ARTHUR AND GORLAGON.[1]
TRANSLATED BY F. A. MILNE, WITH NOTES BY A. NUTT.
(Read at Meeting, 17th December, 1903.)
(1) At the City of the Legions King Arthur was keeping the renowned festival of Pentecost, to which he invited the great men and nobles of the whole of his kingdom, and when the solemn rites had been duly performed he bade them to a banquet, furnished with everything thereto pertaining. And as they were joyfully partaking of the feast of rich abundance, Arthur, in his excessive joy, threw his arms around the Queen, who was sitting beside him, and embracing her, kissed her very affectionately in the sight of all. But she was dumbfounded at his conduct, and, blushing deeply, looked up at him and asked why he had kissed her thus at such an unusual place and hour.
Arthur. Because amidst all my riches I have nothing so pleasing and amidst all my delights nothing so sweet, as thou art.
The Queen. Well, if, as you say, you love me so much, you evidently think that you know my heart and my affection.
Arthur. I doubt not that your heart is well disposed towards me, and I certainly think that your affection is absolutely known to me.
- ↑ The Latin original has been edited for the first time by Professor G. L. Kittredge, of Harvard, from the late 14th century Bodleian parchment MS. Rawlinson, B 49, in Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature., vol. viii., published by Ginn and Co. of Boston. The MS. contains another Latin Arthurian romance, Historia Meriadoci regis Cambriae; Historia trium Magorum: Narratio de Tirio Appolonio; Liber Alexandri . . de preliis; Aristoteles de regimine sanitatis. Meriadocus is also found in the B.M. MS. Cott. Faust, B. VI., whence it has been edited by another American Scholar, Professor J. Douglas Bruce, in Publ. of the Mod. Lang. Ass. of America, vol. xv.
