Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 3.pdf/45

Rh

From out Refusal’s wood was ta’en

That club, of lovers’ bar and bane.

His buckler broidered was of strife,

With tales that vilify fair life.

Franchise was so well armed that she

Would not be vanquished easily,

For well could she her cause defend.

Against her foeman did she bend

Her lance, prepared to force the gate,

For fashioned was it fair and straight,

And had been, as it seemed to me,

Cut in the wood of Flattery,

From trees that grow but in Bière,

Well steeled with courteous speech and fair.

Her shield was supplication sweet,

Such as ’tis rare on earth to meet,

And all around ’twas fringed with words

Soft as the piping of small birds,

With promises, and hands clasped tight,

And oaths and confidences dight,

All painted most entrancingly.

Gazing thereon one could but be

In heart assured that ’twas Largess

Coloured and carved its loveliness,

So richly was its field bedeckt.

And Franchise, who did well protect

Therewith her body, lightly shook

Her spear-staff, and the monster strook

Boldly, though he no coward were,

But fearlessly his weapon bare

(As Renouard of the Staff were he,

Come back to life all suddenly),