s: Across the seven clear stars--O grace to me--


s: Glided and past, and close upon it pealed


s: A sharp quick thunder."  Afterwards, a maid,


s: In secret, entering, loosed and let him go.'


s: That pelican on the casque:  Sir Bors it was


s: Who spake so low and sadly at our board;


s: And mighty reverent at our grace was he:


s: A square-set man and honest; and his eyes,


s: An out-door sign of all the warmth within,


s: Smiled with his lips--a smile beneath a cloud,


s: But heaven had meant it for a sunny one:


s: Ay, ay, Sir Bors, who else?  But when ye reached


s: The city, found ye all your knights returned,


s: Or was there sooth in Arthur's prophecy,


s: Tell me, and what said each, and what the King?'


s: Then answered Percivale:  'And that can I,


s: Brother, and truly; since the living words


s: Of so great men as Lancelot and our King


s: Pass not from door to door and out again,


s: But sit within the house.  O, when we reached


s: The city, our horses stumbling as they trode


s: Cracked basilisks, and splintered cockatrices,


s: And shattered talbots, which had left the stones


s: Raw, that they fell from, brought us to the hall.


s: 'And there sat Arthur on the dais-throne,


s: And those that had gone out upon the Quest,


s: Wasted and worn, and but a tithe of them,


s: And those that had not, stood before the King,


s: Who, when he saw me, rose, and bad me hail,


s: Saying, "A welfare in thine eye reproves


s: Our fear of some disastrous chance for thee


s: On hill, or plain, at sea, or flooding ford.


s: So fierce a gale made havoc here of late


s: Yea, shook this newer, stronger hall of ours,


s: And from the statue Merlin moulded for us


s: Half-wrenched a golden wing; but now--the Quest,


s: This vision--hast thou seen the Holy Cup,


s: That Joseph brought of old to Glastonbury?"


s: 'So when I told him all thyself hast heard,


s: Ambrosius, and my fresh but fixt resolve


s: He answered not, but, sharply turning, asked


s: Of Gawain, "Gawain, was this Quest for thee?"


s: '"Nay, lord," said Gawain, "not for such as I.


s: Therefore I communed with a saintly man,


s: Who made me sure the Quest was not for me;


s: And merry maidens in it; and then this gale


s: With all discomfort; yea, and but for this,


s: My twelvemonth and a day were pleasant to me."


s: 'He ceased; and Arthur turned to whom at first


s: He saw not, for Sir Bors, on entering, pushed


s: Athwart the throng to Lancelot, caught his hand,


s: Held it, and there, half-hidden by him, stood,


s: Until the King espied him, saying to him,


s: Could see it, thou hast seen the Grail;" and Bors,


s: I saw it;" and the tears were in his eyes.


s: 'Then there remained but Lancelot, for the rest


s: Spake but of sundry perils in the storm;


s: Our Arthur kept his best until the last;


s: "Thou, too, my Lancelot," asked the king, "my friend,


s: Our mightiest, hath this Quest availed for thee?"


s: '"Our mightiest!" answered Lancelot, with a groan;


s: "O King!"--and when he paused, methought I spied


s: "O King, my friend, if friend of thine I be,


s: Happier are those that welter in their sin,


s: Swine in the mud, that cannot see for slime,


s: Slime of the ditch:  but in me lived a sin


s: So strange, of such a kind, that all of pure,


s: Noble, and knightly in me twined and clung


s: Round that one sin, until the wholesome flower


s: And poisonous grew together, each as each,


s: Not to be plucked asunder; and when thy knights


s: Sware, I sware with them only in the hope


s: That could I touch or see the Holy Grail


s: They might be plucked asunder.  Then I spake


s: To one most holy saint, who wept and said,


s: That save they could be plucked asunder, all


s: My quest were but in vain; to whom I vowed


s: That I would work according as he willed.


s: And forth I went, and while I yearned and strove


s: And whipt me into waste fields far away;


s: Mean knights, to whom the moving of my sword


s: To scare them from me once; and then I came


s: Wide flats, where nothing but coarse grasses grew;


s: But such a blast, my King, began to blow,


s: So loud a blast along the shore and sea,


s: Ye could not hear the waters for the blast,


s: Though heapt in mounds and ridges all the sea


s: Swept like a river, and the clouded heavens


s: Were shaken with the motion and the sound.


s: And blackening in the sea-foam swayed a boat,


s: Half-swallowed in it, anchored with a chain;


s: I burst the chain, I sprang into the boat.


s: Seven days I drove along the dreary deep,


s: And with me drove the moon and all the stars;


s: And the wind fell, and on the seventh night


s: I heard the shingle grinding in the surge,


s: And felt the boat shock earth, and looking up,


s: Behold, the enchanted towers of Carbonek,


s: With chasm-like portals open to the sea,


s: And steps that met the breaker! there was none


s: That kept the entry, and the moon was full.


s: Then from the boat I leapt, and up the stairs.


s: There drew my sword.  With sudden-flaring manes


s: Those two great beasts rose upright like a man,


s: Each gript a shoulder, and I stood between;


s: And, when I would have smitten them, heard a voice,


s: 'Doubt not, go forward; if thou doubt, the beasts


s: Will tear thee piecemeal.'  Then with violence


s: The sword was dashed from out my hand, and fell.


s: No bench nor table, painting on the wall


s: Or shield of knight; only the rounded moon


s: Through the tall oriel on the rolling sea.


s: Clear as a lark, high o'er me as a lark,


s: A sweet voice singing in the topmost tower


s: To the eastward:  up I climbed a thousand steps


s: With pain:  as in a dream I seemed to climb


s: For ever:  at the last I reached a door,


s: A light was in the crannies, and I heard,


s: It gave; and through a stormy glare, a heat


s: Blasted and burnt, and blinded as I was,


s: With such a fierceness that I swooned away--


s: All palled in crimson samite, and around


s: Great angels, awful shapes, and wings and eyes.


s: That which I saw; but what I saw was veiled


s: And covered; and this Quest was not for me."


s: 'So speaking, and here ceasing, Lancelot left


s: The hall long silent, till Sir Gawain--nay,


s: Brother, I need not tell thee foolish words,--


s: A reckless and irreverent knight was he,


s: Now boldened by the silence of his King,--


s: Well, I will tell thee:  "O King, my liege," he said,


s: "Hath Gawain failed in any quest of thine?


s: When have I stinted stroke in foughten field?


s: But as for thine, my good friend Percivale,


s: Thy holy nun and thou have driven men mad,


s: Yea, made our mightiest madder than our least.


s: But by mine eyes and by mine ears I swear,


s: I will be deafer than the blue-eyed cat,


s: But if indeed there came a sign from heaven,


s: For these have seen according to their sight.


s: When God made music through them, could but speak


s: His music by the framework and the chord;


s: '"Nay--but thou errest, Lancelot:  never yet


s: Could all of true and noble in knight and man


s: Twine round one sin, whatever it might be,


s: With such a closeness, but apart there grew,


s: Save that he were the swine thou spakest of,


s: Some root of knighthood and pure nobleness;


s: Whereto see thou, that it may bear its flower.


s: '"And spake I not too truly, O my knights?


s: That most of them would follow wandering fires,


s: Lost in the quagmire?--lost to me and gone,


s: And a lean Order--scarce returned a tithe--


s: And out of those to whom the vision came


s: And leaving human wrongs to right themselves,


s: And one hath had the vision face to face,


s: And now his chair desires him here in vain,


s: '"And some among you held, that if the King


s: Had seen the sight he would have sworn the vow:


s: Not easily, seeing that the King must guard


s: That which he rules, and is but as the hind


s: To whom a space of land is given to plow.


s: Who may not wander from the allotted field


s: Before his work be done; but, being done,


s: Come, as they will; and many a time they come,


s: Until this earth he walks on seems not earth,


s: This light that strikes his eyeball is not light,


s: This air that smites his forehead is not air


s: But vision--yea, his very hand and foot--


s: Who rose again:  ye have seen what ye have seen."


s: 'So spake the King:  I knew not all he meant.'


s: King Arthur made new knights to fill the gap


s: Were softly sundered, and through these a youth,


s: Pelleas, and the sweet smell of the fields


s: Past, and the sunshine came along with him.


s: 'Make me thy knight, because I know, Sir King,


s: All that belongs to knighthood, and I love.'


s: Such was his cry:  for having heard the King


s: Had let proclaim a tournament--the prize


s: The golden circlet, for himself the sword:


s: And there were those who knew him near the King,


s: And promised for him:  and Arthur made him knight.


s: And this new knight, Sir Pelleas of the isles--


s: Across the forest called of Dean, to find


s: Beat like a strong knight on his helm, and reeled


s: Almost to falling from his horse; but saw


s: And here and there great hollies under them;


s: But for a mile all round was open space,


s: And fern and heath:  and slowly Pelleas drew


s: To that dim day, then binding his good horse


s: To a tree, cast himself down; and as he lay


s: Through that green-glooming twilight of the grove,


s: It seemed to Pelleas that the fern without


s: So that his eyes were dazzled looking at it.


s: Then o'er it crost the dimness of a cloud


s: Flying, and then a fawn; and his eyes closed.


s: And since he loved all maidens, but no maid


s: In special, half-awake he whispered, 'Where?


s: O where? I love thee, though I know thee not.


s: For fair thou art and pure as Guinevere,


s: And I will make thee with my spear and sword


s: For I will be thine Arthur when we meet.'


s: And glancing through the hoary boles, he saw,


s: Strange as to some old prophet might have seemed


s: Damsels in divers colours like the cloud


s: Breast-high in that bright line of bracken stood:


s: And one was pointing this way, and one that,


s: And loosed his horse, and led him to the light.


s: There she that seemed the chief among them said,


s: Youth, we are damsels-errant, and we ride,


s: Armed as ye see, to tilt against the knights


s: There at Caerleon, but have lost our way:


s: To right? to left? straight forward? back again?


s: For large her violet eyes looked, and her bloom


s: A rosy dawn kindled in stainless heavens,


s: And round her limbs, mature in womanhood;


s: And slender was her hand and small her shape;


s: And but for those large eyes, the haunts of scorn,


s: She might have seemed a toy to trifle with,


s: And pass and care no more.  But while he gazed


s: The beauty of her flesh abashed the boy,


s: As though it were the beauty of her soul:


s: For as the base man, judging of the good,


s: All the young beauty of his own soul to hers,


s: Believing her; and when she spake to him,


s: Stammered, and could not make her a reply.


s: For out of the waste islands had he come,


s: Where saving his own sisters he had known


s: Rough wives, that laughed and screamed against the gulls,


s: Makers of nets, and living from the sea.


s: Then with a slow smile turned the lady round


s: A stone is flung into some sleeping tarn,


s: The circle widens till it lip the marge,


s: Spread the slow smile through all her company.


s: Three knights were thereamong; and they too smiled,


s: Again she said, 'O wild and of the woods,


s: Knowest thou not the fashion of our speech?


s: Or have the Heavens but given thee a fair face,


s: 'I woke from dreams; and coming out of gloom


s: Was dazzled by the sudden light, and crave


s: Go likewise:  shall I lead you to the King?'


s: 'Lead then,' she said; and through the woods they went.


s: And while they rode, the meaning in his eyes,


s: His tenderness of manner, and chaste awe,


s: Were all a burthen to her, and in her heart


s: She muttered, 'I have lighted on a fool,


s: Raw, yet so stale!'  But since her mind was bent


s: On hearing, after trumpet blown, her name


s: And title, 'Queen of Beauty,' in the lists


s: Cried--and beholding him so strong, she thought


s: And win the circlet:  therefore flattered him,


s: Being so gracious, that he wellnigh deemed


s: His wish by hers was echoed; and her knights


s: And all her damsels too were gracious to him,


s: Caerleon, ere they past to lodging, she,


s: Taking his hand, 'O the strong hand,' she said,


s: 'See! look at mine! but wilt thou fight for me,


s: Leapt, and he cried, 'Ay! wilt thou if I win?'


