Title: Arthur
A tragedy
Author: Laurence Binyon
Release date: March 26, 2023 [eBook #70384]
Language: English
Original publication: United States: Small Maynard and Company, 1923
Credits: Charlene Taylor, Krista Zaleski and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
ARTHUR A TRAGEDY
BY LAURENCE BINYON
BOSTON
SMALL, MAYNARD AND COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
Copyright, 1923
By SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY
(Incorporated)
Printed in the United States of America
THE MURRAY PRINTING COMPANY
CAMBRIDGE, MASS.
BINDING BY
THE BOSTON BOOKBINDING COMPANY
CAMBRIDGE, MASS.
[Pg 5]
With what names should I inscribe this play but with yours? Yet what right have I to dedicate to you what is already so much your own? Memory goes back to that June day, now long ago, when first I undertook to write for you a play out of Malory’s pages on a theme long pondered by you both. And many days come back to me, in London or by the sunny Channel, when time was forgotten in ardent work and interchange of ideas; in thinking out and talking over crucial situations; in rejecting and recasting; in the search for essential structure. How much the play owes to you, both in framework and in detail, none knows so well as I. Give me leave, therefore, to write these words in grateful acknowledgment of that initial trust, of much fruitful suggestion and inspiriting counsel, and of all I have learnt from you of the playwright’s patient craft.
LAURENCE BINYON.
| CHARACTERS OF THE PLAY |
| ARTHUR |
| FIRST SCENE |
| SECOND SCENE |
| THIRD SCENE |
| FOURTH SCENE |
| FIFTH SCENE |
| SIXTH SCENE |
| SEVENTH SCENE |
| EIGHTH SCENE |
| NINTH SCENE |
[Pg 6]
| King Arthur. | ||
| Sir Launcelot. | ||
| Sir Gawaine | } | brothers. |
| Sir Gaheris | ||
| Sir Gareth | ||
| Sir Bedivere. | ||
| Sir Lucan. | ||
| Sir Bernard of Astolat. | ||
| Lavaine | } | his sons. |
| Torre | ||
| Sir Mordred. | ||
| Sir Agravaine | } | of Mordred’s party. |
| Sir Colegrevance | ||
| Sir Mador | ||
| Sir Patrice | ||
| Sir Bors | } | friends of Launcelot. |
| Sir Kay | ||
| Dumb Simon, servant of Sir Bernard. | ||
| A Bishop. | ||
| A Man-at-Arms. | ||
| A Messenger. | ||
| A Guard. | ||
| Queen Guenevere. | ||
| Elaine. | ||
| Lynned, a nun. | ||
| Queen’s Lady. | ||
| First Novice. | ||
| Second Novice. | ||
| The Damsel of Peace. | ||
A banner-bearer, priests, esquires, men-at-arms, soldiers, ladies of the Court, etc.
[Pg 7]
Sir Bernard’s castle at Astolat. A room with a window at
the back. Sir Bernard alone, seated; he is old and
grey-bearded.
Lavaine enters in a hurry of excitement.
Lavaine
Father, the King’s at London gates!
Sir Bernard
Returned?
Lavaine
Victorious. He has overthrown and scattered
Those rebels in the North.
Sir Bernard
Praise God for that!
How heard you this, Lavaine?
Lavaine
From a King’s herald
That rode through Astolat. I spoke with him.
But, father, there’s new faction now, he says,
Brewing in the West. He is below with Torre.
Sir Bernard
A herald of the King! What does he here?
Lavaine
The King sends seeking for Sir Launcelot.
Three months ago he vanished, this man said;
Vanished, and not a word of why or whither.
But now the King’s returned, he’ll search the land
Into its farthest corners for his friend.... (pause)
Father, is it not strange Sir Launcelot vanished
Just ere the King had so great need of him?
[Pg 8]
Sir Bernard
Very strange.
(A pause.)
Lavaine
Father, have you ever thought
Perhaps our guest, this knight my sister found
Pierced by an arrow among the forest leaves,
Who will not tell his name, might be none other
Than Launcelot himself?
Sir Bernard
What starts your thought upon so wild a fancy?
Lavaine
It is three months ago, the herald says,
Sir Launcelot disappeared. Three months ago
This knight was wounded and brought hither. Then,
Another thing—but now I took him news
Of the King’s victory; he was greatly stirred;
But when I spoke of this new head of trouble
Reared in the West, he started up and cried,
“I must be gone: the King has need of me!”
Sir Bernard
Sir Launcelot? It can hardly be, Lavaine.
But he has borne him like a true, brave knight,
And though he has kept his name unknown to us
I’ll wager it is noble——
Lavaine
And a name
Not less renowned than noble, I am sure.
Father, King Arthur needs good men-at-arms,
Needs every sword that’s loyal. If our guest
Goes to the King now, let me ride with him
To London; let me serve in the King’s wars.
Sir Bernard
Your sword must win a wide renown, my son,
Ere he has need of you.
[Pg 9]
Lavaine
I’ll win renown;
I’ll hew it from the world, as Launcelot did.
Sir Bernard
Patience, my son! If any serves the King
From this house, it shall be my eldest son
First, and your brother bides with me——
Lavaine
Oh, Torre!
A stay-at-home born! He’ll not leave his dogs.
He’s for the country, and abhors the Court.
Torre bursts in.
Torre
I have found him. Blind that I must have been
Not to have guessed before!
Lavaine
Found whom, Torre?
Torre (at the window).
Look!
Look! in the garden, walking with Elaine.
God wither him!
Sir Bernard
Our guest? What mean you, boy?
Torre
Evermore by our sister’s side, and she
Takes his corruption to her innocence
Like syllables of Scripture. Would to heaven——
Sir Bernard
Cease raving, Torre. Our guest——
Torre
Who hides his name——
What name? Why hidden? I have found him out.
Lavaine
Who is it?
[Pg 10]
Torre
Launcelot!
Lavaine
Did I not say it, father?
Torre
You knew?
Lavaine
The thought leapt to my mind but now.
Sir Bernard
Sir Launcelot?
Torre
Launcelot, the Queen’s paramour.
Sir Bernard
Shame, Torre! Shame! The King’s friend.
Lavaine
The best knight
That wears a sword upon this earth.
Torre
A traitor!
Lavaine
He serves the Queen, and the Queen chooses him
To be her peerless champion in the lists;
Therefore the vile think evil.
Torre
You are a boy;
Talk like a boy, think like a boy.
Sir Bernard
You know
This is Sir Launcelot? He has told it to you?
Many a knight will hide his name for cause
Of some adventure, or some secret vow.
Torre
Is it not three months since this guest of ours
Was found in the forest with an arrow through him——
Found by Elaine? Would God that hunter’s arrow
Had split his heart in two!
Sir Bernard
This rage is madness.
Torre
It’s he. The herald told me of a scar
Upon Sir Launcelot’s forehead. You have seen it.
Look at Elaine, pacing beside him. Watch
How her cheek changes, how she listens——
Lavaine
Well,
He is not so graceless not to bid good-bye
To her that’s been his hostess and his nurse.
What harm in that?
Torre
What harm? To lose her heart
And make a pastime for the filcher of it!
Queen, country maid—all’s practice to his lures.
Sir Bernard
You anger me: so rank in your suspicions.
You read him backward, as the witches do
The holy writ. Whether Launcelot or no,
This is a true man.
Torre
Father, he is false.
Lavaine
You slander one that’s better than yourself.
Torre
He goes. I’ll to the herald now, and I’ll
Proclaim him found.
Lavaine
And when he goes, I go.
I’ll follow such a man to the world’s end.
Torre
Lavaine, you shall not.
[Pg 12]
Lavaine
And I say, I will.
Torre
He is the lover of Queen Guenevere.
Launcelot enters quietly.
Torre
None in the Court but knows it, save the King.
Sir Bernard
Now shame upon you, Torre. Our guest is here.
Torre
Let me speak, father.
Sir Bernard
Will you shame our house
And me too? Peace.
Torre
I must speak out my heart,
Guest or no guest. Sir, will it please you to ask
This guest of ours why he has hid a name
Men know, whether for good or ill——
Sir Bernard
This house
Shall not forget its ancient courtesies
While I am master. These are sorry manners:
I never taught you such. In his own time
Our noble guest shall tell us what he will
Or, if he choose, be nameless. Now, no more.
Lavaine (eagerly)
Is it Sir Launcelot?
Launcelot
I am Launcelot. Sir,
Pardon me, if for causes of my own
I let my name sleep in the dark awhile.
[Pg 13]
Sir Bernard
We should have guessed it. Though we dwell retired
In Astolat, doubt not those deeds of fame
Which you have done for Britain and our King
And made a glory in the land—doubt not
We have them all by heart.
Lavaine
Drank them like wine.
Sir Bernard
Our children’s children will be telling them
By the fire. The famed Sir Launcelot! and this,
This is our guest—Sir Launcelot! Good news.
Torre
Good news, that he has thieved your daughter’s heart!
But here he stays no moment more. I’ll fetch
King Arthur’s herald and proclaim him.
Launcelot
Spare
Your pains, sir. I have spoken with that herald
And ride with him at once; I had come now
For my farewell.
Torre
By heaven, and not too soon.
Sir Bernard
Torre!
Launcelot
Let him speak.
Sir Bernard
Nay, Sir——
Torre
Have you not eyes?
This paragon of Courts, smiled on of Queens,
Deigns for his rustic leisure to make sport
Of our simplicity. Elaine has given
Her whole heart to him, and he’ll toss her now
To oblivion.
Sir Bernard
Torre, you have dishonoured me——
Lavaine
Shame, Torre!
Sir Bernard
Dishonoured me and all my house.
Torre
I am rough: but truth is rough; and the bur sticks.
Launcelot
Sir Bernard,
I owe your daughter all the breath I breathe.
She found me at the gasp of death; she brought me
Of her sweet pity hither, healed my wound,
And more; for when black clouds were on my mind
She let the morning shine full into it;
I felt her like the sky, the morning dew.
If—if there be some fondness, some young spring
Of fondness in her heart, Time soon amends
Such wounds. She is a child. If this be gone
More deep than tenderness and pity’s tears
I have means to cure it. Let me speak with her.
Torre
He shall not, father.
Sir Bernard
This to me! Now leave us,
Or ask a pardon that is ill deserved.
Elaine enters
Sir Bernard
Sir Launcelot——
(Elaine, hearing the name, gives a little cry of wonder.)
[Pg 15]
Elaine! Speak with her, then.
You have my trust. My sons, come.
Torre
You are blind.
We shall taste bitterness ere this be done.
[Sir Bernard goes out with his sons.
Elaine
Sir Launcelot! Sir Launcelot of the Lake?
Was it the famed Sir Launcelot that I found
Like a dead man so pale on the dead leaves?
Sir Launcelot! I have won Sir Launcelot back
To life, to glory! Now I have a name
To call you by; the name I used to hear
When it seemed distant as the dazzling sun;
Why did you hide your name?
(Launcelot is silent.)
Something is changed.
What is it? Tell me.
Launcelot
The King has been in peril;
I should have been with him.
Elaine
And not with me!
Launcelot
Forgive me, my fair nurse. If I have breath
To speak at all, I owe it to you. For you
Have made of me a new man, and I thank you
With all my heart that now I can return
To serve my King. Where is my shield?
Elaine (bringing the shield from a corner of the room)
So soon?
And I must lose the shield? Look, I have made
A silken case broidered with its device
And bordered with fair flowers, which day by day
I broidered while you lay so sick and speechless.
Each morning I have burnished it.
Launcelot
Like me,
It wears its scars.
Elaine
Glorious scars! I seem
To feel the rushing stroke, when you upheld it
There! Dreadful stroke! Good shield! What fight was that?
Launcelot
It was that battle on the Solway shore,
When all the sands were blood, and we were pressed
So heavily by the wild men of the isles
That in the press the King came near his death.
This shielded Arthur then.
Elaine
And you, you saved him.
Launcelot
So kingly a King, who would not die for him?
He has made this isle of Britain such a realm
As famous Alexander might have throned
Or Cæsar bled for:
Beat back the Saxon, soldered into one
The princedoms that were all at envious broil
With one another; made his name a trumpet,
Sounding across the seas even to Rome.
The world knows that; but I know more and dearer.
Elaine
How came this other scar?
Launcelot
Ah, that was done
By my own friend, Sir Gawaine. He mistook me
For the false Torquil, who had trapped his brothers.
But, when he knew, he flung his sword away
And caught me to his heart; a headlong man
In wrath or love.
Elaine
I pray he love you always.
And this deep gash?
Launcelot
By the black winter waves
Under Tintagel towers, that blow was dealt.
Elaine
Wonderful shield, that has endured such blows
And borne your mortal wounds for you, and been
Where I would fain have been! I feel as if
Those dreadful murderous thrusts were in my body.
How had I gloried to be this, that saved you!
Leave me the shield that has your story on it
Till I have all its battles in my heart.
Launcelot
How should a knight do battle without his shield?
Elaine
I must resign it then. Take your good shield,
But I will keep its case. Look! I have stitched
Upon it with my needle every scar
That gashed its brightness. And now you will forsake me?
Launcelot
Have you no boon to ask me, ere I go?
I owe you all. Ask what you will.
Elaine
A boon?
And you will grant me anything I ask?
Launcelot
If it be in my power, and in my honour.
Elaine
I have heard that a knight wears his lady’s favour
When he goes into battle. Wear you mine?
[Pg 18]
Launcelot
I never did that yet for any maid,
For any woman. Ask some other boon,
Not this.
Elaine
But this is all I have to ask.
Launcelot
Think, and then choose again.
Elaine
You promised me.
Is my poor favour so contemptible?
I have it here.
Launcelot
What is it?
Elaine
A red sleeve
Sewn with pearls.
Launcelot
If I wear this for your sake,
Since you have won me from my wound, Elaine,
You did more than you knew. I had fled the world.
Because I had in my tormented heart
Something it was too weak to endure against.
But now you have made me strong. I fear no more.
Elaine
Never was fear, never was aught but honour
Within the great heart of Sir Launcelot.
And you will wear this? I will bind it on.
Launcelot
I never did so much for any woman;
But I will wear it.
Elaine
I have bound it on.
And now you are my knight! I see it far,
My sleeve, my red sleeve, far among the spears,
Among the helmets: none dare follow it.
I know my knight shall triumph over all,
Over the world.
Launcelot
Elaine, you cannot tell
How like a fountain that pure trust you have
Cleanses me through. God keep me true to it.
