Already so well-grown and widely spread
Were the bright tresses which the hermit shore,
These, gathered in a knot, behind her head,
Though shorter than their wont, the damsel wore;
And he, that castle’s master, plainly read,
(Who often had beheld her face before)
That this was Bradamant; and now he paid
Yet higher honours to the martial maid.
With modest and with mirthful talk this while,
Seated about the fire, they feed the ear;
And in this way the weary time beguile
Till they are heartened with more solid cheer.
“If new or ancient were his castle’s style,”
(Bradamant asks the courteous cavalier)
“By whom begun, and how it took its rise?”
And thus that castellain to her replies.
“When Pharamond of France possessed the throne,
His son, prince Clodion, had a mistress rare;
And damsel in that ancient age was none
More graceful, beauteous, or more debonair;
So loved of Pharamond’s enamoured son,
That he lost sight no oftener of the fair
Than Io’s shepherd of his charge whilere:
For jealous as enamoured was the peer.
“Her in this mansion, which his sire bestowed,
He kept, and rarely issued from his rest:
With him were lodged ten cavaliers, allowed
Through France to be the boldest and the best.
Hither, while in this castle he abode,
Sir Tristram and a dame their course addrest:
Whom from a furious giant, in her need,
Short time before that gentle knight had freed.
“Sir Tristram and his lady reached the Hall,
When now the sun had Seville left behind.
They for admission on the porter call,
Since they for ten miles round no shelter find.
But Clodion, that loved much, and was withal
Sore jealous, was determined in his mind
No stranger in his keep should ever inn,
So long as that fair lady lodged therein.
“When, after long entreaties made in vain,
The castellain refused to house the knight,
He said, ‘What supplication cannot gain,
I hope to make thee do in they despite;’
And loudly challenged him, with all his train,
Those ten which he maintained, to bloody fight:
Offering, with levelled lance and lifted glaive,
To prove Sir Clodion a discourteous knave;
“On pact, if he sate fast, and overthrown
Should be the warder, and his warlike rout,
He in that castle should be lodged alone,
And Clodion with his knights remain without.”
“Against him goes the king of France’s son,
At risk of death, to venge that galling flout;
But falls astound; the rest partake his fate,
And on the losers Tristram bars the gate.
“Entering the tower, he finds her harboured there
Whereof I spake, so dear in Clodion’s eyes;
Whom She had equalled with the loveliest fair,
Nature, so niggard of such courtesies.
With her Sir Tristram talks, while fell despair
Aye racks the houseless prince in horrid wise.
Who prays the conquering knight, with suppliant cry,
Not to his arms the damsel to deny.
“Though she small worth in Tristram’s sight possess,
Nor any, saving Yseult, please his sight,385
Nor other dame to love or to caress,
The philtre, drunk erewhile, allows the knight;
Yet, for he would that foul discourteousness
Of Clodion with a fit revenge requite,
He cries, ‘I deem it were foul wrong and sore,
If so such beauty I should shut the door.
“ ‘And, should Sir Clodion grieve beneath the tree
To lodge alone, and company demand;
Although less beautiful, I have with me
A fair and youthful damsel, here at hand,
Who, I am well content, his mate shall be,
And do in all things, as he shall command.
But she that is most fair to the most strong,
Meseemeth, in all justice should belong.’
“Shut out all night, the moody Clodion strayed,
Puffing and pacing round his lofty tower,
As if that prince the sentinel had played
On them, that slept at ease in lordly bower:
Him, sorer far than wind and cold dismayed
That lovely lady’s loss in Tristram’s power:
But he, with pity touched, upon the morrow,
Rendered her back, and so relieved his sorrow.
“ ‘Because,’ he said, and made it plain appear,
‘Such as he found her, he returned the fair;
And though for his discourtesy whilere,
Clodion had every scorn deserved to bear,
He was content with having made the peer
Outwatch the weary night in open air.
Accepting not that cavalier’s excuse,
Who would have thrown on Love his castle’s use.
“ ‘For Love should make a churlish nature kind,
And not transform to rude a gentle breast.’
When Tristram hence was gone, not long behind
Remained the enamoured prince who changed his rest:
But first he to a cavalier consigned
The tower; whereof that baron he possest,
On pact, that he and his in the domain
Henceforth this usage ever should maintain;”
“That cavalier of greater heart and power
Should in this hall be harboured without fail:
They that less worthy were should void the tower,
And seek another inn, by hill or dale.
In fine, that law was fixt, which to this hour
Endures, as you have seen;” while so his tale
To Bradamant recounts that castle’s lord,
The sewer with savoury meats has heaped the board.
In the great hall that plenteous board was laid,
(None fairer was in all the world beside)
Then came where those beauteous ladies stayed,
And them, with torches lit, did thither guide.
On entering, Bradamant the room surveyed,
And she, that other fair, on every side;
Who as they gaze about the gorgeous hall
Filled full of picture, mark each storied wall.
So beauteous are the figures, that instead
Of eating, on the painted walls they stare;
Albeit of meat they have no little need,
Who wearied sore with that day’s labour are.
With grief the sewer, with grief the cook takes heed,
How on the table cools the untasted fare.
Nay, there is one amid the crowd, who cries,
“First fill your bellies, and then feast your eyes.”
The guests were placed, and now about to eat,
When suddenly bethought that castellain,
To house two damsels
