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Page 1 of 51910 · PDF PAGE 475
…ave thee, Palamede! Who courseth yonder on the field? Those silver arms, that sable steed, The sun and rose upon his shield? The strange knight spurs to him. Disdain Curls the proud lip as he uplifts His vizor. ‘Come, an end! In vain, Sir Fox, thy thousand turns and shifts!” Sir Palamede was white with fear. Lord Christ! those features were his own; His own that voice so icy clear That cuts him, cuts him to the bone. “False knight! false knight!” the stranger cried. “ Thou bastard dog, Sir Palamede? Iam the good knight fain to ride Upon the Que…
1910 · PDF PAGE 442
SIR PALAMEDES, THE SARACEN KNIGHT They swarm, they grow, they multiply; The strong knight’s brain goes all a-swim, Paced by that maddening minstrelsy, Those dog-like demons hunting him. The last bar breaks; the steel will snaps ; The black hordes riot in his brain ; A thousand threatening thunder-claps Smite him—insane—insane—insane |! His muscles roar with senseless rage; The pale knight staggers, deathly sick; Reels to the light that sorry sage, Sir Palamede the Lunatick.
1910 · PDF PAGE 433
SIR PALAMEDES, THE SARACEN KNIGHT With that the Beast hopes no escape, Dissolveth all his lordly shape, Splitteth him sudden into two. Sir Palamede in fury runs Unto the nearer beast, that shuns The shock, and splits, and splits again, Until the baffled warrior sees A myriad myriad swarms of these A-questing over all the plain. The good knight reins his charger in. “ Now, by the faith of Paladin! The subtle quest at last I ken.” Rides off to Camelot to plight The faith of many a noble knight, Sir Palamede the Saracen. 57
1910 · PDF PAGE 471
SIR PALAMEDES, THE SARACEN KNIGHT Straight he dissolved, a voiceless shade. “Or scotched or slain,” the knight said then, “What odds? Keep bright and sharp thy blade, Sir Palamede the Saracen!” 95
1910 · PDF PAGE 413
SIR PALAMEDES, THE SARACEN KNIGHT While such a questing there resounds As God had loosed the very Pit, Or as a thirty couple hounds Are in its belly as it bounds! Full sick at heart, I ween, was then The loyal knight, the weak of wit, The butt of lewd and puny men, Sir Palamede the Saracen. 37
1910 · PDF PAGE 446
70 SIR PALAMEDES, THE SARACEN KNIGHT For all these Paynim knights may rest In the black bliss they struggle to.” But from the earth’s full-flowered breast Brake the blind roar of earthquake through, Tearing the belly of its mother, Engulphing all that heathen crew, That cried and cursed on one another. Aghast he standeth, Palamede ! For twinned with Earthquake laughs her brother The Questing Beast. As Goddes reed Sweats blood for sin, so now the heart Of the good knight begins to bleed. Of all the ruinous shafts that dart Within his liver, this…
1910 · PDF PAGE 414
38 XIV Nortuwarp the good knight gallops fast, Resolved to seek his foe at home, When rose that Vision of the past, The royal battlements of Rome, A ruined city, and a dome. There in the broken Forum sat A red-robed robber in a Hat. “Whither away, Sir Knight, so fey?” “Priest, for the dove on Ararat T could not, nor I will not, stay!” “T know thy quest. Seek on in vain A golden hart with silver horns! Life springeth out of divers pains. What crown the King of Kings adorns? A crown of gems? A crown of thorns! The Questing Beast is like a king In…
1910 · PDF PAGE 404
SIR PALAMEDES, THE SARACEN KNIGHT Until one billow curls to leap, And flings him breathless on the shore Half drowned. O fool! his God’s asleep, His armour in illusion’s war Itself illusion, all his might And courage vain. Yet ardours pour Through every artery. The knight Scales the Himalaya’s frozen sides, Crowned with illimitable light, And there in constant war abides, Smiting the spangles of the snow ; Smiting until the vernal tides Of earth leap high ; the steady flow Of sunlight splits the icy walls : They slide, they hurl the knight belo…
1910 · PDF PAGE 468
92 SIR PALAMEDES, THE SARACEN KNIGHT How weak Sir Palamedes grows! We hear no more of bouts and blows! His weapons are his ten good toes! He that was Arthur's peer, good knight Proven in many a foughten fight, Flees like a felon in the night! Ay! this thy quest is past the ken Of thee and of all mortal men, Sir Palamede the Saracen !
1910 · PDF PAGE 376
SIR PALAMEDES, THE SARACEN KNIGHT Beast. Standing up, that he may enjoy the reward, he findeth another answer to the riddle. Yet abideth in the quest. xxxviii. Sir Palamede is confronted by a stranger knight, whose arms are his own, as also his features, This knight mocketh Sir Palamede for an impudent pretender, and impersonator of the chosen knight. Sir Palamede in all humility alloweth that there is no proof possible, and offereth ordeal of battle, in which the stranger is slain, Sir Palamede heweth him into the smallest dust without pity, x…
1910 · PDF PAGE 484
SIR PALAMEDES, THE SARACEN KNIGHT 108 “Faugh!” cried the knight. “Thought, word, and act Confirm me. I have proved the quest Impossible. I break the pact. Back to the gilded halls, confessed A recreant! Achieved or not, This task hath earned a foison—rest. In Caerlon and Camelot Let me embrace my fellow-men ! To buss the wenches, pass the pot, Is now the enviable lot Of Palamede the Saracen!”
