Page:The Mediaeval Mind Vol 1.djvu/566

544 was ill said,' said he; 'for you should not hold in contempt what God did for our instruction. So I pray you, for the love of God first, and for the love of me, to accustom yourself to wash them.'"

Joinville was some years younger than his king, who loved him well and wished to help him. The king also esteemed Master Robert de Sorbon for the high respect as a preudom in which he was held, and had him eat at his table. One day Master Robert was seated next to Joinville.

"'Seneschal,' said the king, smiling, 'tell me the reasons why a man of wisdom and valour (preudom, prud'homme) is accounted better than a fool.' Then began the argument between me and Master Robert; and when we had disputed for a time, the king rendered his decision, saying: 'Master Robert, I should like to have the name of preudom, so be it that I was one, and all the rest I would leave to you; for preudom is such a grand and good thing that it fills the mouth just to pronounce it.'"

Master Robert plays a not altogether happy part in another scene, varicoloured and delightful:

"The holy king was at Corbeil one Pentecost, and twenty-four knights with him. The king went down after dinner into the courtyard back of the chapel, and was talking at the entrance with the Count of Brittany, the father of the present duke, whom God preserve. Master Robert de Sorbon came to seek me there, and took me by the cloak, and led me to the king, and all the other gentlemen came after us. Then I asked Master Robert: 'Master Robert, what would you?' And he said to me: 'If the king should sit down here, and you should seat yourself above him, I ask you whether you would not be to blame?' And I said, Yes. "And he said to me: 'Yet you lay yourself open to blame, since you are more nobly clad than the king: for you wear squirrel's fur and cloth of green, which the king does not.' "And I said to him: 'Master Robert, saving your grace, I do nothing worthy of blame when I wear squirrel's fur and cloth of green; for it is the clothing which my father and mother left me. But you do what is to blame; for you are the son of a vilain and vilaine, and have abandoned the clothes of your father and your mother, and are clad in richer cloth than the king.' And then I took the lappet of his surcoat and that of the king's, and said to him: 'See whether I do not speak truly.' And the king set himself to defend Master Robert with all his might."