University of Virginia Library

SCENE I.

—Near Camelot. A Rocky Gorge in the Mountains. A Castle in the distance. Bugles. King Arthur. Knights and Attendants, in hunting dress, appear on a ledge, looking across the chasm at the ledge opposite, where the deer has leaped and disappeared. Huntsmen, with dogs, scramble down the side of the Gorge and begin to climb the opposite cliff,—with them Sir Lionel.
Huntsmen.
Hallo! Hallo! Illo-ho-ho! Hallo!

Lionel.
Send round your horses by the upper pass.
Dismount! This way—this way!

[King Arthur and others turn back with the horses, and are afterward heard further up, crossing the Gorge. Others, among them Sir Ector, Sir Agravaine, Sir Mordred, Sir Gawaine, Sir Gaheris and Sir Gareth, follow Lionel. Gawaine falls in descending the rocks. Gaheris and Gareth rush to his assistance.]
Mordred
(aside to Agravaine).
Come back!

[Exeunt all but Gawaine, Gaheris, Gareth, Mordred and Agravaine.]
Ector
[without].
Illo-ho! [Bugles.]


Gareth.
Are you hurt, brother?

Gaheris.
Pray God, he be not killed!

Agravaine.
He is but stunned. [Gawaine stirs.]


Mordred.
Are you much hurt, Gawaine?

Gawaine.
I hardly know. Give me your hand again.
My head is light.—What, all my brothers out
O' the chase for me! This is too brotherly.

Mordred.
That was a perilous fall. Are no bones broken?

Gawain
[walking, moving his arms, etc.]
I fell no pain, only a numbness that
Is less already. Come, it is not too late
To overtake them yet.
[Starts quickly, staggers and holds out his hand to Mordred.]
Let me sit down.
There's something sprained here.

Mordred.
Rest you here a space;
And when your rebel nerves grow orderly,
We'll help you to a horse.

Gawaine.
It irks me much
That Lionel, not I, shall kill the deer.

Gareth.
Ector will press him close.

Gewaine
[with whimsical chagrin].
It will be Lionel;
But, Lionel or Ector, still not I.

Mordred.
Marked you that Launcelot is not with the hunt?

Gawaine.
What castle is that yonder?

Agravaine.
You know it well,—
Castle Carniffel.

Gaheris.
Where the King confines
Our Aunt, Morgana, whom they call the Fay.

Gawaine.
What, have we come so far?

Mordred.
Confines? He might
Confine as well the air.

Gareth.
Weird tales are told
Of her enchantments there. Men say, she is seen
I' the clouds, and builds strange palaces of mist
Shot through with sunlight; the which, as you approach,
Melt into hideous shapes of boar and fish,
Beaked horrors, jowled and jag-browed monstrousness;
And at a sudden all will disappear
And the bare world jut forth like a baseless dream.

Gawaine.
Why, since she dwells so near, for all men's tales,
We'll claim her hospitality.

Garath.
The King
Will take it ill that any of his knights
—Most, we that are his kin—should have to do
With one in his displeasure.

Gawaine.
I meddle not
With their dissension. She is yet our aunt
As well as the King's sister. She will hardly
Bar us the door. Come, rest we there to-night.

[They wind the morte without.]
Mordred.
The deer is slain. This was a goodly chase.
The day is nearly over. Launcelot
Has lacked good sport. I marvel he came not.

Agravaine.
I marvel not; nor do you neither, brother,
If you would speak your heart. And as for sport,
Our hunting is the manlier, and yet
I think he would not say he had lacked sport.

Gawaine.
Do I mistake or does the west begin
To show a faint flush o'er the mountain tops?

Agravaine.
I wonder that we are not all ashamed
To see how Launcelot dallies by the Queen
Daily and nightly, and we all know it so.
By God, it is disloyal of us all
That we should suffer such a noble king
To be so shamed!

Gawaine.
Pray you, no more of this.
I am not of your counsel, you know well.

Gareth.
So help me God, I will not go with you.

Gaheris.
Nor I.

Mordred.
Then I will.

Gawaine.
I believe that well;
For never yet was brood of mischief got,
Thou didst not run to dandle it. Would ye both
Would be less busy, for too well I know
What will befall of it.

Agravaine.
Fall what fall may,
I will unfold it to the King.