s: 'Ay, that will I,' she answered, and she laughed,


s: And straitly nipt the hand, and flung it from her;


s: Then glanced askew at those three knights of hers,


s: Till all her ladies laughed along with her.


s: 'O happy world,' thought Pelleas, 'all, meseems,


s: Nor slept that night for pleasure in his blood,


s: And green wood-ways, and eyes among the leaves;


s: Then being on the morrow knighted, sware


s: The men who met him rounded on their heels


s: And wondered after him, because his face


s: Shone like the countenance of a priest of old


s: Kindled by fire from heaven:  so glad was he.


s: Then Arthur made vast banquets, and strange knights


s: From the four winds came in:  and each one sat,


s: Though served with choice from air, land, stream, and sea,


s: Oft in mid-banquet measuring with his eyes


s: His neighbour's make and might:  and Pelleas looked


s: Loved of the King:  and him his new-made knight


s: Worshipt, whose lightest whisper moved him more


s: Than all the ranged reasons of the world.


s: Then blushed and brake the morning of the jousts,


s: And this was called 'The Tournament of Youth:'


s: For Arthur, loving his young knight, withheld


s: His older and his mightier from the lists,


s: That Pelleas might obtain his lady's love,


s: Lord of the tourney.  And Arthur had the jousts


s: Down in the flat field by the shore of Usk


s: Holden:  the gilded parapets were crowned


s: With faces, and the great tower filled with eyes


s: Up to the summit, and the trumpets blew.


s: There all day long Sir Pelleas kept the field


s: With honour:  so by that strong hand of his


s: The sword and golden circlet were achieved.


s: Then rang the shout his lady loved:  the heat


s: Of pride and glory fired her face; her eye


s: Sparkled; she caught the circlet from his lance,


s: And there before the people crowned herself:


s: So for the last time she was gracious to him.


s: Bright for all others, cloudier on her knight--


s: Lingered Ettarre:  and seeing Pelleas droop,


s: Said Guinevere, 'We marvel at thee much,


s: To him who won thee glory!'  And she said,


s: 'Had ye not held your Lancelot in your bower,


s: My Queen, he had not won.'  Whereat the Queen,


s: Glanced down upon her, turned and went her way.


s: But after, when her damsels, and herself,


s: And those three knights all set their faces home,


s: Sir Pelleas followed.  She that saw him cried,


s: 'Damsels--and yet I should be shamed to say it--


s: Among yourselves.  Would rather that we had


s: Some rough old knight who knew the worldly way,


s: And jest with:  take him to you, keep him off,


s: And pamper him with papmeat, if ye will,


s: Such as the wholesome mothers tell their boys.


s: To find his mettle, good:  and if he fly us,


s: Small matter! let him.'  This her damsels heard,


s: And mindful of her small and cruel hand,


s: They, closing round him through the journey home,


s: Acted her hest, and always from her side


s: Restrained him with all manner of device,


s: So that he could not come to speech with her.


s: And when she gained her castle, upsprang the bridge,


s: Down rang the grate of iron through the groove,


s: 'These be the ways of ladies,' Pelleas thought,


s: 'To those who love them, trials of our faith.


s: So made his moan; and darkness falling, sought


s: A priory not far off, there lodged, but rose


s: With morning every day, and, moist or dry,


s: Full-armed upon his charger all day long


s: Sat by the walls, and no one opened to him.


s: And this persistence turned her scorn to wrath.


s: Then calling her three knights, she charged them, 'Out!


s: And drive him from the walls.'  And out they came


s: But Pelleas overthrew them as they dashed


s: Against him one by one; and these returned,


s: But still he kept his watch beneath the wall.


s: Thereon her wrath became a hate; and once,


s: A week beyond, while walking on the walls


s: With her three knights, she pointed downward, 'Look,


s: He haunts me--I cannot breathe--besieges me;


s: Down! strike him! put my hate into your strokes,


s: And drive him from my walls.'  And down they went,


s: And from the tower above him cried Ettarre,


s: Then let the strong hand, which had overthrown


s: Her minion-knights, by those he overthrew


s: Be bounden straight, and so they brought him in.


s: Then when he came before Ettarre, the sight


s: Of her rich beauty made him at one glance


s: More bondsman in his heart than in his bonds.


s: Yet with good cheer he spake, 'Behold me, Lady,


s: But once a day:  for I have sworn my vows,


s: And thou hast given thy promise, and I know


s: That all these pains are trials of my faith,


s: And that thyself, when thou hast seen me strained


s: And sifted to the utmost, wilt at length


s: Yield me thy love and know me for thy knight.'


s: With all her damsels, he was stricken mute;


s: But when she mocked his vows and the great King,


s: Lighted on words:  'For pity of thine own self,


s: Peace, Lady, peace:  is he not thine and mine?'


s: 'Thou fool,' she said, 'I never heard his voice


s: But longed to break away.  Unbind him now,


s: And thrust him out of doors; for save he be


s: Fool to the midmost marrow of his bones,


s: He will return no more.'  And those, her three,


s: Laughed, and unbound, and thrust him from the gate.


s: She called them, saying, 'There he watches yet,


s: There like a dog before his master's door!


s: Kicked, he returns:  do ye not hate him, ye?


s: Ye know yourselves:  how can ye bide at peace,


s: Are ye but creatures of the board and bed,


s: No men to strike?  Fall on him all at once,


s: And if ye slay him I reck not:  if ye fail,


s: Give ye the slave mine order to be bound,


s: Bind him as heretofore, and bring him in:


s: It may be ye shall slay him in his bonds.'


s: She spake; and at her will they couched their spears,


s: Three against one:  and Gawain passing by,


s: Low down beneath the shadow of those towers


s: A villainy, three to one:  and through his heart


s: Flashed, and he called, 'I strike upon thy side--


s: The caitiffs!'  'Nay,' said Pelleas, 'but forbear;


s: He needs no aid who doth his lady's will.'


s: So Gawain, looking at the villainy done,


s: Trembled and quivered, as the dog, withheld


s: Before him, shivers, ere he springs and kills.


s: And Pelleas overthrew them, one to three;


s: And they rose up, and bound, and brought him in.


s: Then first her anger, leaving Pelleas, burned


s: Full on her knights in many an evil name


s: Of craven, weakling, and thrice-beaten hound:


s: 'Yet, take him, ye that scarce are fit to touch,


s: Far less to bind, your victor, and thrust him out,


s: And let who will release him from his bonds.


s: And if he comes again'--there she brake short;


s: I cannot brook to see your beauty marred


s: Through evil spite:  and if ye love me not,


s: Than to be loved again of you--farewell;


s: And though ye kill my hope, not yet my love,


s: Vex not yourself:  ye will not see me more.'


s: While thus he spake, she gazed upon the man


s: Of princely bearing, though in bonds, and thought,


s: 'Why have I pushed him from me? this man loves,


s: If love there be:  yet him I loved not.  Why?


s: I deemed him fool? yea, so? or that in him


s: Seemed my reproach?  He is not of my kind.


s: He could not love me, did he know me well.


s: Nay, let him go--and quickly.'  And her knights


s: Laughed not, but thrust him bounden out of door.


s: Forth sprang Gawain, and loosed him from his bonds,


s: And flung them o'er the walls; and afterward,


s: Shaking his hands, as from a lazar's rag,


s: 'Faith of my body,' he said, 'and art thou not--


s: Yea thou art he, whom late our Arthur made


s: Knight of his table; yea and he that won


s: The circlet? wherefore hast thou so defamed


s: As let these caitiffs on thee work their will?'


s: And Pelleas answered, 'O, their wills are hers


s: For whom I won the circlet; and mine, hers,


s: Marred though it be with spite and mockery now,


s: Other than when I found her in the woods;


s: And though she hath me bounden but in spite,


s: And all to flout me, when they bring me in,


s: Let me be bounden, I shall see her face;


s: Else must I die through mine unhappiness.'


s: And Gawain answered kindly though in scorn,


s: These fighting hands of mine--Christ kill me then


s: But I will slice him handless by the wrist,


s: Howl as he may.  But hold me for your friend:


s: Come, ye know nothing:  here I pledge my troth,


s: I will be leal to thee and work thy work,


s: And tame thy jailing princess to thine hand.


s: Lend me thine horse and arms, and I will say


s: That I have slain thee.  She will let me in


s: To hear the manner of thy fight and fall;


s: Then, when I come within her counsels, then


s: From prime to vespers will I chant thy praise


s: As prowest knight and truest lover, more


s: Than any have sung thee living, till she long


s: Not to be bound, save by white bonds and warm,


s: Dearer than freedom.  Wherefore now thy horse


s: Give me three days to melt her fancy, and hope


s: The third night hence will bring thee news of gold.'


s: Then Pelleas lent his horse and all his arms,


s: Saving the goodly sword, his prize, and took


s: Gawain's, and said, 'Betray me not, but help--


s: Art thou not he whom men call light-of-love?'


s: 'Ay,' said Gawain, 'for women be so light.'


s: Then bounded forward to the castle walls,


s: And raised a bugle hanging from his neck,


s: That all the old echoes hidden in the wall


s: Rang out like hollow woods at hunting-tide.


s: 'Avaunt,' they cried, 'our lady loves thee not.'


s: And I have slain this Pelleas whom ye hate:


s: Behold his horse and armour.  Open gates,


s: Pelleas is dead--he told us--he that hath


s: His horse and armour:  will ye let him in?


s: He slew him!  Gawain, Gawain of the court,


s: Sir Gawain--there he waits below the wall,


s: Blowing his bugle as who should say him nay.'


s: And so, leave given, straight on through open door


s: Rode Gawain, whom she greeted courteously.


s: 'Dead, is it so?' she asked.  'Ay, ay,' said he,


s: 'And oft in dying cried upon your name.'


s: 'Pity on him,' she answered, 'a good knight,


s: But never let me bide one hour at peace.'


s: 'Ay,' thought Gawain, 'and you be fair enow:


s: But I to your dead man have given my troth,


s: That whom ye loathe, him will I make you love.'


s: So those three days, aimless about the land,


s: Waited, until the third night brought a moon


s: With promise of large light on woods and ways.


s: Hot was the night and silent; but a sound


s: Which Pelleas had heard sung before the Queen,


s: And seen her sadden listening--vext his heart,


s: And marred his rest--'A worm within the rose.'


s: 'A rose, but one, none other rose had I,


s: A rose, one rose, and this was wondrous fair,


s: One rose, a rose that gladdened earth and sky,


s: One rose, my rose, that sweetened all mine air--


s: I cared not for the thorns; the thorns were there.


s: One rose, a rose, to gather and to wear,


s: One rose, my rose; a rose that will not die,--


s: He dies who loves it,--if the worm be there.'


s: This tender rhyme, and evermore the doubt,


s: 'Why lingers Gawain with his golden news?'


s: So shook him that he could not rest, but rode


s: Ere midnight to her walls, and bound his horse


s: Hard by the gates.  Wide open were the gates,


s: And no watch kept; and in through these he past,


s: And heard but his own steps, and his own heart


s: Beating, for nothing moved but his own self,


s: And his own shadow.  Then he crost the court,


s: And spied not any light in hall or bower,


s: Of roses white and red, and brambles mixt


s: And overgrowing them, went on, and found,


s: Here too, all hushed below the mellow moon,


s: Came lightening downward, and so spilt itself


s: Then was he ware of three pavilions reared


s: Above the bushes, gilden-peakt:  in one,


s: Red after revel, droned her lurdane knights


s: Slumbering, and their three squires across their feet:


s: Frozen by sweet sleep, four of her damsels lay:


s: And in the third, the circlet of the jousts


s: Bound on her brow, were Gawain and Ettarre.


