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QUEEN’S COURT MANUSCRIPT.
LUDISA AND LUBOR.[1]
Ho! old and young! your ears be lent
To combat and to tournament!
Beyond the Elbe, in ancient days,
A Prince, good, rich, and glorious, sways;
He hath an only daughter bright,
Both his and all men’s dear delight.
That maiden she is wondrous fair,
Of stature tall and stately air;
Her cheeks are white, and, sooth to speak,
Red blushes bloom upon her cheek;
Her eyes, like heaven, are clear and bright,
And on her neck, that is so white,
The golden glitt’ring locks descend
In twisted ringlets without end.
- ↑ This poem is intituled “Begins of a famous Tournament” in the Queen’s Court Manuscript (Book iii. Chap. 27). Such tournaments were first introduced into Bohemia under King Vaceslaw I. (Wenceslaus I.), between 1230 and 1253; the poem therefore can only have been composed in the latter half of the thirteenth century, and is perhaps without reference to any definite event.
