QUEEN.
Yea, I see, sweet knight.
I have a mind to love you for his sake;
Would I had seen.
CHASTELARD.
Hugues de Marsillac—
I have the name now; 't was a goodly one
Before he changed it for a dusty name.
QUEEN.
Talk not of death; I would hear living talk
Of good live swords and good strokes struck withal,
Brave battles and the mirth of mingling men,
Not of cold names you greet a dead man with.
You are yet young for fighting; but in fight
Have you never caught a wound?
CHASTELARD.
Yea, twice or so:
The first time in a little outlying field
(My first field) at the sleepy gray of dawn,
They found us drowsy, fumbling at our girths,
And rode us down by heaps; I took a hurt
Here in the shoulder.
QUEEN.
Ah, I mind well now;
Did you not ride a day's space afterward,
Having two wounds? yea, Dandelot it was,
That Dandelot took word of it. I know,
Sitting at meat when the news came to us
I had nigh swooned but for those Florence eyes
Slanting my way with sleek lids drawn up close—
Yea, and she said, the Italian brokeress,
She said such men were good for great queens' love.
I would you might die, when you come to die,
Like a knight slain. Pray God we make good ends.
For love too, love dies hard or easily,
But some way dies on some day, ere we die.
CHASTELARD.
You made a song once of old flowers and loves,
Will you not sing that rather? 't is long gone
Since you sang last.
QUEEN.
I had rather sigh than sing
And sleep than sigh; 't is long since verily,
But I will once more sing; ay, thus it was.
[Sings.]
1.
J'ai vu faner bien des choses,
Mainte feuille aller au vent.
En songeant aux vieilles roses,
J'ai pleure souvent.
2.
Vois-tu dans les roses mortes
Amour qui sourit cache?
O mon amant, a nos portes
L'as-tu vu couche?