And who had Canace to wife, On which the Tartar King did ride. The king of Araby sends to Cambuscan, king of Sarra, a horse and a sword of magic quality, and also to his daughter Canace, a magic glass and a ring. Mr. Urry says, much of this tale is either lost, or else it was never finished by Chaucer. THE BRASS STEED. And so befell, that after the third course, This strange knight that appeared thus suddenly And after this, straight looking at the king, And that his meaning might be felt the better As shewing what at large he meant to say, "My lord the king of Araby and Ind, My sovereign master, on this solemn day Saluteth you, as he best can and may, And sendeth you in honor of your feast By me, your ready servant, though your least, That is to say, in four-and-twenty hours, In which it please you shew your sovereign face, As doth an eagle, when he wills to soar, This same good steed shall bear you evermore THE MAGIC GLASS. "This glass I hold, clear as a diamond, Hath such a power, that in it men may see When there shall happen any adversity Unto your reign, or to yourself; and know, By very sight, who is your friend or foe; And more than this, if any lady bright Have set her heart on any thankless knight And he be false, here shall the lady see His new love, and his thorough subtlety, So plain and clear, that nothing he shall hide." THE RING. "Wherefore against this lusty summer-tide, This glass, and this ring also, my lord, he Hath sent unto my lady Canace, Your excellent daughter that is here;-a thing So virtuous, this simple-seeming ring, That let her bear it, either on her hand, Or in her purse, and she shall understand THE SWORD: "This naked sword that hangeth by my side Such virtue hath, that whomsoe'er it smite, Clean through his armor will it carve and bite, Were it as thick as is a branched oak; And whosoe'er is wounded with the stroke, Shall never be whole man, till of your grace It please you stroke him in the wounded place With the flat side. The wound will then be closed. Nor while 'tis held in hand, will the sword fail." The knight having told his tale, alighting doffs his armor for a vest, and takes a seat as an honored guest, leaving the steed, which shone like the sun, standing in the court to the admiration and astonishment of the lords and ladies. He is governed by the trilling of a pin: This horse anon began to trip and dance, Vanish will he, whither, no soul may think; The moment he is call'd, as swift as light Ride where you list, there's no more need be done." When thus the king his lesson had begun, The horse has vanish'd, I may not tell how; THE FALCON'S COMPLAINT. Though male and female animals in general were accustomed to speak of one another as men and women in the pictures of former days, yet it is perhaps to be gathered, from the length to which this license is carried in the one before us-especially in the remarkable and sorrowful use of the simile about the bird -that the falcon was a human being, in a temporary state of metamorphosis ;a circumstance very common in tales of the East. LEIGH HUNT. "Well was I born," quoth she; "alas the day! And foster'd in a rock of marble grey So tenderly that nothing ail'd me long ; I knew not what misfortune was, nor wrong, "There dwelt a tiercelet in the place, hard by, Till such time as the bite proclaimeth it, Put forth all sweets that make the shows of love: But under is the corpse, such as ye wot. And in this wise he fashioned his intent, That, save the fiend, none dreamed of what he meant, And serv'd, and wept, and plain'd, and spoke of death, |