Full many a lordly hour, full fain Of his realm's rule and pride of his reign:—
But this King never smiled again.
By none but me can the tale be told, The butcher of Rouen, poor Berold.275 (Lands are swayed by a king on a throne.) 'Twas a royal train put forth to sea, Yet the tale can be told by none but me. (The sea hath no king but God alone.)
[WILLIAM MORRIS]
ATALANTA'S RACE
Argument
Atalanta, daughter of King Schœneus, not willing to lose her virgin's estate, made it a law to all suitors that they should run a race with her in the public place, and if they failed to overcome her should die unrevenged; and thus many brave men perished. At last came Milanion, the son of Amphidamas, who, outrunning her with the help of Venus, gained the virgin and wedded her.
Through thick Arcadian[289] woods a hunter went, Following the beasts up, on a fresh spring day; But since his horn-tipped bow, but seldom bent, Now at the noon-tide naught had happed to slay, Within a vale he called his hounds away,5 Hearkening the echoes of his lone voice cling About the cliffs and through the beech-trees ring.