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Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume XXIV.

by Wilson John Mackay

Sports » Scotland

Added by: Theodore P. B...

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CANTO FIRST.Come, sit thee by me, love, and thou shalt hearA tale may win a smile and claim a tear--A plain and simple story told in rhyme,As sang the minstrels of the olden time.No idle Muse I'll needlessly invoke--No patron's aid, to steer me from the rockOf cold neglect round which oblivion lies;But, loved one, I will look into thine eyes,From which young poesy first touched my soul,And bade the burning words in numbers roll;--They were the light in which I learned to sing;And still to thee will kindling fancy cling--Glow at thy smile, as when, in younger years,I've seen thee smiling through thy maiden tears,Like a fair floweret bent with morning dew,While sunbeams kissed its leaves of loveliest hue.Thou wert the chord and spirit of my lyre--Thy love the living voice that breathed--"aspire!"--That smoothed ambition's steep and toilsome height,And in its darkest paths was round me, light.Then, sit thee by me, love, and list the strain,Which, but for thee, had still neglected lain.

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...returned from the Holy Land of thehospitality of a certain countess of Tripoli, whose grace andbeauty equalled her virtue, fell deeply in love with her withoutever having seen her. In 1162 he quitted the court of Englandand embarked for the Holy Land. On his voyage he was attacked bya severe illness, and had lost the power of speech when hearrived at the port of Tripoli. The countess, being informedthat a celebrated poet was dying of love for her on board avessel, visited him on shipboard, took him by the hand, andattempted to cheer him. Rudel recovered his speech sufficientlyto thank the countess for her humanity, and to declare hispassion, when his expressions of gratitude were silenced by theconvulsions of death. He was buried at Tripoli, beneath a tombof porphyry which the countess raised to his memory. His verses"On Distant Love" were well known. They began thus:Angry and sad shall be my way If I behold not her afar, And yet I know not when that day Shall rise, for still she...