126 LITERATURE AND DRAMA 



is over now, and you will come with me.' I trembled, and be., 

 impatient, flashed his eyes, and said, * Come, and come now, for 

 you shall be my queen, though not my wife ; and never will I 

 have wife, you living. I love you, girl, peasant as you are, and 

 I so glory in my love, that I will set you on a throne of gold, 

 and honour you before all men. You shall help me to rule the 

 land.' ' Yet not your wife, my lord ? ' I said ; and he then 

 spoke with scorn of priests, and called me poor of heart, and 

 said I did not love him, and was silent. ' My lord,' I said, ' had 

 you been the forester you seemed, should I have done well to 

 live with you, not being your wife ? I will not give the prince 

 that which I could not give the man ; my joy has come and 

 gone.' Then he was very wroth, and made as he would kill me, 

 but turned and ran. 



Filo. You would have suffered less if he had killed you 

 then. 



Gris. After long weeks, in harvest, as I worked among the 

 stacks at home, I heard the blare of trumpets and the tramp of 

 horses. Then a wild voice I knew well hallooed, ' Grisyld ! 

 come, Griselda ! ' And I stepped forward and met the prince 

 with his train, cavaliers and dames a noble sight. He dis- 

 mounted, took me by the hand, and spoke these words : ' Ladies 

 and nobles of my realm, you have much urged marriage on 

 me, which I deferred until I should have found a wife who 

 pleased me not alone my eye but my ripe judgment ; and here 

 the woman stands. Nay ; start not. Whosoever smiles but in 

 thought shall die, and rot unburied ; ' and as he looked round 

 faces paled with fear. i Your purblind eyes,' he said, ' see 

 nothing they are not taught to see. This girl is true queen by 

 nature, and I am wise in that I know it. Griselda, will you be 

 my married queen ? ' Now, when I heard the trumpet tones in 

 which he praised me, my heart said, ' I will be worthy of this 

 great love, the greatest ever shown by man to woman ; ' and I 

 answered boldly, 'Yea, my lord.' 'It is well,' he said. 'Mark 

 me then, queen ! Had you been my mistress, I would have 

 served you in the foolish fashion of my court with adulation, 

 sighs, and meek obedience. Being your husband, I remain your 

 master. Will you obey ? ' Looking on him, I thought there 

 was but one man on earth, and I said, ' I will obey.' ' Grisyld/ 