And now, farewell.
Elaine
But you will come again?
Launcelot
My child, I will not.
Elaine
Oh, my lord, have mercy
Without you I shall die.
Launcelot
Elaine!
Elaine
Have mercy.
I cannot live, but if you love me.
Launcelot
Ah!
Elaine
Take me for wife, or no wife if you will.
But if you do not love me, I must die.
Launcelot
Elaine,
Deep in the heart of me, humbly and purely,
I thank you for your love, for your sweet love;
Sweet as a flower it is to my sore spirit.
But I am one who, could I give such love
As should be yours, the love that blesses both
In the meeting lips of innocence, the love
That’s honour, faith, truth—must be changed to what
I am not. Did you know——
[Pg 20]
Elaine
I only know
That if you will not love me, I must die.
Launcelot
Let the months pass, and you shall smile at this.
Life’s yet for you in the young leaf, Elaine,
You’ll love some other man, some better man.
And whosoever it be, I give you both
A dowry of my treasure and my lands
To you and to your heirs, and I will be
Your own knight till I die.
Elaine
None of all this,
None of all this I want; only your love.
Give me your love, or my good days are done.
Launcelot
You know not what you ask, nor whom you ask.
I have a sin heavy upon my soul.
Elaine
What is that to me, who love you?
Launcelot
It were better
You thought of me all the evil that’s in men.
Hate me!
Elaine
I cannot. If I would, I cannot.
Launcelot
Made I such pain when I was tasting only
The sweet of the world? Now I have set my will
On the hard path, I suffer and make suffer
All that I touch.
Elaine
Let me but suffer for you!
Let me but follow where you go, my lord;
However rough the roads, I’ll travel them;
Though my feet bleed, that shall be sweet to me.
[Pg 21]
Launcelot
Shall nothing but the truth content you then?
My heart is given—lost!
Elaine
Now you have told me.
(She sinks half fainting.)
Launcelot
Lavaine, Sir Bernard, enter!
Sir Bernard, Torre, and Lavaine re-enter.
Torre
Devil! She knows,
And it will kill her.
Sir Bernard
Child! Elaine! Look up.
Launcelot
Sir Bernard, I have hurt her but to heal.
Pardon me for this sorrow I have made.
Torre
Did I not say that we should rue this man?
She has seen to his black heart, and it will kill her.
Sir Bernard
Peace, Torre! (To Launcelot) I doubt not you have used all kindness.
We’ll pray that Time amend this in his fashion.
Sir Launcelot, God be with you.
Launcelot
And with you
Would heaven that I could have requited her.
Lavaine
I must go, father, with Sir Launcelot.
She understands well how it is with me.
Father, your blessing (kneels).
[Pg 22]
Sir Bernard
Have your will, my son.
Seeing what has befallen, maybe it is best.
Go, and be worthy of the house that bred you.
Launcelot
Come then, Lavaine. I do but rankle here.
Lavaine
Sister, farewell.
Launcelot
Peace come to you, Elaine.
Kind host, again farewell. In the white fire
Of her young heart be grief consumed away.
[Exeunt Launcelot and Lavaine.
Sir Bernard
Brave, sweet; look up!
Torre
Oh, father, she will die.
A room in the Palace at London. At the back a colonnade, through which is seen a rose hedge. The King and Sir Bedivere: Arthur pacing up and down.
Arthur
No news yet, Bedivere?
Bedivere
Our messengers return with silent faces.
It is as if the earth had swallowed him.
Arthur
Launcelot lost!... This victory, Bedivere,
Was not as the old days. Something baulked us, something
Like an invisible impediment—
I felt it round me—something that unnerved
What should have been a hammer-stroke. Almost,
But for my suddenness, it was defeat.
Bedivere
I had not hazarded to broach a thought
Sprung from surmises only; but my King
Has spoken; therefore, may I speak?
Arthur
Hide nothing.
Bedivere
If rumours breathed about the camp be true,
There was some treason.
Arthur
I felt it in the air,
Like fog on a sour wind. Tell me more.
Bedivere
Sir,
I cannot speak but on a dark report,
And hardly now dare tell.
Arthur
Hide nothing. Speak.
Bedivere
The name that men have whispered in the night
Is the name of Mordred.
Arthur
My own sister’s son!
In my own house, treason!
Bedivere
It may be nothing,
But one I sent on a night-errand saw
A man disguised and muffled stealing up
From where the rebels lay. A camp-fire chanced
To blaze up on a sudden out of smoke.
The face was Mordred’s.
[Pg 24]
Arthur
Mordred, false to me!
Treachery in my own house, Bedivere.
Bedivere
Mordred is ever fair and frank in speech,
Looks you in the eyes and smiles. And in the battle,
Though he’s no hungry fighter, he fought well;
And, after, cheered our victory. And yet
There is a hushing upon Mordred’s name
As if it curtained secrets. Sir, I fear him;
I cannot tell why.
Arthur
There is power in him.
Bedivere
He keeps a kind of hidden confidence,
That is a magnet to unstable men.
Arthur
I never wronged him. Treason? For what cause?
Envy’s a cause. Ambition is a cause.
(Guenevere enters.)
The marshals of the jousts
That are to celebrate our victory
Attend the King in Council.
Arthur
Say I come.
[Exit Bedivere.
(Absorbed in his own thoughts, Arthur does not notice the Queen.)
I grow old, I begin to doubt and fear.
Rather a thousand enemies that shout
Their hate, than one that smiles behind me——
Guenevere (softly)
Arthur!
[Pg 25]
Arthur
And Launcelot gone from me! But why? I grope
Into the silence, and find nothing.
Guenevere (more loudly)
Arthur!
Arthur (turning)
My Queen!
Guenevere
You have bid me no good-morrow yet.
Arthur
Good-morrow, Guenevere.
Guenevere (after a pause)
I think they wait you.
Arthur
In time. What ails my Queen?
Guenevere
Nothing at all.
I am but an idle corner of your kingdom;
You are called to graver matters.
Arthur
Guenevere,
If that this robe of care that now is on me
Seem to absent my heart, take it not ill,
You know where my heart lives. Perplexities
Even now beset me.
(Murmurs without.)
Guenevere
Hark!
Someone cried “Launcelot”! If it were he!
(Louder murmurs.)
They do cry “Launcelot”!
Arthur
Can it be?
Guenevere
It is!
[Pg 26]
Arthur
The world is changed if I have Launcelot.
Come we to meet him.
Guenevere (afraid of showing her joy)
If it be ill news?
Arthur
What is it ails you, Guenevere? You hear
The joy cry in those voices. Come.
Guenevere
Go you.
Arthur
He comes, my friend, my Launcelot! It is true!
Launcelot enters and falls on his knee before Arthur. Lavaine follows at a distance.
Launcelot (kneeling)
My King!
Arthur
My friend! Rise, look me in the face,
That I may be assured it is my friend
Beside me once again.
Launcelot (rising)
To the last hour.
And last drop of my blood.
Arthur
See, Guenevere,
Our hope is havened. Our Launcelot returns.
Whence come you? Tell me.
Launcelot
Ah, what matters whence,
Since I am come to serve my only King?
Arthur
Pale, too! I think some suffering’s written here.
Launcelot
I am but new-recovered from a wound.
[Pg 27]
Arthur
In battle?
Launcelot
Nothing glorious, my King.
I rode in the forest on a winter’s day,
Thinking my thoughts. A misty day it was
With a pale sun, and red leaves underfoot.
I let my horse pace on, lost in a muse;
But, as it chanced, a hunter in those woods
Was shooting at the deer, and aimed so ill
His arrow found its quarry in my side.
Guenevere
Ah!
Launcelot
I fell. I knew no more. But for good hap,
Some clown had tracked me to those muddy leaves,
Me that had shaped a splendid field to die on—
And found me—sorry venison——
Arthur
Where was this?
Launcelot
In the thick woods over Astolat.
Arthur
You fled me,
Launcelot; and scarcely were you gone, when came
Ill-tidings, and I had sore need of you.
You fled me: for what cause?
Launcelot
I fled not you, my King, I fled not you—
Ask me no more.
Arthur
Let be then;
Keep secret what you will. You are come back:
I’ll probe no further. Is this wound well healed?
Launcelot
There was a maid found me in that same forest,
A maid well skilled in healing, and the daughter
Of the old lord of Astolat. Elaine
She is called: she won me back to life, and I
Have brought with me her brother: he would serve
His King, and he is worthy.
Will it please you to receive him?
Arthur
Surely one
Who comes with Launcelot, and so commended,
Shall have his full of welcome. Bring him to us;
For many of my knights, alas! are fallen,
And youth amends our loss.
(Launcelot brings forward Lavaine, who kneels.)
Launcelot
Lavaine, your King.
Arthur
Lavaine, be of our court and fellowship.
And if you would be patterned, here is one
To follow: have him for your heart’s ensample
In loyalty, in love, in all that’s honour.
[Lavaine bows and retires.
True stock. I thank you.
Launcelot, we celebrate a joust to-morrow
In honour of this victory we have won;
And you must ride in it: for we were mourning
That it should lack the star of all my knights.
The Marshals wait me. But my Queen, no word?
Welcome him, Guenevere. Give me your hand.
(Takes Guenevere’s hand in his.)
Launcelot, it was you that long ago
Saved my Queen for me, when proud Orkney’s King
Had taken her, trapped and captive, to his tower.
You brought her back to me: you saved her then.
Have you forgotten?
[Pg 29]
Launcelot
I remember it.
Guenevere
What need to call that old day back to us?
Arthur
Circumstance is a quicksand. If the day
Fall on me ever when my Launcelot stands
Not on my side——
Launcelot
Never shall that day dawn!
My King, I say again those words I said
When first I vowed my fealty. By that sword
Which made me knight, I swear me to be true.
I will devote my body to your cause,
I will not fail you by my hand or heart
While breath is in me; and if I fail, be this
My adjuration and high oath fulfilled
In curse and condemnation on my soul.
Arthur
So anchor faith in one another’s breast.
(Takes Launcelot’s hands.)
Guenevere, to these hands, these loyal hands,
That never in my battle failed me yet,
See, I commend you still. So, God be with you.
(Arthur goes out. A pause. Launcelot fights against the returning passion which he thought he had conquered.)
Guenevere
Do I grow old
And negligible? Ah, so long away
And never a word, never a single word!
I think that Launcelot is so long away
He forgets Guenevere.
Launcelot
If he remembered
An hour when he forgot her——
[Pg 30]
Guenevere
You are changed;
Pale in the cheek, cold in the heart; or is it
The young eyes of a maid, and her soft hands
Touching you? Who is this fair maid?
Launcelot
My Queen,
You heard me. Thank her, if you find it thanks
That I am here to serve you.
Guenevere
You are changed.
Something, I know not what, has wrought in you.
You are still absent from me. I hear your voice,
But it is like the dream-voice that was all
I had, these days of desolation. Tell me,
Am I, too, altered?
Launcelot
You are beautiful
As when I first beheld you, Guenevere;
More beautiful.
Guenevere
And you, you too, have suffered.
You have been wounded, and I was not there.
Ill chances happen, when you go from me.
Why did you go from me? And there was none
To love me.
Launcelot
Guenevere! The King——
Guenevere
The King!
He gives me to your hands; defends me so,
With circumspection, like a palisade
From far away; not with a strong right arm
About my body and a sword in hand.
I am but a custom and an effigy
Robed for his realm’s observances; and he
Remembers only that I wear a crown.
He is as far from me as the night stars.
I cannot touch him, cannot wound him.
Launcelot
Queen,
I love him. Speak not so.
Guenevere
I am alone,
And there is none to love me.
Launcelot
Here am I,
With my sword, with my blood, every last drop
Of blood that’s in my body, and it is yours.
Guenevere
And yet you left me—left me to Mordred’s mercy.
I am afraid of Mordred, Launcelot.
He has barbed your very absence; whispers that you
Fled from a rumour grown too dangerous
Because you dared not fight against the truth—
Ah, now you put your hand upon your sword—
Yes, even this. He has been diligent,
Has Agravaine, his brother, at his side.
And Colegrevance has joined them, with his friends
Patrice and Mador; and these go about
Shrugging suspicion at me, breathing hints
Foul as a fog about my name.
Launcelot
Vile traitors!
Mordred plays deep then, and makes power about him.
I fear that he is falser than you dream.
The rumour runs that treachery was at work
Conniving with these rebels in the North.
My life upon the hazard, it was he.
The Queen is but a pawn in Mordred’s game
That plays—who knows?—for kinship. Guenevere,
This poison that he brews and breathes abroad
Is but to start dissension round the King
And split the realm in two. But that my Queen
Should suffer torture for his use! The traitor!
If this impalpable fog could take a shape,
A body—there before me—a throat to strangle,
A breast to strike at and to kill!
Guenevere
Ah, now
I have a shield and a sword—what care I now
For the world’s evil tongues? You are come back,
And spring is in the sky. Is it not sweet
To taste and feel? The blue sky, the warm air,
Trembling among the young leaves. Now I feel
As when we went a-Maying in the woods
Together and alone. Pluck me a flower.
There at the window one peeps in.
(Launcelot brings her a rose. She caresses his hand.)
So sad?
So sad still? Come into the golden sun.
Look, every small shoot thrills up to the light.
Smell the sweet rose upon its thorny briar.
Launcelot
Sweet as old hours remembered.
Guenevere (very softly)
Sweet as those
To come.
Launcelot (madly embracing her)
Ah, Guenevere, to suffer so.
I am yours, yours, only yours—(abruptly breaking away)—O God, have pity!
Guenevere
Why should we not take what there is of joy,
So little as there is, so little?
[Pg 33]
Launcelot
Guenevere, I have sworn. There’s burning fire
Between us.
(Pushes her from him.)
Guenevere
Where is your joy gone?
In what strange countries have you been from me?
This—this is not the Launcelot I knew.
Launcelot
That Launcelot must die. Think of him slain,
As in my anguish I have fought to slay him!
Where have I been?
I have been down in the darkness, near great Death.
I have had dreams upon my fever-bed,
Trances that touched the mortal sense of Time
To nothing; and Eternity looked in
To the inmost of my soul,
There seemed no lifting of a hand but had
Its shadow vast in heaven——
Guenevere
We are sinners all.
Put these black dreams behind you——
Launcelot
And no deed
But, like a wave that writes upon the sand
Ebbed from its naked witness, I remembered
What in the fault and soilure of our nature
I have wrought amiss. Guenevere, I am afraid
To see my very self, as God sees it.
