Nay, forgive me, sirs;
I am not all recovered from my sickness:
Pardon me if I leave you; stir not. Come.
[_Exit with ladies._
GAWAINE (_after a pause, to_ MORDRED)
What devil pricked your tongue to speak of that?
MORDRED
Why should I not?...
Were it not injury to think such thoughts
I would say----
GAWAINE
To your meaning, and be done.
MORDRED (_slowly_)
I would say Gawaine hints of some dishonour,
Some secret that must not be told abroad.
Would Gawaine say the Queen
Is jealous because Launcelot----
GAWAINE
Slanderer!
MORDRED
It was not I that hinted.
LAVAINE
The red sleeve,
I tell you again, Sir Mordred, was my sister’s.
For Elaine’s sake and in mere courtesy
Sir Launcelot wore it.
MORDRED
Needs the Queen these defenders?
COLEGREVANCE
What fool boy’s talk is this? A paramour
The more, say I.
AGRAVAINE
False to one, false to all.
LAVAINE
Liar!
AGRAVAINE
I will have blood for that.
COLEGREVANCE
And I.
BEDIVERE
For shame! Be silent. Here in the King’s hall!
AGRAVAINE
Off, masks! We have slobbered phrases long enough.
The Queen confessed, you know it by her eye
And cheek of flame that spoke clear as a trumpet
“Launcelot is mine! None else shall have his love
While I have breath and can deceive the King.”
Shall the King be deceived?
BORS
Drag him away!
AGRAVAINE
To the King!
COLEGREVANCE, MADOR, PATRICE
To the King!
BEDIVERE, LUCAN, KAY, BORS
To the King? No.
GAWAINE
Silence! To the King? And shame
The very floor we stand on? To the King,
And with what pitiable pretext? Why,
But that the wine is flown into your brains,
What colour is in this tale? The morning air
Will blow it into nothing.
AGRAVAINE
That we’ll see.
BEDIVERE
Mordred, you vowed devotion to the Queen.
MORDRED
I have said naught against her.
BORS
Hypocrite!
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.
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_.)
MORDRED
I have pulled the sluice. Now let the torrent stream.
[_Exit._
GUENEVERE _enters with one of her women_.
GUENEVERE
Sir Launcelot, have you found him?
WOMAN
He is here.
(GUENEVERE _dismisses the woman with a gesture_. LAUNCELOT
_enters, grave and preoccupied_.)
LAUNCELOT
My Queen!
GUENEVERE
Perjurer! The truth leaps to light at last!
Ah God, Launcelot, that I trusted you,
Loved you with such a love, such a mad love,
So weak! But now my heart turns into hate
And all my blood into one river of scorn.
Oh, that I were the lightning and could strike
To the false heart of you; there, there,
Behind the lips that vowed me endless love
To the false heart that laughed those vows away,
False as the sea, cruel and false with smiles
And sighs and perjured protestation.
LAUNCELOT
Queen!
GUENEVERE
Who fills your secret bosom, fires your thought?
Who speeds her champion’s onset in the lists?
Not I, but she whose dear red sleeve you wore.
LAUNCELOT
Guenevere, hear me!
GUENEVERE
A milky-hearted maid,
A tender maid, the maid of Astolat,
She for whose sake you did what never yet
You did for any woman. And you came
Fresh from her clasp, and her cold kiss, to me!
Get to her, haste to her.
Run to that adoration of meek eyes----
LAUNCELOT
Guenevere, Guenevere! you are much deceived.
GUENEVERE
Deceived indeed! Ah, did you ever love?
Is all that sweetness, ah God, all that seemed
So sweet, it tortures me to think of it,
Ashes and dust? Horrible! Now I know
Why you came sainted and exalted back--
Loyalty and compunction on your lips,
But in your heart a love you dared not own.
It is this girl that’s changed you. Go to her!
LAUNCELOT
I am not changed, my Queen. It is you change.
GUENEVERE
I?
LAUNCELOT
Has some devil entered into you
That you rave slander?
