She comes to the curtain and at the knight peeps.
Sir Gawain welcomes her worthily at once,
And he she replied to, full sweet with her words,
Sits her softly by his side, simply she laughs,
And with a loving look she laid out these words:
"Sir, if you be Gawain, wonder me thinks,
One that is so well-worked in etiquette good,
Cannot comprehend the conventions of nobility,
And if one commends you these claims, you cast them from your mind;
You have forgotten easily what I yesterday taught
By the most oak-obvious token of talk that I could."
"What is that?" said Gawain. "I claim my wits bare;
If it be truth that you breathe, the blame is my own."
"I educated on kissing," said the clear girl,
""When-so countenance is couth quickly to claim;
Then befits such a knight that courtesy uses."*
"Do not," said that doomed man, "my dear make that speech,
For that I dare not do, lest I denied were;
If withheld, I were wrong to have made the advance."
"My word, said the lords wife, "who could stop you?
You are staunch enough to constrain with strength who you like,
If any were so villainous that you deny would."
"Yes, by God," said Gawain, "good is your speech,
But such is un-thought of in lands where I live,
And each gift that is given not with good will.
I am at your commandment, to kiss when you like;
You may lay on when you like, and leave when you thinks,
in space."
The lady leans down
And comely kisses his face;
Much speech they there expound
Of loves pain and grace.
"I have wanted to know what," that worthy there said,
"If it raised not your wrath, the reason was
That one so young and un-yielding as you at this time,
So courteous, so knightly as you are known everywhere -
And of all chivalry to choose, the chief thing praised
Is the true talk of love, the gospel of arms;
For to tell of the adventures of these true knights,
It is the title and token and text of their works,
How long for their true love their lives they have ventured,
Endured for her duty doleful times,
And after, vindicated with valor and voided their care,
And brought bliss into bower with bounty their own -
And you are, knight, comeliest kind of your age,
Your worth and your worship walk everywhere,
And I have sat by your side here on two seperate times,
Yet learnt I never of your lips no words
That ever belonged to love, less than none.
And you, that are so courteous and claim a knights heart,
Ought to a young thing service show
And teach some tokens of true love-crafts.
What! Are you so lewd, that all the world loves,
Or else you deem me too dizzy your dalliance to hear?
For shame!
I come here alone and sit
To learn from you some game;
Do teach me of your wit,
While my lord is from home.
*Really not sure that I got this right. Is a little elliptical even in the original I think.
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