Since ‘tis of stories that we speak,

I’ll now remember Elastic.

I’ve heard the Bretons tell such tales

In Nantes, in Cornwall and in Wales.

I’ll keep alive their ancient stories

Of knightly, other-worldly glories.

In Brittany there dwelt a lass

Whose beauty no one could surpass.

A little slow she was, but nice,

Worthy, demure and chaste as ice.

She’d been abandoned as a tot

Beneath an ash tree. What a lot!

A porter found her, called her Ashley,

And then – perhaps he acted rashly –

Gave her into an abbess’ care.

Ashley matured, quite unaware

How her good looks were noised abroad.

And no one thought it very odd

That many suitors came to woo ‘er,

’Cause she was simple, sweet and pure.

Not far away lived Elastic

Atop a flowery mountain peak

Where rash young lovers who’d once died

For love were buried side by side.

Elastic was a stalwart knight,

Handsome and young but not too bright,

And through th’influence of that place –

Though he had never seen her face –

He fell for Ashley, chaste and young,

Simply from hearing her beauty sung.

He had one defect, one slight ill.

He could change shape, though not at will!

He never knew at each new day

If he might change and stay that way.

At times he took a weasel's shape.

Sometimes he wore a fairy's cape,

Richer than Semiramis’ cloak –

Or so I’ve heard – and that's no joke!

Sometimes a werewolf he became,

Sometimes a hawk. That's how the name

Of Elastic suited him well.

His polymorphic life was hell,

His shapes and habits quite unfixed,

His personality too mixed!

Meanwhile, though, it had been revealed,

Through letters, rings and seals concealed,

That Ashley was a noble lady.

(Her past had been kept oddly shady!)

The abbess had her married off

To a rich earl – a gouty toff,

An old, decrepit, jealous sod

Who’d locked away poor Ashley's bod

In a high tower and lost the key.

Ashley lamented bitterly,

Bewept her noble hidden birth –

The saddest damsel on the earth …

Until the day she saw below

Elastic – handsome, bold and … slow.

She loved him in his human form,

Which she’d mistaken for the norm.

She fell in love at the first glance.