Ivanhoe, Walter Scott [the lemonade war series txt] 📗
- Author: Walter Scott
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“Holy Clerk,” said the stranger, after the first cup was thus
swallowed, “I cannot but marvel that a man possessed of such
thews and sinews as thine, and who therewithal shows the talent
of so goodly a trencher-man, should think of abiding by himself
in this wilderness. In my judgment, you are fitter to keep a
castle or a fort, eating of the fat and drinking of the strong,
than to live here upon pulse and water, or even upon the charity
of the keeper. At least, were I as thou, I should find myself
both disport and plenty out of the king’s deer. There is many a
goodly herd in these forests, and a buck will never be missed
that goes to the use of Saint Dunstan’s chaplain.”
“Sir Sluggish Knight,” replied the Clerk, “these are dangerous
words, and I pray you to forbear them. I am true hermit to the
king and law, and were I to spoil my liege’s game, I should be
sure of the prison, and, an my gown saved me not, were in some
peril of hanging.”
“Nevertheless, were I as thou,” said the knight, “I would take my
walk by moonlight, when foresters and keepers were warm in bed,
and ever and anon,---as I pattered my prayers,---I would let fly
a shaft among the herds of dun deer that feed in the glades
—Resolve me, Holy Clerk, hast thou never practised such a
pastime?”
“Friend Sluggard,” answered the hermit, “thou hast seen all that
can concern thee of my housekeeping, and something more than he
deserves who takes up his quarters by violence. Credit me, it is
better to enjoy the good which God sends thee, than to be
impertinently curious how it comes. Fill thy cup, and welcome;
and do not, I pray thee, by further impertinent enquiries, put me
to show that thou couldst hardly have made good thy lodging had I
been earnest to oppose thee.”
“By my faith,” said the knight, “thou makest me more curious than
ever! Thou art the most mysterious hermit I ever met; and I will
know more of thee ere we part. As for thy threats, know, holy
man, thou speakest to one whose trade it is to find out danger
wherever it is to be met with.”
“Sir Sluggish Knight, I drink to thee,” said the hermit;
“respecting thy valour much, but deeming wondrous slightly of thy
discretion. If thou wilt take equal arms with me, I will give
thee, in all friendship and brotherly love, such sufficing
penance and complete absolution, that thou shalt not for the next
twelve months sin the sin of excess of curiosity.”
The knight pledged him, and desired him to name his weapons.
“There is none,” replied the hermit, “from the scissors of
Delilah, and the tenpenny nail of Jael, to the scimitar of
Goliath, at which I am not a match for thee---But, if I am to
make the election, what sayst thou, good friend, to these
trinkets?”
Thus speaking, he opened another hutch, and took out from it a
couple of broadswords and bucklers, such as were used by the
yeomanry of the period. The knight, who watched his motions,
observed that this second place of concealment was furnished with
two or three good long-bows, a cross-bow, a bundle of bolts for
the latter, and half-a-dozen sheaves of arrows for the former. A
harp, and other matters of a very uncanonical appearance, were
also visible when this dark recess was opened.
“I promise thee, brother Clerk,” said he, “I will ask thee no
more offensive questions. The contents of that cupboard are an
answer to all my enquiries; and I see a weapon there” (here be
stooped and took out the harp) “on which I would more gladly
prove my skill with thee, than at the sword and buckler.”
“I hope, Sir Knight,” said the hermit, “thou hast given no good
reason for thy surname of the Sluggard. I do promise thee I
suspect thee grievously. Nevertheless, thou art my guest, and I
will not put thy manhood to the proof without thine own free
will. Sit thee down, then, and fill thy cup; let us drink, sing,
and be merry. If thou knowest ever a good lay, thou shalt be
welcome to a nook of pasty at Copmanhurst so long as I serve the
chapel of St Dunstan, which, please God, shall be till I change
my grey covering for one of green turf. But come, fill a flagon,
for it will crave some time to tune the harp; and nought pitches
the voice and sharpens the ear like a cup of wine. For my part,
I love to feel the grape at my very finger-ends before they make
the harp-strings tinkle.”*
The Jolly Hermit.---All readers, however slightly acquainted with black letter, must recognise in the Clerk of Copmanhurst, Friar Tuck, the buxom Confessor of Robin Hood’s gang, the Curtal Friar of Fountain’s Abbey.CHAPTER XVII
At eve, within yon studious nook,
I ope my brass-embossed book,
Portray’d with many a holy deed
Of martyrs crown’d with heavenly meed;
Then, as my taper waxes dim,
Chant, ere I sleep, my measured hymn.
*Who but would cast his pomp away,
To take my staff and amice grey,
And to the world’s tumultuous stage,
Prefer the peaceful Hermitage?
Warton
Notwithstanding the prescription of the genial hermit, with which
his guest willingly complied, he found it no easy matter to bring
the harp to harmony.
“Methinks, holy father,” said he, “the instrument wants one
string, and the rest have been somewhat misused.”
“Ay, mark’st thou that?” replied the hermit; “that shows thee a
master of the craft. Wine and wassail,” he added, gravely
casting up his eyes---“all the fault of wine and wassail!---I
told Allan-a-Dale, the northern minstrel, that he would damage
the harp if he touched it after the seventh cup, but he would not
be controlled---Friend, I drink to thy successful performance.”
