What Honour’s Wrought

By THLaird Colyne Stewart, March AS 50 (2016)

My lady I have won for thee.

On the field of chivalry

I took no knee.

I frayed into the anarchy

Of battle’s plea

And there I won it all for thee,

My lady.

My lord you won it not for me.

I did not see chivalry;

I saw your glee;

You take more blows to fell than tree.

You took the key

Of my bount’ous heart’s love for thee;

So beastly.

My lady it was destiny

That drove my sword’s gluttony.

I took no knee

To show your honour’s dignity.

Could I foresee

That my actions were not worthy

My lady?

My lord you’ll find you must agree

That you acted shamefully—

I saw your glee.

You acted discourteously

For all to see

And brought great shame to thee and me

Forever be.

This bit of didactism is an estampida. The 12^th century Provençal genre of the estampida (“uproar”) is related to the Old French estampie. It employed regular stanza structures (that is, all the stanzas looked the same) and a single-rhyme scheme. This poem is loosely based on an estimpida written by Raimbaut de Vaqueiras or Vaqueyras (fl. 1180 – 1207) known as “Kalenda maia” that was an exchange between a knight and his lady.