Gawaine.
Nay, hear me;
And do not in your folly pull your vengeance
Down on yourselves and all of us. Imperil not
The empire. Know you not, if war arise
'Twixt Launcelot and our house, how many lords,
Great princes and the knightliest of our order,
Will hold with Launcelot? Brother, Sir Agravaine,
You cannot have forgot how many times
He hath delivered Arthur and the Queen.
Ay, and the best of us full oft had been
Cold at the heart-root, had not Launcelot
Been by to prove a better knight than we.
Ungrateful as ye are, do ye forget
How when ye both and threescore others lay
Chained in that cruel dungeon of Penmore—
Who was it then but Launcelot whose might
Saved you from death in torments? Brother, methinks
It claims a memory.

Agravaine.
Do as ye list;
I will not hide it longer.
[Bugles.]
[Enter King Arthur, Knights and Huntsmen, with the deer.]
Song.
Oh, who would stay indoor, indoor,
When the horn is on the hill?
[Bugle: Tarantara.]
With the crisp air stinging, and the huntsmen singing,
And a ten-tined buck to kill!
Before the sun goes down, goes down,
We shall slay the buck of ten;
[Bugle: Tarantara.]
And the priest shall say benison, and we shall ha'e venison,
When we come home again.

Let him that loves his ease, his ease,
Keep close and house him fair;
[Bugle: Tarantara.]
He'll still be a stranger to the merry thrill of danger
And the joy of the open air.
But he that loves the hills, the hills,
Let him come out to-day.
[Bugle: Tarantara.]
For the horses are neighing, and the hounds are baying,
And the hunt's up and away.
[Exeunt Huntsmen with deer, the Knights following dispersedly. The King observes Gawaine and his brothers, who converse apart.]
Gawaine.
Be silent, brother.

Agravaine.
I will not.

Mordred.
Nor will I.

Gawaine.
Then go your gait!
I will not hear your scandals nor abet you.

Gaheris.
Nor I.

Gareth.
Nor I, for I will ne'er speak evil
Of Launcelot. Alas, now is the fate
Fallen on the Kingdom.

Gawaine.
And the fellowship
Of the Round Table shall be clean dispersed.

[Exeunt Gawaine, Gaheris and Gareth.]
Arthur.
What quarrel is this, nephews?

Agravaine.
Sir, we conceived,
Mordred and I, that duty is to speak,
Not easy pleasant words men love us for,
But bitter truth and hard to him that hears
And perilous to the speaker.

Arthur.
Assuredly:
He that deceives me of the enemy's force
To save me from to-day's discouragement,
Jeopards my cause to-morrow.

Agravain.
Sir, our three brothers
Held otherwise and, as you saw, for this
Fell out with us and left us.

Arthur.
For naught else?
Why, 'tis but thought. Think wrongly as you will,
You harm no one in that. But men will seek
Occasion for dispute in pimpernels
Ere they will lack a quarrel.

Mordred.
Put it that
A man had in his treasury much gold
And thought no more on't, having at his belt
The key that kept all safely; yet there was
An ingress to his hoard he knew not of,
And secretly by night another came
Thereby and spoiled him. He, good soul, secure
In bolts and bars, rich only in conceit,
Went, carrying his key to empty space,
And dreamt no evil. Were it well or no
To break in roughly on his easy smiling
With “Sir, you are robbed! Too late to save your gold,
But time, small comfort, yet to catch the thief”?

Arthur.
Why, who would be the fool of dreams? Surely
The waking world whose shows betray us not
Is better than a sleep where we may walk
O'er any brink to death.

Mordred.
[Kneeling.]
Sire, your own words
For pardon if our speech offend! Yourself
Are he that keeps the key of the rifled room,
Your Queen the gold, and he that pilfers her
—Alas, to say 't!—your bravest knight, your friend, Launcelot.

Arthur.
Sirs, ye are bold to brave me thus.
Reck ye the danger?

Agravaine.
We speak that we do know.
Our lives be forfeit if it prove not true.

Mordred.
Upon your hint I spoke. Lay not to us
Aught other end but honor. Are we not
Your sister's sons?—what more, but let that pass.—

Agravaine.
This concerns us and all our house as well
As you, King Arthur. If you do us wrong,
Will men think you do shame to your own blood,
Unless for some strange secret?

Arthur.
Will you dare?
Before me?—Have my kindred been so leal
That I should make them keepers of my honor?

Mordred.
The bond of blood abides. I do but dread
Lest others should say this; and say besides
Your love for Launcelot had made you rather
Be ignorant, so you might deem him true,
Than seek the truth that haply might reveal
Him traitor—doubly traitor that your love,
Yours whom he wrongs, so shield him. God be witness
I speak not only for my honor's sake,
Being of your blood, but for the love I bear you.

