Laurence Binyon

“ Elaine
I only know
That if you will not love me, I must die.
Launcelot
Let the months pass, and you shall smile at this.
Life’s yet for you in the young leaf, Elaine,
You’ll love some other man, some better man. ”

“ Agravaine
Do you dare insult my brother?
Lucan
Are Britain’s peers
Grown tavern brawlers?
Kay
Launcelot shall hear you
And prove upon your bodies that you lie.
Agravaine
The truth is out, and Launcelot shall die
For all his champions.
[Pg 60]
Patrice
Come we to the King.
Bedivere
Are knightly vows then turned to drunkards’ oaths?
Kay
Is loyalty in the gutter?
Gawaine
Shame on all
If one word come to the King’s ear of this.
Bedivere
And with this hubbub we affront the Queen
Most shamefully. Remove we all, at once.
(The knights pass out in great turmoil, Mordred lingering last.) ”

“ Yet men begin to cry that with the King all is profitless fighting, but with Mordred feasting and plunder.
Bedivere
Would God we were fighting him, not Launcelot.
Gawaine enters.
Gawaine
Where is the King?
Bedivere
He has passed into his tent. He rests.
Gawaine
What, can remembrance sleep? The wrong that Launcelot has done is red before my eyes, day and night. Can he forget?
Bedivere
The King were a glad man, if he could forget. At the bottom of their hearts is a dear love one to the other. ”

“ Torre
What is it?
Elaine
It is a rider.
Torre
I heard nothing.
Elaine
He is coming. He is coming. I can hear his step on the stair. Launcelot!
Torre
I hear nothing but the blackbird in the sycamore. (Elaine falls back.) See, sister Elaine, it is May. The thorn-boughs are white. Shall we go a-Maying in the woods? Just as we used?
Elaine
Let me die now. Since Sir Launcelot will not come to me, I must go to him.
Sir Bernard
Child, my child, put away the thoughts of earth.
Elaine
Dear father, I am an earthly woman, and love an earthly man. Is it so great an offence to love? ”

“ Sir Bedivere, our sovereign’s pillar of trust;
Sir Kay, Sir Bors, Sir Agravaine, Sir Lucan,
Sir Colegrevance——Is not Sir Launcelot here?
Sir Kay (to a lady)
Go, tell Sir Launcelot the Queen asks for him.
Guenevere
Welcome to you, Sir Gareth and Sir Gaheris.
Never a Queen
Had round her such array of peers renowned
In arms and courtesy.
Gawaine
Most royal Queen!
Mordred
The honour that you do us dumbs our speech.
(The Queen seats herself upon a raised daïs at the back. All take their seats and the banquet begins. Each knight is attended by his squire.) ”

“ Launcelot! Has Mordred? Not a jot. If ever
There is dissension, rancour, envy, strife,
Seek Mordred: you will find him under it
Like a snake. Mordred loves you not.
Arthur
I know it,
And therefore must be just, more strictly just
Where I love least.
[Pg 79]
Gawaine
Believe me, Launcelot loves you.
Arthur
Do I not know it? Ah,
What curse of a sharp sight is come to me?
This very love: why was that pain in it?
Why was the torment in that loyal voice?
Gawaine
I would I had smitten Mordred to the earth
And silenced him for ever.
Arthur
Woman’s love!
It is a fire that eats upon the heart. ”

“ Bedivere
Sick and sated. The heavy clouds seem to fall on us. One would say that all the tempests of the world had gathered in that storm, which soon will break about us.
Lucan
There’s something monstrous in the season, a curse and an infection. Storm after storm! The corn rots unripened, there’s mildew in the orchards.
Bedivere
And here, unnatural strife. Arthur and the brother of his heart.
Lucan
And the Queen betwixt them, like some baleful star.
Bedivere
And Gawaine mad with hate.
Lucan
How long is it since we have besieged this Joyous Gard of Launcelot’s? ”

“ Drink yet again, knights, to our Queen.
All Knights
Our Queen!
(Another flourish.)
Mordred
Yet something, give me pardon, something lacks
Your feast, Queen Guenevere.
Guenevere
Speak your desire.
I blame my entertainment that it lacks——
Mordred
Sir Launcelot!
[Pg 54]
Guenevere
I have word the King requires him
In council.
Mordred
A light is wanting by your side
When Launcelot is absent. You have spoken
Of the division that an envy breeds.
Lives one who envies not Sir Launcelot?
If it be fault,
I must confess to it. Fame he has and love,
And therefore stands the envy of the world. ”

“ Who can tell men’s hearts? Sir Launcelot, I doubt, will bring me to the grave. And yet he was a noble knight.
Torre
A villain.
Sir Bernard
He has sinned, it may be, yet we knew him and found him noble.
Torre
I know what he has done—the traitor.
Sir Bernard
Anger will not move love. Let us rather pray to God that He may change her heart and bring her through pain to peace.
Torre
My heart is too hot. I will go to the Court. I will challenge Sir Launcelot to the death. I will fling my glove in his face and call him what he is.
Sir Bernard
Softly. She is moving.
Elaine (suddenly)
Hark. ”

