Introduction

Espervier (Sparrowhawk) is preserved in just one manuscript: S. At 232 lines, it is one of the shortest lays in this volume.

At the outset two knights are on very good terms with each other and share many aspects of their lives. Things change, however, when one of them takes a wife on the advice of his companion, whose name is Ventilas (the author claims he does not know the other knight's name). Despite her fun-loving nature and her many fine qualities, the author hints that spotting evil in such a woman is harder than in one who is silent (this is one of several remarks in this lay that concern human behaviour in general). The lady gets on very well with her husband's companion Ventilas, but out of jealousy the husband begins to suspect, with no justification, that there is something untoward going on between them. This leads to the break-up of the friendship, but it also stimulates a relationship between the wife and Ventilas that would not have happened if it had not been forbidden. The lovers meet whenever they can and one day, when the husband is out, Ventilas sends his squire to the lady to ask if it is safe for him to visit her. While she is hurriedly getting ready, she asks the squire to hold her mirror so that she can check to see if she is well turned out. As he kneels down before her, he is overcome with passion and tries to embrace her. His advances are rejected, so he begins to force himself upon her. Just then his lord arrives and the lady tells the squire to go and hide. She and her lover then take their pleasure with each other. Things get even worse when the lady's husband unexpectedly arrives. Ventilas panics, but as a diversion the lady creates a scenario in which, sword in hand, he is to dash around the house shouting that if he can get his hands on ‘him’ he will kill him and then leave. The husband thinks that he is the one being threatened, but the wife calms the situation by inventing the story that Ventilas was angry because the squire had lost his sparrowhawk.