Eft if among folk
enmity areareth, in ever any time between two men, men can say leasing
of the hateful one, though he were the best man that ever ate at
board, the man that to him were loath, he can him last find! It is not
all sooth nor all falsehood that minstrels sing; but this is the sooth
respecting Arthur the king. Was never ere such king, so doughty
through all things! For the sooth stands in the writings how it is
befallen, from beginning to the end, of Arthur the king, no more nor
less but as his laws (or acts) were.
But Britons loved him greatly, and oft of him lie, and say many things
respecting Arthur the king that never was transacted in this
worlds-realm! Enow may he say, who the sooth will frame, marvellous
things respecting Arthur the king. Then was Arthur most high, his folk
most fair, so that there was no knight well esteemed, nor of his
manners (or deeds) much assured, in Wales nor in England, in Scotland
nor in Ireland, in Normandy nor in France, in Flanders nor in Denmark,
nor in ever any land, that on this side of Muntgiu standeth, that were
esteemed good knight, nor his deeds accounted (brave or aught), unless
he could discourse of Arthur, and of his noble court, his weapons, and
his garments, and his horsemen, say and sing of Arthur the young, and
of his strong knights, and of their great might, and of their wealth,
and how well it them became.
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