{"collection":"Northern European Mythology","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/neu/arthur/art148.htm","path":"neu/arthur/art148.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/neu/arthur/art148.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 THE LAMENT OF SIR ECTOR DE MARIS\n by\n ERNEST RHYS\n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0I\n \n Thro' waste and steep, this seven year\n \u00a0\u00a0Sir Ector seeks Sir Launcelot,\n His flower of knights, his brother dear.\n \n From Calabre to Gwent, he sought;\n \u00a0\u00a0Last home to Joyous Garde, he hight\n By roads that once Sir Launcelot brought.\n \n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0II\n \n What lights are they that burn all night,\n \u00a0\u00a0Within the quire of Joyous Garde?\n Sir Ector draws rein at the sight.\n \n What songs are they to heaven's Lord?\n \u00a0\u00a0What singing men, that sing and pause?\n Sir Ector doffs his helm and sword.\n \n They sing no song of \"Deo Laus\":\n \u00a0\u00a0Sir Ector de Maris knows them not:\n Yet, well they know his thrice-scarr'd brows.\n \n \"There lies they brother, Launcelot,\"\n \u00a0\u00a0Sir Bors says, standing by the bier,\n \"That thou this seven year hath sought!\"\n \n Through waste and steep, this seven year,\n \u00a0\u00a0He sought; and now he swoons to see\n That face he sought lie on the bier.\n \n The kneeling knights rise silently:\n \u00a0\u00a0They bear him forth to the cool night-air\n The summer night drinks from the sea.\n \n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0III\n \n When Ector woke, what anguish there\n \u00a0\u00a0He made, what pity in him wrought:\n His cries were more than heart can bear.\n \n \"Oh Launcelot, oh Launcelot,\n \u00a0\u00a0Of Christian knight, the flower and head,\n And there thou liest, Sir Launcelot.\n \n \"I will dare say,\" Sir Ector said,\n \u00a0\u00a0\"Of all men thou wert courtliest,\n And the truest knight ever love bested.\n \n \"Of a sinful man, thou wert the best,\n \u00a0\u00a0That ever loved; and of all, did ride\n The lists full-arm'd, the goodliest.\n \n \"And thou were first in the battle-tide\n \u00a0\u00a0To meet the spears; yet, the gentlest man \n That sate in hall by the ladies' side.\n \n \"And thou wert always the meekest one\n \u00a0\u00a0That served thy lord in Camelot:\n And the sternest knight, since wars began,\n \n \"Put spear in rest, or ever fought\n \u00a0\u00a0With thy mortal foe: and there, how low,\n How low, thou liest, Sir Launcelot!\"\n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\n \n The sorrow then, no man can know:\n Weeping, complaining, without end,\n For the noblest knight, the truest friend,\n That ever into the grave did go.\n \n \n \n \n Next: The Last Sleep of Sir Launcelot, by Ernest Rhys [1905]","title":"Arthurian Miscellany: The Lament of Sir Ector de Maris, by Ernest Rhys [1905]","type":"page"}