And but three knights of Arthur’s court
Are from the tourney missed.
And still those lovers’ fame survives
For faith so constant shown;
There were two that loved their neighbours’ wives,
And one that loved his own.”
Alas! that the very first of these in arms, in courtesy, in personal advantages, and, but for the one foul blot, in honourable fame, should have been Lancelot de Lac, the ornament of chivalry. Alas! that the lady of his guilty love should have been that
“Flower of all the west and all the world,”
whose rightful place was on the bosom of “the stainless king.”
Their fatal passion, that grew so insensibly in those fair May-days long ago, when the pair