowers and green grasses of a beautiful meadow. And
every day after the hermit had finished his hours he would come out
under a beautiful pine tree that stood in the center of this meadow, to
watch the animals that came to drink from this crystal spring. (Chap.
27)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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