He was more comely and charming
than Narcissus who saw his reflection in the spring beneath the
elm-tree, and, when he saw it, he loved it so that he died, they
say, because he could not get it. Narcissus was fair, but had
little sense; (27) but as fine gold surpasses copper, so was
Cliges better endowed with wisdom, and even then I have not said
all. His locks seemed made of fine gold, and his face was of a
fresh rosy colour. He had a well-formed nose and shapely mouth,
and in stature he was built upon Nature's best pattern; for in
him she had united gifts which she is wont to scatter wide.
Nature was so lavish with him that she gave him all she could,
and placed all in one receptacle. Such was Cliges, who combined
good sense and beauty, generosity and strength. He possessed the
wood as well as the bark; he knew more of fencing and of the bow
than did Tristan, King Mark's nephew, and more about birds and
hounds than he. (28) In Cliges there lacked no good thing.
(Vv. 2793-2870.) Cliges stood in all his beauty before his
uncle, and those who did not know who he was looked at him with
eager curiosity. And on the other hand, the interest was aroused
of those who did not know the maiden: wonderingly they gaze upon
her. But Cliges, under the sway of love, let his eyes rest on
her covertly, and withdrew them again so discreetly that in their
passage to and fro no one could blame his lack of skill.
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