There was at the Court of King Arthur a certain knight hight Sir Pinal the Savage, who was cousin to Sir Lamorack, and Sir Pinal was very bitter against Sir Gawaine, and was anxious to be revenged upon him, yet he wit not how to take that revenge.
Sir Pinal, surnamed the Savage, poisoneth an apple.
Now Sir Gawaine had a custom of eating an apple immediately after he had dined, and this Sir Pinal was aware of. So Sir Pinal took the fairest apple he could find, and he introduced into it a very subtle and very malignant poison, and this apple he placed in the centre of the table, and in the midst of all the fruit. For he said to himself, “There will Sir Gawaine find this apple, and he will take it and eat it and will die.” And he said, “Queen Guinevere will be blamed for that death, for all the world knoweth that she and Sir Gawaine are unfriends.” So said Sir Pinal, for he thought thus to be revenged for the death of Sir Lamorack upon Sir Gawaine, and he knew not how else to achieve that vengeance. For next to Sir Launcelot, Sir Gawaine was the strongest knight of the court, and he was besides nephew to King Arthur and of great importance in the King’s household. Wherefore it was that Sir Pinal sought to slay Sir Gawaine by that poisoned apple.
Sir Patrice of Ireland eateth the apple, and dieth.
But at the end of that feast Sir Gawaine did not take the apple, but instead of Sir Gawaine, Sir Patrice of Ireland took it. And Sir Patrice bit a great bite into that apple, and he ate that piece. Then anon he cried out in a very loud and piercing voice, “Hah! What is this that ails me?” And then he cried out in a very terrible voice, “Alas! I am poisoned and I die from eating this apple!” And he cried out again, “Friends, see that my death is avenged!”
Therewith he fell down to the ground in great agony, lashing with his hands and feet and frothing at the mouth, and so in a little while he died.
Then Sir Gawaine rose up, and he turned his face toward the Queen, and his face was very white, and he said, “Lady, how is this? This apple was poisoned! For whom was it intended?”
Sir Gawaine accuseth the Queen.
The Queen hid her face in her hands for horror of what she had beheld, and she cried out in a very shrill voice, “I knew not that it was poisoned, and I know not how it was poisoned!” Sir Gawaine said, “That apple was poisoned, and thou knewest that it was poisoned. Methinks it was intended for me. Thou hast always borne enmity toward me, wherefore thou didst place that apple upon the table that I might eat of it. One time thou wert innocent, but now thou art innocent no longer, but art full of malice and guile, wherefore thou hadst the will to poison me.”
Then the Queen cried out with a great passion, saying, “Gawaine, thou and I were never friends, but rather would I cut off my right hand than to do so evil a thing as this, to seek to poison thee.”