FullReads

31. The Children of Mercury and Venus: those born under the influence of the respective planets.

32. A planet, according to the old astrologers, was in “exaltation” when in the sign of the Zodiac in which it exerted its strongest influence; the opposite sign, in which it was weakest, was called its “dejection.” Venus being strongest in Pisces, was weakest in Virgo; but in Virgo Mercury was in “exaltation.”

33. Intermete: interpose; French, “entremettre.”

THE TALE

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 In olde dayes of the king Arthour,
 

 Of which that Britons speake great honour,
 

 All was this land full fill'd of faerie;*           *fairies
 

 The Elf-queen, with her jolly company,
 

 Danced full oft in many a green mead
 

 This was the old opinion, as I read;
 

 I speak of many hundred years ago;
 

 But now can no man see none elves mo',
 

 For now the great charity and prayeres
 

 Of limitours,* and other holy freres,       *begging friars <2>
 

 That search every land and ev'ry stream
 

 As thick as motes in the sunne-beam,
 

 Blessing halls, chambers, kitchenes, and bowers,
 

 Cities and burghes, castles high and towers,
 

 Thorpes* and barnes, shepens** and dairies,  *villages <3> **stables
 

 This makes that there be now no faeries:
 

 For *there as* wont to walke was an elf,            *where*
 

 There walketh now the limitour himself,
 

 In undermeles* and in morrowings**,      *evenings <4> **mornings
 

 And saith his matins and his holy things,
 

 As he goes in his limitatioun.*           *begging district
 

 Women may now go safely up and down,
 

 In every bush, and under every tree;
 

 There is none other incubus <5> but he;
 

 And he will do to them no dishonour.
 

And so befell it, that this king Arthour
Had in his house a lusty bacheler,
That on a day came riding from river: <6>
And happen’d, that, alone as she was born,
He saw a maiden walking him beforn,
Of which maiden anon, maugre* her head, *in spite of
By very force he reft her maidenhead:
For which oppression was such clamour,
And such pursuit unto the king Arthour,
That damned* was this knight for to be dead *condemned
By course of law, and should have lost his head;
(Paraventure such was the statute tho),* *then
But that the queen and other ladies mo’
So long they prayed the king of his grace,
Till he his life him granted in the place,
And gave him to the queen, all at her will
To choose whether she would him save or spill* *destroy
The queen thanked the king with all her might;
And, after this, thus spake she to the knight,
When that she saw her time upon a day.
“Thou standest yet,” quoth she, “in such array,* *a position
That of thy life yet hast thou no surety;
I grant thee life, if thou canst tell to me
What thing is it that women most desiren:
Beware, and keep thy neck-bone from the iron* *executioner’s axe
And if thou canst not tell it me anon,
Yet will I give thee leave for to gon
A twelvemonth and a day, to seek and lear* *learn
An answer suffisant* in this mattere. *satisfactory
And surety will I have, ere that thou pace,* *go
Thy body for to yielden in this place.”
Woe was the knight, and sorrowfully siked;* *sighed
But what? he might not do all as him liked.
And at the last he chose him for to wend,* *depart
And come again, right at the yeare’s end,
With such answer as God would him purvey:* *provide
And took his leave, and wended forth his way.