StoryTitle("caps", "The Glove and the Lions") ?>
Glove and the Lions" was one of my early reading-lessons. It is an
incisive thrust at the vanity of "fair" women. A woman be a "true knight"
as well as a man. Leigh Hunt (1784-1859.)
PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "King Francis was a hearty king, and loved a royal sport,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And one day as his lions fought, sat looking on the court;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The nobles filled the benches, with the ladies in their pride,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And 'mong them sat the Count de Lorge with one for whom he sighed:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And truly 'twas a gallant thing to see that crowning show,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Valour, and love, and a king above, and the royal beasts below.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Ramp'd and roar'd the lions, with horrid laughing jaws;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "They bit, they glared, gave blows like beams, a wind went with their paws;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "With wallowing might and stifled roar they rolled on one another,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Till all the pit with sand and mane was in a thunderous smother;", "") ?>
PagePoem(185, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The bloody foam above the bars came whisking through the air;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Said Francis then, \"Faith, gentlemen, we're better here than there.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "De Lorge's love o'erheard the King,—a beauteous lively dame", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "With smiling lips and sharp, bright eyes, which always seem'd the same:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "She thought, \"The Count, my lover, is brave as brave can be;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He surely would do wondrous things to show his love of me;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "King, ladies, lovers, all look on; the occasion is divine;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I'll drop my glove, to prove his love; great glory will be mine.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "She dropped her glove, to prove his love, then look'd at him and smiled;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He bowed, and in a moment leapt among the lions wild:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "His leap was quick, return was quick, he has regain'd his place,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Then threw the glove, but not with love, right in the lady's face.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"Well done!\" cried Francis, \"bravely done!\" and he rose from where he sat:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"No love,\" quoth he, \"but vanity, sets love a task like that.\"", "") ?>
PoemAttribution("100", SmallCapsText("Leigh Hunt.")) ?>
PoemEnd() ?>