{"collection":"Northern European Mythology","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/neu/arthur/art128.htm","path":"neu/arthur/art128.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/neu/arthur/art128.htm","text":"Sacred Texts\u00a0\n Legends/Sagas\u00a0\n England\u00a0\n Index\u00a0\n Previous\u00a0\n Next\u00a0\n \n \n An Arthurian Miscellany\n KING RYENCE'S CHALLENGE\n from RELIQUES OF ANCIENT ENGLISH POETRY \n by\n BISHOP THOMAS PERCY\n \n \n As it fell out on a Pentecost day,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 King Arthur at Camelot kept his court royall,\n With his faire queene dame Guenever the gay,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And many bold barons sitting in hall,\n With ladies attired in purple and pall,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And heraults in hewkes, hooting on high,\n Cryed, Largesse , Largesse , Chevaliers tres-hardie .\n \n A doughty dwarfe to the uppermost deas\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Right pertlye gan pricke, kneeling on knee;\n With steven fulle stoute amids all the preas,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Say'd, \"Nowe Sir King Arthur, God save thee and see!\n Sir Ryence of North-Gales greeteth well thee,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And bids thee thy beard anon to him send,\n Or else from thy jaws hewill it off rend.\n \n \"For his robe of state is a rich scarlet mantle,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 With eleven kings beards bordered about,\n And there is room lefte yet in a kantle,\n For thine to stande, to make the twelfth out.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This must be done, be thou never so stout;\n This must be done, I tell thee no fable,\n Maugre the teethe of all thy Round Table.\"\n \n When this mortal message from his mouthe past,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Great was the noyse bothe in hall and in bower:\n The king fum'd; the queene screecht; ladies were aghast;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Princes puff'd; barons blustred; lords began lower;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Knights stormed; squires startled, like steeds in a stower;\n Pages and yeomen yell'd out in the hall;\n Then in came Sir Kay, the king's seneschal.\n \n \"Silence, my soveraignes,\" quoth this courteous knight,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And in that stound the stowre began still:\n Then the dwarfe's dinner full deerely was dight;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Of wine and wassel he had his wille,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And when he had eaten and drunken his fill,\n An hundred pieces of fine coynd gold\n Were given this dwarf for his message bold.\n \n \"But say to Sir Ryence, thou dwarf,\" quoth the king,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"That for his bold message I do him defye,\n And shortlyewith basins and pans will him ring\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Out of North-Gales; where he and I\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 With swords, and not razors, quickly shall trye,\n Whether he, or King Arthur, will prove the best barbor:\"\n And therewith he shook his good sword Escal\u00e0bor.\n \n \n \n Next: Sir Lancelot du Lake, by Bishop Thomas Percy [1765]","title":"Arthurian Miscellany: King Ryence's Challenge, by Bishop Thomas Percy [1765]","type":"page"}