The Knight Disguised as a Hart

"Up hoist, my lads, the silken sail,
"We'll steer to an isle away;"
The swain was dreaming all the night
About a lovely may.
All the night long has dreamt the swain
About that lady fair,

Sir Lavy dwells beside a stream,
And loves to row and sail.
And cheats full many a simple maid
With false and wily tale.

Sir Lavy call'd two faithful squires
Ready to do his will;
"Entrap for me with honied words
"The maiden Elselille."

In came to her bower the table squires.
And stood before the board.
And ready men of speech were they
To choose the fittest word.

"O rise, fair maiden Elselille,
"In richest raiment dight,
"And come with us on board our ship
"To meet a gallant knight."

"That will no welbred maiden do,
"To go on board a ship,
"And make herself a jest and scorn
"For every sneering lip."

Home rode again those faithful squires,
And thus to their lord replied;
"We could not catch fair Elselille
"With all the arts we tried/'

"Could ye not catch that wary maid
"With all your art and skill?
"Within a day, live I so long,
"I'll win fair Elselille."

With that Sir Lavy in dappled skin
His head and limbs array'd,
And like a tame and gentle hart
Before her window play'd.

As open stood the courtyard gate.
In skipp'd the spotted doer,
And ran the lady's lapdogs all
Beneath her robe for fear.

Fair Elselille to her window stepp'd,
And stood awhile to gaze;
"Whose is the tame and pretty hart,
"That in the courtyard plays?

Then answer'd her the waiting maid,
She fear'd some crafty snare;
"When have you seen a hart or hind,
"That golden antlers bare?"

With playful bound and graceful gait
The hart ran towards the strand,
And after him went Elselille
Waving her lily hand.

"Would heaven, dear hart, that thou wert tame,
"And that I thee could keep!
"And then thou shouldest every night,
"On scarlet mantle sleep/'

He toss'd aside the hartskin dress,
A man again became;
"And now, fair maiden Elselille,
"Behold the hart is tame."

"Had I but only known before,
"You were so brave a knight,
"I ne'er had wish'd to other swain
"My hand and troth to plight."

But Elsey planned a crafty scheme,
While she the knight cajoled;
"Sir Lavy, I shall show you now
"My father's buried gold.

"While I was still a little child,
"My father brought his store,
"And buried it deep in the earth
"Just at my chamber door.

"Now could we take that gold with us,
"Before I leave ray home,
"The little children, we may have,
"To want could never come.

"Do you and all your active swains
"Push off your ship from land,
"While with my maids the treasure gold
"I dig from out the sand."

They grubb'd the earth, they hack'd the stone.
They nothing won but clay;
"'Tis hard to dig a treasure up,
Where treasure never lay.

The lady a lucky moment saw,
To seize it was not slow,
And up the stairs to her chamber ran,
And left the knight below.

She stood and call'd from out her bower
In gay and bantering tone;
"Good bye, Sir Lavy; all your gold
"Seems turning into stone!

"And hark. Sir Lavy, naught but dirt
"Is lying there in store;
"And so a thousand times Good bye!
We meet again no more/'