buckëling, Gniding of shieldës, with lainers lacing; There as need is, they werë nothing idle: The foamy steeds upon the golden bridle Gnawing, and fast the armourers also With file and hammer pricking to and fro; Yeomen on foot, and knavës many one With shortë stavës, thick as they may gon; Pipës, trumpets, nakéres, and clariouns, That in the battle blowë bloody souns; The palace full of people up and down, There three, there ten, holding their questioun, Divining of these Theban knightës two. Some saiden thus, some said it shall he so; Some helden with him with the blackë beard, Some with the ballëd, some with the thick-hair’d; Some said he lookëd grim, and wouldë fight: He had a sparth of twenty pound of weight. Thus was the hallë full of divining Long after that the sunnë gan up spring. The great Theseus that of his sleep is waked With minstrelsy, and noisë that was maked, Held yet the chamber of his palace rich, Till that the Theban knightës both y-lich Honoúred were, and to the palace fet.
Duke Theseus is at a window set, Array’d right as he were a god in throne: The people presseth thitherward full soon Him for to see, and do him reverence, And eke to hearken his hest and his sentence. An herald on a scaffold made an O, Till the noise of the people was y-do: And when he