Perchance he wish'd his boon denied: For, when to tune his harp he tried, His trembling hand had lost the ease, Till every string's according glee Was blended into harmony. And then, he said, he would full fain He could recal an ancient strain, He never thought to sing again. It was not framed for village churls, But for high dames and mighty earls ; He had play'd it to King Charles the Good, When he kept court in Holyrood; And much he wish'd, yet fear'd, to try The long-forgotten melody. Amid the strings his fingers stray'd, And an uncertain warbling made, And oft he shook his hoary head. But when he caught the measure wild, The old man raised his face, and smiled; And lighten'd up his faded eye, With all a poet's ecstacy! In varying cadence, soft or strong, He swept the sounding chords along : The present scene, the future lot, His toils, his wants, were all forgot 'Twas thus the LATEST MINSTREL sung. THE LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL. CANTO FIRST. I. THE feast was over in Branksome tower, And the Ladye had gone to her secret bower; Her bower that was guarded by word and by spell, Deadly to hear, and deadly to tell Jesu Maria, shield us well! No living wight, save the Ladye alone, Had dared to cross the threshold stone. II. The tables were drawn, it was idlesse all; Knight, and page, and household squire, Loiter'd through the lofty hall, Or crowded round the ample fire: The stag-hounds, weary with the chace, And urged, in dreams, the forest-race, III. Nine-and-twenty knights of fame Hung their shields in Branksome Hall; Nine-and-twenty squires of name Brought them their steeds to bower from stall; Nine-and-twenty yeomen tall Waited, duteous, on them all: They were all knights of mettle true, Kinsmen to the bold Buccleuch. IV. Ten of them were sheathed in steel, They lay down to rest, With corslet laced, Pillow'd on buckler cold and hard; They carved at the meal With gloves of steel, And they drank the red wine through the helmet barr'd. V. Ten squires, ten yeomen, mail-clad men, Waited the beck of the warders ten; Thirty steeds, both fleet and wight, Barbed with frontlet of steel, I trow, And with Jedwood-axe at saddle-bow; |