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Jean Froissart, Thomas Malory, Raphael Holinshed

"Chronicle and Romance (The Harvard Classics Series)"




CHAPTER XX
HOW SIR LAUNCELOT WAS SHRIVEN, AND WHAT SORROW HE MADE, AND OF THE
GOOD ENSAMPLES WHICH WERE SHEWED HIM

Then Sir Launcelot wept with heavy cheer, and said: Now I know well ye
say me sooth. Sir, said the good man, hide none old sin from me.
Truly, said Sir Launcelot, that were me full loth to discover. For
this fourteen year I never discovered one thing that I have used, and
that may I now wyte my shame and my misadventure. And then he told
there that good man all his life. And how he had loved a queen
immeasurably and out of measure long. And all my great deeds of arms
that I have done, I did for the most part for the queen's sake, and
for her sake would I do battle were it right or wrong; and never did I
battle all only for God's sake, but for to win worship and to cause me
to be the better beloved, and little or nought I thanked God of it.
Then Sir Launcelot said: I pray you counsel me. I will counsel you,
said the hermit, if ye will ensure me that ye will never come in that
queen's fellowship as much as ye may forbear. And then Sir Launcelot
promised him he nold, by the faith of his body.


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