affects me not. If you have vented your scorn on me, I shall never be
harmed by it. You have often spoken insultingly, my lord Kay, to braver
and better men than I, for you are given to this kind of thing. The
manure-pile will always stink, [33] and gadflies sting, and bees will
hum, and so a bore will torment and make a nuisance of himself. However,
with my lady's leave, I'll not continue my tale to-day, and I beg her
to say no more about it, and kindly not give me any unwelcome command."
"Lady," says Kay, "all those who are here will be in your debt, for they
are desirous to hear it out. Don't do it as a favour to me! But by the
faith you owe the King, your lord and mine, command him to continue, and
you will do well." "Calogrenant," the Queen then says, "do not mind the
attack of my lord Kay the seneschal. He is so accustomed to evil speech
that one cannot punish him for it. I command and request you not to
be angered because of him, nor should you fail on his account to say
something which it will please us all to hear; if you wish to preserve
my good-will, pray begin the tale anew." "Surely, lady, it is a very
unwelcome command you lay upon me. Rather than tell any more of my
tale to-day, I would have one eye plucked out, if I did not fear your
displeasure. Yet will I perform your behest, however distasteful it may
be. Then since you will have it so, give heed. Let your heart and ears
be mine. For words, though heard, are lost unless understood within the
heart. Some men there are who give consent to what they hear but do not
understand: these men have the hearing alone. For the moment the heart
fails to understand, the word falls upon the ears simply as the wind
that blows, without stopping to tarry there; rather it quickly passes on
if the heart is not so awake as to be ready to receive it. For the heart
alone can receive it when it comes along, and shut it up within. The
ears are the path and channel by which the voice can reach the heart,
while the heart receives within the bosom the voice which enters through
the ear. Now, whoever will heed my words, must surrender to me his heart
and ears, for I am not going to speak of a dream, an idle tale, or lie,
with which many another has regaled you, but rather shall I speak of
what I saw."

(Vv. 175-268.) "It happened seven years ago that, lonely as a
countryman, I was making my way in search of adventures, fully armed
as a knight should be, when I came upon a road le