When the knightly minstrel three songs to the end had sung

When the knightly minstrel three songs to the end had sung, No one there who heard him thought they were too long, The turn of a hand, not longer, they had thought it lasted, E’en if they had listened while for a thousand miles a horseman hasted.

When his song he ended, and to leave his seat was seen, The youthful, queenly maiden more blithe had never been, Nor decked, at early morning, in gayer clothes or better; Forthwith the high-born lady sent to beg her father now to meet her.

Then came her father quickly, and on the maiden looked, While, in a mood of sadness, her father’s chin she stroked; With her hand she coaxed him, to make her word the stronger, And said: “My dearest father, bid that he at court may sing yet longer.”