Speak not, for you shall hear me. You have wronged
One that you know not, and me too you wrong
That never loved any but you, have spent
Blood for you, fought for you, have many times
Been in death’s peril for you, and would to God,
If so I am requited, would to God
That I had never loved.
GUENEVERE
Ah, you have said it.
LAUNCELOT
I love her not, you know it.
GUENEVERE
Yet you wore
Her sleeve, her favour.
LAUNCELOT
What I did, I did
For pity, and for the shielding of your name.
I would not wear your favour for that cause.
GUENEVERE
And yet you never did so much for love.
LAUNCELOT
She had won me back from death. How otherwise
Could I requite her, since I could not love?
So earnestly she asked me for that boon.
GUENEVERE
It was a token to the world you loved her.
You had no thought of me, never a thought.
LAUNCELOT
Rack me no more! Day and night, night and day,
The image of your eyes and voice and hair
Burns me; you are twisted in my heart strings, I have sought
To cut love from my bosom, but I cannot,
I cannot; and because it saps, divides,
Undoes this realm, and wrongs the King I love--
Never can I enough repent that wrong----
GUENEVERE
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?
LAUNCELOT
What need of words?
GUENEVERE
Is it she?
LAUNCELOT
Yes.
GUENEVERE
What have you done to her?
LAUNCELOT
Speak! Can you answer nothing?
(_The steersman signs that he is deaf and dumb_)
He is dumb.
(_The steersman points to the letter_)
GUENEVERE
There is a folded paper in her hand.
(LAUNCELOT _steps into the barge, and unties the letter and
reads it_.)
LAUNCELOT
“Most noble Launcelot, I was your lover, though
you would not love me. You could not love me,
and therefore I can endure no longer. I was
called the Fair Maid of Astolat, and yet I was not
loved. So I make my lament to all fair ladies,
and to the Queen Guenevere. Sir Launcelot,
since you would not come to me, now come I to
you. Bury this my body that is dead for love of
you. This is the last thing that I ask of you
who would not love me. And, Sir Launcelot, as
you are a knight peerless, pray for my soul.”
ARTHUR _appears, entering slowly_
ARTHUR
What wonder’s here?
LAUNCELOT
The wonder of a death;
The wonder and the beauty and the sorrow.
ARTHUR
Who is this maid?
LAUNCELOT
One that loved overmuch;
It is Elaine.
ARTHUR
The maid of Astolat
That healed your wound? How comes she dead?
LAUNCELOT
Read here.
(ARTHUR _reads the letter to himself_.)
GUENEVERE (_Gliding away with bowed head_)
Pardon, pardon, pardon!
ARTHUR
Is love so terrible? I did not know.
I would that you had married her.
LAUNCELOT
I could not.
ARTHUR
Why, Launcelot?
LAUNCELOT
I could not,
Love cannot be constrained. Love must be free.
Where love is bound, it breaks free.
ARTHUR
It breaks free
Where it is bound. Bound, and breaks free! Think you
That other women can love like to this?
LAUNCELOT
Doubt it not.
ARTHUR
Even to death?
LAUNCELOT
Even to death.
(_A pause, each thinking his own thoughts._)
ARTHUR
It is as if a flame had leapt from her
And stung me in the brain.
Lives such a world of fire in Guenevere
And I have never known it?
She is smiling, yet she suffered even to death.
Heart of a woman! Is a realm so strong,
Armies, or battlements? Is faith? Is justice?
LAUNCELOT
I pray you let me go apart awhile
For I am charged with a burial.
ARTHUR (_with a change of tone_)
Be it so,
There’s something hidden from me. Why that clamour
And then the silence when I came among them?
(_Going away, he turns_) Launcelot, I have trusted you.
LAUNCELOT
My King,
Trust me still.
[ARTHUR _goes out_.
There’s no end now but exile, I must hence,
Back with to-morrow’s dawn to my own land,
To Brittany. (_He motions to the steersman, and
steps into the barge._)
Steer down the stream, and I
Will bring you to that place
Where this must leave the light.
Have mercy, Jesu, on that wounded heart!
