Among the ladies he recognises his lost queen, and he determines to follow them, and attempt her rescue.
In at a roche (_rock_) the levedis rideth, And he after and nought abideth. When he was in the roche y-go Well three milès other (_or_) mo, He came into a fair countráy As bright soonne summers day, Smooth and plain and allè grene, Hill ne dale nas none y-seen. Amiddle the lond a castel he seigh, Rich and real and wonder high. Allè the utmostè wall Was clear and shinè of cristal. An hundred towers there were about, Deguiselich and batailed stout. The buttras come out of the ditch, Of redè gold y-arched rich. The bousour was anowed all Of each manere diverse animal. Within there werè widè wones All of precious stones. The worstè pillar to behold Was all of burnished gold. All that lond was ever light, For when it should be therk (_dark_) and night, The richè stonès lightè gonne (_yield_[85]) Bright as doth at nonne the sonne, No man may tell ne think in thought The richè work that there was wrought.
Orfeo makes his way into this palace, and so charms the king with his minstrelsy, that he gives him back his wife. They return to Winchester, and there reign, in peace and happiness.
Another instance of this kind of Feerie may be seen in Thomas the Rymer, but, restricted by our limits, we must omit it, and pass to the last kind.
Sir Thopas was written to ridicule the romancers; its incidents must therefore accord with theirs, and the Feerie in it in fact resembles those in Huon de Bordeaux. It has the farther merit of having suggested incidents to Spenser, and perhaps of having given the idea of a queen regnante of Fairy Land. Sir Thopas is chaste as Graelent.
Full many a maidè bright in bour They mourned for him _par amour_; When hem were bete to slepe; But he was chaste and no lechour, And sweet as is the bramble flour That bereth the red hepe.
He was therefore a suitable object for the love of a gentle elf-queen. So Sir Thopas one day "pricketh through a faire forest" till he is weary, and he then lies down to sleep on the grass, where he dreams of an elf-queen, and awakes, declaring
An elf-queen wol I love, ywis. All other women I forsake, And to an elf-queen I me take By dale and eke by down.