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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=346093" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Boy and the Mantle</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">In Carleile dwelt King Arthur,<br>A prince of passing might;<br>And there maintain'd his Table Round,<br>Beset with many a knight.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And there he kept his Christmas<br>With mirth and princely cheare,<br>When, lo! a straunge and cunning boy <br>Before him did appeare.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">A kirtle and a mantle<br>This boy had him upon,<br>With brooches, rings, and owches,<br>Full daintily bedone.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He had a sarke of silk<br>About his middle meet;<br>And thus with seemely curtesy,<br>He did King Arthur greet.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'God speed thee, brave King Arthur,<br>Thus feasting in thy bowre;<br>And Guenever thy goodly queen,<br>That fair and peerlesse flowre.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Ye gallant lords, and lordings, <br>I wish you all take heed,<br>Lest, what ye deem a blooming rose<br>Should prove a cankred weed.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then straitway from his bosome<br>A little wand he drew;<br>And with it eke a mantle<br>Of wondrous shape and hew.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Now have thou here, King Arthur,<br>Have this here of mee,<br>And give unto thy comely queen,<br>All-shapen as you see.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'No wife it shall become,<br>That once hath been to blame.'<br>Then every knight in Arthur's court<br>Slye glaunced at his dame.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And first came Lady Guenever,<br>The mantle she must trye:<br>This dame, she was new-fangled,<br>And of a roving eye.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">When she had tane the mantle,<br>And all was with it cladde,<br>From top to toe it shiver'd down,<br>As tho' with sheers beshradde.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">One while it was too long,<br>Another while too short,<br>And wrinkled on her shoulders<br>In most unseemly sort.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Now green, now red it seemed,<br>Then all of sable hue:<br>'Beshrew me,' quoth King Arthur,<br>'I think thou beest not true.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Down she threw the mantle,<br>Ne longer would not stay;<br>But storming like a fury,<br>To her chamber flung away.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">She curst the whoreson weaver,<br>That had the mantle wrought:<br>And doubly curst the froward impe,<br>Who thither had it brought.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'I had rather live in desarts,<br>Beneath the green-wood tree,<br>Than here, base king, among thy groomes,<br>The sport of them and thee.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Sir Kay call'd forth his lady,<br>And bade her to come near;<br>'Yet, dame, if thou be guilty,<br>I pray thee now forbear.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">This lady, pertly gigling,<br>With forward step came on,<br>And boldly to the little boy <br>With fearless face is gone.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">When she had tane the mantle,<br>With purpose for to wear,<br>It shrunk up to her shoulder,<br>And left her b**side bare.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then every merry knight,<br>That was in Arthur's court,<br>Gib'd, and laught, and flouted,<br>To see that pleasant sport.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Downe she threw the mantle,<br>No longer bold or gay,<br>But with a face all pale and wan,<br>To her chamber slunk away.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then forth came an old knight,<br>A pattering o'er his creed,<br>And proffer'd to the little boy <br>Five nobles to his meed;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'And all the time of Christmass<br>Plumb-porridge shall be thine,<br>If thou wilt let my lady fair<br>Within the mantle shine.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">A saint his lady seemed,<br>With step demure and slow,<br>And gravely to the mantle<br>With mincing pace doth goe.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">When she the same had taken,<br>That was so fine and thin,<br>It shrivell'd all about her,<br>And show'd her dainty skin.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Ah! little did her mincing,<br>Or his long prayers bestead;<br>She had no more hung on her,<br>Than a tassel and a thread.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Down she threwe the mantle,<br>With terror and dismay,<br>And, with a face of scarlet,<br>To her chamber hyed away.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Sir Cradock call'd his lady,<br>And bade her to come neare;<br>'Come win his mantle, lady,<br>And do me credit here.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Come win this mantle, lady,<br>For now it shall be thine,<br>If thou hast never done amiss,<br>Sith first I made thee mine.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The lady gently blushing,<br>With modest grace came on,<br>And now to try the wondrous charm<br>Courageously is gone.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">When she had tane the mantle,<br>And put it on her backe,<br>About the hem it seemed <br>To wrinkle and to cracke.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Lye still,' shee cryed, 'O mantle!<br>And shame me not for nought,<br>I'll freely own whate'er amiss,<br>Or blameful I have wrought.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Once I kist Sir Cradocke<br>Beneathe the green-wood tree:<br>Once I kist Sir Cradocke's mouth<br>Before he married mee.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">When thus she had her shriven,<br>And her worst fault had told,<br>The mantle soon became her<br>Right comely as it shold.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Most rich and fair of colour,<br>Like gold it glittering shone:<br>And much the knights in Arthur's court<br>Admir'd her every one.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then towards King Arthur's table<br>The boy he turned his eye;<br>Where stood a boar's head garnished <br>With bayes and rosemarye.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">When thrice he o'er the boar's head<br>His little wand had drawne,<br>Quoth he, 'There's never a cuckold's knife<br>Can carve this head of brawne.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then some their whittles rubbed<br>On whetstone, and on hone:<br>Some threwe them under the table,<br>And swore that they had none.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Sir Cradock had a little knife,<br>Of steel and iron made;<br>And in an instant thro' the skull<br>He thrust the shining blade.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He thrust the shining blade<br>Full easily and fast;<br>And every knight in Arthur's court<br>A morsel had to taste.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The boy brought forth a horne,<br>All golden was the rim:<br>Said he, 'No cuckold ever can<br>Set mouth unto the brim.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'No cuckold can this little horne<br>Lift fairly to his head;<br>But or on this, or that side,<br>He shall the liquor shed.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Some shed it on their shoulder,<br>Some shed it on their thigh;<br>And hee that could not hit his mouth,<br>Was sure to hit his eye.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Thus he that was a cuckold,<br>Was known of every man:<br>But Cradock lifted easily,<br>And wan the golden can.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Thus boar's head, horn and mantle,<br>Were this fair couple's meed;<br>And all such constant lovers,<br>God send them well to speed.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then down in rage came Guenever<br>And thus could spightful say:<br>'Sir Cradock's wife most wrongfully <br>Hath borne the prize away.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'See yonder shameless woman,<br>That makes herselfe so clean:<br>Yet from her pillow taken<br>Thrice five gallants have been.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Priests, clarkes, and wedded men,<br>Have her lewd pillow prest:<br>Yet she the wondrous prize forsooth<br>Must beare from all the rest.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then bespake the little boy,<br>Who had the same in hold:<br>'Chastize thy wife, King Arthur,<br>Of speech she is too bold:</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Of speech she is too bold,<br>Of carriage all too free;<br>Sir King, she hath within thy hall<br>A cuckold made of thee.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'All frolick light and wanton<br>She hath her carriage borne,<br>And given thee for a kingly crown<br>To wear a cuckold's horne.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Anonymous+Olde+English">Anonymous Olde English</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=346093" data-title="The Boy and the Mantle de Anonymous Olde English" data-description="In Carleile dwelt King Arthur,
A prince of passing might;
And there maintain'd his Table Round,
Beset with many a knight.

And there he kept his Christmas
With mirth and princely cheare,
When, lo! a straunge and cunning boy 
Before him did appeare..."></div>
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