s: Back, as a hand that pushes through the leaf


s: To find a nest and feels a snake, he drew:


s: Back, as a coward slinks from what he fears


s: To cope with, or a traitor proven, or hound


s: Creep with his shadow through the court again,


s: Fingering at his sword-handle until he stood


s: There on the castle-bridge once more, and thought,


s: 'I will go back, and slay them where they lie.'


s: And so went back, and seeing them yet in sleep


s: Said, 'Ye, that so dishallow the holy sleep,


s: Your sleep is death,' and drew the sword, and thought,


s: 'What! slay a sleeping knight? the King hath bound


s: And sworn me to this brotherhood;' again,


s: 'Alas that ever a knight should be so false.'


s: Then turned, and so returned, and groaning laid


s: The naked sword athwart their naked throats,


s: There left it, and them sleeping; and she lay,


s: The circlet of her tourney round her brows,


s: And the sword of the tourney across her throat.


s: And forth he past, and mounting on his horse


s: Stared at her towers that, larger than themselves


s: In their own darkness, thronged into the moon.


s: Then crushed the saddle with his thighs, and clenched


s: His hands, and maddened with himself and moaned:


s: 'Would they have risen against me in their blood


s: At the last day?  I might have answered them


s: Even before high God.  O towers so strong,


s: Huge, solid, would that even while I gaze


s: The crack of earthquake shivering to your base


s: Split you, and Hell burst up your harlot roofs


s: Bellowing, and charred you through and through within,


s: Black as the harlot's heart--hollow as a skull!


s: Let the fierce east scream through your eyelet-holes,


s: And whirl the dust of harlots round and round


s: In dung and nettles! hiss, snake--I saw him there--


s: Let the fox bark, let the wolf yell.  Who yells


s: Here in the still sweet summer night, but I--


s: I, the poor Pelleas whom she called her fool?


s: Fool, beast--he, she, or I? myself most fool;


s: Beast too, as lacking human wit--disgraced,


s: Dishonoured all for trial of true love--


s: Hath made us fools and liars.  O noble vows!


s: O great and sane and simple race of brutes


s: That own no lust because they have no law!


s: For why should I have loved her to my shame?


s: I loathe her, as I loved her to my shame.


s: I never loved her, I but lusted for her--


s: And bounded forth and vanished through the night.


s: Then she, that felt the cold touch on her throat,


s: Awaking knew the sword, and turned herself


s: To Gawain:  'Liar, for thou hast not slain


s: This Pelleas! here he stood, and might have slain


s: Me and thyself.'  And he that tells the tale


s: To Pelleas, as the one true knight on earth,


s: And only lover; and through her love her life


s: But he by wild and way, for half the night,


s: And over hard and soft, striking the sod


s: From out the soft, the spark from off the hard,


s: Rode till the star above the wakening sun,


s: Beside that tower where Percivale was cowled,


s: Glanced from the rosy forehead of the dawn.


s: For so the words were flashed into his heart


s: He knew not whence or wherefore:  'O sweet star,


s: Pure on the virgin forehead of the dawn!'


s: And there he would have wept, but felt his eyes


s: In summer:  thither came the village girls


s: And lingered talking, and they come no more


s: Till the sweet heavens have filled it from the heights


s: Of seasons:  hard his eyes; harder his heart


s: Seemed; but so weary were his limbs, that he,


s: Gasping, 'Of Arthur's hall am I, but here,


s: Here let me rest and die,' cast himself down,


s: And gulfed his griefs in inmost sleep; so lay,


s: Till shaken by a dream, that Gawain fired


s: The hall of Merlin, and the morning star


s: Reeled in the smoke, brake into flame, and fell.


s: He woke, and being ware of some one nigh,


s: Sent hands upon him, as to tear him, crying,


s: 'False! and I held thee pure as Guinevere.'


s: But Percivale stood near him and replied,


s: Or art thou mazed with dreams? or being one


s: That Lancelot'--there he checked himself and paused.


s: Then fared it with Sir Pelleas as with one


s: Who gets a wound in battle, and the sword


s: That made it plunges through the wound again,


s: And pricks it deeper:  and he shrank and wailed,


s: 'Is the Queen false?' and Percivale was mute.


s: 'Have any of our Round Table held their vows?'


s: 'Is the King true?'  'The King!' said Percivale.


s: 'Why then let men couple at once with wolves.


s: Ran through the doors and vaulted on his horse


s: And fled:  small pity upon his horse had he,


s: A cripple, one that held a hand for alms--


s: Hunched as he was, and like an old dwarf-elm


s: That turns its back upon the salt blast, the boy


s: Paused not, but overrode him, shouting, 'False,


s: And false with Gawain!' and so left him bruised


s: And battered, and fled on, and hill and wood


s: Went ever streaming by him till the gloom,


s: That follows on the turning of the world,


s: Darkened the common path:  he twitched the reins,


s: And made his beast that better knew it, swerve


s: High up in heaven the hall that Merlin built,


s: Blackening against the dead-green stripes of even,


s: 'Black nest of rats,' he groaned, 'ye build too high.'


s: Warm with a gracious parting from the Queen,


s: Peace at his heart, and gazing at a star


s: And marvelling what it was:  on whom the boy,


s: Borne, clashed:  and Lancelot, saying, 'What name hast thou


s: That ridest here so blindly and so hard?'


s: 'No name, no name,' he shouted, 'a scourge am I


s: To lash the treasons of the Table Round.'


s: 'Yea, but thy name?'  'I have many names,' he cried:


s: 'I am wrath and shame and hate and evil fame,


s: And like a poisonous wind I pass to blast


s: And blaze the crime of Lancelot and the Queen.'


s: 'First over me,' said Lancelot, 'shalt thou pass.'


s: 'Fight therefore,' yelled the youth, and either knight


s: Drew back a space, and when they closed, at once


s: The weary steed of Pelleas floundering flung


s: His rider, who called out from the dark field,


s: 'Thou art as false as Hell:  slay me:  I have no sword.'


s: Then Lancelot, 'Yea, between thy lips--and sharp;


s: But here I will disedge it by thy death.'


s: 'Slay then,' he shrieked, 'my will is to be slain,'


s: And Lancelot, with his heel upon the fallen,


s: Rolling his eyes, a moment stood, then spake:


s: 'Rise, weakling; I am Lancelot; say thy say.'


s: And Lancelot slowly rode his warhorse back


s: To Camelot, and Sir Pelleas in brief while


s: Caught his unbroken limbs from the dark field,


s: And followed to the city.  It chanced that both


s: Brake into hall together, worn and pale.


s: There with her knights and dames was Guinevere.


s: So soon returned, and then on Pelleas, him


s: Who had not greeted her, but cast himself


s: Down on a bench, hard-breathing.  'Have ye fought?'


s: She asked of Lancelot.  'Ay, my Queen,' he said.


s: 'And hast thou overthrown him?'  'Ay, my Queen.'


s: Then she, turning to Pelleas, 'O young knight,


s: Hath the great heart of knighthood in thee failed


s: So far thou canst not bide, unfrowardly,


s: A fall from him?'  Then, for he answered not,


s: 'Or hast thou other griefs?  If I, the Queen,


s: May help them, loose thy tongue, and let me know.'


s: She quailed; and he, hissing 'I have no sword,'


s: Sprang from the door into the dark.  The Queen


s: And each foresaw the dolorous day to be:


s: And all talk died, as in a grove all song


s: Beneath the shadow of some bird of prey;


s: And Modred thought, 'The time is hard at hand.'


s: Had made mock-knight of Arthur's Table Round,


s: At Camelot, high above the yellowing woods,


s: Danced like a withered leaf before the hall.


s: And toward him from the hall, with harp in hand,


s: Came Tristram, saying, 'Why skip ye so, Sir Fool?'


s: Heard a child wail.  A stump of oak half-dead,


s: From roots like some black coil of carven snakes,


s: Clutched at the crag, and started through mid air


s: Bearing an eagle's nest:  and through the tree


s: Rushed ever a rainy wind, and through the wind


s: Pierced ever a child's cry:  and crag and tree


s: Scaling, Sir Lancelot from the perilous nest,


s: This ruby necklace thrice around her neck,


s: And all unscarred from beak or talon, brought


s: A maiden babe; which Arthur pitying took,


s: Then gave it to his Queen to rear:  the Queen


s: But coldly acquiescing, in her white arms


s: And named it Nestling; so forgot herself


s: A moment, and her cares; till that young life


s: Being smitten in mid heaven with mortal cold


s: Vext her with plaintive memories of the child:


s: And make them, an thou wilt, a tourney-prize.'


s: To whom the King, 'Peace to thine eagle-borne


s: Dead nestling, and this honour after death,


s: Following thy will! but, O my Queen, I muse


s: Why ye not wear on arm, or neck, or zone


s: Those diamonds that I rescued from the tarn,


s: And Lancelot won, methought, for thee to wear.'


s: 'Would rather you had let them fall,' she cried,


s: 'Plunge and be lost--ill-fated as they were,


s: Not knowing they were lost as soon as given--


s: Slid from my hands, when I was leaning out


s: Past in her barge:  but rosier luck will go


s: Not from the skeleton of a brother-slayer,


s: Perchance--who knows?--the purest of thy knights


s: May win them for the purest of my maids.'


s: She ended, and the cry of a great jousts


s: With trumpet-blowings ran on all the ways


s: To furthest towers; and everywhere the knights


s: Armed for a day of glory before the King.


s: But on the hither side of that loud morn


s: Into the hall staggered, his visage ribbed


s: From ear to ear with dogwhip-weals, his nose


s: Bridge-broken, one eye out, and one hand off,


s: And one with shattered fingers dangling lame,


s: 'My churl, for whom Christ died, what evil beast


s: Hath drawn his claws athwart thy face? or fiend?


s: Man was it who marred heaven's image in thee thus?'


s: Then, sputtering through the hedge of splintered teeth,


s: Yet strangers to the tongue, and with blunt stump


s: Pitch-blackened sawing the air, said the maimed churl,


s: 'He took them and he drave them to his tower--


s: Some hold he was a table-knight of thine--


s: A hundred goodly ones--the Red Knight, he--


s: Lord, I was tending swine, and the Red Knight


s: Brake in upon me and drave them to his tower;


s: That doest right by gentle and by churl,


s: Maimed me and mauled, and would outright have slain,


s: Save that he sware me to a message, saying,


s: "Tell thou the King and all his liars, that I


s: Have founded my Round Table in the North,


s: And whatsoever his own knights have sworn


s: My knights have sworn the counter to it--and say


s: My tower is full of harlots, like his court,


s: But mine are worthier, seeing they profess


s: To be none other than themselves--and say


s: My knights are all adulterers like his own,


s: To be none other; and say his hour is come,


s: The heathen are upon him, his long lance


s: Then Arthur turned to Kay the seneschal,


s: 'Take thou my churl, and tend him curiously


s: Like a king's heir, till all his hurts be whole.


s: The heathen--but that ever-climbing wave,


s: Hurled back again so often in empty foam,


s: Hath lain for years at rest--and renegades,


s: Thieves, bandits, leavings of confusion, whom


s: The wholesome realm is purged of otherwhere,


s: Friends, through your manhood and your fealty,--now


s: Make their last head like Satan in the North.


s: My younger knights, new-made, in whom your flower


s: Waits to be solid fruit of golden deeds,


s: Move with me toward their quelling, which achieved,


s: The loneliest ways are safe from shore to shore.


