Great were the lamentation and the cry when the news of this mischance was noised about the city. Such a tumult of mourning was never before heard, for the whole city was moved.

Now will I rehearse before you a very ancient Breton Lay. As the tale was told to me, so, in turn, will I tell it over again, to the best of my art and knowledge. Hearken now to my story, its why and its reason.

There are divers men who make a great show of loyalty, and pretend to such discretion in the hidden things they hear, that at the end folk come to put faith in them.

A bully is not reasonable - he is persuaded only by threats.

But sweetly and discreetly love passes from person to person, from heart to heart, or it is nothing worth.

The dead and past stories that I have told again in divers fashions, are not set down without authority.