University of Virginia Library

Scene II.—The same.

[Dalua stands, waiting the coming of Eochaidh the king. The king is clad in a leathern hunting dress, with a cleft helmet surmounted by a dragon in pale findruiney
Eochaidh
[Stopping abruptly
Sir, I am glad. I had not thought to see
One here.

Dalua
[Taking off his cap, and sweeping it low
The king is welcome here.

Eochaidh
The king?
How know you that the king is here? Far off
The war-horns bray about my threatened Dûn.
None knows that I am here.

Dalua
And why, O king?

Eochaidh
For I am weary of wars and idle strife,
Who have no joy in all these little things
Men break their lives upon. But in my dreams,
In dreams I have seen that which climbs the stars
And sings upon me through my lonely hours
And will not let me be.

Dalua
What song is that?

Eochaidh
The song... but who is he who knows the king
Here in this dim, remote, forgotten wood,
Where led by dreams and visions I have come?

Dalua
Those led by dreams shall be misled, O king!

Eochaidh
You are no druid: no knight in arms: none
Whom I have seen.

Dalua
I have known camps of men,
The minds and souls of men, and I have heard
Eochaidh the king sighing out his soul in sighs.

Eochaidh
Tell me your name.

Dalua
I am called Dalua.

Eochaidh
[Ponderingly]
I have not heard that name, and yet in dreams
I have known one who waved a shadowy plume
And smiling said, “I am Dalua.” Speak:
Are you this same Dalua?

Dalua
I have come
To this lone wood and to this lonely mere
To drink from out the Fountain of all dreams,
The Shadowy Fount of Beauty.

Eochaidh
[Eagerly
At last!
The Fount of Beauty, Fountain of all dreams!
Now am I come upon my long desire!
The days have trampled me like armed men
Thrusting their spears as ever on they go,
And I am weary of all things save the stars,
The wind, shadows and moonrise, and strange dreams.
If you can show me this immortal Fount
Whatso you will is yours.

Dalua
[Touching him lightly
You are the king,
And know, now, whence you came, and to what end?

Eochaidh
[Confusedly
The king? The king? What king?

Dalua
You are the king?

Eochaidh
A king of shadows, I! I am no king.

Dalua
And whither now, and whence?

Eochaidh
I am not come
From any place I know of, and I go
Where dreams and visions lead me.

[Suddenly a fountain rises in the mere, the spray rising high in the moonshine
Dalua
Look, O king!

Eochaidh
[Staring eagerly, with hand above his eyes
I cannot see what you would have me see.

Dalua
[Plucking a branch from a mountainash, and waving it before the king's face
Look!

Eochaidh
I see a Fountain and within its shadow
A great fish swims, and on the moveless wave
The scarlet berries float: dim mid the depths
The face of One I see, most calm and great,
August, with mournful eyes.

Dalua
Ask what you will.

Eochaidh
The word of wisdom, O thou hidden God:
Show me my star of dreams, show me the way!

A Voice
[Solemnly
[Return, O Eochaidh Airemh, wandering king

Eochaidh
That shall not be. No backward way is mine.
If I indeed be king, then kingly I
Shall cleave my way through shadows, as through men.

A Voice
Return!

Eochaidh
Nay, by the Sun and Moon, I swear
I will not turn my feet.

A Voice
Return! Return!

Eochaidh
[Hesitating, turns to look at Dalua, who has swiftly and silently withdrawn into the wood
[Silence
There is no backward way for such as I!
Howbeit—for I am shaken with old dreams,
And as an idle wave tossed to and fro—
I will go hence: I will go back to where
The quiet moonlight spills from the black brow
Of the great hill that towers above the lands
Wherein men hail me king.

[Dalua's laughter comes from the wood
Dalua
Follow, O follow, king of dreams and shadows!

Eochaidh
I follow....

[Exit