ARTHURA TRAGEDY
FIRST SCENE
Sir Bernard’scastle at Astolat. A room with a window at the back.Sir Bernardalone, seated; he is old and grey-bearded.Lavaineenters 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?
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.
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.
Torrebursts 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?
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.
Lavaine
And I say, I will.
Torre
He is the lover of Queen Guenevere.
Launcelotenters 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.
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.
Elaineenters
Sir Bernard
Sir Launcelot——
(Elaine,hearing the name, gives a little cry of wonder.)
(Elaine,hearing the name, gives a little cry of wonder.)
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 Bernardgoes 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?
(Launcelotis 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?
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——
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.
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!