SIXTH SCENE
The King’s Tower. The same night. Sentinels discovered who move off at a motion from the King.Arthurpacing up and down.
(EnterGawaine.)
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
Arthur
Ay, the proof.
Proof, and if no proof, banishment: nay, death.
To-morrow this shall all be cleared. To-morrow!
Get to bed.
(Gawaineis going, when a loud knock is heard without, andMordred’svoice, “The King!” The guard opens the door.)
(Gawaineis going, when a loud knock is heard without, andMordred’svoice, “The King!” The guard opens the door.)
Guard
My lord, it is Sir Mordred.
Arthur
Let him in.
Mordredappears, 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!
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.
[Mordredgoes 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.
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.
(Gawainegoes out.Arthurpulls back the curtains at the window.)
(Gawainegoes out.Arthurpulls 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.)
GarethandGaherisenter, and stand by the door.Arthurturns.
Gareth and Gaheris, enter!
Fear not; come hither.
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-enterGawaine.
Gaheris
Which ourselves would not.
Arthur
Are you all so stubborn? Get you gone, then; do
What I command; be it done instantly.
[Garethand 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 ofLauncelot,appear with drawn swords in the doorway.
Bors,Lavaine,and other friends ofLauncelot,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.
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.
[Borsand his friends look at each other, then silently turn and go out.
[Borsand 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 uponGawaine’sneck.)
(A Man-at-armsis heard without crying: “The King! Where is the King?”)
(A Man-at-armsis heard without crying: “The King! Where is the King?”)
Gawaine
Terror’s in that cry!
TheManstumbles 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.
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!
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!
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.)
AMessengerenters 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.