“ Gawaine
This is ill done, and no good comes of it.
Arthur
What comes has come already.
Bors, Lavaine, and other friends of Launcelot, appear with drawn swords in the doorway.
Are you ghosts?
That visit me, so haggard, pale and silent?
Your swords are bare and in your eyes are looks
Of fear. This dim light has a ghastness in it
Making the vision of you strange. ”

“ Hasting I come even among your swords and spears; And this is the command that I am charged with. Launcelot shall render his Queen again to King Arthur; she shall not be harmed: And King Arthur shall be accorded with Sir Launcelot. This, upon pain of interdiction of the whole realm of Britain, is the high commandment of God’s regent upon earth, our Holy Father in Rome. ”

“ I only see that face
Dead, with the joy on it. I want, I want——
Launcelot enters with a cloak wrapped about his head
Who is it?
Launcelot (showing his face)
I. I came the secret way.
I come from burying the dead. Elaine
Is laid in earth. She sleeps. I have no sleep.
Guenevere
Hush!
(She goes to the window)
It is gone!
Launcelot
What is it?
Guenevere
A dark shape,
That stood within the shadow of the wall
This hour past.
Launcelot
I saw nothing.
Guenevere
If it be
Mordred, or Mordred’s spy? Launcelot, go
Now, or we are both lost.
Launcelot
What’s Mordred’s hate but a nettle on a dunghill? ”

“ Exit Messenger.
Send a strong force on Mordred’s heels to hold
The traitor back. Ourselves will swiftly ride
To take the Queen from Launcelot. Day is come,
And friends are friends and foes are foes at last. ”

“ But for us, tarriers in this wounded world,
Love, only love, that knows no measure, love
That understands all sorrows and all sins,
Love that alone changes the hearts of men,
And gives to the last heart-beat, only love
Suffices. Come we apart and pray awhile
For the noble and great spirits passed from us.
[Pg 127]
(The chant is heard nearer, and rises louder as the scene closes in darkness. After a pause the gloom melts, gradually revealing a wide distance of moonlit water, over which glides a barge, bearing King Arthur, and the three Queens sorrowing over him, to the island of Avalon.) ”

“ Arthur
Justice asks her due.
[Pg 99]
Launcelot
Never, my lord, shall the Queen stand this charge
On testimony of that traitor Mordred.
Gawaine
Yourself’s the traitor! We will take your towers
And you shall cry his pardon on your knees.
Launcelot
Knights, lords of Britain, you’ll not take my towers;
And if I choose to come forth on the field
Soon shall I make an end, and that you know.
Arthur
An end, an end! But God shall make the end.
Bring all your boast of knights into the field,
Set your array, and sound your trumpets; then
The desolate seashores shall have renown
And you dishonour! ”

“ Arthur
Set you forth.
Farewell, until the last farewell of all!
(Guenevere passes out, escorted by Bedivere and Knights. Arthur is left alone standing in the solemn light of sunset. He breaks out into a cry.)
Launcelot, Launcelot! Guenevere, Guenevere!
EIGHTH SCENE The Nunnery at Amesbury. Guenevere is discovered lying prostrate on the stone steps. A nun, Lynned, enters and lifts her up as she speaks to her.
Lynned
Queen, the day calls us; cling not to the night,
The stone, the silence. There is flesh and blood
Of your own people, threatened and afraid,
That calls on you. ”

“ What, ladies, Mordred?
Mordred
Breaker of hearts, so modest?
I thought Sir Launcelot’s comrades boasted more
Of sighs than trophies. As for me and mine——
Colegrevance
We are blunt men-at-arms.
Mordred
But you, Sir Bors;
If I were not discreeter than the dusk——
(A laugh from Mordred’s followers.)
Guenevere
Friends, of your charity!
Mordred
I say no more.
Guenevere
Your tongues speak trippingly of breaking hearts,
Yet of your courtesy remember this:
[Pg 52]
A woman has no armour, has no sword;
And absent, how shall she defend herself?
If tongues be sharp with malice,
A woman must be silent. ”

“ This old world shall behold it shine again
To prove what splendour men have power to shape
From mere mortality.
Farewell! That peace
Which can remember, and yet hope, because
Love makes us greater than we know, come to you,
Guenevere! ”

“ SEVENTH SCENE The King’s Camp before Joyous Gard. Stormy weather. Black skies against which the earth shows up white and livid. The towers of the Castle appear above rising ground.
Bedivere
Black skies! ”

