Dramatic Romances

Our elder boy has got the clear
        Great brow; tho’ when his brother’s black
Full eye shows scorn, it . . .  Gismond here? 
        And have you brought my tercel back? 
I just was telling Adela
How many birds it struck since May.

Notes:  “Count Gismond:  Aix in Provence” illustrates, in the person of the woman who relates to a friend an episode of her own life, the power of innate purity to raise up for her a defender when caught in the toils woven by the unsuspected envy and hypocrisy of her cousins and Count Gauthier, who attempt to bring dishonor upon her, on her birthday, with the seeming intention of honoring her.  Her faith that the trial by combat between Gauthier and Gismond must end in Gismond’s victory and her vindication reflects most truly, as Arthur Symons has pointed out, the medieval atmosphere of chivalrous France.

124.  Tercel:  a male falcon.