Produced by David Widger
JAUFRY THE KNIGHT AND THE FAIR BRUNISSENDE
A TALE OF THE TIMES OF KING ARTHUR
By Mary Lafon
Translated From The French Version by Alfred Elwes.
Illustrated With Twenty Engravings By Gustave Dore
Addey And Co.
MDCCCLVI
frontispiece]
titlepage]
ILLUSTRATIONS.
They reached the lofty rock, where, at the summit, they beheld the kinghanging thus helpless from the monster's horns..........Frontispiece.
"Knight," then cried Jaufry to the corpse, "it grieves me not to knowthy slayer, or whether thou wert wrong or whether right: thou now artdead; but if I can, I even will learn why, and by whose hand".....035
"Knight," said Sir Jaufry, "thou dost press me sore"..............043
The wood and iron, for a cubit's length, pierced through the shoulder...................................................................053
"Good Mend," he then apostrophised the knight, "the passage now may beconsidered safe"..................................................054
"Halt, knight," he cried; "I'll have a word with thee"............060
A fierce wind, in passing, swept away the last memorial of the magicwork..............................................................082
Knights and burghers, minstrels, jugglers from all countries, hithertrooping came.....................................................088
His troop returned, bearing him faint and bleeding................094
The wood was gloomy, intricate, and dense; and at the first cross-roadbefore him, he beheld, squatted beneath a pine, a hag, whose aspectstruck him with surprise..........................................100
"Heaven!" Sir Jaufry cried, "in thee I trust; what figure have wehere?"............................................................110
Back returned the sable knight, hissing and growling as the thunderdoth when tempests vex the air....................................112
Jaufry with Augier's daughter rode away...........................117
No wonder, then, if Jaufry were surprised to see her come thus lovely,full of grace, and smiling as the queen of the sweet south........131
I leave you to surmise the games and joy which at the castle on thatday were seen.....................................................134
They sat them down in the great hall of the castle................136
He his efforts used to save her with the butt-end of his lance....140
Sir Jaufry found himself with two dames in a delicious land.......143
Then was the convent-church most richly decked, to which the king inpomp conducted him with the fair Brunissende......................155
All the train which called Sir Melyan lord escorted back in triumphto Montbran that happy pair.......................................157
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
The description given by one of the authors of _Jauvfry_ about theorigin of the romance, and the evidence afforded by the French adapterconcerning the Mss. wherein it is contained, make it unnecessary for meto dwell upon these particulars.
The veneration in which King Arthur's name is held by all lovers ofthe early romantic history of Britain will give the tale a strongrecommendation in such eyes; while the personages with which it dealsrender the appearance of its characters in an English dress the morepleasing and appropriate.
As answerable for the fashion and material of the costume, I may bepermitted to say a few words concerning the rule which has guided mein producing it. Keeping in view that the original romance is a poem inform and composition, I have endeavoured, in my translation, still topreserve the poetic character; and though compelled to base my work upona prose version, I have tried, within certain limits, rather to restoreits original shape, than allow it, by the second ordeal to which it isthus subjected, to lose it altogether. Whether such attempt, howeverhonestly conceived, has been properly carried out, must be determined bymy readers.
A.E.
King's Arms,
Moorgate Street, London.
Jaufry the Knight and the Fair Brunissende: A Tale of the Times of King Arthur Page 1