Guenevere
That is God’s business. He has made us flesh.
When we are spirits, and in the world of spirits,
It may be then that we shall ache no more,
Nor hunger for a voice, a touch, a kiss;
But while this wine of earth is in my veins,
I hunger. Had I sought for happiness,
Should I have chosen love? But it was Love
Chose me, and all my soul is dyed in yours,
I cannot be a separate self——
Launcelot
Nor I.
Guenevere, when this body is in the grave,
My very dust will turn and yearn to you.
As the seed springs and shoots up through the earth,
So shall I come to you.
Guenevere
But now, but now,
Have you no joy of me?
Launcelot (as if no word were stranger)
Joy?
Guenevere
Do you keep
Your passion for the dust and for the grave?
Oh, you grow weary, say the truth at last,
For a young hand has touched you.
Launcelot
Guenevere!
Guenevere
Why did you leave me?
Launcelot
I was afraid.
Guenevere
The truth.
Launcelot
I thought to pluck you from my heart: and if
Sharp stone or cutting steel could do it, I’d
Have spared no agony. But stone nor steel
Can root what’s part of every breath I breathe.
Though I should stamp on it, it flowers again
And looks like innocence. I fled from love
That was too strong for me.
Guenevere
And fled to her.
I see you changed, and she has wrought the change.
Insulter, mocking me with sick pretence
And virtuous aversions. Love! You love!
The burning name is ashes in your mouth.
You are weary, you are weary, you are weary!
You’ll none of me, and I’ll have none of you,
I’ll choose another for my sword and shield
Not you—that are but words.
[She rushes out in great anger.
Launcelot
Didst thou make woman, God,
As thou hast made fire, earthquake, and sea-storm,
To raise a beauty of terror and overthrow
Great realms and reason’s self? Comes she again,
The flame is on the wind and I am straw.
I’m in the net. Oh for an enemy
To hurl at! Dogs, would they betray their King,
Shatter that dearest jewel of his life,
This realm; make me their poisoned instrument,
And in the crash drag down into the dirt,
O infamy!—my Queen?
Get to your work, Mordred; prime your crew;
Hatch your plot! Still I have my word to say.
If no way else avails I’ll take me hence
To my own country, and you shall stretch your hands
To grasp at nothing. Well,
Whatever comes, I have a sword that’s clean.
[Pg 36]
Astolat. A room with a low seat by a window at the back, as in Scene
I.
Sir Bernard and Torre stand watching
Elaine, who sleeps by the window. They talk in low
tones.
Torre
See how she is wasted. If you lift her hand, it is as light as a leaf, and she shakes with the beating of her heart. He has cast a spell on her, bewitched her.
Sir Bernard
I would I had that balm, whatever country bears it, that should refresh my child.
Torre
Twice has she started from her sleep crying: “It is he! It is he!”
Sir Bernard
Alas, that her mother is dead. What should an old man do against love?
Torre
Love? It is madness.
Sir Bernard
Love is madness.
Torre
It is not nature.
Sir Bernard
Nature makes this blossom red in the young heart, and cares not whether it be sweet or bitter.
Torre
She is a child.
[Pg 37]
Sir Bernard
An hour has made her older than the world. I would that Sir Launcelot had never seen her, or that seeing her he had loved her.
Torre (indignant)
Father!
Sir Bernard
I would he had loved her.
Torre
How can you say it? A man fouled with sin. If God strike him not for this, I will say there is no God.
Sir Bernard
Who can tell men’s hearts? Sir Launcelot, I doubt, will bring me to the grave. And yet he was a noble knight.
Torre
A villain.
Sir Bernard
He has sinned, it may be, yet we knew him and found him noble.
Torre
I know what he has done—the traitor.
Sir Bernard
Anger will not move love. Let us rather pray to God that He may change her heart and bring her through pain to peace.
Torre
My heart is too hot. I will go to the Court. I will challenge Sir Launcelot to the death. I will fling my glove in his face and call him what he is.
Sir Bernard
Softly. She is moving.
Elaine (suddenly)
Hark.
[Pg 38]
Torre
What is it?
Elaine
It is a rider.
Torre
I heard nothing.
Elaine
He is coming. He is coming. I can hear his step on the stair. Launcelot!
Torre
I hear nothing but the blackbird in the sycamore. (Elaine falls back.) See, sister Elaine, it is May. The thorn-boughs are white. Shall we go a-Maying in the woods? Just as we used?
Elaine
Let me die now. Since Sir Launcelot will not come to me, I must go to him.
Sir Bernard
Child, my child, put away the thoughts of earth.
Elaine
Dear father, I am an earthly woman, and love an earthly man. Is it so great an offence to love? I hope God may pardon me, since I have borne such pains. But if He will not pardon, I cannot help my love.
Sir Bernard
I beseech you, Elaine, think not on Sir Launcelot any more.
Elaine
I was called “The Fair Maid of Astolat ...”; but that has helped me nothing.... Is Torre here?
Torre
I am here, sister.
Elaine
I have something to ask of you, Torre.
[Pg 39]
Torre
Ask anything, sister, dear sister.
Elaine
Write me a letter, Torre.
Torre
A letter?
Elaine
Get paper and pen. (Torre gets paper and pen.) I will tell you the words. Write!
Torre (suspicious)
Is it to him?
Elaine
Whom else?
Torre
Sister, I cannot.
Elaine
You do not love me, Torre.
Torre
I would give you my life, but do not ask me this.
Elaine
It is the last thing I shall ask.
Sir Bernard
Do as she wishes, son.
Torre (after an effort)
Tell me the words.
Elaine
“Most noble Launcelot ... I was your lover, though you would not love me. (Torre forces himself to write.) You would not love me, and therefore I can endure no longer. I was called the Fair Maid of Astolat, and yet I was not loved. So I make my lament to all fair ladies and to the Queen Guenevere. Sir[Pg 40] Launcelot, since you would not come to me, now come I to you. Bury this my body that is dead for love of you....”
Torre
Elaine, dear sister, do not speak so—you shall not die.
Elaine
It is not finished, Torre. Write.
Torre
No, no.
Elaine
There is so little time. Write. “This is the last thing that I ask of you that would not love me. And, Sir Launcelot, as you are a knight peerless, pray for my soul.” Is it written?
Torre
It is written.
Elaine
All?
Torre
All.
Elaine
Prop my head a little ... Father! Where are you, father?
Sir Bernard
I am here, child.
Elaine
The letter! While I am still warm, put it in my hand. Bind it there, father, bind it fast.
Sir Bernard
It shall be done.
Elaine
And when I am cold, clothe me in the fairest dress I have. Put me on the barge.
[Pg 41]
Sir Bernard
On the barge?
Elaine
Let old Simon, dumb Simon, take me, and steer downstream to Thames. So I shall come to him.
Sir Bernard
It shall be done. You know I never said “Nay” to your desire, little daughter. Perhaps it was not wisdom.
Elaine
Is the day nearly done?
Sir Bernard
Yes, child, the sun is sinking behind the great trees.
Elaine
The flowers are falling....
Torre
Elaine!
Sir Bernard
She does not hear us. She does not know us any longer.
Torre
What is she saying?
Elaine
The rushes are gliding, the rushes are gliding. The water, the water! The flowers are falling upon me.
Torre
Oh, father, will she really die? She, so young.
Sir Bernard
She will die because she is so young. We that are old, we endure.
[Pg 42]
Westminster. A vast circular banqueting hall with steps to the river
in front. The hall is hidden at first with heavy curtains so that
only the stairs are seen. Lavaine by the river steps,
leaning pensive on the balustrade.
Enter Gareth and Gaheris arm in
arm.
Gareth
Who’s yonder?
Gaheris
Our new courtier, young Lavaine.
Gareth
Stolen apart to admire his blushing looks
In the dark water.
Lavaine (turning)
Gaheris! Ah, and Gareth!
Are you for the banquet?
Gareth
Come, Narcissus, come;
And you shall find a mirror more attractive
In ladies’ eyes.
Lavaine
My thoughts strayed up the river to my home.
I wondered when the ripple that I watched
Went by our cowslip meadows. Months it seems
Since I was there.
Gaheris
Soon they will be acclaiming
Your feats and praises in the joust, Lavaine.
Lavaine
I did but follow where Sir Launcelot led.
[Pg 43]
Gareth
A good road that.
Gaheris
How furiously he fought!
Mordred enters through curtains. He pauses a moment; then goes off at side.
Gareth
There’s one he toppled down.
Lavaine
What prince is that?
Gaheris
Mordred.
Gareth
No friend to Launcelot, nor to us.
Lavaine
Then none to me.
Gareth
Hush! He is dangerous.
Gaheris
There are black bruises under those fine silks,
I’ll swear. How hard Sir Launcelot struck!
Gareth
The Queen
Should have been there to see him.
Gaheris
It is strange:
He wore a lady’s favour, a red sleeve.
Gareth
And never in his life wore such a badge.
Gaheris
None will dare ask his secret.
[Pg 44]
Lavaine
The red sleeve?
It is my sister’s. She prevailed on him
To wear it for her sake.
Gaheris
Your sister’s? Ah!
(The brothers exchange looks. Mordred reappears with Agravaine.)
Gareth
Mordred again! And Agravaine with him.
Gaheris (to Lavaine)
His brother.
Gareth
And both dangerous.
(Music sounds within.)
Gaheris
Let’s be quit.
Gareth
Hark! There’s the music.
(The young men bow ceremoniously as they pass in to Mordred and Agravaine, who come down to the steps and begin talking hurriedly.)
Agravaine
What do you want of me?
Mordred
A private word
Before the banquet. I have news to-night.
These headstrong rebels chafing in the West
Are grown impatient. If we act not quickly
They’ll doubt my power. I have promised them too much.
Agravaine
Good. Then we strike and kill this Launcelot.
[Pg 45]
Mordred
Fool,
To glut your appetite, you’d lose the world.
Agravaine
What is the scheme, then, that shall better it?
Mordred
I stake my first throw on this feast to-night.
The Queen is vext and in her stormy mood,
For that she feigned a sickness in excuse
To absent her from the jousts. Now when she’s tinder
To any chance fire—words can strike a spark;
Watch me for that—her secret may be out
Before she know it.
Agravaine
You are too cunning, Mordred.
Mordred
The King will not believe
Without stark proof. But he shall have it. Listen.
I have a fellow, silent as the snow,
Who watches; he is soft on Launcelot’s steps,
And Launcelot’s a moth that cannot choose
But flit to the candle. There’s a secret way
To the Queen’s chamber, cunningly contrived;
Since Launcelot went, I have found it. Soon or late
We trap him; it may be this very night.
Agravaine
Stark proof for the King!
Mordred
Nail that into his soul
Red-hot as searing iron the flesh;
Then what a weapon is a righteous cause!
He will be just. King Arthur is most just.
But when the gall is in him, when he has smelt
The wormwood up into his brain, and dyed
His very dreams black—Launcelot shall be banished,
And half of Arthur’s bravest go with him:
Or Launcelot defies him: either way
The realm’s in pieces; and my hour is come.
Agravaine
Mordred, you are a devil.
Mordred
On the instant we make certain of the King
And Launcelot’s sentence, post we to the West.
There from our vantage we can launch our powers
Ripe to the moment, and the throne is mine.
Agravaine
I’d liefer have my steel in Launcelot’s heart.
Mordred
Calm now; no hot words, and no hasty hand
Flying to the sword-hilt! Watch me and the Queen.
Wine shall be drunk to-night, and with the wine,
It may be, the truth spilt upon the floor!
(Curtains draw back and disclose the Round Table spread for a banquet. The knights are already assembling. Mordred and his brother joins them. Harpists attending.)
Mordred
Good evening to Sir Gawaine!
Gawaine
You are gay,
Sir Mordred.
Mordred
Why not? Bright eyes match a feast.
Have you no smiles?
[Pg 47]
Gawaine
What have you heard?
Mordred
I? Nothing.
Gawaine
I hear the King sits not at table with us.
Mordred
Indeed? For what cause?
Gawaine
There came news to-night.
Mordred
Ill news?
Gawaine
Who knows? News from the West, Mordred.
Mordred
Is trouble afoot there, too? But all’s secure,
Now we have Launcelot back. Is he not here?
Gawaine
He is with the King.
Mordred
But I see friends of his.
Greeting to you, Sir Bors, and you, Sir Kay.
Agravaine (to Colegrevance)
Colegrevance, be wary.
Colegrevance (going apart with him)
What’s afoot?
Agravaine
(They whisper together.)
Be wary.
Enter Bedivere
Bedivere
I come straight from the King: the Queen to-night
Presides for him. Lucan, array the guests.
The Queen approaches.
[Pg 48]
(The guests arrange themselves. Harps. The Queen enters attended by her ladies. All are standing.)
Guenevere
Welcome and salutation to you all.
Our banquet loses what it least should lose
On such a day as this; my lord the King
Had thought to celebrate his feast with those
That bore his banners into victory:
But sudden cares absent him. Pray, be seated.
Your Queen is honoured being in his place.
Brave knights, my welcome,
A Queen’s dear welcome. Glad am I, Sir Gawaine,
To greet the legend of the land for valour,
Proud in unchampioned causes;
And you, Sir Mordred, far-seeing in counsel;
Sir Bedivere, our sovereign’s pillar of trust;
Sir Kay, Sir Bors, Sir Agravaine, Sir Lucan,
Sir Colegrevance——Is not Sir Launcelot here?
Sir Kay (to a lady)
Go, tell Sir Launcelot the Queen asks for him.
Guenevere
Welcome to you, Sir Gareth and Sir Gaheris.
Never a Queen
Had round her such array of peers renowned
In arms and courtesy.
Gawaine
Most royal Queen!
Mordred
The honour that you do us dumbs our speech.
(The Queen seats herself upon a raised daïs at the back. All take their seats and the banquet begins. Each knight is attended by his squire.)
[Pg 49]
Guenevere
I grieve my sickness robbed me of yesterday’s
Great jousts: I had thought to glory in them, and joy
In the prowess of antagonists so noble.
Bedivere
Our grief it was, your presence shone not on us.
Bors
Ah, Madam, had you seen Sir Launcelot there!
Kay
He never rode so terrible a course
In all his days.
Bedivere
There was no man could stand
Against the fury of his setting on.
Colegrevance
Why, all men have their lucky day.
Kay
And this
Was not denoted in your stars.
Colegrevance
For me
These jousts are toys.
What comfort’s in a partridge to good hunger?