s: But thou, Sir Lancelot, sitting in my place


s: Enchaired tomorrow, arbitrate the field;


s: For wherefore shouldst thou care to mingle with it,


s: Speak, Lancelot, thou art silent:  is it well?'


s: Thereto Sir Lancelot answered, 'It is well:


s: The leading of his younger knights to me.


s: Else, for the King has willed it, it is well.'


s: Then Arthur rose and Lancelot followed him,


s: And while they stood without the doors, the King


s: Turned to him saying, 'Is it then so well?


s: Of whom was written, "A sound is in his ears"?


s: The foot that loiters, bidden go,--the glance


s: That only seems half-loyal to command,--


s: A manner somewhat fallen from reverence--


s: Or have I dreamed the bearing of our knights


s: Or whence the fear lest this my realm, upreared,


s: From flat confusion and brute violences,


s: Reel back into the beast, and be no more?'


s: He spoke, and taking all his younger knights,


s: Down the slope city rode, and sharply turned


s: North by the gate.  In her high bower the Queen,


s: Watched her lord pass, and knew not that she sighed.


s: Then ran across her memory the strange rhyme


s: Of bygone Merlin, 'Where is he who knows?


s: From the great deep to the great deep he goes.'


s: By these in earnest those in mockery called


s: Brake with a wet wind blowing, Lancelot,


s: Round whose sick head all night, like birds of prey,


s: The words of Arthur flying shrieked, arose,


s: And down a streetway hung with folds of pure


s: White samite, and by fountains running wine,


s: Where children sat in white with cups of gold,


s: Moved to the lists, and there, with slow sad steps


s: Ascending, filled his double-dragoned chair.


s: He glanced and saw the stately galleries,


s: Dame, damsel, each through worship of their Queen


s: White-robed in honour of the stainless child,


s: Of maiden snow mingled with sparks of fire.


s: He looked but once, and vailed his eyes again.


s: The sudden trumpet sounded as in a dream


s: To ears but half-awaked, then one low roll


s: Of Autumn thunder, and the jousts began:


s: And ever the wind blew, and yellowing leaf


s: And gloom and gleam, and shower and shorn plume


s: Went down it.  Sighing weariedly, as one


s: When all the goodlier guests are past away,


s: Sat their great umpire, looking o'er the lists.


s: He saw the laws that ruled the tournament


s: Broken, but spake not; once, a knight cast down


s: The dead babe and the follies of the King;


s: And showed him, like a vermin in its hole,


s: The voice that billowed round the barriers roar


s: An ocean-sounding welcome to one knight,


s: But newly-entered, taller than the rest,


s: And armoured all in forest green, whereon


s: And wearing but a holly-spray for crest,


s: With ever-scattering berries, and on shield


s: A spear, a harp, a bugle--Tristram--late


s: And marriage with a princess of that realm,


s: Whom Lancelot knew, had held sometime with pain


s: His own against him, and now yearned to shake


s: The burthen off his heart in one full shock


s: With Tristram even to death:  his strong hands gript


s: And dinted the gilt dragons right and left,


s: Until he groaned for wrath--so many of those,


s: That ware their ladies' colours on the casque,


s: Drew from before Sir Tristram to the bounds,


s: And there with gibes and flickering mockeries


s: Stood, while he muttered, 'Craven crests!  O shame!


s: What faith have these in whom they sware to love?


s: The glory of our Round Table is no more.'


s: So Tristram won, and Lancelot gave, the gems,


s: Not speaking other word than 'Hast thou won?


s: Art thou the purest, brother?  See, the hand


s: Wherewith thou takest this, is red!' to whom


s: Tristram, half plagued by Lancelot's languorous mood,


s: Made answer, 'Ay, but wherefore toss me this


s: Like a dry bone cast to some hungry hound?


s: Lest be thy fair Queen's fantasy.  Strength of heart


s: And might of limb, but mainly use and skill,


s: Are winners in this pastime of our King.


s: My hand--belike the lance hath dript upon it--


s: No blood of mine, I trow; but O chief knight,


s: Great brother, thou nor I have made the world;


s: Be happy in thy fair Queen as I in mine.'


s: And Tristram round the gallery made his horse


s: Caracole; then bowed his homage, bluntly saying,


s: 'Fair damsels, each to him who worships each


s: Sole Queen of Beauty and of love, behold


s: This day my Queen of Beauty is not here.'


s: And most of these were mute, some angered, one


s: Murmuring, 'All courtesy is dead,' and one,


s: 'The glory of our Round Table is no more.'


s: Then fell thick rain, plume droopt and mantle clung,


s: And pettish cries awoke, and the wan day


s: Went glooming down in wet and weariness:


s: Laughed shrilly, crying, 'Praise the patient saints,


s: Our one white day of Innocence hath past,


s: Though somewhat draggled at the skirt.  So be it.


s: The snowdrop only, flowering through the year,


s: Would make the world as blank as Winter-tide.


s: Come--let us gladden their sad eyes, our Queen's


s: And Lancelot's, at this night's solemnity


s: With all the kindlier colours of the field.'


s: So dame and damsel glittered at the feast


s: Variously gay:  for he that tells the tale


s: Likened them, saying, as when an hour of cold


s: Falls on the mountain in midsummer snows,


s: And all the purple slopes of mountain flowers


s: Pass under white, till the warm hour returns


s: With veer of wind, and all are flowers again;


s: So dame and damsel cast the simple white,


s: And glowing in all colours, the live grass,


s: Rose-campion, bluebell, kingcup, poppy, glanced


s: About the revels, and with mirth so loud


s: Beyond all use, that, half-amazed, the Queen,


s: And wroth at Tristram and the lawless jousts,


s: Brake up their sports, then slowly to her bower


s: High over all the yellowing Autumn-tide,


s: Danced like a withered leaf before the hall.


s: Then Tristram saying, 'Why skip ye so, Sir Fool?'


s: Makes the world rotten, why, belike I skip


s: To know myself the wisest knight of all.'


s: 'Ay, fool,' said Tristram, 'but 'tis eating dry


s: To dance to.'  Then he twangled on his harp,


s: Stayed in the wandering warble of a brook;


s: But when the twangling ended, skipt again;


s: And being asked, 'Why skipt ye not, Sir Fool?'


s: Then Tristram, waiting for the quip to come,


s: 'Good now, what music have I broken, fool?'


s: For when thou playest that air with Queen Isolt,


s: Thou makest broken music with thy bride,


s: Her daintier namesake down in Brittany--


s: And so thou breakest Arthur's music too.'


s: 'Save for that broken music in thy brains,


s: Sir Fool,' said Tristram, 'I would break thy head.


s: Fool, I came too late, the heathen wars were o'er,


s: The life had flown, we sware but by the shell--


s: Come, thou art crabbed and sour:  but lean me down,


s: '"Free love--free field--we love but while we may:


s: The woods are hushed, their music is no more:


s: The leaf is dead, the yearning past away:


s: New leaf, new life--the days of frost are o'er:


s: New life, new love, to suit the newer day:


s: New loves are sweet as those that went before:


s: Free love--free field--we love but while we may."


s: 'Ye might have moved slow-measure to my tune,


s: Not stood stockstill.  I made it in the woods,


s: And heard it ring as true as tested gold.'


s: 'Friend, did ye mark that fountain yesterday


s: Made to run wine?--but this had run itself


s: All out like a long life to a sour end--


s: And them that round it sat with golden cups


s: The twelve small damosels white as Innocence,


s: Who left the gems which Innocence the Queen


s: Gave for a prize--and one of those white slips


s: Handed her cup and piped, the pretty one,


s: "Drink, drink, Sir Fool," and thereupon I drank,


s: Spat--pish--the cup was gold, the draught was mud.'


s: And Tristram, 'Was it muddier than thy gibes?


s: Is all the laughter gone dead out of thee?--


s: Not marking how the knighthood mock thee, fool--


s: "Fear God:  honour the King--his one true knight--


s: Sole follower of the vows"--for here be they


s: Smuttier than blasted grain:  but when the King


s: Had made thee fool, thy vanity so shot up


s: It frighted all free fool from out thy heart;


s: Which left thee less than fool, and less than swine,


s: A naked aught--yet swine I hold thee still,


s: For I have flung thee pearls and find thee swine.'


s: 'Knight, an ye fling those rubies round my neck


s: In lieu of hers, I'll hold thou hast some touch


s: Of music, since I care not for thy pearls.


s: Swine?  I have wallowed, I have washed--the world


s: The dirty nurse, Experience, in her kind


s: Hath fouled me--an I wallowed, then I washed--


s: And thank the Lord I am King Arthur's fool.


s: Swine, say ye? swine, goats, asses, rams and geese


s: Trooped round a Paynim harper once, who thrummed


s: Some such fine song--but never a king's fool.'


s: And Tristram, 'Then were swine, goats, asses, geese


s: That he could harp his wife up out of hell.'


s: 'And whither harp'st thou thine? down! and thyself


s: Down! and two more:  a helpful harper thou,


s: That harpest downward!  Dost thou know the star


s: We call the harp of Arthur up in heaven?'


s: And Tristram, 'Ay, Sir Fool, for when our King


s: Was victor wellnigh day by day, the knights,


s: Glorying in each new glory, set his name


s: High on all hills, and in the signs of heaven.'


s: Was freed, and the Queen false, ye set yourself


s: To babble about him, all to show your wit--


s: Or King by right--and so went harping down


s: The black king's highway, got so far, and grew


s: So witty that ye played at ducks and drakes


s: With Arthur's vows on the great lake of fire.


s: Tuwhoo! do ye see it? do ye see the star?'


s: 'Nay, fool,' said Tristram, 'not in open day.'


s: And then we skip.'  'Lo, fool,' he said, 'ye talk


s: Fool's treason:  is the King thy brother fool?'


s: 'Ay, ay, my brother fool, the king of fools!


s: Conceits himself as God that he can make


s: Figs out of thistles, silk from bristles, milk


s: From burning spurge, honey from hornet-combs,


s: And men from beasts--Long live the king of fools!'


s: But through the slowly-mellowing avenues


s: Rode Tristram toward Lyonnesse and the west.


s: Past, as a rustle or twitter in the wood


s: For all that walked, or crept, or perched, or flew.


s: Anon the face, as, when a gust hath blown,


s: Of one that in them sees himself, returned;


s: Or even a fallen feather, vanished again.


s: So on for all that day from lawn to lawn


s: Through many a league-long bower he rode.  At length


s: Furze-crammed, and bracken-rooft, the which himself


s: Against a shower, dark in the golden grove


s: She lived a moon in that low lodge with him:


s: Till Mark her lord had past, the Cornish King,


s: With six or seven, when Tristram was away,


s: And snatched her thence; yet dreading worse than shame


s: Her warrior Tristram, spake not any word,


s: But bode his hour, devising wretchedness.


s: And now that desert lodge to Tristram lookt


s: So sweet, that halting, in he past, and sank


s: Down on a drift of foliage random-blown;


s: But could not rest for musing how to smoothe


s: And sleek his marriage over to the Queen.


s: The tonguesters of the court she had not heard.


s: But then what folly had sent him overseas


s: Isolt, the daughter of the King?  'Isolt


s: Of the white hands' they called her:  the sweet name


s: Allured him first, and then the maid herself,


s: Who served him well with those white hands of hers,


s: And loved him well, until himself had thought


s: But left her all as easily, and returned.


s: The black-blue Irish hair and Irish eyes


s: Had drawn him home--what marvel? then he laid


s: His brows upon the drifted leaf and dreamed.


s: He seemed to pace the strand of Brittany


s: And showed them both the ruby-chain, and both


s: Began to struggle for it, till his Queen


s: Graspt it so hard, that all her hand was red.


s: Then cried the Breton, 'Look, her hand is red!


