On venturous quest to prick again, In all his arms, with all his train, Shield, lance, and brand, and plume, and scarf, ; And errant maid on palfrey white. Well has thy fair achievement shown, A worthy meed may thus be won ; 11 a Ytene's oaks-beneath whose shade, Their theme the merry minstrels made, b And that Red King, who, while of old By his loved huntsman's arrow bled- For thou hast sùng, how He of Gaul, For Oriana, foiled in fight The Necromancer's felon might; And well in modern verse hast wove Partenopex's mystic love: Hear then, attentive to my lay, A knightly tale of Albion's elder day. a The new forest in Hampshire, anciently so called. William Rufus. |