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?©tien, de Troyes, 12th cent.

"Four Arthurian Romances"

The tears run down in floods from their
eyes upon their breasts. Life and joy seem hateful now. And
Parmenides more than the rest tore his hair in dire distress. No
greater grief could be shown than that of these five for their
lord. Yet, their dismay is groundless, for it is another's body
which they bear away when they think to have their lord. Their
distress is further increased by the sight of the other shields,
which cause them to mistake these corpses for their companions.
So over them they lament and swoon. But they are deceived by all
these shields, for of their men only one was killed, whose name
was Neriolis. Him, indeed, they would have borne away had they
known the truth. But they are in as great anxiety for the others
as for him; so they bore them all away. In every case but one
they were misled. But like the man who dreams and takes a
fiction for the truth, so the shields cause them to suppose this
illusion to be a reality. It is the shields, then, that cause
this mistake. (22) Carrying the corpses, they move away and come
to their tents, where there was a sorrowing troop. Upon hearing
the lament raised by the Greeks, soon all the others gathered,
until there was but one great outcry. Now Saredamors thinks of
her wretched estate when she hears the cry and lament over her
lover.


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