Give me a pasty royally bastioned, stuffed
For siege, a challenge to the assault; and give me
Battle’s reality, not miming spears.
When the blood’s up and runs hot in the veins
Then you shall see these hands of mine at work,
Not play.
Kay
And yet methought the blood was up,
When Launcelot bore you down.
[Pg 50]
Mordred
Ah, yesterday
Launcelot was an army, not a man.
Agravaine
It seems he is too weary with his feats
To grace this royal table!
Guenevere
Dear my lords,
I raise a cup to your good fellowship.
If, as may chance, the semblance of division
Or the beginning of an enmity
Set any of you askance at one another,
Let it be melted in this cordial wine.
Shall it not? If a word has flown, forget it,
If any old wound be open, let it close,
And mould to-night your fellowship anew.
Drink with me all: “King Arthur’s fellowship!”
(The knights, rising, respond with a great shout. Deep horns sound a flourish.)
All Knights
“King Arthur’s fellowship.”
Gawaine
You speak to loyal hearts.
Lady (returning)
King Arthur, Madam,
Takes private counsel of Sir Launcelot,
Who prays to be excused.
Guenevere
As the King wills.
Bors
It seems new strife is hatching in the West.
Bedivere
These rats gnaw at our realm on every side.
[Pg 51]
Gawaine
So we shall soon be horsed——
Gareth
And in the field.
Gaheris
Lavaine, there shall be spurs to win.
Agravaine
These rebels
Renown us not. There’s not a knight among them.
Kay
Enough for Colegrevance to flesh his steel.
(A laugh from Launcelot’s friends)
Mordred
While we go to the wars, ladies lament.
Bors
What, ladies, Mordred?
Mordred
Breaker of hearts, so modest?
I thought Sir Launcelot’s comrades boasted more
Of sighs than trophies. As for me and mine——
Colegrevance
We are blunt men-at-arms.
Mordred
But you, Sir Bors;
If I were not discreeter than the dusk——
(A laugh from Mordred’s followers.)
Guenevere
Friends, of your charity!
Mordred
I say no more.
Guenevere
Your tongues speak trippingly of breaking hearts,
Yet of your courtesy remember this:
A woman has no armour, has no sword;
And absent, how shall she defend herself?
If tongues be sharp with malice,
A woman must be silent. If defamers
Stab at her honour in the dark—why, still
She must be silent. I am a woman, a Queen;
And yet, how can I fight with evil tongues?
I count you all as friends, all of you here;
And if your Queen on any day should need
Armour and sword, she gives to you her honour;
The dearest thing she has she gives to you.
Gawaine
Now may the lightning scorch the lips that made
Our loyal oaths, if we forget. In peace
As in the hour of peril, we are yours
In service absolute; and we will shed
Our bosom’s last blood to defend our Queen.
Do I not speak for all?
Bedivere (raising his cup)
For all! The Queen!
All Knights
We pledge her.
Gawaine
Sword and life!
All Knights
Hail to the Queen!
Bors
To the most gracious lady in the land!
Lucan
To the glory of this isle!
Kay
The Western star!
Mordred
The radiant rose of Britain and the world!
[Pg 53]
Gawaine
Happily spoken. Mordred hits the mark:
“The radiant rose of Britain and the world.”
All Knights
The radiant rose of Britain and the world.
(A great flourish from the horns.)
Guenevere
Thanks to you all, thanks from my heart that glows
Great in my bosom to be pledged so queenly,
To have such praises like a crown upon me
More golden than this circlet; for I feel
Your voices are like swords upon my side
Flashing about me.
Sir Mordred, specially I thank you, since
Too seldom have we seen you grace our table.
Honour us more!
Mordred
I am honoured past desert.
Let me again pledge that most royal beauty
Dimming the fame of queens dead and renowned.
Drink yet again, knights, to our Queen.
All Knights
Our Queen!
(Another flourish.)
Mordred
Yet something, give me pardon, something lacks
Your feast, Queen Guenevere.
Guenevere
Speak your desire.
I blame my entertainment that it lacks——
Mordred
Sir Launcelot!
[Pg 54]
Guenevere
I have word the King requires him
In council.
Mordred
A light is wanting by your side
When Launcelot is absent. You have spoken
Of the division that an envy breeds.
Lives one who envies not Sir Launcelot?
If it be fault,
I must confess to it. Fame he has and love,
And therefore stands the envy of the world.
Where is the man’s hand can prevail against him,
Or where the heart of woman?
When in the bright lists Launcelot rode on me
How was I dazzled? Not by him alone;
I marvelled at the red sleeve which he wore,
Beauty’s proud badge. That smote me in the eyes.
My Queen, it was your red sleeve conquered me.
Guenevere
A red sleeve? Launcelot?
Mordred
Knights,
Red wine to the red sleeve! (A pause.)
Does no one drink? Have I said aught amiss?
Guenevere
What does Sir Mordred rave of?
Bedivere
Queen, excuse.
It is but some extravagance of phrase.
Lavaine (shyly)
Sirs,
This red sleeve is my sister’s.
Mordred
Not the Queen’s?
(A pause.)
[Pg 55]
Colegrevance
Out of the mouth of babes!
Mordred
Oh, pardon me
If in my innocence I have offended.
Guenevere
Sir Launcelot wore a red sleeve yesterday?
And this sleeve was your sister’s?
Lavaine
Yes, my Queen.
She supplicated him to wear it.
Guenevere
She
Has healed him of his wound. For gratitude
He could have done naught else.
Mordred
But this is marvel.
Never did Launcelot take such badge before
Of any lady. More than gratitude
This surely meant.
Gawaine
Mordred, the Queen has spoken.
You slight her word.
Mordred
Nay, for the Queen must joy
With all her knights in so surpassing news.
We shall see Launcelot bring to Court at last
A bride.
Sirs, drink with me to Launcelot and his bride!
Agravaine, Colegrevance, Patrice, and Mador
To Launcelot and his bride!
Guenevere
I also drink to Launcelot’s fair bride.
And now, sirs, I will pray you pardon me.
(To Sir Lucan) Sir Lucan, bid my woman to attend me.
(Pause.)
Gawaine (in a low voice)
Mordred, this marring of the feast is yours.
Mordred
I spoke but praises.
Gawaine
Honey, dropping venom.
Agravaine
Gawaine, you are ever shaping taunts at us.
Bedivere
Sirs, sirs, the Queen!
Mordred
I spoke no word but what should honour her.
Bors
Sir Mordred, we
That are the friends of Launcelot know not you
So fond a lover of his fame; so pardon
If phrases of such fashion seemed to taste ...
I say no more. Yet be assured, if ill
Be meant to Launcelot, rue to him that means it.
Colegrevance
A threat! By Uther’s beard, we’ll not be threatened.
Mordred
Colegrevance, be still.
What said the Queen. Accord old feuds, be friends.
Which of us now shows her obedience?
Kay
Were Launcelot here——
Agravaine
Launcelot, Launcelot!
Must we be ever plagued with Launcelot?
[Pg 57]
Bors
Yesterday, Agravaine, you had some cause.
(A laugh from Launcelot’s friends.)
Agravaine
I defy you all.
Bedivere
The Queen!
Agravaine
The Queen, it seems,
Has bidden us to be gibed at.
Mordred
Peace, sirs, peace.
The Queen bade us be merry.
I ask your pardon if I spoke amiss,
I marvel that a sleeve, a mere red sleeve——
Gawaine, Bedivere, Bors, Kay
Mordred!
Guenevere (rising in wrath)
Unmannerly dastard!
(Pause and a low laugh from Agravaine.)
Nay, forgive me, sirs;
I am not all recovered from my sickness:
Pardon me if I leave you; stir not. Come.
[Exit with ladies.
Gawaine (after a pause, to Mordred)
What devil pricked your tongue to speak of that?
Mordred
Why should I not?...
Were it not injury to think such thoughts
I would say——
Gawaine
To your meaning, and be done.
Mordred (slowly)
I would say Gawaine hints of some dishonour,
Some secret that must not be told abroad.
Would Gawaine say the Queen
Is jealous because Launcelot——
Gawaine
Slanderer!
Mordred
It was not I that hinted.
Lavaine
The red sleeve,
I tell you again, Sir Mordred, was my sister’s.
For Elaine’s sake and in mere courtesy
Sir Launcelot wore it.
Mordred
Needs the Queen these defenders?
Colegrevance
What fool boy’s talk is this? A paramour
The more, say I.
Agravaine
False to one, false to all.
Lavaine
Liar!
Agravaine
I will have blood for that.
Colegrevance
And I.
Bedivere
For shame! Be silent. Here in the King’s hall!
Agravaine
Off, masks! We have slobbered phrases long enough.
The Queen confessed, you know it by her eye
And cheek of flame that spoke clear as a trumpet
“Launcelot is mine! None else shall have his love
While I have breath and can deceive the King.”
Shall the King be deceived?
[Pg 59]
Bors
Drag him away!
Agravaine
To the King!
Colegrevance, Mador, Patrice
To the King!
Bedivere, Lucan, Kay, Bors
To the King? No.
Gawaine
Silence! To the King? And shame
The very floor we stand on? To the King,
And with what pitiable pretext? Why,
But that the wine is flown into your brains,
What colour is in this tale? The morning air
Will blow it into nothing.
Agravaine
That we’ll see.
Bedivere
Mordred, you vowed devotion to the Queen.
Mordred
I have said naught against her.
Bors
Hypocrite!
Agravaine
Do you dare insult my brother?
Lucan
Are Britain’s peers
Grown tavern brawlers?
Kay
Launcelot shall hear you
And prove upon your bodies that you lie.
Agravaine
The truth is out, and Launcelot shall die
For all his champions.
[Pg 60]
Patrice
Come we to the King.
Bedivere
Are knightly vows then turned to drunkards’ oaths?
Kay
Is loyalty in the gutter?
Gawaine
Shame on all
If one word come to the King’s ear of this.
Bedivere
And with this hubbub we affront the Queen
Most shamefully. Remove we all, at once.
(The knights pass out in great turmoil, Mordred lingering last.)
Mordred
I have pulled the sluice. Now let the torrent stream.
[Exit.
Guenevere enters with one of her women.
Guenevere
Sir Launcelot, have you found him?
Woman
He is here.
(Guenevere dismisses the woman with a gesture. Launcelot enters, grave and preoccupied.)
Launcelot
My Queen!
Guenevere
Perjurer! The truth leaps to light at last!
Ah God, Launcelot, that I trusted you,
Loved you with such a love, such a mad love,
So weak! But now my heart turns into hate
And all my blood into one river of scorn.
Oh, that I were the lightning and could strike
To the false heart of you; there, there,
Behind the lips that vowed me endless love
To the false heart that laughed those vows away,
False as the sea, cruel and false with smiles
And sighs and perjured protestation.
Launcelot
Queen!
Guenevere
Who fills your secret bosom, fires your thought?
Who speeds her champion’s onset in the lists?
Not I, but she whose dear red sleeve you wore.
Launcelot
Guenevere, hear me!
Guenevere
A milky-hearted maid,
A tender maid, the maid of Astolat,
She for whose sake you did what never yet
You did for any woman. And you came
Fresh from her clasp, and her cold kiss, to me!
Get to her, haste to her.
Run to that adoration of meek eyes——
Launcelot
Guenevere, Guenevere! you are much deceived.
Guenevere
Deceived indeed! Ah, did you ever love?
Is all that sweetness, ah God, all that seemed
So sweet, it tortures me to think of it,
Ashes and dust? Horrible! Now I know
Why you came sainted and exalted back—
Loyalty and compunction on your lips,
But in your heart a love you dared not own.
It is this girl that’s changed you. Go to her!
Launcelot
I am not changed, my Queen. It is you change.
[Pg 62]
Guenevere
I?
Launcelot
Has some devil entered into you
That you rave slander?
Speak not, for you shall hear me. You have wronged
One that you know not, and me too you wrong
That never loved any but you, have spent
Blood for you, fought for you, have many times
Been in death’s peril for you, and would to God,
If so I am requited, would to God
That I had never loved.
Guenevere
Ah, you have said it.
Launcelot
I love her not, you know it.
Guenevere
Yet you wore
Her sleeve, her favour.
Launcelot
What I did, I did
For pity, and for the shielding of your name.
I would not wear your favour for that cause.
Guenevere
And yet you never did so much for love.
Launcelot
She had won me back from death. How otherwise
Could I requite her, since I could not love?
So earnestly she asked me for that boon.
Guenevere
It was a token to the world you loved her.
You had no thought of me, never a thought.
[Pg 63]
Launcelot
Rack me no more! Day and night, night and day,
The image of your eyes and voice and hair
Burns me; you are twisted in my heart strings, I have sought
To cut love from my bosom, but I cannot,
I cannot; and because it saps, divides,
Undoes this realm, and wrongs the King I love—
Never can I enough repent that wrong——
Guenevere
Ah, false and faithless, you will go to her.
(At the height of this scene, suddenly from the right a barge appears with the body of Elaine upon it. It is steered by a very old dumb servant. It glides very slowly to the steps which lead down to the river. Launcelot alone sees it first.)
Guenevere
What comes into your eyes and sends you pale?
Launcelot
Is it a vision?
Guenevere (to the steersman)
Whom do you bring, cold on her bier, so strangely?
(To Launcelot) Why does he speak no word?
Launcelot
What need of words?
Guenevere
Is it she?
Launcelot
Yes.
Guenevere
What have you done to her?
Launcelot
Speak! Can you answer nothing?
[Pg 64]
(The steersman signs that he is deaf and dumb)
He is dumb.
(The steersman points to the letter)
Guenevere
There is a folded paper in her hand.
(Launcelot steps into the barge, and unties the letter and reads it.)
Launcelot
“Most noble Launcelot, I was your lover, though
you would not love me. You could not love me,
and therefore I can endure no longer. I was
called the Fair Maid of Astolat, and yet I was not
loved. So I make my lament to all fair ladies,
and to the Queen Guenevere. Sir Launcelot,
since you would not come to me, now come I to
you. Bury this my body that is dead for love of
you. This is the last thing that I ask of you
who would not love me. And, Sir Launcelot, as
you are a knight peerless, pray for my soul.”
Arthur appears, entering slowly
Arthur
What wonder’s here?
Launcelot
The wonder of a death;
The wonder and the beauty and the sorrow.
Arthur
Who is this maid?
Launcelot
One that loved overmuch;
It is Elaine.
Arthur
The maid of Astolat
That healed your wound? How comes she dead?
[Pg 65]
Launcelot
Read here.
