“The Staff and Scrip,” perhaps, ranks next above “Dante at Verona,” to which it links itself as a kind of companion poem; celebrating the life-long faithfulness of a lady to her knight-errant, perished in defence of her cause. Coming as a pilgrim through her wasted lands, the hero seeks the queen in her dim palace, where,—
“The sweetness sickened her
Of musk and myrrh,”
and dedicates himself to the redemption of the country from her foe.
“She sent him a sharp sword, whose belt
About his body there
As sweet as her own arms he felt.
He kissed its blade, all bare,
Instead of her.”
The knight wins in the battle, but dies in the victory, and his body is brought to the queen.