1910 · PDF PAGE 383
SIR PALAMEDES, THE SARACEN KNIGHT But oh! the eyes of shame! Beneath The tall pavilion’s sapphire shade There sport a band with wand and wreath, Languorous boy and laughing maid. And in the centre is a sight Of hateful love and shameless shame: A recreant Abyssinian knight Sports grossly with a wanton dame. How black and swinish is the knave! His hellish grunt, his bestial grin; Her trilling laugh, her gesture suave, The cool sweat swimming on her skin ! She looks and laughs upon the knight, Then turns to buss the blubber mouth, Draining the dr…
1910 · PDF PAGE 486
THE HIGH HISTORY OF GOOD As the simoom, and forth did roll A sudden thunder. Still they stood. Then came a bugle-blast. The soul Of each knight stirred. With vigour rude, The blast tore down the tapestry That hid the door. All ashen-hued The knights laid hand to sword. But he (Sir Palamedes) in the gap Was found—God knoweth—bitterly Weeping. Cried Arthur: “Strange the hap! My knight, my dearest knight, my friend ! What gift had Fortune in her lap Like thee? Embrace me!” “ Rather rend Your garments, if you love me, sire!” (Quod he). “Iam come un…
1910 · PDF PAGE 455
SIR PALAMEDES, THE SARACEN KNIGHT The broad stair winds; he follows it; Dark is the way; the air is blind; Black, black the blackness of the pit, The light long blotted out behind! His sword sweeps out; his keen glance peers For some shape glimmering through the gloom: Naught, naught in all that void appears ; More still, more silent than the tomb! Yet now the good knight is aware Of some black force, of some dread throne, Waiting beneath that awful stair, Beneath that pit of slippery stone. Yea! though he sees not anything, Nor hears, his subt…
1910 · PDF PAGE 477
SIR PALAMEDES, THE SARACEN KNIGHT Thou hast lied. I am the chosen knight To slay the Questing Beast for men ; I am the loyal son of light, Sir Palamede the Saracen ! Thou wast the subtlest fiend that yet Hath crossed my path. To say thee nay I dare not, but my sword is wet With thy knave’s blood, and with thy clay Fouled! Dost thou think to resurrect? O sweet Lord Christ that savest men! From all such fiends do thou protect Me, Palamede the Saracen!” 101
1910 · PDF PAGE 418
42 SIR PALAMEDES, THE SARACEN KNIGHT As suddenly Hell’s own disgust Eats up the joy he had of lust. The brutal glee his folly took For holy joy breaks down his brain. Off bolts the Beast: the earth is shook As out a questing roars again, As if a thirty couple hounds Are in its belly as it bounds ! The peasants gather to deride The knight: creation joins in mirth. Ashamed and scorned on every side, There gallops, hateful to the earth, The laughing-stock of beasts and men, Sir Palamede the Saracen.
1910 · PDF PAGE 415
SIR PALAMEDES, THE SARACEN KNIGHT The knight spurs on, and soon espies A monster coursing on the plain. He hears the horrid questing rise And thunder in his weary brain. This time, to slay it or be slain! Too easy task! The charger gains Stride after stride with little pains Upon the lumbering, flapping thing. He stabs the lamb, and splits the brains Of that majestic-seeming king. He clips the wing and pares the claw— What turns to laughter all his joy, To wondering ribaldry his awe? The beast’s a mere mechanic toy, Fit to amuse an idle boy! 39
1910 · PDF PAGE 448
72 SIR PALAMEDES, THE SARACEN KNIGHT In all the seasons and the tides. But ah! the more it changed and changed” — (The good knight laughed to split his sides !) “What? Is the soul of things deranged? The more it changed, and rippled through Its changes, and still changed, and changed, The liker to itself it grew. Bear me,” he cried, “ to purge my bile To the old land of Hormakhu, That I may sit and curse awhile At all these follies fond that pen My quest about—on, on to Nile! Tread tenderly, my merry men! For nothing is so void and vile As Pala…
1910 · PDF PAGE 439
…, a Gothic spire he spies, That like a gladiator towers Its spear-sharp splendour to the skies. The people cluster round, acclaim : “Sir Knight, good knight, thy quest is won. Here dwells the Beast in orient flame, Spring-sweet, and swifter than the sun!” Sir Palamede the Saracen Spurs to the shrine, afire to win The end; and all the urgent men Throng with him eloquently in. Sir Palamede his vizor drops; He lays his loyal lance in rest; He drives the rowels home—he stops! Faugh! but a black-mouthed money-chest! 63
1910 · PDF PAGE 465
SIR PALAMEDES, THE SARACEN KNIGHT Touched the extreme, the giant goal! Yea! all things in that hour transcended, All power in his sublime control, All felt, all thought, all comprehended— “ How is it, then, the quest ” (he saith) “Ts not—at last |!—achieved and ended? Why taste I not the Bounteous Breath, Receive the Goodly Gift of Grace? Now, kind king-eagle (by God’s death !), Restore me to mine ancient place! I am advantaged nothing then!” Then swooped he from the Byss of Space, And set the knight amid the fen. “God!” quoth Sir Palamede, “th…