_How at a great feast that king Mark made, an harper came and sang the
lay that Dinadan had made._
Now will we pass of this matter, and speak we of the harper that Sir
Launcelot and Sir Dinadan had sent into Cornwall. And at the great
feast that king Mark made for joy that the Sessoins were put out of his
country, then came Eliot the harper, with the lay that Dinadan had
made, and secretly brought it unto Sir Tristram, and told him the lay
that Dinadan had made by king Mark. And when Sir Tristram heard it, he
said: That Dinadan can make wonderly well and ill, there as it shall
be. Sir, said Eliot, dare I sing this song afore king Mark? Yea, on my
peril, said Sir Tristram, for I shall be thy warrant. Then at the meat
came in Eliot the harper, and because he was a curious harper men heard
him sing the same lay that Dinadan had made, the which spake the most
villainy by king Mark of his treason that ever man heard. When the
harper had sung his song to the end, king Mark was wonderly wroth, and
said, Thou harper, how durst thou be so bold on thy head to sing this
song before me? Sir, said Eliot, wit you well I am a minstrel, and I
must do as I am commanded of these lords that I bear the arms of. And,
sir, wit you well that Sir Dinadan, a knight of the Table Round, made
this song, and made me to sing it afore you. Thou sayest well, said
king Mark, and because thou art a minstrel thou shalt go quit, but I
charge thee hie thee fast out of my sight. So the harper departed, and
went to Sir Tristram, and told him how he had sped. Then Sir Tristram
let make letters, as goodly as he could, to Launcelot, and to Sir
Dinadan. And so he let conduct the harper out of the country. But to
say that king Mark was wonderly wroth, he was; for he deemed that the
lay that was sung afore him was made by Sir Tristram’s counsel,
wherefore he thought to slay him and all his well-willers in that
country.