your feast, By me, that am all ready at your hest, This steed of brass, that easily and well Can in the space of one day naturel (This is to say, in four-and-twenty hours), Whereso you list, in drought or else in show’rs, Bearë your body into every place To which your heartë willeth for to pace, Withoutë wem of you, through foul or fair. Or if you list to fly as high in air As doth an eagle, when him list to soar, This samë steed shall bear you evermore Withoutë harm, till ye be where you lest (Though that ye sleepen on his back, or rest), And turn again, with writhing of a pin. He that it wrought, he coudë many a gin; He waited in any a constellatión, Ere he had done this operatión, And knew full many a seal and many a bond. This mirror eke, that I have in mine hond, Hath such a might, that men may in it see When there shall fall any adversitý Unto your realm, or to yourself also, And openly who is your friend or foe. And over all this, if any lady bright Hath set her heart on any manner wight, If he be false, she shall his treason see, His newë love, and all his subtlety, So openly that there shall nothing hide. Wherefore, against this lusty summer-tide, This mirror, and this ring that ye may see, He hath sent to my lady Canacé, Your excellentë daughter that is here. The virtue of this ring, if ye will hear, Is this, that if her list it for to wear Upon her thumb, or in her purse it bear, There is no fowl that flyeth under heaven, That she shall not well understand his steven, And know his meaning openly and plain, And answer him in his languáge again: And every grass that groweth upon root She shall eke know, to whom it will do boot, All be his woundës ne’er so deep and wide. This naked sword, that hangeth by my side, Such virtue hath, that what man that it smite, Throughout his armour it will carve and bite, Were it as thick as is a branched oak: And what man is y-wounded with the stroke Shall ne’er be whole, till that you list, of grace, To stroke him with the flat in thilkë place Where he is hurt; this is as much to sayn, Ye mustë with the flattë sword again Stroke him upon the wound, and it will close. This is the very sooth, withoutë glose; It faileth not, while it is in your hold.”
And when this knight had thus his talë told, He rode out of the hall, and down he light. His steedë, which that shone as sunnë bright, Stood in the