(Arthur reads the letter to himself.)
Guenevere (Gliding away with bowed head)
Pardon, pardon, pardon!
Arthur
Is love so terrible? I did not know.
I would that you had married her.
Launcelot
I could not.
Arthur
Why, Launcelot?
Launcelot
I could not,
Love cannot be constrained. Love must be free.
Where love is bound, it breaks free.
Arthur
It breaks free
Where it is bound. Bound, and breaks free! Think you
That other women can love like to this?
Launcelot
Doubt it not.
Arthur
Even to death?
Launcelot
Even to death.
(A pause, each thinking his own thoughts.)
Arthur
It is as if a flame had leapt from her
And stung me in the brain.
Lives such a world of fire in Guenevere
And I have never known it?
She is smiling, yet she suffered even to death.
Heart of a woman! Is a realm so strong,
Armies, or battlements? Is faith? Is justice?
Launcelot
I pray you let me go apart awhile
For I am charged with a burial.
Arthur (with a change of tone)
Be it so,
There’s something hidden from me. Why that clamour
And then the silence when I came among them?
(Going away, he turns) Launcelot, I have trusted you.
Launcelot
My King,
Trust me still.
[Arthur goes out.
There’s no end now but exile, I must hence,
Back with to-morrow’s dawn to my own land,
To Brittany. (He motions to the steersman, and steps into the barge.)
Steer down the stream, and I
Will bring you to that place
Where this must leave the light.
Have mercy, Jesu, on that wounded heart!
Give me a soul so constant, flight so straight!
Some angel of compassion bear her now
Where innocence may haven, far from me!
Steer on!
(The barge passes down stream.)
[Pg 67]
The Queen’s tower. Night. At the back a bolted door. At one side a prie-dieu, with a footstool before it. A single lamp burning on a tripod. Guenevere stands by a window, holding the curtain and peering out.
Guenevere
It has not moved.... It’s nothing; fancy’s fever,
That shapes the shadows into forms of fear!
And yet there is a shadow among those shadows,
And I could swear that shadow had human eyes,
Watching. It stirs not. Is it a tree-stem
Gives body to the dark? No tree was there.
(She drops the curtain.)
Can someone have found out the secret way
And even now be spying on Launcelot?
Pray Heaven he comes not! Why is the air so still
With such a mortal stillness?
There’s the owl again, crying, and there again!
As if it knew the secret of the night
And called me warning notes. Was that a step?
I am all imagination and sick scares;
And that dead face returns, ever returns—
Elaine’s face, smiling cold upon her bier.
She burnt her very heart out. Yet her face
Had peace on it, and joy! Dead! Did she love
Better than I?
(She looks out again.)
It has not moved. It must be fear’s invention.
(She throws herself before the Virgin’s image.)
Mother of God, Mother.... She is dead;
And yet she triumphs and she humbles me.
I will pray. O thou seven-times wounded one,
Because thou didst so suffer, look on me;
Look in my heart, thou hadst a bleeding heart;
Thou knowest how I sinned, but how I suffer....
I cannot pray. I only see that face
Dead, with the joy on it. I want, I want——
Launcelot enters with a cloak wrapped about his head
Who is it?
Launcelot (showing his face)
I. I came the secret way.
I come from burying the dead. Elaine
Is laid in earth. She sleeps. I have no sleep.
Guenevere
Hush!
(She goes to the window)
It is gone!
Launcelot
What is it?
Guenevere
A dark shape,
That stood within the shadow of the wall
This hour past.
Launcelot
I saw nothing.
Guenevere
If it be
Mordred, or Mordred’s spy? Launcelot, go
Now, or we are both lost.
Launcelot
What’s Mordred’s hate but a nettle on a dunghill?
What is it to me, that go from you for ever?
Look on me, Guenevere, for the last time.
The hard hour’s here, the bitter moment’s come;
To-morrow I hoist for Brittany.
[Pg 69]
Guenevere
Not yet!
Oh no, not yet!
Launcelot (embracing her)
Once, once again, and then never again!
Guenevere
Never? Never?
(She half swoons in his arms.)
Launcelot
O Queen, Queen of the World! Endure! Dear God,
Have pity on her Thou madest beautiful
With such a beauty as those burning stars
In the waste heavens.
Guenevere
Launcelot!
Launcelot
Guenevere!
Oh for a stream in a wood beneath the stars!
A stream to bathe our souls in, Guenevere!
I wish I had a giant’s strength to break
This walling world down, hurl it stone from stone,
Break from this dungeon into burning life,
Free—lost, but free!
Guenevere (pushing him from her)
Go now, or I shall keep you
For ever in my arms.
(As they gaze silent on one another, voices are heard without. A knocking at the door; then the voice of Agravaine calling aloud.)
Agravaine
Launcelot! Traitor knight!
Guenevere
What voice is that?
[Pg 70]
Voices
Traitor! Come forth!
Guenevere
What insolent clamour at my very door!
I am a Queen, and daughter of a Queen.
(A laugh and voices.)
Agravaine
Traitor, come forth to us.
Launcelot
It’s Agravaine!
Agravaine
You are taken!
Other Voices
Taken, traitor; taken at last!
Agravaine
Come you out, Launcelot; there is no escape.
Guenevere
Ah, Launcelot, they are come to murder you!
Voices
Come out! Come out!
Launcelot
Unclasp your hands; I am a man again!
The secret way! Farewell, my Queen!
Guenevere (stopping him)
Wait.
That shape I saw in the shadow! If they have set
A watch below? Stay an instant. Let me look.
(She looks out, and her appearance is met with a hoarse and mocking laugh from below.)
Launcelot
Trapped!
Is there no armour, not a coat of mail?
Nothing?
[Pg 71]
Guenevere
Alas, nothing.
Voices
Out, come out!
Launcelot
Not a sword even?
Guenevere
Alas, not even a sword.
Launcelot
I would to God I had my armour on me.
(Mordred laughs.)
Mordred’s laugh. It is he that has done this.
Mordred
In the King’s name, we come to avenge the King
And the King’s honour.
Voices
Recreant knight, come out.
Launcelot
God strike them!
Such shameful crying at your very doors!
Better death straight.
Guenevere
Let them kill me, so that they let you go.
Launcelot
Heaven defend me from such shame as that.
No, I’ll sell life as dearly as I may,
But I would sooner have my armour on me
And a sword within my hand than all the crowns
Of Christendom. Then, then would I have done
Some deeds that men might tell of.
(Mordred and his men have brought a bench and begin to batter at the door.)
[Pg 72]
Guenevere
They will break in the door.
Colegrevance
Come out to us,
And let us kill you.
Launcelot
That was the voice
Of Colegrevance. He has the wits of an ox.
Be still. Muffle the light. I have a thought.
If I am slain, my Queen, pray for my soul.
Guenevere (muffles the lamp)
You will not open to these hounds of blood?
Launcelot
Be still.
(He opens the door a little. Colegrevance comes in, and Launcelot shuts the door and bolts it in an instant.)
Colegrevance
There is no light.
(Launcelot with a great buffet stuns Colegrevance. He draws Colegrevance’s sword and thrusts it into his throat.)
Launcelot (to Guenevere)
The lamp.
(Guenevere uncovers the lamp.)
Now help me. Quick! Help me to arm.
(He tears off Colegrevance’s coat of mail and puts it on.)
Why, what a girth is here. Yet it shall serve.
Agravaine
Colegrevance! Colegrevance!
Launcelot
Now I can defy them.
[Pg 73]
Agravaine
Vengeance! We’ll break the door, and drag you out.
False fighter! You are caught, for all your wiles.
Launcelot
Listen! Cease your slanderous clamour! Listen!
Go from this door, each of you get you home.
To-morrow come you all before the King.
There I will meet you and there answer you.
That’s my last word.
Agravaine
Say your prayers now, and we will cry Amen
Before we kill you.
Launcelot
Is that your answer? Then
Look to yourselves!
(He sets open the door suddenly, sword in hand. Agravaine, Mador, Patrice, and Mordred enter. There is a rush and furious combat. Agravaine falls mortally wounded within the room.)
Voices
Have at him!
Launcelot
Mouths of shame!
Guenevere
Ah, Jesu, help!
Agravaine
I am dead. Mordred, Mordred!
Patrice (falling)
It is the fiend.
Launcelot
To the black heart of you!
(Mordred falls wounded, but rises and escapes.)
[Pg 74]
Mador
Help, Mordred, help!
The fiend is in him. He has seven swords.
(Mador falls.)
Launcelot
Bring me the lamp.
(Guenevere brings lamp.)
Ah, never more to insult you now, my Queen.
(He turns over the body of Agravaine.)
It is Agravaine, not Mordred!
(He holds the lamp over the other bodies.)
Patrice! and Mador! Mordred’s fled, the coward!
Why did I not make sure? Fled!
Guenevere
Save yourself!
Launcelot, from this hour all’s war and ruin.
I forsee it, I that made it. It has come,
Doom! Doom!
Launcelot
I’ll to the King.
Guenevere
Your enemy!
Launcelot
Arthur, my enemy?
Guenevere
From this night forth. Away! Gather your friends.
Mordred is working while you linger. Ride.
Ride without rein to your castle in the North,
To Joyous Gard.
Launcelot
To fight against my King?
I cannot.
Guenevere
Will you then be taken? Mordred
Will be before you with the King. Hasten!
Arm; gather every sword that’s on your side.
[Pg 75]
Launcelot
I cannot fight against my King.
Guenevere
Then fly!
Launcelot
Fly and desert my Queen? Fly in her hour
Of utmost peril?...
Ah, Guenevere, what’s done nothing revokes,
Neither repentance, nor new deeds, nor tears.
See, we had parted: the great joy we had
Was over; all was anguish and farewell.
And now, and now, when we had torn asunder,
We are driven together, and we cannot part.
Guenevere
But part we must.
This blood all cries against us. Save yourself,
I have wrought you wrong enough.
Launcelot
I’ll to the King.
He trusted me; and I must tell him all.
I am more to him than many Mordreds.
Guenevere
Blind!
But if it must be, go this very night,
Now! Dawn will soon be upon us.
Launcelot
Call your women,
And lock yourselves within some inner room,
That no harm come, till I have seen the King.
I’ll rouse my friends that should have sailed with me
For Brittany to-morrow. With my friends
I’ll go to Arthur.
Guenevere, if a hair upon your head
Be threatened, I’ll not suffer it.
Guenevere
Away!
The King’s Tower. The same night. Sentinels discovered who move off
at a motion from the King.
Arthur pacing up and down.
(Enter Gawaine.)
Gawaine
Does not the King sleep?
Arthur
Gawaine, there are things
Will not be put to sleep: thoughts in the blood....
Gawaine
You called me. Midnight’s past. It is near dawn.
Arthur
There’s something secret round me.
Gawaine
Not in me,
That with my life would guard you.
Arthur
Guard? From what?
What, Gawaine? Why, too, when I came among you—
Bedivere, Mordred, all of you—I heard
Hot cries of quarrel called and answered back—
Why was there silence? When I questioned, none
Found voice.
[Pg 77]
Gawaine
They were ashamed.
Arthur
Were you ashamed,
Gawaine?
Gawaine
Not I.
Arthur
And yet you answered not.
Gawaine
My King, you know that Mordred and his friends
Are glib in slander.
Arthur
Slander of whom? The truth!
Gawaine
They hate and envy Launcelot. To-morrow
Let them face Launcelot. You shall hear them then.
Arthur
This was no cause they should not speak to-night.
How fell this quarrel out? At my Queen’s feast!
Her guests! and Launcelot absent.
Gawaine
I forget.
Arthur
Remember. It was insult to my Queen.
How could you suffer it?
Gawaine
I did not, sir.
Nor any of your friends.
Arthur
And she, and she?
Said they aught of her, of Guenevere?
[Pg 78]
Gawaine
Ah, King,
My blood’s all rage. Pardon my silence now.
Arthur
They spoke of her! They have talked of her abroad!
My royal Guenevere! I did not know.
I have been housed in my own roof of cares.
I have been strange to her, that needed me.
Where’s Launcelot?
Gawaine
He took the young Lavaine,
And they together have buried that fair maid
Who died for Launcelot’s love. He’ll be abed
Ere this.
Arthur
Ah!
Gawaine
Surely.
Arthur
Launcelot fled me. Why?
Gawaine
Think not of Launcelot ill. Who sought your good,
Who fought for you, who toiled, who suffered, who
Gave of his marrow and heart’s faith for you?
Launcelot! Has Mordred? Not a jot. If ever
There is dissension, rancour, envy, strife,
Seek Mordred: you will find him under it
Like a snake. Mordred loves you not.
Arthur
I know it,
And therefore must be just, more strictly just
Where I love least.
[Pg 79]
Gawaine
Believe me, Launcelot loves you.
Arthur
Do I not know it? Ah,
What curse of a sharp sight is come to me?
This very love: why was that pain in it?
Why was the torment in that loyal voice?
Gawaine
I would I had smitten Mordred to the earth
And silenced him for ever.
Arthur
Woman’s love!
It is a fire that eats upon the heart.
It is past comprehension; it exceeds
And feeds upon excess.
Duty, duty can be taught and learned;
But this love, it is out of all our laws
And all our wisdom; none can measure it....
If it be true—ah, Christ, if it be true!
Gawaine
Doubt not that it is false.
Arthur
Heaven knows my heart
Has nothing willing in it: slow and heavy
Moves my thought thither where the fear is, slow
And heavy as sea-tides against the wind.
Yet little things hurt in the memory,
Like a mote pricking in the eyelid: words
That may be fondest innocence, and may not.
A look, a flying colour in the cheek,
Soft hand-takings and silence of farewells;
These may be friendship’s language, but if not,
Friendship is foul.
[Pg 80]
Gawaine
These are the fears of the dead night that tempt
Reason against our own heart’s truth. Now, sleep.
Arthur
I put them from my mind, and then again
They creep back, like a stain across the floor.
Gawaine
Launcelot’s true, my life on it. Shake this off
Like a foul nightmare that the witches send.
Arthur
What days were those when we were young together,
The morning of the world! Gawaine, you know
How many a time Launcelot took on his shield
A blow that might have emptied me of life;
At Solway, Celidon, at Badon Hill....
Why should his hand have saved me, why, if....
Gawaine
Ah,
Launcelot is the truest knight on earth.
Arthur
And yet he fled from me; fled from himself,
If this my hand should suddenly take will,
Against my own, to strike at one I loved,
It would not more affront my reason. Oh,
Gawaine, I love this man.
