So it is a mad enterprise I undertake in wishing to
attempt to describe it. But since I must make the effort, come
what may, I shall not fail to relate a part of it, as best I may.
(Vv. 6713-6809.) The King had two thrones of white ivory, well
constructed and new, of one pattern and style. He who made them
beyond a doubt was a very skilled and cunning craftsman. For so
precisely did he make the two alike in height, in breadth, and in
ornamentation, that you could nor look at them from every side to
distinguish one from the other and find in one aught that was not
in the other. There was no part of wood, but all of gold and
fine ivory. Well were they carved with great skill, for the two
corresponding sides of each bore the representation of a leopard,
and the other two a dragon's shape. A knight named Bruiant of
the Isles had made a gift and present of them to King Arthur and
the Queen. King Arthur sat upon the one, and upon the other he
made Erec sit, who was robed in watered silk. As we read in the
story, we find the description of the robe, and in order that no
one may say that I lie, I quote as my authority Macrobius, (44)
who devoted himself to the description of it. Macrobius
instructs me how to describe, according as I have found it in the
book, the workmanship and the figures of the cloth.
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