FIFTH SCENE
TheQueen’stower. 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.Gueneverestands 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.
Iwillpray. 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——
Launcelotenters 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.
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 ofAgravainecalling aloud.)
(As they gaze silent on one another, voices are heard without. A knocking at the door; then the voice ofAgravainecalling aloud.)
Agravaine
Launcelot! Traitor knight!
Guenevere
What voice is that?
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.)
(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?
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.
(Mordredlaughs.)
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.
(Mordredand his men have brought a bench and begin to batter at the door.)
(Mordredand his men have brought a bench and begin to batter at the door.)
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.Colegrevancecomes in, andLauncelotshuts the door and bolts it in an instant.)
(He opens the door a little.Colegrevancecomes in, andLauncelotshuts the door and bolts it in an instant.)
Colegrevance
There is no light.
(Launcelotwith a great buffet stunsColegrevance.He drawsColegrevance’ssword and thrusts it into his throat.)
(Launcelotwith a great buffet stunsColegrevance.He drawsColegrevance’ssword and thrusts it into his throat.)
Launcelot(toGuenevere)
The lamp.
(Guenevereuncovers the lamp.)
Now help me. Quick! Help me to arm.
(He tears offColegrevance’scoat of mail and puts it on.)
(He tears offColegrevance’scoat 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.
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,andMordredenter. There is a rush and furious combat.Agravainefalls mortally wounded within the room.)
(He sets open the door suddenly, sword in hand.Agravaine,Mador,Patrice,andMordredenter. There is a rush and furious combat.Agravainefalls 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!
(Mordredfalls wounded, but rises and escapes.)
(Mordredfalls wounded, but rises and escapes.)
Mador
Help, Mordred, help!
The fiend is in him. He has seven swords.
(Madorfalls.)
Launcelot
Bring me the lamp.
(Gueneverebrings lamp.)
Ah, never more to insult you now, my Queen.
(He turns over the body ofAgravaine.)
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.
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!