So saying, he took off his cup with much gravity, at the same
time shaking his head at the intemperance of the Scottish harper.
The knight in the meantime, had brought the strings into some
order, and after a short prelude, asked his host whether he would
choose a “sirvente” in the language of “oc”, or a “lai” in the
language of “oui”, or a “virelai”, or a ballad in the vulgar
English.*
Note C. Minstrelsy.“A ballad, a ballad,” said the hermit, “against all the ‘ocs’ and
‘ouis’ of France. Downright English am I, Sir Knight, and
downright English was my patron St Dunstan, and scorned ‘oc’ and
‘oui’, as he would have scorned the parings of the devil’s hoof
---downright English alone shall be sung in this cell.”
“I will assay, then,” said the knight, “a ballad composed by a
Saxon glee-man, whom I knew in Holy Land.”
It speedily appeared, that if the knight was not a complete
master of the minstrel art, his taste for it had at least been
cultivated under the best instructors. Art had taught him to
soften the faults of a voice which had little compass, and was
naturally rough rather than mellow, and, in short, had done all
that culture can do in supplying natural deficiencies. His
performance, therefore, might have been termed very respectable
by abler judges than the hermit, especially as the knight threw
into the notes now a degree of spirit, and now of plaintive
enthusiasm, which gave force and energy to the verses which he
sung.
THE CRUSADER’S RETURN.
1.
High deeds achieved of knightly fame,
From Palestine the champion came;
The cross upon his shoulders borne,
Battle and blast had dimm’d and torn.
Each dint upon his batter’d shield
Was token of a foughten field;
And thus, beneath his lady’s bower,
He sung as fell the twilight hour:---
2.
“Joy to the fair!---thy knight behold,
Return’d from yonder land of gold;
No wealth he brings, nor wealth can need,
Save his good arms and battle-steed
His spurs, to dash against a foe,
His lance and sword to lay him low;
Such all the trophies of his toil,
Such---and the hope of Tekla’s smile!
3.
“Joy to the fair! whose constant knight
Her favour fired to feats of might;
Unnoted shall she not remain,
Where meet the bright and noble train;
Minstrel shall sing and herald tell---
‘Mark yonder maid of beauty well,
‘Tis she for whose bright eyes were won
The listed field at Askalon!
4.
“‘Note well her smile!---it edged the blade
Which fifty wives to widows made,
When, vain his strength and Mahound’s spell,
Iconium’s turban’d Soldan fell.
Seest thou her locks, whose sunny glow
Half shows, half shades, her neck of snow?
Twines not of them one golden thread,
But for its sake a Paynim bled.’
5.
“Joy to the fair!---my name unknown,
Each deed, and all its praise thine own
Then, oh! unbar this churlish gate,
The night dew falls, the hour is late.
Inured to Syria’s glowing breath,
I feel the north breeze chill as death;
Let grateful love quell maiden shame,
And grant him bliss who brings thee fame.”
During this performance, the hermit demeaned himself much like a
first-rate critic of the present day at a new opera. He reclined
back upon his seat, with his eyes half shut; now, folding his
hands and twisting his thumbs, he seemed absorbed in attention,
and anon, balancing his expanded palms, he gently flourished them
in time to the music. At one or two favourite cadences, he threw
in a little assistance of his own, where the knight’s voice
seemed unable to carry the air so high as his worshipful taste
approved. When the song was ended, the anchorite emphatically
declared it a good one, and well sung.
“And yet,” said he, “I think my Saxon countrymen had herded long
enough with the Normans, to fall into the tone of their
melancholy ditties. What took the honest knight from home? or
what could he expect but to find his mistress agreeably engaged
with a rival on his return, and his serenade, as they call it, as
little regarded as the caterwauling of a cat in the gutter?
Nevertheless, Sir Knight, I drink this cup to thee, to the
success of all true lovers---I fear you are none,” he added, on
observing that the knight (whose brain began to be heated with
these repeated draughts) qualified his flagon from the water
pitcher.
“Why,” said the knight, “did you not tell me that this water was
from the well of your blessed patron, St Dunstan?”
“Ay, truly,” said the hermit, “and many a hundred of pagans did
he baptize there, but I never heard that he drank any of it.
Every thing should be put to its proper use in this world. St
Dunstan knew, as well as any one, the prerogatives of a jovial
friar.”
And so saying, he reached the harp, and entertained his guest
with the following characteristic song, to a sort of derry-down
chorus, appropriate to an old English ditty.*
It may be proper to remind the reader, that the chorus of “derry down” is supposed to be as ancient, not only as the times of the Heptarchy, but as those of the Druids, and to have furnished the chorus to the hymns of those venerable persons when they went to the wood to gather mistletoe.THE BAREFOOTED FRIAR.
1.
I’ll give thee, good fellow, a twelvemonth or twain,
To search Europe through, from Byzantium to Spain;
But ne’er shall you find, should you search till you tire,
So happy a man as the Barefooted Friar.
2.
Your knight for his lady pricks forth in career,
And is brought home
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