Tirant Lo Blanc excerpt

[edh@ascc01.ascc.lucent.com]

Poster: edh@ascc01.ascc.lucent.com

[From _Tirant_Lo_Blanc_, written by Joanot Martorell &
Marti' Joan de Galba, published in 1490, translated from
Catalan by David H. Rosenthal (c) 1984.  This excerpt is
from Chapter LXVII: "How Tirant And Lord Barrentown's Dueled"

  "If you, Tirant, wish peace, love, and good will to reign
between us and want me to pardon your youth, I shall do so on
the condition that you restore noble Agnes of Berry's brooch,
together with your knife and paper sheild, which I shall display
before all ladies of honor.  You know you deserve nothing from
so lofty a damsel, as your estate, lineage, and condition make
you unworthy even to remove her left clog, nor are you  my
equal, though I have generously stooped to fight you."

  "Knight," replied Tirant, "I am not unaware of your station,
rank, courage, and powers, but this is no time or place to
discuss lineages.  I am Tirant lo Blanc.  When I take my sword in
hand, no king, duke, count or marquis can refuse me.  Everyone
knows that.  In you, however, one can quickly find all the seven
deadly sins, and to think that with shameful words you seek to
frighten and degrade me!  I cannot be insulted by a loose-
tongued knight like you, nor would I feel praised if you spoke
well of me, since it is commonly said that being praised by vile
men is as bad as being praised for vile deeds.  Let us waste no
more words, for if one hair fell from my head, I would not want
you to have it, or let you take it."

  "Since you refuse to be reconciled," the judge asked, "do you
want life or death?"

  "The death of this haughty young man pains me," Lord
Barrentowns replied.  "Let us return to our places and prepare
to die."

  The judge climbed onto his platform of branches and cried:
"Go to it, valient knights!  Let each man show his mettle!"

-------- end of excerpt -------------

What do you all think?
Am I on the right track for my hypothetical class on Battle Boasts?
Is the kind of language used in SCA combat sufficiently like this,
too much like this, or not enough like this?
Note that this particular passage relates to a duel to the death,
and the combattants had some personal issues that were explained
earlier in the book; the tourney bouts are much less heated (but
thet sometimes end in death).

-- Alfredo
 
Alfredo el Bufon
Elvegast, Windmaster's Hill, Atlantia
edh@ascc01.ascc.lucent.com
______________________________________

Facilis descensus Averni;                 | The descent to Avernus is easy;
Noctes atque dies patet atri janua Ditis; | Night and day Pluto's gates are open;
Sed revocare gradum,                      | But to recall your steps,
    superasque evadere ad auras,          |     and climb to the upper air,
Hoc opus, hic labor est.                  | That is the toil, that is the work.
          -- Publius Vergilius Maro       |                   -- Virgil

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