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Page 1 of 51910 · PDF PAGE 431
SIR PALAMEDES, THE SARACEN KNIGHT How agony’s unleavening yeast Stirs Palamede. Anon they tire, And follow an Egyptian priest Who boasts him master of the fire To draw down lightning, and invoke The gods upon a sandal pyre, And bring up devils in the smoke. Sir Palamede is all alone, Wrapped in his misery like a cloak, Despairing now to charm the Unknown. So arms and horse he takes again. Sir Palamede hath overthrown The jesters. Now the country men, Stupidly staring, see at noon Sir Palamede the Saracen A-riding like an harvest moon In silver …
1910 · PDF PAGE 382
II Bexoip! Arabia’s burning shore Rings to the hoofs of many a steed. Lord of a legion rides to war The indomitable Palamede. The Paynim fly ; his troops delight In murder of many a myriad men, Following exultant into fight Sir Palamede the Saracen. Now when a year and day are done Sir Palamedes is aware Of blue pavilions in the sun, And bannerets fluttering in the air. Forward he spurs; his armour gleams; Then on his haunches rears the steed; Above the lordly silk there streams The pennon of Sir Palamede! Aflame, a bridegroom to his spouse, He…
1910 · PDF PAGE 408
32 SIR PALAMEDES, THE SARACEN KNIGHT And thereto at the end is Hell. Believe! And why believe? Because It is a thing impossible.” Sir Palamede his pulses pause. “It is not possible” (quod he) “That Palamede is wroth, and draws His sword, decapitating thee. By parity of argument This deed of blood must surely be.” With that he suddenly besprent All Scythia with the sage’s blood, And laughing in his woe he went Unto a further field and flood, Aye guided by that wizard’s head, That like a windy moon did scud Before him, winking eyes of red And sna…
1910 · PDF PAGE 411
XIII Sir PALAMEDE is come anon Into a blue delicious bay. A mountain towers thereupon, Wherein some fiend of ages gone Is whelmed by God, yet from his breast Spits up the flame, and ashes grey. Hereby Sir Palamede his quest Pursues withouten let or rest. Seeing the evil mountain be, Remembering all his evil years, He knows the Questing Beast runs free— Author of Evil, then, is he! Whereat immediate resounds The noise he hath sought so long: appears There quest a thirty couple hounds Within its belly as it bounds. Lifting his eyes, he sees at la…
1910 · PDF PAGE 432
56 XX Srp PALAMEDE hath reasoned out Beyond the shadow of a doubt That this his Questing Beast is one; For were it Beasts, he must suppose An earlier Beast to father those. So all the tracks of herds that run Into the forest he discards, And only turns his dark regards On single prints, on marks unique. Sir Palamede doth now attain Unto a wide and grassy plain, Whereon he spies the thing to seek. Thereat he putteth spur to horse And runneth him a random course, The Beast a-questing aye before. But praise to good Sir Palamede! *Hath gotten him a…
1910 · PDF PAGE 475
…de through the land upon the quest, His sword loose and his vizor down, His buckler braced, his lance in rest. Now, then, God save 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. “F…
1910 · PDF PAGE 420
44 SIR PALAMEDES, THE SARACEN KNIGHT Buzzing some streamlet through a wood. Sir Palamede grows mighty wroth, And mutters maledictions rude, Seeing his quarry far and loth And thieves despoiling all the bait. Now, careless of the knightly oath, The sun pours down his eastern gate. The chase is over: see ye then, Coursing afar, afoam at fate, 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 473
SIR PALAMEDES, THE SARACEN KNIGHT God save thee, woeful Palamede! The questing of the Beast is loud Within thy ear. By Goddes reed, Thou hast won the tilt from all the crowd ! Within thy proper bowels it sounds Mighty and musical at need, As if a thirty couple hounds Quested within thee, Palamede! Now, then, he grasps the desperate truth He hath toiled these many years to see, Hath wasted strength, hath wasted youth— He was the Beast; the Beast was he! He rises from the cave of death, Runs to the sea with shining face To know at last the Bounte…
1910 · PDF PAGE 476
…ame. See, with this whip I lash thee back, Back to the kennel whence there came So false a hound.” ‘Good knight, in sooth,” Answered Sir Palamede, “not I Presume to assert the idlest truth ; And here, by this good ear and eye, I grant thou art Sir Palamede. But—try the first and final test If thou or I be he. Take heed!” He backed his horse, covered his breast, Drove his spurs home, and rode upon That knight. His lance-head fairly struck The barred strength of his morion, And rolled the stranger in the muck. “ Now, by God’s death!” quoth Palame…