Gawaine
As he loves you.
Arthur
But woman, woman! I am mad to have these thoughts.
If it be true, Gawaine, if it be true!
Gawaine
It’s false; Mordred shall own it.
[Pg 81]
Arthur
Ay, the proof.
Proof, and if no proof, banishment: nay, death.
To-morrow this shall all be cleared. To-morrow!
Get to bed.
(Gawaine is going, when a loud knock is heard without, and Mordred’s voice, “The King!” The guard opens the door.)
Guard
My lord, it is Sir Mordred.
Arthur
Let him in.
Mordred appears, all bloody.
Gawaine
Mordred! And there is blood upon his hands.
Mordred
Justice, O King, on a murderer and traitor.
Gawaine
What have you done? What villainy?
Arthur
Peace, Gawaine.
Now, speak.
Mordred
I grieve to tell what I must tell,
But truth is worth its wound, Launcelot, your friend,
The man whom you have trusted, whom you hold
Dear as your life and honour, he it is
I must accuse.
Arthur
To the accusation. Speak!
And yet beware! Speak not without the proof!
[Pg 82]
Mordred
I have the proof.
Gawaine
Is that his blood upon you?
Arthur
Where is Launcelot?
Mordred
Launcelot is ... where we found him,
With the Queen, in her own chamber. Pardon me
That loyalty must speak of shame so gross.
Arthur
You have slain him, Mordred?
Mordred
Nay, he has lived to heap
A second guilt upon his head. Murder!
This is my own blood, where he wounded me,
And Agravaine is dead, and Colegrevance,
Patrice, and Mador. On the Queen’s threshold
Launcelot slew them, thinking that one stroke
Should silence all that caught him in his guilt.
I cry upon your justice!
Arthur
Launcelot lives?
Mordred
Being taken, he set upon us like the fiend.
The darkness, and his trickery, aided him.
Gawaine
One against five, and you all armed like men
That go to battle!
Arthur
A marvel is this Launcelot,
A marvellous proud fighter! There is none
In Christendom or heathendom, I swear
To match him. So he lives?
Mordred
He has escaped:
But now I cry your justice; banishment
For Launcelot, the traitor!
Arthur
There shall be justice done. Look to your wound.
To-morrow I will have the proof of all,
Mordred—full proof, or on your own head be it.
Mordred
You shall have proof, my King. Peace be to you.
[Mordred goes out.
Arthur
Arm you now, Gawaine, arm! Arrest the Queen.
Seek Launcelot out, and take him.
Gawaine
Never, sir.
That will I never do. If I did this,
It would be said Gawaine abetted what
To him is shame and an unreason both.
It may be Mordred lured him to the Queen
With some feigned message.
Arthur
He was found with her.
Why came he not to speak in his own cause?
Gawaine
I am not of your counsel.
Arthur
Then call me Gaheris and Gareth here,
Your brothers. They shall do this.
[Pg 84]
Gawaine
Ah, my lord,
They will be as loth as I, but they are young
And cannot say you nay. Yet I beseech you——
Arthur
Fetch them. They lodge with you.
Gawaine
If it must be.
Arthur
It must.
(Gawaine goes out. Arthur pulls back the curtains at the window.)
Dawn. Is it dawn so soon?
The birds sang soft so when I wooed her, soft
And thrilling with low pipe. Smell of the grass,
Dew, and her face, wonderful, coming towards me....
Ah, God, that it were night again, the night,
The dark, where I knew nothing, where I loved
And trusted, where I had a wife, a friend.
(He falls on his knees.)
Saviour of men, dear Christ, though my flesh bleed,
Lift me to see, distinguish, and be just.
The King must needs be just. Let me not fail,
Now when thou seest me humbled. I have lost her.
Have mercy upon us both. (He rises.)
I am the King,
And therefore justice. If I fail, that fails
Which is of costlier essence than a King,
Which salts corruption. (Goes towards table.)
Gareth and Gaheris enter, and stand by the door. Arthur turns.
Gareth and Gaheris, enter!
Fear not; come hither.
[Pg 85]
Gareth
We fear, my liege, what errand
This midnight summons, hailing us from sleep,
May mean.
Arthur (signing and giving them a warrant)
Fear not; go, seek Queen Guenevere,
And take her into ward, as one that must
Be judged. Then find Sir Launcelot, and take
Him too. Be armed. Have force with you. Go quickly.
Gareth
The King commands, and we must do his will.
Gaheris
Yet it is sore against our own will, sir.
Gareth
And therefore we will take a guard of force,
But for ourselves, we pray you pardon us,
But we will not be armed, for we but do
The King’s commandment.
Re-enter Gawaine.
Gaheris
Which ourselves would not.
Arthur
Are you all so stubborn? Get you gone, then; do
What I command; be it done instantly.
[Gareth and his brother retire.
Gawaine
This is ill done, and no good comes of it.
Arthur
That which I do my will does; I am borne
Onward, and cannot stay. The graves are dug
For all mortality; our woes have been
Wept for from the beginning of the world.
I feel the creeping of the rust that dims.
Excalibur, and those lamenting Queens
That come to take me draw like shadows near
Upon the shores of time.
Gawaine
This is ill done, and no good comes of it.
Arthur
What comes has come already.
Bors, Lavaine, and other friends of Launcelot, appear with drawn swords in the doorway.
Are you ghosts?
That visit me, so haggard, pale and silent?
Your swords are bare and in your eyes are looks
Of fear. This dim light has a ghastness in it
Making the vision of you strange.
Bors
Sire, pardon!
But some of us had terrors in our dreams
And leapt awake in sweat, and snatched our swords.
It was as if a cry rang in our ears.
We thought some danger happened to Launcelot;
And lo, we cannot find him.
Gawaine
Launcelot!
Bors
Where is he! Tell us!
Arthur
Ask of the King’s foes.
Launcelot is a traitor.
Bors
Woe is me
The King should say it. Launcelot loves him more
Than all his friends.
[Pg 87]
Arthur
Choose: choose between your King
And Launcelot.
Bors
What miserable cloud
Is fallen about us, or what evil dream!
Gawaine!
Gawaine (shrugging his shoulders)
All idle! Waves upon a rock.
Arthur
Choose: if your will be on the King’s side, stay:
But if on Launcelot’s, turn your faces from me.
It shall be battle when we meet again.
[Bors and his friends look at each other, then silently turn and go out.
Arthur
So breaks my kingdom. It is gashed in two.
Oh, Gawaine! Gawaine! (He falls upon Gawaine’s neck.)
(A Man-at-arms is heard without crying: “The King! Where is the King?”)
Gawaine
Terror’s in that cry!
The Man stumbles in breathless.
Man (falling on his knee)
Pardon me, King!
Gawaine
My heart forebodes an evil.
Man
I am come breathless.
Arthur
Speak!
Gawaine
All news is ill.
[Pg 88]
Arthur
Tell all.
Man
I am afraid.
Arthur
Your King commands.
Man
The Queen.... Sir Launcelot.
Arthur
Taken?
Man
They are fled.
Sir Launcelot has carried off the Queen.
Arthur (starting up)
Do you live and tell it to me?
Man
Patience, my lord,
And I will tell you all. The dawn was breaking.
The guard had just relieved us. It was then
Sir Gareth and Sir Gaheris summoned me
On the King’s business. I knew not what it was.
We went with them. They had no arms. We went;
We came to the Queen’s door, and it was open.
The Queen stood there, like one that waited us.
There was a lamp burning above her head;
Oh, very pale she seemed and very calm.
“Do you come at my lord’s bidding?” so she asked.
And then Sir Gareth bowed his head. He spoke
No word, nor did Sir Gaheris; not a word.
And we were awed by her, she was so calm.
Arthur
So calm! And after?
Man
I am telling all.
The Queen said “I am ready,” and so she passed
Between Sir Gareth and Sir Gaheris,
And we about them followed. It was dark
In the shadow by the walls. There was a mist,
A summer mist. The dawn was far above.
Arthur
And then?
Man
We were all sorrowful at heart,
Knowing not——
Arthur
To the issue!
Man
Some one cried
“Look where the Queen is taken to her death!”
Men had thronged up, and women; the cry passed
From lip to lip, “She is taken to her death.”
And sudden like a lion burst on us
Sir Launcelot.
Arthur
Ah!
Man
I know not whence he came,
Out of the mist; his sword flashed in his hand,
But not so terrible as his eyes. They flamed,
You would have thought that when he saw the Queen
His very reason rushed right out of him.
Gawaine
Ah, God defend my brothers!
Man
He was mad,
Blood-mad he seemed; he knew not what he did,
He struck so sudden.
Gawaine
My brothers!
[Pg 90]
Man
Right and left
His sword was like a score of blades flashing.
I swear no man could have prevailed against him.
’Twas quicker than a hawk upon a hare.
Myself was thrown down. He had caught the Queen,
And borne her off—men say, to Joyous Gard.
Arthur
War! It is war!
Gawaine
My brothers? Where are they?
Speak, wretch.
Man
I know not.
Gawaine
Speak.
Man
Oh, my good lord,
Sir Gareth and Sir Gaheris are dead.
Gawaine (utters a great cry)
Launcelot slew them?
Man
He knew not what he did.
Gawaine
They had no arms!
Arthur
Woe is me!
Gawaine
Launcelot!
He saw them and he slew them!
Arthur
Woe is me!
I let them go. Ah, Gawaine!
[Pg 91]
Gawaine
Blood for blood!
I will believe all evil of him now,
I am with you now, my King, and he shall die.
My brothers! (Sinking down.)
A Messenger enters hurriedly.
Messenger
My lord, the King!
Arthur
What, more? Worse cannot be.
Messenger
Sir Mordred!
Arthur
Speak!
Messenger
He is fled.
Arthur
He, too! How fled?
Gawaine
Who recks of Mordred! Drop him down the wind
To his own hell. But Launcelot that I loved
Has slain my brothers. Death to Launcelot!
Arthur
Sir Mordred?
Messenger
He has flown and taken all
His following with him; armed; an army!
Arthur
So,
He has shot his shaft and left it in the wound.
Messenger
My lord, the word goes openly about
Sir Mordred’s leagued with rebels in the West.
They have summoned him to head them, and revolt
Against your crown and kingdom.
Arthur
Gawaine, hear!
Gawaine
I hear. But it’s from Launcelot I’ll have
Most bitter satisfaction.
Arthur
Northward now!
Summon my knights about me in the hall.
[Exit Messenger.
Send a strong force on Mordred’s heels to hold
The traitor back. Ourselves will swiftly ride
To take the Queen from Launcelot. Day is come,
And friends are friends and foes are foes at last.
[Exeunt.
The King’s Camp before Joyous Gard. Stormy weather. Black skies against which the earth shows up white and livid. The towers of the Castle appear above rising ground.
Bedivere
Black skies!
Lucan
God’s anger.
Bedivere
How shall this end? Saw you the King?
Lucan
But now he passed into his tent, slowly, with head dejected. His heart is weary of this war.
[Pg 93]
Bedivere
Sick and sated. The heavy clouds seem to fall on us. One would say that all the tempests of the world had gathered in that storm, which soon will break about us.
Lucan
There’s something monstrous in the season, a curse and an infection. Storm after storm! The corn rots unripened, there’s mildew in the orchards.
Bedivere
And here, unnatural strife. Arthur and the brother of his heart.
Lucan
And the Queen betwixt them, like some baleful star.
Bedivere
And Gawaine mad with hate.
Lucan
How long is it since we have besieged this Joyous Gard of Launcelot’s?
Bedivere
I cannot count the days.
Lucan
This quarrel fills all Christendom. Men say the noise of it goes over the seas even to Rome. Were it not for Gawaine, the King, I think, would make his peace, and Launcelot deliver up his Queen to him.
Bedivere
Not while the King is fixed to bring the Queen to judgment. To that Launcelot will never yield. So stands our wrestle in a deadlock; meanwhile this dear realm splits in two.
Lucan
And Mordred!
[Pg 94]
Bedivere
The wedge that drives into the crack.
Lucan
I fear Mordred most. The rebel tribes gather to him in the West, while we waste ourselves before Joyous Gard. We should have caught him before he could join and head them.
Bedivere
The King’s force holds him at bay yonder.
Lucan
Yet men begin to cry that with the King all is profitless fighting, but with Mordred feasting and plunder.
Bedivere
Would God we were fighting him, not Launcelot.
Gawaine enters.
Gawaine
Where is the King?
Bedivere
He has passed into his tent. He rests.
Gawaine
What, can remembrance sleep? The wrong that Launcelot has done is red before my eyes, day and night. Can he forget?
Bedivere
The King were a glad man, if he could forget. At the bottom of their hearts is a dear love one to the other.
Gawaine
He shall not forget while I can sting remembrance.
Bedivere
Gawaine, if any man was your friend, it was Launcelot.
[Pg 95]
Gawaine
The dearer friend, the dearer foe. It grows to madness in my brain, that ever I held that traitor in my heart.
Bedivere
However it be, right or wrong, we are sore grieved to be against him.
Lucan
Sore and sorrowful, Gawaine.
Gawaine
It is you that are against the King, then?
Bedivere
We?
Lucan
Never.
Gawaine
I say you are against him. It is you that blunt his justice, it is you that soften him with fond reluctances, like women looking backward. Who would be a man, and in the cause he has espoused not trample down such weakness?
Bedivere
Who would be a man and utterly forget the friendship of his friend?
Gawaine
Forget! Forgotten! Never! And never forgiven! Had you but the flint in you that a just cause strikes her flame from, we should have overturned these proud towers long ago. But overturned they shall be. I’ll to the King, and rouse him.
[Exit.
Bedivere
How like a frenzy is his hatred!
[Pg 96]
Lucan
He is narrowed to one point, vengeance. Look, what’s yonder?
Bedivere
A damsel riding hither from Joyous Gard.
Lucan
Upon a milk-white ass! Look, a gleam follows her from the stormy heaven. A happy omen!
Bedivere
She is in white; like a white dove; like peace. Go, Lucan, go to meet her. (Lucan advances. A distant trumpet sounds from Launcelot’s side.) A trumpet sounds from Joyous Gard. Is it peace at last?
The Damsel enters.
Lucan
God be with you, maiden.
Damsel
Peace to you, fair lord.
Lucan
Come you from Joyous Gard?
Damsel
I am Sir Launcelot’s herald. I go before him. He comes to parley with King Arthur.
Lucan
I will tell the King.
[Exit.
