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| AS it fell out on a Pentecost-day, | |
| King Arthur at Camelot kept his court royall, | |
| With his faire queene, Dame Guenever the gay; | |
| And many bold barons sitting in hall; | |
| With ladies attired in purple and pall; | 5 |
| And heraults in hewkes, hooting on high, | |
| Cryed, Largesse, Largesse, Chevaliers tres-hardie. | |
| |
| A doughty dwarfe to the uppermost deas | |
| Right pertlye gan pricke, kneeling on knee; | |
| With steven fulle stoute amids all the preas, | 10 |
| Sayd: Nowe, Sir King Arthur, God save thee, and see! | |
| Sir Ryence of North-gales greeteth well thee, | |
| And bids thee thy beard anon to him send, | |
| Or else from thy jaws he will it off rend. | |
| |
| For his robe of state is a rich scarlet mantle, | 15 |
| With eleven kings beards bordered about, | |
| And there is room lefte yet in a kantle, | |
| For thine to stande, to make the twelfth out: | |
| This must be done, be thou never so stout; | |
| This must be done, I tell thee no fable, | 20 |
| Maugre the teeth of all thy round table. | |
| |
| When this mortal message from his mouthe past, | |
| Great was the noyse bothe in hall and in bower: | |
| The king fumed; the queene screecht; ladies were aghast; | |
| Princes puffed; barons blustred; lords began lower; | 25 |
| Knights stormed; squires startled, like steeds in a stower; | |
| Pages and yeomen yelled out in the hall, | |
| Then in came Sir Kay, the king’s seneschal. | |
| |
| Silence, my soveraignes, quoth this courteous knight, | |
| And in that stound the stowre began still: | 30 |
| Then the dwarfe’s dinner full deerely was dight; | |
| Of wine and wassel he had his wille: | |
| And, when he had eaten and drunken his fill, | |
| An hundred pieces of fine coyned gold | |
| Were given this dwarf for his message bold. | 35 |
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| But say to Sir Ryence, thou dwarf, quoth the king, | |
| That for his bold message I do him defye; | |
| And shortlye with basins and pans will him ring | |
| Out of North-gales; where he and I | |
| With swords, and not razors, quickly shall trye, | 40 |
| Whether he or King Arthur will prove the best barbor, | |
| And therewith he shook his good sword Escalàbor. | |
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