University of Virginia Library

Scene II.

—Troynovant. A Room in the Palace.
Enter Guendolen and Camber.
GUENDOLEN.
I know not, sir, what ails you to desire
Such audience of me as I give.

CAMBER.
What ails
Me, sister? Were the heart in me no higher
Than his who heeds no more than harpers' tales
Such griefs as set a sister's heart on fire—

GUENDOLEN.
Then were my brother now at rest in Wales,
And royal.

CAMBER.
Am I less than royal here?

GUENDOLEN.
Even here as there alike, sir.

CAMBER.
Dost thou fear
Nothing?

GUENDOLEN.
My princely cousin, not indeed
Much that might hap at word or will of thine.

CAMBER.
Ay—meanest am I of my father's seed,
If men misjudge not, cousin; and Locrine
Noblest.

GUENDOLEN.
Should I gainsay their general rede,
My heart would mock me.

CAMBER.
Such a spirit as mine
Being spiritless—my words heartless—mine acts
Faint shadows of Locrine's or Albanact's?

GUENDOLEN.
Nay—not so much—I said not so. Say thou
What thou wouldst have—if aught thou wouldst—with me.

CAMBER.
No man might see thine eyes and lips and brow
Who would not—what he durst not crave of thee.

GUENDOLEN.
Ay, verily? And thy spirit exalts thee now
So high that these thy words fly forth so free,
And fain thine act would follow—flying above
Shame's reach and fear's? What gift may this be? Love?
Or liking? or compassion?

CAMBER.
Take not thus
Mine innocent words amiss, nor wrest awry
Their piteous purpose toward thee.

GUENDOLEN.
Piteous!
Who lives so low and looks upon the sky
As would desire—who shares the sun with us
That might deserve thy pity?

CAMBER.
Thou.

GUENDOLEN.
Not I,
Though I were cast out hence, cast off, discrowned,
Abject, ungirt of all that guards me round,
Naked. What villainous madness, knave and king,
Is this that puts upon thy babbling tongue
Poison?

CAMBER.
The truth is as a snake to sting
That breathes ill news: but where its fang hath stung
The very pang bids health and healing spring.
God knows the grief wherewith my spirit is wrung—
The spirit of thee so scorned, so misesteemed,
So mocked with strange misprision and misdeemed
Merciless, false, unbrotherly—to take
Such task upon it as may burn thine heart
With bitterer hatred of me that I spake
What, had I held my peace and crept apart
And tamed my soul to silence for thy sake
And mercy toward the royal thing thou art,
Chance haply might have made a fiery sword
To slay thee with—slay thee, and spare thy lord.

GUENDOLEN.
Worse had it done to slay my lord, and spare
Me. Wilt thou now show mercy toward me? Then
Strike with that sword mine heart through—if thou dare.
All know thy tongue's edge deadly.

CAMBER.
Guendolen,
Thou seest me like a vassal bound to bear
All bitter words that bite the hearts of men
From thee, so be it this please thy wrath. I stand
Slave of thy tongue and subject of thine hand,
And pity thee. Take, if thou wilt, my head;
Give it my brother. Thou shalt hear me speak
First, though the soothfast word that hangs unsaid
As yet, being spoken,—albeit this hand be weak
And faint this heart, thou sayest—should strike thee dead
Even with that rose of wrath on brow and cheek.

GUENDOLEN.
I hold not thee too faint of heart to slay
Women. Say forth whate'er thou hast heart to say.

CAMBER.
Silence I have not heart to keep, and see
Scorn and derision gird thee round with shame,
Not knowing what all thy serfs who mock at thee
Know, and make mirth and havoc of thy name.
Does this not move thee?

GUENDOLEN.
How should aught move me
Fallen from such tongues as falsehood finds the same—
Such tongues as fraud or treasonous hate o'erscurfs
With leprous lust—a prince's or a serf's?

CAMBER.
That lust of the evil-speaking tongue which gives
Quick breath to deadly lies, and stings to life
The rottenness of falsehood, when it lives,
Falls dumb, and leaves the lie to bring forth strife.
The liar will say no more—his heart misgives
His knaveship—should he sunder man and wife?
Such, sister, in thy sight, it seems, am I.
Yet shalt thou take, to keep or cast it by,
The truth of shame I would not have thee hear,—
Not might I choose,—but choose I may not.

GUENDOLEN.
Shame
And truth? Shame never toward thine heart came near,
And all thy life hath hung about thy name.
Nor ever truth drew nigh the lips that fear
Whitens, and makes the blood that feeds them tame.
Speak all thou wilt—but even for shame, forsooth,
Talk not of shame—and tell me not of truth.

CAMBER.
Then shalt thou hear a lie. Thy loving lord
Loves none save thee; his heart's pulse beats in thine;
No fairer woman, captive of his sword,
Caught ever captive and subdued Locrine:
The god of lies bear witness. At the ford
Of Humber blood was never shed like wine:
Our brother Albanact lived, fought, and died,
Never: and I that swear it have not lied.

GUENDOLEN.
Fairer?

CAMBER.
They say it: but what are lies to thee?

GUENDOLEN.
Art thou nor man nor woman?

CAMBER.
Nay—I trust—
Man.

GUENDOLEN.
And hast heart to make thy spoil of me?

CAMBER.
Would God I might!

GUENDOLEN.
Thou art made of lies and lust—
Earth's worst is all too good for such to see,
And yet thine eyes turn heavenward—as they must,
Being man's—if man be such as thou—and soil
The light they see. Thou hast made of me thy spoil,
Thy scorn, thy profit—yea, my whole soul's plunder
Is all thy trophy, thy triumphal prize
And harvest reaped of thee; nay, trampled under
And rooted up and scattered. Yet the skies
That see thy trophies reared are full of thunder,
And heaven's high justice loves not lust and lies.

CAMBER.
Ill then should fare thy lord—if heaven be just,
And lies be lies, and lawless love be lust.

GUENDOLEN.
Thou liest. I know my lord and thee. Thou liest.

CAMBER.
If he be true and truth be false, I lie.

GUENDOLEN.
Thou art lowest of all men born—while he sits highest.

CAMBER.
Ay—while he sits. How long shall he sit high?

GUENDOLEN.
If I but whisper him of thee, thou diest.

CAMBER.
I fear not, if till then secure am I.

GUENDOLEN.
Secure as fools are hardy live thou still.

CAMBER.
While ill with good is guerdoned, good with ill.

GUENDOLEN.
I have it in my mind to take thine head.
Dost thou not fear to put me thus in fear?

CAMBER.
I fear nor man nor woman, quick nor dead:
And dead in spirit already stand'st thou here.

GUENDOLEN.
Thou darest not swear my lord hath wronged my bed.
Thou darest but smile and mutter, lie and leer.

CAMBER.
I swear no queen bore ever crown on brow
Who meeklier bore a heavier wrong than thou.

GUENDOLEN.
From thee will I bear nothing. Get thee hence:
Thine eyes defile me. Get thee from my sight.

CAMBER.
The gods defend thee, soul and spirit and sense,
From sense of things thou darest not read aright!
Farewell.

[Exit.
GUENDOLEN.
Fare thou not well, and be defence
Far from thy soul cast naked forth by night!
Hate rose from hell a liar: love came divine
From heaven: yet she that bore thee bore Locrine.

[Exit.