ans stay at home!" "The devil,
Sir Kay," the Queen replies, "are you beside yourself that your tongue
always runs on so? Cursed be your tongue which is so full of bitterness!
Surely your tongue must hate you, for it says the worst it knows to
every man. Damned be any tongue that never ceases to speak ill! As for
your tongue, it babbles so that it makes you hated everywhere. It cannot
do you greater treachery. See here: if it were mine, I would accuse it
of treason. Any man that cannot be cured by punishment ought to be tied
like a madman in front of the chancel in the church." "Really, madame,"
says my lord Yvain, "his impudence matters not to me. In every court my
lord Kay has so much ability, knowledge, and worth that he will never be
deaf or dumb. He has the wit to reply wisely and courteously to all that
is mean, and this he has always done. You well know if I lie in saying
so. But I have no desire to dispute or to begin our foolishness again.
For he who deals the first blow does not always win the fight, but
rather he who gains revenge. He who fights with his companion had better
fight against some stranger. I do not wish to be like the hound that
stiffens up and growls when another dog yaps at him."

(Vv. 649-722.) While they were talking thus, the King came out of his
room where he had been all this time asleep. And when the knights saw
him they all sprang to their feet before him, but he made them at once
sit down again. He took his place beside the Queen, who repeated to him
word for word, with her customary skill, the story of Calogrenant. The
King listened eagerly to it, and then he swore three mighty oaths by the
soul of his father Utherpendragon, and by the soul of his son, and of
his mother too, that he would go to see that spring before a fortnight
should have passed; and he would see the storm and the marvels there by
reaching it on the eve of my lord Saint John the Baptist's feast; there
he would spend the night, and all who wished might accompany him. All
the court thought well of this, for the knights and the young bachelors
were very eager to make the expedition. But despite the general joy and
satisfaction my lord Yvain was much chagrined, for he intended to go
there all alone; so he was grieved and much put out because of the King
who planned to go. The chief cause of his displeasure was that he knew
that my lord Kay, to whom the favour would not be refused if he should
solicit it, would secure the