s: These be no rubies, this is frozen blood,


s: And melts within her hand--her hand is hot


s: With ill desires, but this I gave thee, look,


s: Is all as cool and white as any flower.'


s: Followed a rush of eagle's wings, and then


s: A whimpering of the spirit of the child,


s: Because the twain had spoiled her carcanet.


s: He dreamed; but Arthur with a hundred spears


s: Rode far, till o'er the illimitable reed,


s: And many a glancing plash and sallowy isle,


s: The wide-winged sunset of the misty marsh


s: That stood with open doors, whereout was rolled


s: Amid their marshes, ruffians at their ease


s: Among their harlot-brides, an evil song.


s: 'Lo there,' said one of Arthur's youth, for there,


s: High on a grim dead tree before the tower,


s: Swung by the neck:  and on the boughs a shield


s: Showing a shower of blood in a field noir,


s: And therebeside a horn, inflamed the knights


s: Till each would clash the shield, and blow the horn.


s: But Arthur waved them back.  Alone he rode.


s: Then at the dry harsh roar of the great horn,


s: That sent the face of all the marsh aloft


s: Of shriek and plume, the Red Knight heard, and all,


s: In blood-red armour sallying, howled to the King,


s: 'The teeth of Hell flay bare and gnash thee flat!--


s: Lo! art thou not that eunuch-hearted King


s: Who fain had clipt free manhood from the world--


s: The woman-worshipper?  Yea, God's curse, and I!


s: By a knight of thine, and I that heard her whine


s: Sware by the scorpion-worm that twists in hell,


s: To hang whatever knight of thine I fought


s: And tumbled.  Art thou King? --Look to thy life!'


s: He ended:  Arthur knew the voice; the face


s: Wellnigh was helmet-hidden, and the name


s: Went wandering somewhere darkling in his mind.


s: And Arthur deigned not use of word or sword,


s: But let the drunkard, as he stretched from horse


s: Down from the causeway heavily to the swamp


s: Fall, as the crest of some slow-arching wave,


s: Heard in dead night along that table-shore,


s: Drops flat, and after the great waters break


s: Whitening for half a league, and thin themselves,


s: Far over sands marbled with moon and cloud,


s: From less and less to nothing; thus he fell


s: Head-heavy; then the knights, who watched him, roared


s: And shouted and leapt down upon the fallen;


s: There trampled out his face from being known,


s: And sank his head in mire, and slimed themselves:


s: Nor heard the King for their own cries, but sprang


s: Through open doors, and swording right and left


s: Men, women, on their sodden faces, hurled


s: Till all the rafters rang with woman-yells,


s: And all the pavement streamed with massacre:


s: Then, echoing yell with yell, they fired the tower,


s: Which half that autumn night, like the live North,


s: Red-pulsing up through Alioth and Alcor,


s: Came round by the East, and out beyond them flushed


s: The long low dune, and lazy-plunging sea.


s: So all the ways were safe from shore to shore,


s: But in the heart of Arthur pain was lord.


s: Then, out of Tristram waking, the red dream


s: Fled with a shout, and that low lodge returned,


s: Mid-forest, and the wind among the boughs.


s: He whistled his good warhorse left to graze


s: Among the forest greens, vaulted upon him,


s: And rode beneath an ever-showering leaf,


s: Till one lone woman, weeping near a cross,


s: Stayed him.  'Why weep ye?'  'Lord,' she said, 'my man


s: Hath left me or is dead;' whereon he thought--


s: 'What, if she hate me now? I would not this.


s: What, if she love me still? I would not that.


s: I know not what I would'--but said to her,


s: 'Yet weep not thou, lest, if thy mate return,


s: He find thy favour changed and love thee not'--


s: Then pressing day by day through Lyonnesse


s: The hounds of Mark, and felt the goodly hounds


s: Yelp at his heart, but turning, past and gained


s: Tintagil, half in sea, and high on land,


s: A low sea-sunset glorying round her hair


s: And glossy-throated grace, Isolt the Queen.


s: And when she heard the feet of Tristram grind


s: The spiring stone that scaled about her tower,


s: Flushed, started, met him at the doors, and there


s: Crying aloud, 'Not Mark--not Mark, my soul!


s: The footstep fluttered me at first:  not he:


s: Catlike through his own castle steals my Mark,


s: But warrior-wise thou stridest through his halls


s: Who hates thee, as I him--even to the death.


s: Quicken within me, and knew that thou wert nigh.'


s: To whom Sir Tristram smiling, 'I am here.


s: Let be thy Mark, seeing he is not thine.'


s: And drawing somewhat backward she replied,


s: 'Can he be wronged who is not even his own,


s: But save for dread of thee had beaten me,


s: Scratched, bitten, blinded, marred me somehow--Mark?


s: What rights are his that dare not strike for them?


s: Not lift a hand--not, though he found me thus!


s: But harken! have ye met him? hence he went


s: Today for three days' hunting--as he said--


s: Mark's way, my soul!--but eat not thou with Mark,


s: Because he hates thee even more than fears;


s: Nor drink:  and when thou passest any wood


s: Close vizor, lest an arrow from the bush


s: Should leave me all alone with Mark and hell.


s: So, plucked one way by hate and one by love,


s: Drained of her force, again she sat, and spake


s: To Tristram, as he knelt before her, saying,


s: For, ere I mated with my shambling king,


s: Of one--his name is out of me--the prize,


s: If prize she were--(what marvel--she could see)--


s: Thine, friend; and ever since my craven seeks


s: To wreck thee villainously:  but, O Sir Knight,


s: What dame or damsel have ye kneeled to last?'


s: And loveliness--ay, lovelier than when first


s: Her light feet fell on our rough Lyonnesse,


s: 'Flatter me not, for hath not our great Queen


s: My dole of beauty trebled?' and he said,


s: 'Her beauty is her beauty, and thine thine,


s: And thine is more to me--soft, gracious, kind--


s: Save when thy Mark is kindled on thy lips


s: Most gracious; but she, haughty, even to him,


s: To make one doubt if ever the great Queen


s: 'Ah then, false hunter and false harper, thou


s: Who brakest through the scruple of my bond,


s: Calling me thy white hind, and saying to me


s: That Guinevere had sinned against the highest,


s: And I--misyoked with such a want of man--


s: That I could hardly sin against the lowest.'


s: If this be sweet, to sin in leading-strings,


s: Crowned warrant had we for the crowning sin


s: That made us happy:  but how ye greet me--fear


s: And fault and doubt--no word of that fond tale--


s: Thy deep heart-yearnings, thy sweet memories


s: And, saddening on the sudden, spake Isolt,


s: To see thee--yearnings?--ay! for, hour by hour,


s: Seemed those far-rolling, westward-smiling seas,


s: Watched from this tower.  Isolt of Britain dashed


s: Would that have chilled her bride-kiss?  Wedded her?


s: Fought in her father's battles? wounded there?


s: The King was all fulfilled with gratefulness,


s: And she, my namesake of the hands, that healed


s: Thy hurt and heart with unguent and caress--


s: Than having known thee? her too hast thou left


s: To pine and waste in those sweet memories.


s: Are noble, I should hate thee more than love.'


s: And Tristram, fondling her light hands, replied,


s: 'Grace, Queen, for being loved:  she loved me well.


s: Did I love her? the name at least I loved.


s: Isolt?--I fought his battles, for Isolt!


s: The night was dark; the true star set.  Isolt!


s: Care not for her! patient, and prayerful, meek,


s: Pale-blooded, she will yield herself to God.'


s: And Isolt answered, 'Yea, and why not I?


s: Mine is the larger need, who am not meek,


s: Pale-blooded, prayerful.  Let me tell thee now.


s: Here one black, mute midsummer night I sat,


s: Lonely, but musing on thee, wondering where,


s: Murmuring a light song I had heard thee sing,


s: And once or twice I spake thy name aloud.


s: Then flashed a levin-brand; and near me stood,


s: In fuming sulphur blue and green, a fiend--


s: Mark's way to steal behind one in the dark--


s: For there was Mark:  "He has wedded her," he said,


s: Not said, but hissed it:  then this crown of towers


s: And woke again in utter dark, and cried,


s: "I will flee hence and give myself to God"--


s: And thou wert lying in thy new leman's arms.'


s: Then Tristram, ever dallying with her hand,


s: 'May God be with thee, sweet, when old and gray,


s: And past desire!' a saying that angered her.


s: '"May God be with thee, sweet, when thou art old,


s: And sweet no more to me!"  I need Him now.


s: For when had Lancelot uttered aught so gross


s: Even to the swineherd's malkin in the mast?


s: Far other was the Tristram, Arthur's knight!


s: But thou, through ever harrying thy wild beasts--


s: Save that to touch a harp, tilt with a lance


s: Becomes thee well--art grown wild beast thyself.


s: Her to be loved no more?  Unsay it, unswear!


s: Thy marriage and mine own, that I should suck


s: Lies like sweet wines:  lie to me:  I believe.


s: Will ye not lie? not swear, as there ye kneel,


s: The man of men, our King--My God, the power


s: Was once in vows when men believed the King!


s: They lied not then, who sware, and through their vows


s: The King prevailing made his realm:--I say,


s: Swear to me thou wilt love me even when old,


s: Gray-haired, and past desire, and in despair.'


s: Then Tristram, pacing moodily up and down,


s: 'Vows! did you keep the vow you made to Mark


s: More than I mine?  Lied, say ye?  Nay, but learnt,


s: The vow that binds too strictly snaps itself--


s: My knighthood taught me this--ay, being snapt--


s: Than had we never sworn.  I swear no more.


s: I swore to the great King, and am forsworn.


s: For once--even to the height--I honoured him.


s: "Man, is he man at all?" methought, when first


s: I rode from our rough Lyonnesse, and beheld


s: That victor of the Pagan throned in hall--


s: His hair, a sun that rayed from off a brow


s: Like hillsnow high in heaven, the steel-blue eyes,


s: The golden beard that clothed his lips with light--


s: Moreover, that weird legend of his birth,


s: With Merlin's mystic babble about his end


s: Amazed me; then, his foot was on a stool


s: Shaped as a dragon; he seemed to me no man,


s: But Michael trampling Satan; so I sware,


s: Being amazed:  but this went by-- The vows!


s: O ay--the wholesome madness of an hour--


s: They served their use, their time; for every knight


s: Believed himself a greater than himself,


s: Till he, being lifted up beyond himself,


s: Did mightier deeds than elsewise he had done,


s: And so the realm was made; but then their vows--


s: First mainly through that sullying of our Queen--


s: Began to gall the knighthood, asking whence


s: Had Arthur right to bind them to himself?


s: Dropt down from heaven? washed up from out the deep?


s: They failed to trace him through the flesh and blood


s: Of our old kings:  whence then? a doubtful lord


s: Which flesh and blood perforce would violate:


s: For feel this arm of mine--the tide within


s: Red with free chase and heather-scented air,


s: Pulsing full man; can Arthur make me pure


s: From uttering freely what I freely hear?


s: Bind me to one?  The wide world laughs at it.


s: And worldling of the world am I, and know


s: Woos his own end; we are not angels here


s: Nor shall be:  vows--I am woodman of the woods,


s: Mock them:  my soul, we love but while we may;


s: And therefore is my love so large for thee,


s: Here ending, he moved toward her, and she said,


s: 'Good:  an I turned away my love for thee


s: To some one thrice as courteous as thyself--


s: Is perfect, he is Lancelot--taller indeed,


s: Rosier and comelier, thou--but say I loved


s: This knightliest of all knights, and cast thee back


s: Thine own small saw, "We love but while we may,"


s: Mindful of what he brought to adorn her with,


s: The warm white apple of her throat, replied,


s: 'Press this a little closer, sweet, until--


s: Come, I am hungered and half-angered--meat,


s: Wine, wine--and I will love thee to the death,


s: So then, when both were brought to full accord,


s: She rose, and set before him all he willed;


s: With meats and wines, and satiated their hearts--


s: The deer, the dews, the fern, the founts, the lawns;


s: And craven shifts, and long crane legs of Mark--


s: Then Tristram laughing caught the harp, and sang:


s: 'Ay, ay, O ay--the winds that bend the brier!


