{"collection":"Northern European Mythology","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/neu/mart/mart333.htm","path":"neu/mart/mart333.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/neu/mart/mart333.htm","text":"CHAPTER VIII\nHow Dame Brisen by enchantment brought Sir Launcelot to\nDame Elaine's bed, and how Queen Guenever rebuked\nhim.\nSO when time came that all folks were abed, Dame\nBrisen came to Sir Launcelot's bed's side and said: Sir\nLauncelot du Lake, sleep you? My lady, Queen Guenever,\nlieth and awaiteth upon you. O my fair lady, said\nSir Launcelot, I am ready to go with you where ye will\nhave me. So Sir Launcelot threw upon him a long gown,\nand his sword in his hand; and then Dame Brisen took\nhim by the finger and led him to her lady's bed, Dame\nElaine; and then she departed and left them in bed\ntogether. Wit you well the lady was glad, and so was Sir\nLauncelot, for he weened that he had had another in his\narms.\nNow leave we them kissing and clipping, as was kindly\nthing; and now speak we of Queen Guenever that sent\none of her women unto Sir Launcelot's bed; and when\nshe came there she found the bed cold, and he was away;\nso she came to the queen and told her all. Alas, said the\nqueen, where is that false knight become? Then the\nqueen was nigh out of her wit, and then she writhed and\nweltered as a mad woman, and might not sleep a four or\nfive hours. Then Sir Launcelot had a condition that he\nused of custom, he would clatter in his sleep, and speak\noft of his lady, Queen Guenever. So as Sir Launcelot\nhad waked as long as it had pleased him, then by course\nof kind he slept, and Dame Elaine both. And in his sleep\nhe talked and clattered as a jay, of the love that had been\nbetwixt Queen Guenever and him. And so as he talked\nso loud the queen heard him thereas she lay in her\nchamber; and when she heard him so clatter she was nigh\nwood and out of her mind, and for anger and pain wist\nnot what to do. And then she coughed so loud that Sir\nLauncelot awaked, and he knew her hemming. And then\nhe knew well that he lay not by the queen; and therewith\nhe leapt out of his bed as he had been a wood man, in his\nshirt, and the queen met him in the floor; and thus she\nsaid: False traitor knight that thou art, look thou never\nabide in my court, and avoid my chamber, and not so\nhardy, thou false traitor knight that thou art, that ever\nthou come in my sight. Alas, said Sir Launcelot; and\ntherewith he took such an heartly sorrow at her words\nthat he fell down to the floor in a swoon. And therewithal\nQueen Guenever departed. And when Sir Launcelot\nawoke of his swoon, he leapt out at a bay window into a\ngarden, and there with thorns he was all to-scratched in\nhis visage and his body; and so he ran forth he wist not\nwhither, and was wild wood as ever was man; and so he\nran two year, and never man might have grace to know\nhim.","title":"Le Morte d'Arthur BOOK XI CHAPTER VIII","type":"page"}