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 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 398
…Hotp Sir Lancelot of the Lake Breasting the stony screes : behold How breath must fail and muscle ache Before he reach the icy fold That Palamede the Saracen Within its hermitage may hold. At last he cometh to a den Perched high upon the savage scaur, Remote from every haunt of men, From every haunt of life afar. There doth he find Sir Palamede Sitting as steadfast as a star. Scarcely he knew the knight indeed, For he was compassed in a beard White as the streams of snow that feed The lake of Gods and men revered That sitteth upon Caucasus. So …
1910 · PDF PAGE 405
…th he the forest ways, Remembering his knightly oath, And through the hot and dripping days Ploughs through the tangled undergrowth. Sir Palamede the Saracen Came on a forest pool at length, Remote from any mart of men, Where there disported in his strength The lone and lordly elephant. Sir Palamede his forehead beat. “O amorous! O militant! O lord of this arboreal seat!” Thus worshipped he, and stalking stole Into the Presence: he emerged. The scent awakes the uneasy soul Of that Majestic One: upsurged 29
1910 · PDF PAGE 419
XVI Where shafts of moonlight splash the vale, Beside a stream there sits and strains Sir Palamede, with passion pale, And haggard from his broken brains. Yet eagerly he watches still A mossy mound where dainty grains Of gilded corn their beauty spill To tempt the quarry to the range Of Palamede his archer skill. All night he sits, with ardour strange And hope new-fledged. A gambler born Aye thinks the luck one day must change, Though sense and skill he laughs to scorn. So now there rush a thousand rats In sable silence on the corn. They sport …
1910 · PDF PAGE 407
XI Sir PALAMEDE the Saracen Hath hied him to an holy man, Sith he alone of mortal men Can help him, if a mortal can. (So tell him all the Scythian folk.) Wherefore he makes a caravan, And finds him. When his prayers invoke The holy knowledge, saith the sage: “This Beast is he of whom there spoke The prophets of the Golden Age: “Mark ! all that mind is, he is not.’” Sir Palamede in bitter rage Sterte up: “Is this the fool, ’Od wot, To see the like of whom I came From castellated Camelot ?” The sage with eyes of burning flame Cried: “Is it not a …
1910 · PDF PAGE 403
Ix Sir PaLaMEDE the Saracen Sailed ever with a favouring wind Unto the smooth and swarthy men That haunt the evil shore of Hind: He queried eager of the quest. “Ay! Ay!” their cunning sages grinned : “Tt shines! It shines! Guess thou the rest! For naught but this our Rishis know.” Sir Palamede his way addressed Unto the woods: they blaze and glow; His lance stabs many a shining blade,’ His sword lays many a flower low That glittering gladdened in the glade. He wrote himself a wanton ass, And to the sea his traces laid, Where many a wavelet on t…
1910 · PDF PAGE 385
…ng over lordly lands. Oh! high above the envious sea This fortress dominates the tides ; There, ill at heart, the chivalry Of strong Sir Palamede abides. Now comes irruption from the folk That live by murder: day by day The good knight strikes his deadly stroke; The vultures claw the attended prey. But day by day the heathen hordes Gather from dreadful lands afar, A myriad myriad bows and swords, As clouds that blot the morning star. Soon by an arrow from the sea The Lady of Palamede is slain ; His son, in sally fighting free, Is struck through…
1910 · PDF PAGE 379
I Sir PaLaMEDE the Saracen Rode by the marge of many a sea: He had slain a thousand evil men And set a thousand ladies free. Armed to the teeth, the glittering knight Galloped along the sounding shore, His silver arms one lake of light, Their clash one symphony of war. How still the blue enamoured sea Lay in the blaze of Syria’s noon! The eternal roll eternally Beat out its monotonic tune. Sir Palamede the Saracen A dreadful vision here espied, A sight abhorred of gods and men, Between the limits of the tide. The dead man’s tongue was torn away…
1910 · PDF PAGE 373
ARGUMENT i, Sir Palamede, the Saracen knight, riding on the shore of Syria, findeth his father’s corpse, around which an albatross circleth. He approveth the vengeance of his peers. ii, On the shore of Arabia he findeth his mother in the embrace of a loathly negro beneath blue pavilions. Her he slayeth, and burneth all that encampment. iii, Sir Palamede is besieged in his castle by Severn mouth, and his wife and son are slain, iv. Hearing that his fall is to be but the prelude to an attack on Camelot, he maketh a desperate night sortie, and wil…