Arthur.
Son, son, if I could trust you! What you work
That I hold evil, may seem good to you;
At least I will believe so. But to be
Assured you love me, to have evidence
Your crooked seeming cloaks nobility,
That would so rest my heart I could endure
What else ill chance shall bring, and think it light.

Mordred.
God pardon me my life and all amiss
I have done in it; and you too, my lord,
Pardon me. But in this I do no evil.
My heart swells like a troubled sea to think
That you should be so wronged.

Arthur.
I have such will
That you should be as fair as you would seem,
I make my hope half credence. For this tale
Of Launcelot and my Queen, I long have known
There were such slanders in the court, and paid
Small heed to them. Ye know not Launcelot.
Were the devotion that he shows the Queen
Tenfold what it hath been—nay, if he loved her
As you would have it that he does, he would
Not trespass on my right. I might to-day
Depart my kingdom and leave Guenevere
With him till my return, and be as safe
As had I left her in a nunnery.

Mordred.
Alas, that such a noble trust should be
So traitorously rewarded! Send word
You'll not return to Camelot to-day,
But spend the night in yonder castle. Indeed,
'Twill be dark traveling if we do return,
For see, the sun is setting. Launcelot
Will haste to Guenevere. Sir Agravaine
And I will, with twelve others, secretly
Steal back to Camelot, leaving you here,
And take them in the deed. If we should fail,
Then we will answer Launcelot in the lists
With the appeal to arms.

Arthur.
That would mean death
To both of you.

Mordred.
Right well we know it, Sire,
Unless God fought with us.

Arthur.
Well, be it so.
Cost what it may, the scandal must be stopped
By proof or disproof.

Mordred.
Go to the castle;
Sir Agravaine will guide you. I will send
The courier to the Queen, recall the knights
And bid them join you yonder.

Arthur.
Is not that
The castle of Morgana?

Mordred.
It is yours, Sire;
You are the King.

Arthur.
Be it so.
Come, Agravaine. And thou, Sir Mordred, pray
That you may live to see the end of this.

[Exeunt Arthur and Agravaine. The sunset has faded away into one dull red line. The scene darkens. A lone bugle sounds far down the pass.]
Mordred.
Well played and won!—Now to recall the knights.
[Sounds his bugle and waits, listening. Two ravens, startled, flap their wings and fly about, croaking, in the tree-tops. A bugle without answers. Mordred blows a second time and looks up, as the ravens stir again above.]
Men say ye are the Devil's ministers
And run upon his errands. Seek him, then,
And croak the news in Hell! Soft, I mistake;
For I serve Heaven. I but bring to pass
God's justice on the scorners of His law.
[Enter a Huntsman. The ravens stir and croak again.]
The King to-night returns not to the palace.
Go, call the hunt together and convey them
To yonder castle on the cliff. Make speed!
[Exit Huntsman.]
Brr! It grows dark apace, and the night air
Makes the flesh creep and shiver.

[Bugles, off, calling and answering. The ravens suddenly rise, croak and fly away with a great flapping of their wings.]
[Enter Morgana. Mordred starts and fingers his sword-hilt nervously.]
Morgana.
It is I, Mordred.
Gawaine is at the castle. So I learned
That you were here, parted from him in anger.

Mordred.
Ay, we have lost him. Agravaine must needs,
Like a blunt fool, blurt out what I had else
With craft suggested. Our over-nice Gawaine,
I fear, is frighted to the other side.
But Arthur has been won.
[Bugles, off, calling and answering.]
Hear you the horns?
They sound the prelude of our mastery.
I, seeing the wind in the sails, jumped to the helm
And guided all through safely. Ere the King
Could hear of aught from others, I so wrought
He yielded to our plan.

Morgana.
When is it to be?

[The wind rises in the trees. Noises of the night. An occasional bugle far off. Lights appear at the castle.]
Mordred.
To-night. The King sleeps at your castle. I,
With Agravaine and twelve beside, return
To Camelot, where we do think to take
The Queen and Launcelot.

Morgana.
I would it had
Been later. Yet the auguries are well.
My prescience bodes some mishap on the way;
But you shall win. Last night, being in a trance,
[An owl hoots.]
I saw your mother's spirit. And she cried
Out with a loud voice, “Mordred! Mordred! Mordred!
Through him his father's ancient wrong to me
Shall be avenged.”

Mordred.
Ay, but the crown, the crown!

Morgana.
“Let him fear not,” she cried. “He shall be crowned.
The King shall have no child by Guevenere;
But shall renounce her, and acknowledge Mordred,
Though bastard, for his heir.”

Mordred.
It shall go hard
But I will make the prophecy come true.
Come to the castle!

[Exeunt. Noises of the night. The scene closes.]