“Look! my lord!” said the liege, and the lovelace he handled, + 

“This is the band of blame that I bear round my neck, + 

This is the dole and the damage that there was dealt me, + 

For the cowardice and covetise wherein I was caught; + 

This is the token of the untruth that I was ta’en in, + 

And I must needs it wear the while that I live; + 

A man may hide his harm but úndo he cannot, + 

If the knot is once knit, it may never be loos’d.” + 

The King him comforts; and all of the court + 

With laughter agreed, for love of the liege, + 

That lords and ladies that ’long’d to the Table, + 

Each one of the brotherhood, a baldric should bear, + 

A band worn slantwise of a bríght grèen, + 

After Gawain’s suit, for the sake of Gawain. + 

’Twas a glorious token of the’ Table Round, + 

And hé that hád it was hónour’d for evermore after, + 

As ’tis breved in the best of the books of romance. + 

Thus in Arthur’s time this adventure betid, + 

The Books of Britain bear of it witness.⁠— + 

Since Brutus, the bold knight, boun’d hither first, + 

When the siege and the assault were ceasèd at Troy, + 

I wis, + 

Many marvels here-before + 

Have fallen such as this. + 

The crown of thorns Who bore + 

Now bring us to His bliss. Amen. + 

Hony soyt qui mal pence. + 