s: A star in heaven, a star within the mere!


s: And one was far apart, and one was near:


s: Ay, ay, O ay--the winds that bow the grass!


s: And one was water and one star was fire,


s: And one will ever shine and one will pass.


s: Ay, ay, O ay--the winds that move the mere.'


s: Then in the light's last glimmer Tristram showed


s: And swung the ruby carcanet.  She cried,


s: 'The collar of some Order, which our King


s: Hath newly founded, all for thee, my soul,


s: For thee, to yield thee grace beyond thy peers.'


s: 'Not so, my Queen,' he said, 'but the red fruit


s: Grown on a magic oak-tree in mid-heaven,


s: And hither brought by Tristram for his last


s: Love-offering and peace-offering unto thee.'


s: He spoke, he turned, then, flinging round her neck,


s: Claspt it, and cried, 'Thine Order, O my Queen!'


s: Out of the dark, just as the lips had touched,


s: 'Mark's way,' said Mark, and clove him through the brain.


s: That night came Arthur home, and while he climbed,


s: The stairway to the hall, and looked and saw


s: The great Queen's bower was dark,--about his feet


s: A voice clung sobbing till he questioned it,


s: 'What art thou?' and the voice about his feet


s: Sent up an answer, sobbing, 'I am thy fool,


s: And I shall never make thee smile again.'


s: Queen Guinevere had fled the court, and sat


s: Weeping, none with her save a little maid,


s: A novice:  one low light betwixt them burned


s: Blurred by the creeping mist, for all abroad,


s: The white mist, like a face-cloth to the face,


s: Clung to the dead earth, and the land was still.


s: For hither had she fled, her cause of flight


s: Lay couchant with his eyes upon the throne,


s: Ready to spring, waiting a chance:  for this


s: He chilled the popular praises of the King


s: With silent smiles of slow disparagement;


s: And tampered with the Lords of the White Horse,


s: Heathen, the brood by Hengist left; and sought


s: Of Arthur, and to splinter it into feuds


s: Serving his traitorous end; and all his aims


s: Were sharpened by strong hate for Lancelot.


s: For thus it chanced one morn when all the court,


s: Green-suited, but with plumes that mocked the may,


s: Had been, their wont, a-maying and returned,


s: That Modred still in green, all ear and eye,


s: Climbed to the high top of the garden-wall


s: And saw the Queen who sat betwixt her best


s: The wiliest and the worst; and more than this


s: Spied where he couched, and as the gardener's hand


s: Picks from the colewort a green caterpillar,


s: So from the high wall and the flowering grove


s: Of grasses Lancelot plucked him by the heel,


s: But when he knew the Prince though marred with dust,


s: He, reverencing king's blood in a bad man,


s: Made such excuses as he might, and these


s: Full knightly without scorn; for in those days


s: No knight of Arthur's noblest dealt in scorn;


s: But, if a man were halt or hunched, in him


s: By those whom God had made full-limbed and tall,


s: Scorn was allowed as part of his defect,


s: And all his Table.  So Sir Lancelot holp


s: To raise the Prince, who rising twice or thrice


s: Full sharply smote his knees, and smiled, and went:


s: But, ever after, the small violence done


s: Rankled in him and ruffled all his heart,


s: As the sharp wind that ruffles all day long


s: This matter to the Queen, at first she laughed


s: Lightly, to think of Modred's dusty fall,


s: Then shuddered, as the village wife who cries


s: 'I shudder, some one steps across my grave;'


s: Then laughed again, but faintlier, for indeed


s: She half-foresaw that he, the subtle beast,


s: Would track her guilt until he found, and hers


s: Henceforward rarely could she front in hall,


s: Or elsewhere, Modred's narrow foxy face,


s: Heart-hiding smile, and gray persistent eye:


s: Henceforward too, the Powers that tend the soul,


s: To help it from the death that cannot die,


s: To vex and plague her.  Many a time for hours,


s: Beside the placid breathings of the King,


s: In the dead night, grim faces came and went


s: Like to some doubtful noise of creaking doors,


s: Heard by the watcher in a haunted house,


s: That keeps the rust of murder on the walls--


s: Held her awake:  or if she slept, she dreamed


s: An awful dream; for then she seemed to stand


s: On some vast plain before a setting sun,


s: And from the sun there swiftly made at her


s: A ghastly something, and its shadow flew


s: Before it, till it touched her, and she turned--


s: When lo! her own, that broadening from her feet,


s: And blackening, swallowed all the land, and in it


s: Far cities burnt, and with a cry she woke.


s: And all this trouble did not pass but grew;


s: Till even the clear face of the guileless King,


s: And trustful courtesies of household life,


s: Became her bane; and at the last she said,


s: 'O Lancelot, get thee hence to thine own land,


s: Will make the smouldering scandal break and blaze


s: Before the people, and our lord the King.'


s: And Lancelot ever promised, but remained,


s: And still they met and met.  Again she said,


s: 'O Lancelot, if thou love me get thee hence.'


s: (When the good King should not be there) to meet


s: And part for ever.  Vivien, lurking, heard.


s: She told Sir Modred.  Passion-pale they met


s: And greeted.  Hands in hands, and eye to eye,


s: Stammering and staring.  It was their last hour,


s: A madness of farewells.  And Modred brought


s: His creatures to the basement of the tower


s: For testimony; and crying with full voice


s: 'Traitor, come out, ye are trapt at last,' aroused


s: Leapt on him, and hurled him headlong, and he fell


s: Stunned, and his creatures took and bare him off,


s: And all was still:  then she, 'The end is come,


s: 'Mine be the shame; mine was the sin:  but rise,


s: There will I hide thee, till my life shall end,


s: There hold thee with my life against the world.'


s: She answered, 'Lancelot, wilt thou hold me so?


s: Nay, friend, for we have taken our farewells.


s: Would God that thou couldst hide me from myself!


s: Mine is the shame, for I was wife, and thou


s: Unwedded:  yet rise now, and let us fly,


s: And bide my doom.'  So Lancelot got her horse,


s: Set her thereon, and mounted on his own,


s: There kissed, and parted weeping:  for he past,


s: Love-loyal to the least wish of the Queen,


s: Fled all night long by glimmering waste and weald,


s: And heard the Spirits of the waste and weald


s: Moan as she fled, or thought she heard them moan:


s: And in herself she moaned 'Too late, too late!'


s: Till in the cold wind that foreruns the morn,


s: A blot in heaven, the Raven, flying high,


s: Croaked, and she thought, 'He spies a field of death;


s: Lured by the crimes and frailties of the court,


s: Begin to slay the folk, and spoil the land.'


s: And when she came to Almesbury she spake


s: There to the nuns, and said, 'Mine enemies


s: Receive, and yield me sanctuary, nor ask


s: Her name to whom ye yield it, till her time


s: To tell you:' and her beauty, grace and power,


s: Wrought as a charm upon them, and they spared


s: For many a week, unknown, among the nuns;


s: Nor with them mixed, nor told her name, nor sought,


s: Wrapt in her grief, for housel or for shrift,


s: Who pleased her with a babbling heedlessness


s: Which often lured her from herself; but now,


s: Came, that Sir Modred had usurped the realm,


s: And leagued him with the heathen, while the King


s: Was waging war on Lancelot:  then she thought,


s: 'With what a hate the people and the King


s: Must hate me,' and bowed down upon her hands


s: Silent, until the little maid, who brooked


s: No silence, brake it, uttering, 'Late! so late!


s: What hour, I wonder, now?' and when she drew


s: An air the nuns had taught her; 'Late, so late!'


s: Which when she heard, the Queen looked up, and said,


s: Sing, and unbind my heart that I may weep.'


s: Whereat full willingly sang the little maid.


s: 'Late, late, so late! and dark the night and chill!


s: Late, late, so late! but we can enter still.


s: Too late, too late! ye cannot enter now.


s: 'No light had we:  for that we do repent;


s: And learning this, the bridegroom will relent.


s: 'No light:  so late! and dark and chill the night!


s: O let us in, that we may find the light!


s: Too late, too late:  ye cannot enter now.


s: 'Have we not heard the bridegroom is so sweet?


s: O let us in, though late, to kiss his feet!


s: So sang the novice, while full passionately,


s: Her thought when first she came, wept the sad Queen.


s: Then said the little novice prattling to her,


s: But let my words, the words of one so small,


s: And if I do not there is penance given--


s: Comfort your sorrows; for they do not flow


s: From evil done; right sure am I of that,


s: Who see your tender grace and stateliness.


s: But weigh your sorrows with our lord the King's,


s: And weighing find them less; for gone is he


s: To wage grim war against Sir Lancelot there,


s: Round that strong castle where he holds the Queen;


s: And Modred whom he left in charge of all,


s: The traitor--Ah sweet lady, the King's grief


s: For his own self, and his own Queen, and realm,


s: Must needs be thrice as great as any of ours.


s: For me, I thank the saints, I am not great.


s: None knows it, and my tears have brought me good:


s: As great as those of great ones, yet this grief


s: Is added to the griefs the great must bear,


s: Silence, they cannot weep behind a cloud:


s: About the good King and his wicked Queen,


s: And were I such a King with such a Queen,


s: Well might I wish to veil her wickedness,


s: But were I such a King, it could not be.'


s: Then to her own sad heart muttered the Queen,


s: 'Will the child kill me with her innocent talk?'


s: If this false traitor have displaced his lord,


s: Grieve with the common grief of all the realm?'


s: 'Yea,' said the maid, 'this is all woman's grief,


s: Hath wrought confusion in the Table Round


s: Which good King Arthur founded, years ago,


s: With signs and miracles and wonders, there


s: At Camelot, ere the coming of the Queen.'


s: Then thought the Queen within herself again,


s: 'Will the child kill me with her foolish prate?'


s: 'O little maid, shut in by nunnery walls,


s: What canst thou know of Kings and Tables Round,


s: Or what of signs and wonders, but the signs


s: 'Yea, but I know:  the land was full of signs


s: And wonders ere the coming of the Queen.


s: So said my father, and himself was knight


s: Of the great Table--at the founding of it;


s: And rode thereto from Lyonnesse, and he said


s: After the sunset, down the coast, he heard


s: Strange music, and he paused, and turning--there,


s: And with a wild sea-light about his feet,


s: He saw them--headland after headland flame


s: And in the light the white mermaiden swam,


s: And strong man-breasted things stood from the sea,


s: And sent a deep sea-voice through all the land,


s: To which the little elves of chasm and cleft


s: Made answer, sounding like a distant horn.


s: So said my father--yea, and furthermore,


s: Next morning, while he past the dim-lit woods,


s: Himself beheld three spirits mad with joy


s: Come dashing down on a tall wayside flower,


s: That shook beneath them, as the thistle shakes


s: When three gray linnets wrangle for the seed:


s: And still at evenings on before his horse


s: The flickering fairy-circle wheeled and broke


s: Flying, and linked again, and wheeled and broke


s: Flying, for all the land was full of life.


s: Swung round the lighted lantern of the hall;


s: As never man had dreamed; for every knight


s: Had whatsoever meat he longed for served


s: Down in the cellars merry bloated things


s: Shouldered the spigot, straddling on the butts


s: While the wine ran:  so glad were spirits and men


s: Then spake the Queen and somewhat bitterly,


s: 'Were they so glad? ill prophets were they all,


s: Spirits and men:  could none of them foresee,


s: And wonders, what has fallen upon the realm?'


