Marmion

By day the tourney, and by night 
The merry dance, traced fast and light, 
The maskers quaint, the pageant bright, 
  The revel loud and long.

This feast outshone his banquets past; 
It was his blithest,-and his last.         

The dazzling lamps, from gallery gay, 
Cast on the Court a dancing ray; 
Here to the harp did minstrels sing; 
There ladies touched a softer string;

With long-ear’d cap, and motley vest, 
The licensed fool retail’d his jest; 
His magic tricks the juggler plied; 
At dice and draughts the gallants vied;

While some, in close recess apart, 
Courted the ladies of their heart,  
  Nor courted them in vain; 
For often, in the parting hour, 
Victorious Love asserts his power 
  O’er coldness and disdain;

And flinty is her heart, can view  
To battle march a lover true- 
Can hear, perchance, his last adieu, 
  Nor own her share of pain. 

VIII.

Through this mix’d crowd of glee and game, 
The King to greet Lord Marmion came,          
  While, reverent, all made room. 
An easy task it was, I trow, 
King James’s manly form to know, 
Although, his courtesy to show, 
He doff’d, to Marmion bending low, 
  His broider’d cap and plume.

For royal was his garb and mien, 
  His cloak, of crimson velvet piled, 
  Trimm’d with the fur of marten wild; 
His vest of changeful satin sheen,         
  The dazzled eye beguiled; 
His gorgeous collar hung adown, 
Wrought with the badge of Scotland’s crown, 
The thistle brave, of old renown: 
His trusty blade, Toledo right,      
Descended from a baldric bright;

White were his buskins, on the heel 
His spurs inlaid of gold and steel;

His bonnet, all of crimson fair, 
Was button’d with a ruby rare:   
And Marmion deem’d he ne’er had seen 
A prince of such a noble mien.

IX.

The Monarch’s form was middle size; 
For feat of strength, or exercise, 
  Shaped in proportion fair;         
And hazel was his eagle eye, 
And auburn of the darkest dye, 
  His short curl’d beard and hair.

Light was his footstep in the dance, 
  And firm his stirrup in the lists;      
And, oh! he had that merry glance, 
  That seldom lady’s heart resists.

Lightly from fair to fair he flew, 
And loved to plead, lament, and sue;-