Gustave Doré
King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid.
* * *
I READ that once in Affrica
A princely wight did raine,
Who had to name Cophetua,
As poets they did faine.
From natures lawes he did decline,
For sure he was not of my minde,
He cared not for women-kind
But did them all disdaine.
But marke what hapned on a day;
As he out of his window lay,
He saw a beggar all in gray.
The which did cause his paine.
A Book of Sundial Mottoes Compiled by Alfred H. Hyatt, 1903