s: 'Yea, one, a bard; of whom my father said,


s: Even in the presence of an enemy's fleet,


s: Between the steep cliff and the coming wave;


s: When round him bent the spirits of the hills


s: With all their dewy hair blown back like flame:


s: So said my father--and that night the bard


s: Sang Arthur's glorious wars, and sang the King


s: As wellnigh more than man, and railed at those


s: Who called him the false son of Gorlois:


s: For there was no man knew from whence he came;


s: But after tempest, when the long wave broke


s: All down the thundering shores of Bude and Bos,


s: There came a day as still as heaven, and then


s: And that was Arthur; and they fostered him


s: From all men, like his birth; and could he find


s: As he was in his manhood, then, he sang,


s: The twain together well might change the world.


s: He faltered, and his hand fell from the harp,


s: And pale he turned, and reeled, and would have fallen,


s: But that they stayed him up; nor would he tell


s: His vision; but what doubt that he foresaw


s: This evil work of Lancelot and the Queen?'


s: Then thought the Queen, 'Lo! they have set her on,


s: To play upon me,' and bowed her head nor spake.


s: Whereat the novice crying, with clasped hands,


s: Said the good nuns would check her gadding tongue


s: Unmannerly, with prattling and the tales


s: Which my good father told me, check me too


s: Nor let me shame my father's memory, one


s: Of noblest manners, though himself would say


s: Sir Lancelot had the noblest; and he died,


s: Killed in a tilt, come next, five summers back,


s: And of the two first-famed for courtesy--


s: But pray you, which had noblest, while you moved


s: Among them, Lancelot or our lord the King?'


s: Then the pale Queen looked up and answered her,


s: 'Sir Lancelot, as became a noble knight,


s: Was gracious to all ladies, and the same


s: Forbore his own advantage, and these two


s: Were the most nobly-mannered men of all;


s: 'Yea,' said the maid, 'be manners such fair fruit?'


s: Then Lancelot's needs must be a thousand-fold


s: The most disloyal friend in all the world.'


s: To which a mournful answer made the Queen:


s: 'O closed about by narrowing nunnery-walls,


s: What knowest thou of the world, and all its lights


s: And shadows, all the wealth and all the woe?


s: If ever Lancelot, that most noble knight,


s: Were for one hour less noble than himself,


s: Pray for him that he scape the doom of fire,


s: And weep for her that drew him to his doom.'


s: 'Yea,' said the little novice, 'I pray for both;


s: But I should all as soon believe that his,


s: Sir Lancelot's, were as noble as the King's,


s: As I could think, sweet lady, yours would be


s: Such as they are, were you the sinful Queen.'


s: Whom she would soothe, and harmed where she would heal;


s: For here a sudden flush of wrathful heat


s: Fired all the pale face of the Queen, who cried,


s: For ever! thou their tool, set on to plague


s: And traitress.'  When that storm of anger brake


s: White as her veil, and stood before the Queen


s: Stands in a wind, ready to break and fly,


s: And when the Queen had added 'Get thee hence,'


s: Fled frighted.  Then that other left alone


s: Sighed, and began to gather heart again,


s: Saying in herself, 'The simple, fearful child


s: Meant nothing, but my own too-fearful guilt,


s: But help me, heaven, for surely I repent.


s: For what is true repentance but in thought--


s: Not even in inmost thought to think again


s: The sins that made the past so pleasant to us:


s: In which she saw him first, when Lancelot came,


s: Reputed the best knight and goodliest man,


s: Arthur, and led her forth, and far ahead


s: Rapt in sweet talk or lively, all on love


s: And sport and tilts and pleasure, (for the time


s: Was maytime, and as yet no sin was dreamed,)


s: Rode under groves that looked a paradise


s: That seemed the heavens upbreaking through the earth,


s: The silk pavilions of King Arthur raised


s: Till yet once more ere set of sun they saw


s: That crowned the state pavilion of the King,


s: Blaze by the rushing brook or silent well.


s: But when the Queen immersed in such a trance,


s: And moving through the past unconsciously,


s: Came to that point where first she saw the King


s: Ride toward her from the city, sighed to find


s: Her journey done, glanced at him, thought him cold,


s: High, self-contained, and passionless, not like him,


s: 'Not like my Lancelot'--while she brooded thus


s: And grew half-guilty in her thoughts again,


s: There rode an armed warrior to the doors.


s: A murmuring whisper through the nunnery ran,


s: Then on a sudden a cry, 'The King.'  She sat


s: Stiff-stricken, listening; but when armed feet


s: Through the long gallery from the outer doors


s: Rang coming, prone from off her seat she fell,


s: And grovelled with her face against the floor:


s: There with her milkwhite arms and shadowy hair


s: She made her face a darkness from the King:


s: And in the darkness heard his armed feet


s: Pause by her; then came silence, then a voice,


s: Denouncing judgment, but though changed, the King's:


s: 'Liest thou here so low, the child of one


s: I honoured, happy, dead before thy shame?


s: Well is it that no child is born of thee.


s: The children born of thee are sword and fire,


s: The craft of kindred and the Godless hosts


s: Of heathen swarming o'er the Northern Sea;


s: Whom I, while yet Sir Lancelot, my right arm,


s: The mightiest of my knights, abode with me,


s: Have everywhere about this land of Christ


s: In twelve great battles ruining overthrown.


s: And knowest thou now from whence I come--from him


s: From waging bitter war with him:  and he,


s: That did not shun to smite me in worse way,


s: Had yet that grace of courtesy in him left,


s: He spared to lift his hand against the King


s: Who made him knight:  but many a knight was slain;


s: Clave to him, and abode in his own land.


s: And many more when Modred raised revolt,


s: Forgetful of their troth and fealty, clave


s: And of this remnant will I leave a part,


s: True men who love me still, for whom I live,


s: To guard thee in the wild hour coming on,


s: Lest but a hair of this low head be harmed.


s: Fear not:  thou shalt be guarded till my death.


s: Have erred not, that I march to meet my doom.


s: Thou hast not made my life so sweet to me,


s: That I the King should greatly care to live;


s: For thou hast spoilt the purpose of my life.


s: Bear with me for the last time while I show,


s: Even for thy sake, the sin which thou hast sinned.


s: For when the Roman left us, and their law


s: Were filled with rapine, here and there a deed


s: Of prowess done redressed a random wrong.


s: But I was first of all the kings who drew


s: The knighthood-errant of this realm and all


s: The realms together under me, their Head,


s: I made them lay their hands in mine and swear


s: Their conscience, and their conscience as their King,


s: To break the heathen and uphold the Christ,


s: To speak no slander, no, nor listen to it,


s: And worship her by years of noble deeds,


s: But teach high thought, and amiable words


s: And courtliness, and the desire of fame,


s: And love of truth, and all that makes a man.


s: And all this throve before I wedded thee,


s: Believing, "lo mine helpmate, one to feel


s: Then came thy shameful sin with Lancelot;


s: Then came the sin of Tristram and Isolt;


s: Then others, following these my mightiest knights,


s: And drawing foul ensample from fair names,


s: Sinned also, till the loathsome opposite


s: Of all my heart had destined did obtain,


s: And all through thee! so that this life of mine


s: I guard as God's high gift from scathe and wrong,


s: Not greatly care to lose; but rather think


s: How sad it were for Arthur, should he live,


s: To sit once more within his lonely hall,


s: And miss the wonted number of my knights,


s: And miss to hear high talk of noble deeds


s: For which of us, who might be left, could speak


s: Of the pure heart, nor seem to glance at thee?


s: Thy shadow still would glide from room to room,


s: Or ghostly footfall echoing on the stair.


s: For think not, though thou wouldst not love thy lord,


s: Thy lord hast wholly lost his love for thee.


s: Yet must I leave thee, woman, to thy shame.


s: I hold that man the worst of public foes


s: Who either for his own or children's sake,


s: To save his blood from scandal, lets the wife


s: Whom he knows false, abide and rule the house:


s: Creeps, no precaution used, among the crowd,


s: Makes wicked lightnings of her eyes, and saps


s: The fealty of our friends, and stirs the pulse


s: With devil's leaps, and poisons half the young.


s: Worst of the worst were that man he that reigns!


s: Better the King's waste hearth and aching heart


s: Than thou reseated in thy place of light,


s: The mockery of my people, and their bane.'


s: He paused, and in the pause she crept an inch


s: Nearer, and laid her hands about his feet.


s: Then waiting by the doors the warhorse neighed


s: At a friend's voice, and he spake again:


s: 'Yet think not that I come to urge thy crimes,


s: I did not come to curse thee, Guinevere,


s: To see thee, laying there thy golden head,


s: My pride in happier summers, at my feet.


s: The wrath which forced my thoughts on that fierce law,


s: The doom of treason and the flaming death,


s: (When first I learnt thee hidden here) is past.


s: The pang--which while I weighed thy heart with one


s: Too wholly true to dream untruth in thee,


s: Made my tears burn--is also past--in part.


s: And all is past, the sin is sinned, and I,


s: Forgives:  do thou for thine own soul the rest.


s: But how to take last leave of all I loved?


s: O golden hair, with which I used to play


s: Until it became a kingdom's curse with thee--


s: I cannot touch thy lips, they are not mine,


s: But Lancelot's:  nay, they never were the King's.


s: I cannot take thy hand:  that too is flesh,


s: And in the flesh thou hast sinned; and mine own flesh,


s: Here looking down on thine polluted, cries


s: "I loathe thee:" yet not less, O Guinevere,


s: My love through flesh hath wrought into my life


s: So far, that my doom is, I love thee still.


s: Let no man dream but that I love thee still.


s: And so thou lean on our fair father Christ,


s: Hereafter in that world where all are pure


s: We two may meet before high God, and thou


s: Wilt spring to me, and claim me thine, and know


s: Nor Lancelot, nor another.  Leave me that,


s: I charge thee, my last hope.  Now must I hence.


s: Through the thick night I hear the trumpet blow:


s: They summon me their King to lead mine hosts


s: Far down to that great battle in the west,


s: Where I must strike against the man they call


s: My sister's son--no kin of mine, who leagues


s: With Lords of the White Horse, heathen, and knights,


s: Traitors--and strike him dead, and meet myself


s: Death, or I know not what mysterious doom.


s: And thou remaining here wilt learn the event;


s: Never lie by thy side; see thee no more--


s: She felt the King's breath wander o'er her neck,


s: And in the darkness o'er her fallen head,


s: Perceived the waving of his hands that blest.


s: Then, listening till those armed steps were gone,


s: Rose the pale Queen, and in her anguish found


s: The casement:  'peradventure,' so she thought,


s: 'If I might see his face, and not be seen.'


s: And lo, he sat on horseback at the door!


s: And near him the sad nuns with each a light


s: Stood, and he gave them charge about the Queen,


s: And while he spake to these his helm was lowered,


s: To which for crest the golden dragon clung


s: Of Britain; so she did not see the face,


s: Which then was as an angel's, but she saw,


s: Wet with the mists and smitten by the lights,


s: Blaze, making all the night a steam of fire.


s: And even then he turned; and more and more


s: The moony vapour rolling round the King,


s: Who seemed the phantom of a Giant in it,


s: Enwound him fold by fold, and made him gray


s: Before her, moving ghostlike to his doom.


s: Then she stretched out her arms and cried aloud


s: 'Oh Arthur!' there her voice brake suddenly,


s: Then--as a stream that spouting from a cliff


s: Fails in mid air, but gathering at the base


s: Re-makes itself, and flashes down the vale--


s: Gone through my sin to slay and to be slain!


s: And he forgave me, and I could not speak.


