Let bé your business, to your boon shall I never
agree.
Full well my debt I know
For your blithe courtesy,
And whatever wind may blow
Your servant shall I be.”
LXXIV
“Why leave ye this lace?” the lady replied;
“For its simple semblance? Such it well seems;
Look! ’tis but little, and less is its worth;
But the virtues who knew that are knitted herein
He’d appraise it perchance at a price very high;
For the man that is girt with this girdle of green,
So long as ’tis firmly fasten’d upon him,
There’s no athel under Heaven can hew him to ground,
He may not be slain, for sleight upon earth.”
Then cast he with care, and it came to his heart,
’Twere a jewel for the jeopardy that was him adjudg’d,
When he fared to the chapel his fortune to fetch;
Might he shun to be slain, ’twere a shift full glorious!
And he suffer’d her so, nor her suit hinder’d,
And she proffer’d her prize and press’d it again.
When he granted, she gave it with a goód wìll
And besought him for her sake to discover it never,
But leally it hide; and the liege answer’d
“Never wight shall it weet, I wis, on this earth
but we.”
He thank’d her oft again,
A grateful man was he:
She kiss’d her knight, and then
She had giv’n him kisses three.
LXXV
Then took she her leave and left him therewith,
For more mirth of that man míght she not get.
And the good Sir Gawain graith’d him anon,
Rose and array’d him in a raiment noble,
Laid by the lovelace, that the lady had raught him,
And hid it with heed where eft he might find it
So then to the chapel chose he the way,
Approachèd a priest and privily pray’d him
To lift up his life, and learn him how better
His soul he should save when hence he should seek.
Then he shrove him clean and show’d his misdeeds,
Both the less and the more, and mercy besought,
And absolution he ask’d of the priest;
Who assoil’d him surely, and as sinless him made
As if day of doom should have dawn’d on the morrow.
Then he made him as merry among those dames
With comely carols and all kinds of delight
As he ne’er did ere that day, till the dark night came
with bliss.
Each man had courtesy
Of him, and said “I wis,
He ne’er was so merrie
Since hither he came, ere this.”
LXXVI
Let him lie in that lee,154 (and love him betide!)
While the lord is on laund, leading the chase.
The fox he has kill’d that so far he follow’d;
As he sprang o’er a spinney the shrew to espy,
Where he heard the hounds that hustled him on,
Reynard came running through a ruggèd clough,
With the rabble in a race right at his heels;
The wight was ware of him, and warily bode,
Drew a bright brand, and drove at the beast,
Who swerv’d from the sword and away would have swung,
But a hound was át him or ever he might,
And before the foal’s feet the pack on him fell
And worried me that wily with a wróth clàmour.
Then alighted the lord, and leaping to seize him,
Rescued poor Reynard from ravening jaws,
And held him o’erhead, hollo’ing loudly,
While the barking pack full bravely him bay’d;
The huntsmen hied them with horns a many,
Sounding recall till they sighted the quarry.
Soon as were come that company noble,
All that bugle e’er bore, blew them together,
And the others hollo’ed that no hórns hàd;
’Twas the merriest music that man ever heard,
The rich dirge that was rais’d for Reynard his soul;
All’s done!
Hunters their hounds reward
Fawning155 their heads, each one;
And then they take Reynàrd
And strip his coat anon.
LXXVII
Then hied they homeward, for even was come,
Sounding bigly on their bugle horns.
And the lord at last is alighted at home,
Finds fire upon floor, and the fair knight beside it,
Sir Gawain the good, who glad was withal,
And had delight of his love those ladies among;
He wore a blue mantle was meet to the ground,
And a surcoat full seemly with soft fur lined,
And his hood of the same hung on his shoulder;
Border’d were both with ermine about.
He meets me his man amidst of the floor,
All gamesome he greets him and graciously speaks;
“I am first to fulfil our forewards today,
That we spoke, good speed, when we spared not of drink.”
Then accolls156 he that knight and kisses him thrice
As soundly and with semblance as sober as he might.
“By heaven!” said the other, “ye had happy reward
In winning of your gains, if ye gave but as good.”
“Nay, the price!” quoth the prince, “what profits to ask?
I have paid you complete the purchase I owed.”
“Marry,” said the merry man, “mine is a poorer,
For áll day I hunted and Í have nought gotten
But this fox-skin foul, the fiend have the goods!—
That is far too poor to pay for the purchase157
That ye press on me here, the precious three kisses
so good.”
“Enough,” quoth Sir Gawain,
“I thank you, by the rood:”
And how the fox was slain
He told him, as they stood.
LXXVIII
With mirth and with minstrelsy, with meats at their will,
They made as merry as any men might
Save they were doting mad or drunk had been else;
What with laughing of ladies and lightsome jest,
Gawain and the goodman, full glad were they both.
And the meiny also many japes made,
Till was come the season when sever they must,
And to busk them to bed behoved them at last.
Then lowly his leave of the lord took Gawain,
Goodly him greeted and graciously thank’d;
“For the happy sojourn I have had in this hall,
And the honour of the high feast, the High King reward you!
I make me your man, to your mind if it be,
For needs múst, as ye know, I move on the morrow,
And the promis’d squire ye shall send to escort me
To the Green Chapel, as God will me suffer
To dree on that day the doom of my weird.”
“In God’s name,” said the goodman, “with a góod wìll
Shall I áll perform, that ever
