Le Morte d'Arthur BOOK X CHAPTER XXXI

CHAPTER XXXI

How at a great feast that King Mark made an harper
came and sang the lay that Dinadan had made.

NOW will we pass of this matter, and speak we of the
harpers that Sir Launcelot and Sir Dinadan had sent into
Cornwall.  And at the great feast that King Mark made
for joy that the Sessoins were put out of his country, then
came Eliot the harper with the lay that Dinadan had made
and secretly brought it unto Sir Tristram, and told him
the lay that Dinadan had made by King Mark.  And
when Sir Tristram heard it, he said:  O Lord Jesu, that
Dinadan can make wonderly well and ill, thereas it shall
be.  Sir, said Eliot, dare I sing this song afore King Mark?
Yea, on my peril, said Sir Tristram, for I shall be thy
warrant.  Then at the meat came in Eliot the harper, and
because he was a curious harper men heard him sing the
same lay that Dinadan had made, the which spake the
most villainy by King Mark of his treason that ever man
heard.

When the harper had sung his song to the end King
Mark was wonderly wroth, and said:  Thou harper, how
durst thou be so bold on thy head to sing this song afore
me.  Sir, said Eliot, wit you well I am a minstrel, and I
must do as I am commanded of these lords that I bear the
arms of.  And sir, wit ye well that Sir Dinadan, a knight
of the Table Round, made this song, and made me to
sing it afore you.  Thou sayest well, said King Mark,
and because thou art a minstrel thou shalt go quit, but I
charge thee hie thee fast out of my sight.  So the harper
departed and went to Sir Tristram, and told him how he
had sped.  Then Sir Tristram let make letters as goodly
as he could to Launcelot and to Sir Dinadan.  And so he
let conduct the harper out of the country.  But to say
that King Mark was wonderly wroth, he was, for he
deemed that the lay that was sung afore him was made by
Sir Tristram's counsel, wherefore he thought to slay him
and all his well-willers in that country.