hispered "Friend, what you'd get, first earn!"
And when, shortly after, she carried
Her shame from the Court, and they married,
To that marriage some happiness, maugre
The voice of the Court, I dared augur. 170
For De Lorge, he made women with men vie,
Those in wonder and praise, these in envy;
And in short stood so plain a head taller.
That he wooed and won... how do you call her?
The beauty, that rose in the sequel
To the King's love, who loved her a week well.
And 'twas noticed he never would honour
De Lorge (who looked daggers upon her)
With the easy commission of stretching
His legs in the service, and fetching 180
His wife, from her chamber, those straying
Sad gloves she was always mislaying,
While the King took the closet to chat in,--
But of course this adventure came pat in.
And never the King told the story,
How bringing a glove brought such glory,
But the wife smiled--"His nerves are grown firmer:
Mine he brings now and utters no murmur."
Venienti occurrite morbo!
With which moral I drop my theorbo. 190
NOTES:
"The Glove" gives a transcript from Court life, in Paris,
under Francis I. In making Ronsard the mouthpiece for
a deeper observation of the meaning of the incident he is
supposed to witness and describe than Marot and the rest
saw, characteristic differences between these two poets of
the time are brought out, the genuineness of courtly love
and chivalry is tested, and to the original story of the glove
is added a new view of the lady's character; a sketch of
her humbler and truer lover, and their happiness; and a
pendent scene showing the courtier De Lorges, having
won a beauty for his wife, in the ignominious position of
assisting the king to enjoy her favors and of submitting to
pleasantries upon his discomfiture. The original story as
told by Poullain de St. Croix in his Essais Historiques sur
Paris ran thus: "One day whilst Francis I amused himself
with looking at a combat between his lions, a lady,
having let her glove drop, said to De Lorges, 'If you
would have me believe that you love me as much as you
swear you do, go and bring back my glove.' De Lorges
went down, picked up the glove from amidst the ferocious
beasts, returned, and threw it in the lady's face; and in
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