“Who pondered the words for many a day.”


Mark, too, a little further on, how gloriously our author reproduces the iron-rattle and fiery jostle of the tourney:

“Into the lists Sir Gawen rides,

Manful upon his charger black,”


to break a lance for his lady’s sake.

“At signal of a bugle blast—

Sharp and sudden sound,

The knights set forward, fiery fast,