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Scene II.

—Camelot. The Queen's Apartments: A room with heavy paneling of oak and great oaken rafters. The walls are hung with tapestries. At the left a window, showing the heavy masonry of which the building is constructed. At the right a door with hangings, leading into other rooms of the suite. At the center, a heavy barred door, that opens into the general corridors. In the alcove, couch nearly concealed with hangings. Low seats covered with skins, etc.
Launcelot and Guenevere.
Guenevere.
And still you do not speak.
Think you of him?—the King? Must I believe
You love him more than me?

Launcelot.
Oh, Guenevere!—
Your bond to him is formal, mine as real
As—God in heaven! as real as mine to you.

Guenevere.



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NOTES ON KING ARTHUR.

As to the choice of the heir, there is no authoritative note, but I have a vague memory that Borre, the child of Lionors, who had been educated by the good and wise Taliesin, was to be named heir. Borre appears as a charming child in the first play, the “Marriage of Guenevere,” and without appearing, he became a strong dramatic figure in the lost manuscript, where his mother, the lady Lionors, is being wrought upon by Morgause in the depth of her wicked revel on the occasion of the temptation of Lamoracke. Here most dramatic words pass between the mother and Morgause, the insolent temptress of the youth. Borre's name is first introduced by Morgause when, before the marriage, she eases her hatred of Arthur by hinting to Guenevere that he is not all she might have pictured in her ideal, referring to the lady Lionors and her child, and linking her name by innuendo with that of Arthur.

The play of King Arthur was to contain a final conflict in the mind of the honor-tortured Launcelot, between his love and his friendship. He had lost no time in rescuing Guenevere after Arthur had executed the law of the land by condemning her to be burnt—that being the punishment for high treason


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in queens. For more than twenty years Arthur had refused to listen to rumors or in any way doubt Guenevere, but once proven in guilt by Mordred and his associates, Arthur, who stood for public justice, condemned her. After the rescue, Launcelot, who puts personal loyalty before the law, felt that Guenevere was now his. He took her to Joyous Gard, which was the court of his father's kingdom before the kings gave up their thrones to join Arthur's Round Table.

Arthur besieged Joyous Gard to recapture Guenevere. Launcelot unhesitatingly defended the place against Arthur. When, however, he knew that Mordred had seized the throne and that Arthur must turn back to defend himself again Mordred, he went forth to Arthur's assistance, but not without a great conflict between his desire to loyally see justice done to Arthur against Mordred, and his anger, probably the greatest anger of his knightly life, against the man who had condemned Guenevere to torturing death by fire.

To Launcelot right was above the law. To Arthur the law was above any view of right or wrong. To Dubric, the priest, we remember, the Church was above either. And these three classes continue to this day, the Arthurs, the Launcelots, the Dubrics. A great jurist has said: “He who taketh the law of the land for his sole guide is neither a good neighbor nor an honest man.” In this discussion Guenevere joins. Guenevere could see Launcelot defend her but not revenge her. She urges him to do the generous deed. Bors also belongs to this scene;


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the noble, frank cousin who from the first and always stood his ideals and Launcelot side by side.

To Launcelot there was but one crime to be done in the name of love, and that was love itself. Love must inspire to all good deeds, to sacrifice, to generosity, to forgiveness. So he goes to Arthur's rescue.

The plot of King Arthur is indicated in the scenario. The first scene is written. Of the second scene, being the love scene upon which Mordred breaks, we have but a few lines. It was planned to show the development and beauty of love after the passage of all those years, after the experiences of absence, sorrow, remorse, the attempt at renunciation, after the wounding and healing of the discord of jealousy. We do not know how the author would in this scene have shown a greater love than that pictured in the temptation of Launcelot in “The Birth of Galahad,” but we know that was what he was to do. From this time on Launcelot's love would be expressed by deeds, the rescue and so forth, and Guenevere's by her defense of herself in court and her general nobility of attitude in all matters, showing that her love being good had made her good—more, noble. A noble love develops itself and its lovers, ever to higher possibilities; or, if it be destroyed, to ever higher loves. This theory of the ever-growing beauty of love was a central theme in the “Poem in Dramas.”

The trial scene would have been Guenevere's greatest scene in the series. Here her greatness and goodness must all have been shown to stand in contrast with the power of the law over her. It was long discussed whether the rescue should be from the


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court scene, to avoid falling into physical drama if it took place at the fire scene. But the court scene had to stop at a moral climax, the characters being Arthur, Guenevere, and the Law.

The death of Arthur in personal conflict with Mordred, each at the end of the battle killing the other, and Launcelot's too late arrival occupies the foreground when Guenevere, in the falling darkness enters with the monks, who, carrying torches, go about to shrive the dying and bury the dead.

So the tragedy remains. Arthur is dead, and sorrow has fallen upon all the land. Only in Avalon “the place of peace,” can we look for those resolutions of discord which the spirit of man still awaits.


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DIGEST OF KING ARTHUR MADE UP FROM THE FRAGMENTS AND STRAY NOTES LEFT BY MR. HOVEY.
Near Camelot—Sunset.

Rocky gorge. Mountains. The Hunt. Mordred and Gawaine. Morgana and Mordred. Witchcraft. (Scene written.)

Camelot—Night.

Interior of tower. Launcelot and Guenevere. Love scene. The interruption. Escape of Launcelot. Mordred's love for Guenevere. Entrance of conspirators. Return and capture of Guenevere.

Camelot—Next Day.

Great hall. Trial scene. The stake. The rescue.

Camelot—The Great Hall.

Mordred and Morgana. The council. The war against Launcelot. The naming of the heir. “No son? I am your son.” Mordred's resentment. Mordred determines revenge. The Saxon.

Gard—Next Day.

The battlements. Launcelot and Guenevere. Their justification. The approach of Arthur's army.


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Camelot—Night.

A room. Carouse of Kaye and Dagonet. Treachery of Mordred, who remains with Kaye and betrays him to the Saxon. Mordred is proclaimed King. Capture of Kaye. Escape of Dagonet.

Joyous Gard—Next Day.

Arthur's tent. Gawaine's death. Dagonet. Arthur learns from Dagonet of Mordred's revolt and raises siege.

Mordred's Camp—Night.

Witchcraft.

Joyous Gard—Dawn.

The battlements. The ghost of Gawaine. Launcelot to the rescue. Launcelot furious at Arthur's treatment of Guenevere. Guenevere persuades him to go. Bors.

The Battlefield—Nightfall.

The last battle, etc. Death of Mordred and Arthur. When Launcelot arrives, Mordred is dead and Arthur dying. Entrance of Guenevere. “The three queens.”