Poetry > Lady of the lake

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THE LADY OF THE LAKE.
Canto IT.
Two o’er the rest superior rose,
And proud demanded mightier foes,
Nor call’d in vain; for Douglas came.
—For life is Hugh of Larhert lame ;
Scarce better John of Alloa’s fare,
Whom senseless home his comrades bear.
Prize of the wrestling match, the King
To Douglas gave a golden ring,1
While coldly glanced his eye of blue,
As frozen drop of wintry dew.
this Archibald (whatsoever were Angus’s or Sir George's fault)
had not been principal actor of anything, nor no counsellor nor
stirrer up, but only a follower of his friends, and that noways
cruelly disposed.,,—Hume of Godscroft, ii. 107.
1 The usual prize of a wrestling was a ram and a ring, but the
animal would have embarrassed my story. Thus, in the Cokes
Tale of Gamelyn, ascribed to Chaucer :
" There happed to be there beside
Tryed a wrestling;
And therefore there was y-setten
A ram and als a ring.’’
Again the Litil Geste of Robin Hood :
“ By a bridge was a wrestling.
And there taryed was he.
And there was all the best yemen
Of all the west countrey.
A full fayre game there was set up,
A white bull up y-pight,
A great courser with saddle and brydle,
With gold burnished full bryght;
A payre of gloves, a red golde ringe,
* A pipe of wyne good fay;
What man bereth him best, I wis.
The prize shall bear away/’
Ritson’s Robin 7/ooJ, vol. L