s: Farewell?  I should have answered his farewell.


s: His mercy choked me.  Gone, my lord the King,


s: My own true lord! how dare I call him mine?


s: And makes me one pollution:  he, the King,


s: Called me polluted:  shall I kill myself?


s: What help in that?  I cannot kill my sin,


s: If soul be soul; nor can I kill my shame;


s: The days will grow to weeks, the weeks to months


s: The months will add themselves and make the years,


s: I must not dwell on that defeat of fame.


s: Let the world be; that is but of the world.


s: What else? what hope? I think there was a hope,


s: Except he mocked me when he spake of hope;


s: His hope he called it; but he never mocks,


s: For mockery is the fume of little hearts.


s: And blessed be the King, who hath forgiven


s: That in mine own heart I can live down sin


s: And be his mate hereafter in the heavens


s: Before high God.  Ah great and gentle lord,


s: Who wast, as is the conscience of a saint


s: Among his warring senses, to thy knights--


s: To whom my false voluptuous pride, that took


s: Would not look up, or half-despised the height


s: To which I would not or I could not climb--


s: I thought I could not breathe in that fine air


s: I yearned for warmth and colour which I found


s: In Lancelot--now I see thee what thou art,


s: Thou art the highest and most human too,


s: Not Lancelot, nor another.  Is there none


s: Will tell the King I love him though so late?


s: Now--ere he goes to the great Battle? none:


s: Myself must tell him in that purer life,


s: What might I not have made of thy fair world,


s: Had I but loved thy highest creature here?


s: It was my duty to have loved the highest:


s: It would have been my pleasure had I seen.


s: We needs must love the highest when we see it,


s: Grasped, made her vail her eyes:  she looked and saw


s: The novice, weeping, suppliant, and said to her,


s: 'Yea, little maid, for am I not forgiven?'


s: All round her, weeping; and her heart was loosed


s: Within her, and she wept with these and said,


s: 'Ye know me then, that wicked one, who broke


s: The vast design and purpose of the King.


s: O shut me round with narrowing nunnery-walls,


s: Meek maidens, from the voices crying "shame."


s: I must not scorn myself:  he loves me still.


s: Let no one dream but that he loves me still.


s: Nor shun to call me sister, dwell with you;


s: Wear black and white, and be a nun like you,


s: Fast with your fasts, not feasting with your feasts;


s: Grieve with your griefs, not grieving at your joys,


s: But not rejoicing; mingle with your rites;


s: Pray and be prayed for; lie before your shrines;


s: Walk your dim cloister, and distribute dole


s: And treat their loathsome hurts and heal mine own;


s: And so wear out in almsdeed and in prayer


s: The sombre close of that voluptuous day,


s: Which wrought the ruin of my lord the King.'


s: She said:  they took her to themselves; and she


s: Still hoping, fearing 'is it yet too late?'


s: Dwelt with them, till in time their Abbess died.


s: Then she, for her good deeds and her pure life,


s: And for the power of ministration in her,


s: And likewise for the high rank she had borne,


s: Was chosen Abbess, there, an Abbess, lived


s: For three brief years, and there, an Abbess, past


s: To where beyond these voices there is peace.


s: First made and latest left of all the knights,


s: Told, when the man was no more than a voice


s: In the white winter of his age, to those


s: With whom he dwelt, new faces, other minds.


s: For on their march to westward, Bedivere,


s: Who slowly paced among the slumbering host,


s: Heard in his tent the moanings of the King:


s: 'I found Him in the shining of the stars,


s: I marked Him in the flowering of His fields,


s: But in His ways with men I find Him not.


s: I waged His wars, and now I pass and die.


s: As if some lesser god had made the world,


s: But had not force to shape it as he would,


s: Till the High God behold it from beyond,


s: Or else as if the world were wholly fair,


s: But that these eyes of men are dense and dim,


s: Perchance, because we see not to the close;--


s: For I, being simple, thought to work His will,


s: And have but stricken with the sword in vain;


s: And all whereon I leaned in wife and friend


s: Is traitor to my peace, and all my realm


s: Reels back into the beast, and is no more.


s: My God, thou hast forgotten me in my death;


s: Nay--God my Christ--I pass but shall not die.'


s: Then, ere that last weird battle in the west,


s: There came on Arthur sleeping, Gawain killed


s: In Lancelot's war, the ghost of Gawain blown


s: Along a wandering wind, and past his ear


s: Went shrilling, 'Hollow, hollow all delight!


s: Hail, King! tomorrow thou shalt pass away.


s: Farewell! there is an isle of rest for thee.


s: And hollow, hollow, hollow all delight.'


s: And fainter onward, like wild birds that change


s: Their season in the night and wail their way


s: From cloud to cloud, down the long wind the dream


s: Shrilled; but in going mingled with dim cries


s: Far in the moonlit haze among the hills,


s: When all is lost, and wife and child with wail


s: Pass to new lords; and Arthur woke and called,


s: 'Who spake?  A dream.  O light upon the wind,


s: Thine, Gawain, was the voice--are these dim cries


s: Thine? or doth all that haunts the waste and wild


s: Mourn, knowing it will go along with me?'


s: This heard the bold Sir Bedivere and spake:


s: Elves, and the harmless glamour of the field;


s: But in their stead thy name and glory cling


s: For ever:  but as yet thou shalt not pass.


s: Light was Gawain in life, and light in death


s: And care not thou for dreams from him, but rise--


s: And with him many of thy people, and knights


s: Once thine, whom thou hast loved, but grosser grown


s: Than heathen, spitting at their vows and thee.


s: Right well in heart they know thee for the King.


s: Whereto we move, than when we strove in youth,


s: And brake the petty kings, and fought with Rome,


s: Or thrust the heathen from the Roman wall,


s: And shook him through the north.  Ill doom is mine


s: To war against my people and my knights.


s: The king who fights his people fights himself.


s: And they my knights, who loved me once, the stroke


s: That strikes them dead is as my death to me.


s: Yet let us hence, and find or feel a way


s: Through this blind haze, which ever since I saw


s: Hath folded in the passes of the world.'


s: Then rose the King and moved his host by night,


s: And ever pushed Sir Modred, league by league,


s: Where fragments of forgotten peoples dwelt,


s: And he that fled no further fly the King;


s: And there, that day when the great light of heaven


s: Burned at his lowest in the rolling year,


s: On the waste sand by the waste sea they closed.


s: Like this last, dim, weird battle of the west.


s: A deathwhite mist slept over sand and sea:


s: Whereof the chill, to him who breathed it, drew


s: Down with his blood, till all his heart was cold


s: With formless fear; and even on Arthur fell


s: Confusion, since he saw not whom he fought.


s: For friend and foe were shadows in the mist,


s: And friend slew friend not knowing whom he slew;


s: And some had visions out of golden youth,


s: Look in upon the battle; and in the mist


s: And chance and craft and strength in single fights,


s: Shocks, and the splintering spear, the hard mail hewn,


s: Shield-breakings, and the clash of brands, the crash


s: Of battleaxes on shattered helms, and shrieks


s: After the Christ, of those who falling down


s: Looked up for heaven, and only saw the mist;


s: And shouts of heathen and the traitor knights,


s: Oaths, insults, filth, and monstrous blasphemies,


s: Sweat, writhings, anguish, labouring of the lungs


s: In that close mist, and cryings for the light,


s: Moans of the dying, and voices of the dead.


s: Last, as by some one deathbed after wail


s: Of suffering, silence follows, or through death


s: Or deathlike swoon, thus over all that shore,


s: Save for some whisper of the seething seas,


s: A dead hush fell; but when the dolorous day


s: Grew drearier toward twilight falling, came


s: A bitter wind, clear from the North, and blew


s: The mist aside, and with that wind the tide


s: Rose, and the pale King glanced across the field


s: Of battle:  but no man was moving there;


s: Swaying the helpless hands, and up and down


s: Tumbling the hollow helmets of the fallen,


s: And shivered brands that once had fought with Rome,


s: The voice of days of old and days to be.


s: And whiter than the mist that all day long


s: Had held the field of battle was the King:


s: 'Hearest thou this great voice that shakes the world,


s: And wastes the narrow realm whereon we move,


s: My dead, as though they had not died for me?--


s: Behold, I seem but King among the dead.'


s: Then spake the bold Sir Bedivere:  'My King,


s: King everywhere! and so the dead have kings,


s: Yet still thy life is whole, and still I live


s: Who love thee; but who hates thee, he that brought


s: The heathen back among us, yonder stands,


s: Modred, unharmed, the traitor of thine house.'


s: Then spake the King:  'My house hath been my doom.


s: But call not thou this traitor of my house


s: Who hath but dwelt beneath one roof with me.


s: My house are rather they who sware my vows,


s: Yea, even while they brake them, owned me King.


s: And well for thee, saying in my dark hour,


s: When all the purport of my throne hath failed,


s: That quick or dead thou holdest me for King.


s: And one last act of kinghood shalt thou see


s: Yet, ere I pass.'  And uttering this the King


s: Made at the man:  then Modred smote his liege


s: Hard on that helm which many a heathen sword


s: Had beaten thin; while Arthur at one blow,


s: Striking the last stroke with Excalibur,


s: Slew him, and all but slain himself, he fell.


s: So all day long the noise of battle rolled


s: Had fallen in Lyonnesse about their lord,


s: King Arthur.  Then, because his wound was deep,


s: And bore him to a chapel nigh the field,


s: That stood on a dark strait of barren land:


s: Lay a great water, and the moon was full.


s: The goodliest fellowship of famous knights


s: Whereof this world holds record.  Such a sleep


s: They sleep--the men I loved.  I think that we


s: Delight our souls with talk of knightly deeds,


s: Though Merlin sware that I should come again


s: To rule once more; but, let what will be, be,


s: That without help I cannot last till morn.


s: Which was my pride:  for thou rememberest how


s: In those old days, one summer noon, an arm


s: Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful,


s: Holding the sword--and how I rowed across


s: And took it, and have worn it, like a king;


s: Watch what thou seest, and lightly bring me word.'


s: 'It is not meet, Sir King, to leave thee thus,


s: Aidless, alone, and smitten through the helm--


s: Yet I thy hest will all perform at full,


s: Watch what I see, and lightly bring thee word.'


s: So saying, from the ruined shrine he stept,


s: And in the moon athwart the place of tombs,


s: Where lay the mighty bones of ancient men,


s: Old knights, and over them the sea-wind sang


s: Shrill, chill, with flakes of foam.  He, stepping down


s: By zigzag paths, and juts of pointed rock,


s: There drew he forth the brand Excalibur,


s: And o'er him, drawing it, the winter moon,


s: Brightening the skirts of a long cloud, ran forth


s: And sparkled keen with frost against the hilt:


s: For all the haft twinkled with diamond sparks,


s: Myriads of topaz-lights, and jacinth-work


s: That both his eyes were dazzled as he stood,


s: This way and that dividing the swift mind,


s: In act to throw:  but at the last it seemed


s: That whistled stiff and dry about the marge.


s: So strode he back slow to the wounded King.


s: 'Hast thou performed my mission which I gave?


s: What is it thou hast seen? or what hast heard?'


s: 'I heard the ripple washing in the reeds,


s: And the wild water lapping on the crag.'


s: To whom replied King Arthur, faint and pale:


s: 'Thou hast betrayed thy nature and thy name,


s: For surer sign had followed, either hand,


s: This is a shameful thing for men to lie.


s: Yet now, I charge thee, quickly go again,


s: As thou art lief and dear, and do the thing


s: I bade thee, watch, and lightly bring me word.'


s: Across the ridge, and paced beside the mere,


s: Counting the dewy pebbles, fixed in thought;


s: How curiously and strangely chased, he smote