“ That famous fellowship of knights is dust.
Guenevere
Who shall let leap his bright sword in the air?
In what cause? There is no cause any more.
What tidings brought Sir Bedivere? Tell all.
[Pg 125]
Lynned
The rebel power is broken, and he that raised it
Dead. Woe on us that the King died with him!
Upon a field all mounded with the slain,
The bloodiest harvest Time did ever reap,
He and the traitor Mordred met their last
And smote each other, even to the death. ”

“ Yet what right have I to dedicate to you what is already so much your own? Memory goes back to that June day, now long ago, when first I undertook to write for you a play out of Malory’s pages on a theme long pondered by you both. And many days come back to me, in London or by the sunny Channel, when time was forgotten in ardent work and interchange of ideas; in thinking out and talking over crucial situations ”

“ Bors
Out swords!
Lavaine
We are ashamed.
Gawaine
Blow, trumpets, blow my vengeance.
(Thunder.)
Arthur
It is fated!
War and no peace; in earth and heaven, war.
(The storm breaks with blinding violence as the battle begins. Launcelot’s knights defend him from Gawaine’s fury, giving ground R. Confused fighting in darkness. Cries of “Launcelot!” “Joyous Gard!” “Arthur!” and “Gawaine!” A flash of lightning discovers Gawaine hewing his way through the fighters.) ”

“ Were it not for Gawaine, the King, I think, would make his peace, and Launcelot deliver up his Queen to him.
Bedivere
Not while the King is fixed to bring the Queen to judgment. To that Launcelot will never yield. So stands our wrestle in a deadlock; meanwhile this dear realm splits in two.
Lucan
And Mordred!
[Pg 94]
Bedivere
The wedge that drives into the crack.
Lucan
I fear Mordred most. The rebel tribes gather to him in the West, while we waste ourselves before Joyous Gard. We should have caught him before he could join and head them.
Bedivere
The King’s force holds him at bay yonder. ”

“ Torre
What is she saying?
Elaine
The rushes are gliding, the rushes are gliding. The water, the water! The flowers are falling upon me.
Torre
Oh, father, will she really die? She, so young.
Sir Bernard
She will die because she is so young. We that are old, we endure.
[Pg 42]
FOURTH SCENE Westminster. A vast circular banqueting hall with steps to the river in front. The hall is hidden at first with heavy curtains so that only the stairs are seen. Lavaine by the river steps, leaning pensive on the balustrade.
Enter Gareth and Gaheris arm in arm. ”

“ Ah, false and faithless, you will go to her.
(At the height of this scene, suddenly from the right a barge appears with the body of Elaine upon it. It is steered by a very old dumb servant. It glides very slowly to the steps which lead down to the river. Launcelot alone sees it first.)
Guenevere
What comes into your eyes and sends you pale?
Launcelot
Is it a vision?
Guenevere (to the steersman)
Whom do you bring, cold on her bier, so strangely?
(To Launcelot) Why does he speak no word? ”

“ Gawaine
You speak to loyal hearts.
Lady (returning)
King Arthur, Madam,
Takes private counsel of Sir Launcelot,
Who prays to be excused.
Guenevere
As the King wills.
Bors
It seems new strife is hatching in the West.
Bedivere
These rats gnaw at our realm on every side.
[Pg 51]
Gawaine
So we shall soon be horsed——
Gareth
And in the field.
Gaheris
Lavaine, there shall be spurs to win.
Agravaine
These rebels
Renown us not. There’s not a knight among them.
Kay
Enough for Colegrevance to flesh his steel.
(A laugh from Launcelot’s friends)
Mordred
While we go to the wars, ladies lament. ”

“ Of the old lord of Astolat. Elaine
She is called: she won me back to life, and I
Have brought with me her brother: he would serve
His King, and he is worthy.
Will it please you to receive him?
Arthur
Surely one
Who comes with Launcelot, and so commended,
Shall have his full of welcome. Bring him to us;
For many of my knights, alas! are fallen,
And youth amends our loss.
(Launcelot brings forward Lavaine, who kneels.)
Launcelot
Lavaine, your King.
Arthur
Lavaine, be of our court and fellowship. ”

“ Bedivere
Our grief it was, your presence shone not on us.
Bors
Ah, Madam, had you seen Sir Launcelot there!
Kay
He never rode so terrible a course
In all his days.
Bedivere
There was no man could stand
Against the fury of his setting on.
Colegrevance
Why, all men have their lucky day. ”

“ And Agravaine is dead, and Colegrevance,
Patrice, and Mador. On the Queen’s threshold
Launcelot slew them, thinking that one stroke
Should silence all that caught him in his guilt.
I cry upon your justice!
Arthur
Launcelot lives?
Mordred
Being taken, he set upon us like the fiend.
The darkness, and his trickery, aided him.
Gawaine
One against five, and you all armed like men
That go to battle!
Arthur
A marvel is this Launcelot,
A marvellous proud fighter! There is none
[Pg 83]
In Christendom or heathendom, I swear
To match him. So he lives? ”