Bedivere
Would that the issue might be gracious as the forerunner. What sends Sir Launcelot? Is it peace? (Trumpet sounds from the King’s side.) Hark! The King comes!
[Pg 97]
The King’s knights come on, arrayed as for battle. Trumpets answer from Launcelot’s side. Gawaine enters, and then the King.
Arthur
I hear the trumpet blow from Joyous Gard;
Is a lily come against us?
Gawaine
What’s this mockery?
What brought this maiden hither?
Damsel
Oh, most noble,
Noble King Arthur, graciously hear me!
Your servant, Launcelot, comes from Joyous Gard
And prays to parley with his lord, the King.
You see in me what gentle thoughts are his——
Arthur
White and fair! What avails?
Gawaine
A treacherous trick,
To clothe his blackness white, and let it speak
In virgin syllables of gentleness.
Arthur
Softly. How is it with the Queen?
Damsel
The Queen weeps.
Gawaine
Send her to her lord again.
(Trumpet.)
Damsel
Sir Launcelot is here.
[Launcelot and his knights appear. Exit Damsel.
[Pg 98]
Gawaine
No parley, King,
Let us out swords and make an end at once.
Arthur
Such embassy must have its honour.
Gawaine
Nay.
Arthur
This is the royal office;
Usurp not——
Launcelot
May I speak, my lords?
Arthur
Speak on!
Launcelot
Fair lords, and you my own King——
Gawaine
Perjurer!
Launcelot
I make no war on you, my King. Assure me
With confirmation of your kingly oath
That harm come not to her that is your Queen,
And I restore her straightway and depart.
Arthur
Do you enjoin your terms upon your King?
Gawaine
False once, false always!
Launcelot
To my King I speak.
Make me that promise.
Arthur
Justice asks her due.
[Pg 99]
Launcelot
Never, my lord, shall the Queen stand this charge
On testimony of that traitor Mordred.
Gawaine
Yourself’s the traitor! We will take your towers
And you shall cry his pardon on your knees.
Launcelot
Knights, lords of Britain, you’ll not take my towers;
And if I choose to come forth on the field
Soon shall I make an end, and that you know.
Arthur
An end, an end! But God shall make the end.
Bring all your boast of knights into the field,
Set your array, and sound your trumpets; then
The desolate seashores shall have renown
And you dishonour!
Launcelot
Ah, my lord Arthur, God defend that ever
I should lift arms against my only King!
Arthur
Give me your enmity! We are met in storm
And under angry heaven, but were these clouds
Of imminent tempest rolled away, and light
Before us endless on a path of peace,
Our quarrel stretches to the world’s end still
And sleeps but in the grave. You have done that
Which time can never undo, never amend
Or alter into kindness, nor can words
That use old fondness reach their lodge again
Within this heart. Strike, you shall find it iron.
Launcelot
Say what you will, with you I cannot strive.
[Pg 100]
Arthur
Ah, Launcelot, you have done me wrong enough——
Launcelot
And I repent it sorely. It is too true,
Many of your best have spilt Life in this quarrel.
Yet, that I did, I did but in defence
Of your own Queen.
Arthur
My Queen whom you have taken,
And by force held.
Launcelot
From death and cruel shame
I hold her and will hold her.
Gawaine
He has said it!
Why parley here?
Arthur
Back to your towers then! Go,
Ere we set on. There is no ending here,
And no amending save through judgment.
Launcelot
First
Listen!
Remember, my lord Arthur, how I vowed
Long ago, how I vowed, you smiling on,
To be your Queen’s true servant all my days.
Remember how it pleased her, and you too,
To cherish and uphold me more than all
And any of your knights; past my desert
Indeed, and yet some love did I deserve,
Who ever fought for you and for your Queen
In many another quarrel than my own.
Remember——
[Pg 101]
Arthur
Speak no more. It’s now; not then.
Launcelot
Yet one word more! Had Mordred and his crew
Not set their miserable snare for me
That night——
Arthur
That night?
Launcelot
You had been rid of me,
Rid of this abjured, exiled Launcelot,
And in a realm at peace.
Arthur
What mystery speaks
In such a protestation, I know not.
Your deeds have deafened us to that.
Launcelot
My King,
Even while those felons feasted on the death
They plotted for me, out of hate for you,
Even when their shameful cries were at the door,
I had already made my hard farewell
And everlasting absence from your Queen,
Because of ill tongues, and because I knew
Their worst plot was to part us, and to rend
This realm of yours in twain.
Arthur
What avails words?
You stole her.
Launcelot
Saved her! Could I leave her then
A prey to those fanged foxes? To the wrath
They were so cunning with their stratagems
To fire in you? I had vowed to be your Queen’s
Unalterable knight and steadfast sword.
Could I forswear her in her hour of danger?
(Arthur, moved, is silent.)
Speak!
Arthur
Yield her up.
Launcelot
And she shall be unharmed?
Arthur
Justice must stand, and she abide by that.
Launcelot
On the accusation of a miscreant
Proved false as hell? Arraigned in such a cause?
Never!
Arthur
Your own guilt, Launcelot, stands clear.
Gawaine
Enough of words. To arms!
Launcelot
Ere that my words
Be scattered in this tempest, hear me out.
Think of her dead.
Think of that royal beauty in its grave!
Did Guenevere, your Queen, lie here before you
With the eyes that see not, with the ears that hear not,
Ignorant of a pardon come too late,
Past beyond all repentance, cold to all
Tears of your supplication, locked away
In silence answerless, would that content you?
Oh, take her sorrow to your grace, my King,
Take that most noble lady to your grace,
And be it peace between us.
[Pg 103]
Arthur
Peace? Alas!
The dear cords that have bound us are all frayed
And ragged on the sore.
Gawaine
Insolent thief!
The King shall have his Queen, despite of you.
Launcelot
Put me to proof, Gawaine, put me to proof!
Hazard your force upon me, and I swear
It shall be easier for your single hand
To storm a barricaded city, than
By force or threat to take the Queen from me,
Except I have the King’s oath.
Gawaine (drawing his sword)
Now and here!
Now and here! Put it to the proof.
Arthur
Gawaine,
Put up your sword!
(Lightning.)
Gawaine
The heavens strike at him.
Arthur
Launcelot!
Launcelot
Arthur!
Gawaine
I have stemmed my wrath
Too long! I have my quarrel in this cause
And no fond word shall end it. Murderer!
My blood is on you, you are spotted with it,
The blood of my young brothers whom you slew.
(Thunder.)
Cover your eyes! You cannot shield your soul
From my full vengeance.
[Pg 104]
Launcelot
All my soul is grief
For what I did that day, and did not know it.
Sooner than Gareth I’d have slain myself.
I loved him.
Gawaine
And you butchered both defenceless!
Red in their blood I see you, hair to heel.
Launcelot
If the King will, I shall do penance for it.
I will build chantries over all the land
From Cabelot to Dover, and will go
A barefoot pilgrim, praying for the souls
Of Gareth and of Gaheris whom I loved.
Gawaine
You lie; you did it of your evil will
And devilish delight.
Lavaine
You shall not say it.
Sir Gawaine, I loved Gareth and I know
Sir Launcelot killed him in pure ignorance.
Arthur
Cease, Gawaine, cease!
(Lightning.)
Gawaine
I will not cease, until
That innocent dear blood be wiped away.
Bors
Shall we endure this more?
Lavaine
Speak, Launcelot!
(Thunder.)
Gawaine
Liar and traitor!
(He throws his glove in Launcelot’s face. Trumpets from Launcelot’s side.)
[Pg 105]
Bors
Out swords!
Lavaine
We are ashamed.
Gawaine
Blow, trumpets, blow my vengeance.
(Thunder.)
Arthur
It is fated!
War and no peace; in earth and heaven, war.
(The storm breaks with blinding violence as the battle begins. Launcelot’s knights defend him from Gawaine’s fury, giving ground R. Confused fighting in darkness. Cries of “Launcelot!” “Joyous Gard!” “Arthur!” and “Gawaine!” A flash of lightning discovers Gawaine hewing his way through the fighters.)
Gawaine
Gash this accursed darkness, flame of heaven,
And find me him.
(He is borne backwards L. by superior force.)
I’ll find him, spite of you.
Spite of all.
(More thunder. Confusion and fighting as before.)
A Voice
Help!
Another
Christ and Arthur!
Another
Better call the fiend
That rides this tempest!
(Thunder again.)
[Pg 106]
Another Voice
Never was such war
Since the angels fell.
Another
We are stricken out of heaven.
Many Voices
Gawaine! Gawaine!
Others
Launcelot! Launcelot!
A Voice
Death to you!
Another
Brother! I have killed my brother,
Woe!
A Voice
The King! Where is the King?
Voices
The King is slain!
Another
We are lost!
Another
A curse, the curse of God!
Bors (in the distance)
Fight on!
Fight on!
Voices
Joyous Gard! Joyous Gard!
Bors
Press!
Voices
Where is Gawaine?
Bors
Now pursue, pursue;
They have no captain.
[Pg 107]
Voices (retreating)
Lost, we are all lost!
(The storm mitigates a little, and in the dim light Bors and Arthur are seen confronting each other alone, the fight having swept off to the L.)
Bors (calling)
Launcelot!
(To Arthur) Yield you. There is none to aid.
Arthur
But that my heart is weary unto death
And my soul sadder than despair——
Bors
The King!
Enter Launcelot.
Launcelot, Launcelot! Shall I make an end?
It is the King.
(He lifts his sword. Arthur stands motionless, leaning on his sword.)
Launcelot
On your life’s peril, hold,
O friend, against that sacred head!
Bors
Yet here
Should end all quarrels.
Launcelot
Down that impious sword,
Or never breathe again.
My King! Is there a hurt?
Arthur
Not in my flesh.
It is of stone, and feels not any more.
(A long-drawn note is sounded by a distant trumpet.)
[Pg 108]
Launcelot
What strange note blows upon that trumpet?
Bors (looking down the slope)
See,
The fighting ceases, and the fighters all
Stand motionless.
Launcelot
Go, Bors, and bring me word.
[Exit Bors.
Arthur
Oh, Launcelot, would this war had never been!
(Thunder retreating.)
Hark! how the heavens groan over us. Out of me,
Had I capacity for utterance, would
Like storm of woe from this dark bosom burst,
Filling the world.
Launcelot
Oh, Arthur! Oh, my King,
Had we but met before, thus, face to face!
Arthur, you trusted me; and though I guard
Your Queen from death, I have not failed you since.
But now, since we are met as naked souls
Beneath dark heaven, I will confess me. I
Have done you wrong that nothing can undo,
Not though this thunder cracked the frame of things
And spilled the molten world. Since first my eyes
Saw Guenevere, I loved her.
Arthur
Launcelot!
Launcelot
Oh!
With wrestlings and with torture, yet with such
Extreme necessity of love as bound me,
Blinded! Against that storm I was not strong;
I was a madman, rushing on a spear
In rapture. Take your Queen back to your heart,
Forgiven, but as for me—lift up your sword
And claim this forfeit soul.
(A distant chanting is heard.)
Arthur (raising his sword)
I have good cause.
I loved, and you have shamed me; more, undone
My life, my hope, my kingdom! (Letting his point fall.) No, I cannot.
Were we but met in the hot battle’s blood
I’d kill you for that cause. Now I am numbed;
And something from within me stays my hand.
Take my Queen pardoned to my heart, you plead.
Ah, Launcelot! were it merely man and woman,
Love should be wide and infinite as air
To meet her at the world’s end with my arms,
Even at the farthest erring. There’s no help.
A man may pardon, but the King may not.
The King is justice, or no more a King.
Launcelot
Forgiveness is yet kinglier. Harden not
Your heart for ever.
Arthur
Were there but a sign
From this charged heaven——
Launcelot
Look!
(A gleam has appeared in the paling sky and the chant grows nearer.)
Arthur
Is there light
On earth again?
[Pg 110]
Launcelot
What strange stillness has seized upon the host?
What chant is that?
Voices
The King! The King! A wonder! Rome! Rome!
(Certain knights of either party return on the scene, and in their midst a white banner preceding a Bishop, with a train of priests chanting. With a last remote peal of thunder the storm passes away.)
Bishop
Peace! Peace to you all! In the name of our Lord Jesu, peace! Our Holy Father on the seat of St. Peter hath sent me hither with his commands. Hasting I come even among your swords and spears; And this is the command that I am charged with. Launcelot shall render his Queen again to King Arthur; she shall not be harmed: And King Arthur shall be accorded with Sir Launcelot. This, upon pain of interdiction of the whole realm of Britain, is the high commandment of God’s regent upon earth, our Holy Father in Rome. My sons, will you obey?
(Arthur and Launcelot bow their heads.)
Arthur
So far as it be peace betwixt us, I obey.
Launcelot
I go to bring the Queen.
(He goes away R. as Gawaine is brought in wounded, leaning on two of his knights.)
[Pg 111]
Gawaine
Ah, there! Let me but reach him; hurt though I be, I will satisfy my vengeance.
Bishop
Man of blood, your hour is past. Exorcise from you this vain rage and lust of vengeance. Bethink you of your sins, and of God’s peace. The King receives his Queen again and is accorded with Sir Launcelot.
Gawaine
Not all the priests in Christendom shall force
My will to this. I’ll say naught of the Queen;
But him will I proclaim still to the world
Traitor.
Arthur
Ah, Gawaine, have we not enough
Of hatred?
Gawaine
Though I seek him through seven realms
I’ll have my retribution, death for death.
(He faints.)
Arthur
He has swooned. Bear him to his tent.
(Gawaine is borne off by his friends.)
Bishop
Pass now.
My errand is performed. Peace be upon you.
[The priests resume their chant, and the Bishop and his train pass off.
Arthur
Look, where she comes.
Launcelot returns, leading Guenevere by the hand.
[Pg 112]
Launcelot
My King, I bring to you your Queen again.
(They kneel down before Arthur, then Launcelot raises Guenevere.)
Arthur
Guenevere!
Guenevere
Oh, my lord!
Arthur
What shall I say?...
With a sore heart I took this battle up
Which now is ended. Launcelot, I loved you,
Cherished and honoured you before all others.
But now is parting. My reproach is dulled,
Fall’n out of use and anger,
Like a spent arrow.
Launcelot
Oh, my King, believe me,
Never was it my purpose or my thought
To keep your Queen from you, but to defend
And shield her from your anger and her foes.
Arthur
Now, as between us both, let God, that brings
This end and mystery of returning light
After the thunder round us, and that sees
Our spirits without mask and unexcused,
Judge and have mercy. Tho’ peace be now ordained
Between us both, yet from our realm for ever
You are banished to your own lands whence you came,
To Brittany beyond the seas. Alas!
I never thought with such a word to close
Our book of friendship, wherein men shall read
How, many a time, Launcelot saved his King
And brought this kingdom glory. It is not I
That shall forget that friendship or those deeds.
And truly, for your fault, do I commend you
Where is that understanding of our hearts
Which is beyond men’s fathom. God be with you.
Launcelot
Now, must I speak
That narrow word which, like a little spring
Of water, swells to a dividing flood:
Farewell. O royal Guenevere, farewell.
Dear isle, sweet Britain, where I won renown—
All other lands are darkness to your light
Which I must leave behind me. Keep my name
As one that loved, as one that.... There’s no more!
Launcelot passes from this fellowship,
This the most noble fellowship of the world,
For ever, and the little noise we made
In the dull ear of Time so gloriously
The streams of silence take.
Lord Arthur, though all else be cancelled, yet
I keep my oath of fealty; leave me that:
And I shall never fail you, heart or hand,
While breath is in me. Call me in your need,
My sword, my life, are yours.
[Launcelot passes out with his Knights. The King’s followers withdraw aside.
Arthur
Do you not weep to have lost him, Guenevere?
He did to me the wrong that least is pardoned,
Yet almost I forget my manhood now.
Guenevere
I am past tears. All I have done and been,
Been and endured, I see from far away,
As if another in my shape were there
Moving through storm and fire.—Have you no word,
No reproach for me?
Arthur
All my thoughts are stript.
As trees after the tempest, and life’s bare
As winter to the homeless.
Guenevere
This my heart
Did never forge sweet pardons for itself.
There is no absolution among men:
Give me leave, therefore, to renounce the world
And choose the cloister.
Arthur
Will you take those vows?
I doubt not you are guided where you go.
What’s broken God may there amend, not we.
Guenevere
There is a nunnery at Amesbury: once
I entered there, and found strange peace within.
I did not know such peace could be on earth.
Suffer me, my lord, to go to Amesbury.
Arthur
So be it.
Guenevere
Put remembrance under stone
Where the dead lie and feet pass over them.
She that so wronged you has no more a name.
Arthur
Bedivere, take you twenty of my knights
And ride to Amesbury. Guard you well the Queen;
Let no least harm befall her on the way,
No trouble: bear her company till you find
Those doors that she will enter. For she vows
Her days to the nun’s cloister and small cell,
And to that peace which the world gives not.
Bedivere
Sir,
We are honoured having so noble a charge laid on us.
We shall do all your bidding.
Arthur
Set you forth.
Farewell, until the last farewell of all!
(Guenevere passes out, escorted by Bedivere and Knights. Arthur is left alone standing in the solemn light of sunset. He breaks out into a cry.)
Launcelot, Launcelot! Guenevere, Guenevere!
The Nunnery at Amesbury. Guenevere is discovered lying prostrate on the stone steps. A nun, Lynned, enters and lifts her up as she speaks to her.
Lynned
Queen, the day calls us; cling not to the night,
The stone, the silence. There is flesh and blood
Of your own people, threatened and afraid,
That calls on you. Though you have cast the robe
Of royalty for this (touching her nun’s garment), the queenly heart
Has room for other sorrow than its own—
So cold, my sister? Feel within my arms,
Feel in my bosom the warm running blood
That neighbours yours.
[Pg 116]
Guenevere
I am wearied, wearied out.
I would forget, and cannot. My heart’s numbed
With aching like my body.
I thought that in these walls there should be peace.
Tell me, for you have eyes that understand
And seem to suffer, tell me the truth, Sister.
I know that it is sinful to remember,
And yet, is it not treason to forget?
Lynned
Grief can grow dear—do I not know it?—grief
Can grow too dear. The heart that loses all
Must still give all.
Guenevere
Take not my grief from me,
Or there is nothing left to me on earth.
Lynned
Nay, grief shall change and grow beyond itself.
There’s one now at the gate must speak with you.
Guenevere
Send him away.
Lynned
I cannot.
Guenevere
Who is he
That seeks me? There was one who used to come
To me, always, before he rode to battle.
His name was Launcelot. That was long ago.
I was a Queen then. I have died since then.
It is not Launcelot! Leave me then in peace.
Lynned
Alas, even here within this cloister wall
Is no peace any longer, but all round
Imminent tempest, ripe to burst on us,
Sir Mordred with his host in rebel arms,
Thrice swollen in number, threatens ever nearer.
Out of the West he thrusts. This very day
May see the issue. Never did the swarm
Of Saxon heathen press the King so hard.
Guenevere
Who else could seek me now? Is it the King?
Lynned
It is the King.
Guenevere
I cannot see him.
Lynned
Think!
He is in deadly danger: it may be
This is the last time you may look on him.
Guenevere
I cannot.
Lynned
Sister, I, too, once denied
One who had loved me, when he sought me out
For my forgiveness. Gawaine was his name.
They had told an evil tale of me, and he
Believed it in his sudden wrath, and then
Repented, and he came to see me, and I
Denied him. Now he is dead, that stormy heart——
Guenevere
Sir Gawaine, dead?
Lynned
Dead of that wound he got
By Joyous Gard. The news came even now.
I shall not see him now, never again;
I, that had all his pardon brimming here.
And have no pardon for myself.
Guenevere
You, too?
Lynned
We are all kneaded of one flesh; wild earth,
Yet heavenly seed can spring in it, and peace
That comes in the end, but comes not without cost.
It is ill shrinking from our sorrow, Queen.
Will you not see the King?
Guenevere
How looked he? Tell me.
Lynned
I saw him in the ghostly morning mist
Clad in his armour, sitting on his horse.
He rides to battle. Almost like a spirit
He seemed, and greater than himself.
When he spoke,
His voice was gentle, yet withal commanded.
And there was such a shining in his eyes
As never yet I saw in any man’s
Upon this earth.
Guenevere
Go, tell him——
(Arthur appears at the back, as a shadow among the shadows, emerging into the light till he stands near Guenevere.)
Lynned
He is here.
(Lynned glides away as the King appears. He has an exalted, strange, and almost transfigured air.)
[Pg 119]
Arthur
Guenevere!
Guenevere
Why do you bring me back that ache
And the sharp memory of all I thirst
To have forgotten?
Do you come now to forgive me?
Standing apart, to pardon?
Only the truth is worthy of what we are.
I have wept tears that scald the soul, and yet
I do my heart of hearts wrong, if I say
That I repent of all.
Arthur
If I were he
You knew in other time, if I were he
Who had no eyes but for his distant goal,
And saw not the things nearest to his heart—
But he is passed.
Guenevere
You speak with a new voice.
But I am as the dead who cannot change:
Burnt out. I feel not, only see, from far,
The unending desolation I have made.
Arthur
I too, I too see, Guenevere. I see
Your spirit, and my spirit, and that one
Who stands between us; and I see the realm,
I dreamed to make one flawless crystal, cracked
To fragments; and the loss, the waste. But now
I am come, through anguish and against my will,
Into a light that shows me what I am,
And where I go, and what endures beyond.
Were it not for the pain, I had not known.
In ignorance we tear each other’s hearts.
Know you, Gawaine is gone, dead of his wound?
[Pg 120]
Guenevere
I know it.
Arthur
Know you, the great heart in him
Turned once again to Launcelot at the last?
The old love flooded over that dark hate:
He knew that Launcelot loved him to the end
From the beginning. Guenevere, my light
Came then: I knew that Launcelot loved me
Not less, but more, because he did me wrong;
And I began to understand that love,
Which knows not good or evil, but gives all,
Because it turns as flowers do to the sun
And goes like stream to sea.
Guenevere
I did the wrong.
Through me the young have perished, the young men
Have fallen in their blood.
From me a woe goes welling through the world
Like waves in the black night.
Arthur
From me, from me!
In the beginning was my fault. I feel
The end upon me, like the air of dawn,
And see in light that is not of the earth
What we have done to each other, and left undone.
I in my far dream of that perfect realm,
Clouded in cares of policy and state,
Saw not what burning soul was at my side,
Wanting the love that sees through human eyes
And by love understands. I was blind. Now
I am borne beyond Time’s wisdom and that fear
Which moulds men’s justice. What am I, to speak
Pardon or condemnation? I am come
To humbleness that cries, “Father, forgive!
We know not what we did.” It is I that say,
“My Queen, forgive me.” Speak not any word.
Your eyes have spoken. Guenevere, I go
To battle. Give me your farewell.
Guenevere
To battle!
Never an end of battle!
Arthur
Mordred stands,
Ready to strike; and men, that I have made
From nothing, now are Mordred’s. That name sucks
All secret poison to itself. Yonder
He waits me. I shall overthrow him—this
Is a fight to put my soul in—yet a voice
Within my heart assures me that I go
To the last of all my battles.
Guenevere
To the last?
Arthur
I feel the wizard sword Excalibur
Like an impatient spirit within my hand,
As if he heard voices recalling me
Out of this ended world. But I am freed;
I am forgiven; the dark load is off.
Say me farewell, Guenevere.
Guenevere
Now you go
Into your mortal peril, and go alone,
Maimed of your strong right hand,
Of Launcelot, that loved you. Woe on me!
The very meanest of your serving men
That bears a weapon has the better right
Than she who was your Queen to follow you
Even with her prayers.
Arthur
Give me your prayers, I ask them.
Christ, that loved men and women, comfort you.
Guenevere
God keep my lord. I have no words any more.
Arthur
The day goes to the night,
And I to darkness, with my toil undone.
Yet something, surely, something shall remain.
A seed is sown in Britain, Guenevere;
And whether men wait for a hundred years
Or for a thousand, they shall find it flower
In youth unborn. The young have gone before me,
The maid Elaine, Gareth, and Gaheris—hearts
Without a price, poured out. But now I know
The tender and passionate spirit that burned in them
To dare all and endure all, lives and moves,
And though the dark comes down upon our waste,
Lives ever, like the sun above all storms;
This old world shall behold it shine again
To prove what splendour men have power to shape
From mere mortality.
Farewell! That peace
Which can remember, and yet hope, because
Love makes us greater than we know, come to you,
Guenevere!
[He disappears into the shadows, and the scene closes in.
[Pg 123]
Same as Eighth Scene. Early light. Guenevere is discovered with a young Novice.
Guenevere
What hour is it?
First Novice
Madam, struck six.
Guenevere
Still rumour,
And never the one certain thing. Two hours
Since any word came how the battle goes.
Yet all night long
Have our replenished torches flamed to guide
The bearers of the wounded to our gates.
First Novice
Cloister and ante-chapel both are filled;
And still they bring them in, dying and dead.
Never was seen such slaughter in the world.
Guenevere
Still no news of the King!
(A pause.)
Enter Second Novice.
Second Novice
News, Madam!
Guenevere
Speak.
[Pg 124]
Second Novice
There came a rider spurring from the West;
His head was badged with blood. He implored speech
Passionately, as heavy with his news,
Of the Sister Lynned. She has quit the task
That keeps her with those wounded ones, and gone
To the gate to meet him. He is named, they say,
Sir Bedivere.
Guenevere
The King’s friend. He will bring
News of the King.
First Novice
Madam, the Sister comes.
Enter Lynned.
Lynned
Our Reverend Mother Abbess needs more hands
To bind those many wounds up. Go to her.
[The Novices go out, leaving Guenevere and Lynned facing each other.
Guenevere
There’s tidings on your face. The King is dead!
Lynned
The King is dead. The flower of Kings is fallen.
(A pause.)
Lucan is dead, Pelleas and Sagramore,
Lamorak, Meliot, Pellenore, Ozanna;
That famous fellowship of knights is dust.
Guenevere
Who shall let leap his bright sword in the air?
In what cause? There is no cause any more.
What tidings brought Sir Bedivere? Tell all.
[Pg 125]
Lynned
The rebel power is broken, and he that raised it
Dead. Woe on us that the King died with him!
Upon a field all mounded with the slain,
The bloodiest harvest Time did ever reap,
He and the traitor Mordred met their last
And smote each other, even to the death.
From a seashore that seemed the end of earth
(So tells Sir Bedivere, like a ghost himself)
Men fled into the tumble of the tides
And the waves choked them falling; the salt spray
Stung them: but “Never saw I fire,” said he,
“Of such an indignation fill the King
Seeking for Mordred. At the last he spied him
Among the heaped dead, leaning on his sword,
And cried aloud and smote him; and that traitor,
Even as he gasped his bitter soul out, struck
On our anointed.”
Guenevere
Arthur, Arthur!
Lynned
Yet
Not there he died, though hurt to death: in his arms
Sir Bedivere upbore him to a mere
Deep in the hills. There the King bade him ride
To Amesbury—ride swift and tell the Queen,
How, ere he died, he had sent words of love,
Of old, long love to Launcelot overseas;
With his life’s blood his secret heart gushed out
In love for Launcelot and his Queen. With that
Sir Bedivere departed; but so loth
That soon he came again, and lo! the King
Was no more there, but in the place was sound
He knew not whether of water or in the air,
A music new to mortals, and the smell
As of flowers floating through the dark, as if
The passing of that spirit sweetened earth.
And he remembered how it was foretold
That three sad Queens should fetch King Arthur home
Across the water of Avalon to his rest.
(A chant is faintly heard in the distance during this last speech.)
Guenevere
I am the cost. They are fallen, those famous ones
Who made this kingdom glorious, they are fallen
About their King; they have yielded up their strength
And beauty and valour.
(The convent bell begins to toll.)
The grieving bell begins,
As if it were the mouth and voice of Death
Emptying the earth of honour and renown.
I was the cost of all.
Lynned
Lift up your heart!
Out of such pain the immortal part of us
Is tempered. The King passes: even now
He is ferried over that lamenting mere,
And voices from the starred air sing him home.
But for us, tarriers in this wounded world,
Love, only love, that knows no measure, love
That understands all sorrows and all sins,
Love that alone changes the hearts of men,
And gives to the last heart-beat, only love
Suffices. Come we apart and pray awhile
For the noble and great spirits passed from us.
[Pg 127]
(The chant is heard nearer, and rises louder as the scene closes in darkness. After a pause the gloom melts, gradually revealing a wide distance of moonlit water, over which glides a barge, bearing King Arthur, and the three Queens sorrowing over him, to the island of Avalon.)
Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations in hyphenation and accents have been standardised but all other spelling and punctuation remains unchanged.
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