Give me a soul so constant, flight so straight!
Some angel of compassion bear her now
Where innocence may haven, far from me!
Steer on!
(_The barge passes down stream._)
FIFTH SCENE
_The_ QUEEN’S _tower. Night. At the back a bolted door. At one side
a prie-dieu, with a footstool before it. A single lamp burning on a
tripod._ GUENEVERE _stands by a window, holding the curtain and peering
out_.
GUENEVERE
It has not moved.... It’s nothing; fancy’s fever,
That shapes the shadows into forms of fear!
And yet there is a shadow among those shadows,
And I could swear that shadow had human eyes,
Watching. It stirs not. Is it a tree-stem
Gives body to the dark? No tree was there.
(_She drops the curtain._)
Can someone have found out the secret way
And even now be spying on Launcelot?
Pray Heaven he comes not! Why is the air so still
With such a mortal stillness?
There’s the owl again, crying, and there again!
As if it knew the secret of the night
And called me warning notes. Was that a step?
I am all imagination and sick scares;
And that dead face returns, ever returns--
Elaine’s face, smiling cold upon her bier.
She burnt her very heart out. Yet her face
Had peace on it, and joy! Dead! Did she love
Better than I?
(_She looks out again._)
It has not moved. It must be fear’s invention.
(_She throws herself before the Virgin’s image._)
Mother of God, Mother.... She is dead;
And yet she triumphs and she humbles me.
I _will_ pray. O thou seven-times wounded one,
Because thou didst so suffer, look on me;
Look in my heart, thou hadst a bleeding heart;
Thou knowest how I sinned, but how I suffer....
I cannot pray. 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?
What is it to me, that go from you for ever?
Look on me, Guenevere, for the last time.
The hard hour’s here, the bitter moment’s come;
To-morrow I hoist for Brittany.
GUENEVERE
Not yet!
Oh no, not yet!
LAUNCELOT (_embracing her_)
Once, once again, and then never again!
GUENEVERE
Never? Never?
(_She half swoons in his arms._)
LAUNCELOT
O Queen, Queen of the World! Endure! Dear God,
Have pity on her Thou madest beautiful
With such a beauty as those burning stars
In the waste heavens.
GUENEVERE
Launcelot!
LAUNCELOT
Guenevere!
Oh for a stream in a wood beneath the stars!
A stream to bathe our souls in, Guenevere!
I wish I had a giant’s strength to break
This walling world down, hurl it stone from stone,
Break from this dungeon into burning life,
Free--lost, but free!
GUENEVERE (_pushing him from her_)
Go now, or I shall keep you
For ever in my arms.
(_As they gaze silent on one another, voices are heard
without. A knocking at the door; then the voice of_
AGRAVAINE _calling aloud_.)
AGRAVAINE
Launcelot! Traitor knight!
GUENEVERE
What voice is that?
VOICES
Traitor! Come forth!
GUENEVERE
What insolent clamour at my very door!
I am a Queen, and daughter of a Queen.
(_A laugh and voices._)
AGRAVAINE
Traitor, come forth to us.
LAUNCELOT
It’s Agravaine!
AGRAVAINE
You are taken!
OTHER VOICES
Taken, traitor; taken at last!
AGRAVAINE
Come you out, Launcelot; there is no escape.
GUENEVERE
Ah, Launcelot, they are come to murder you!
VOICES
Come out! Come out!
LAUNCELOT
Unclasp your hands; I am a man again!
The secret way! Farewell, my Queen!
GUENEVERE (_stopping him_)
Wait.
That shape I saw in the shadow! If they have set
A watch below? Stay an instant. Let me look.
(_She looks out, and her appearance is met with a hoarse
and mocking laugh from below._)
LAUNCELOT
Trapped!
Is there no armour, not a coat of mail?
Nothing?
GUENEVERE
Alas, nothing.
VOICES
Out, come out!
LAUNCELOT
Not a sword even?
GUENEVERE
Alas, not even a sword.
LAUNCELOT
I would to God I had my armour on me.
(MORDRED _laughs_.)
Mordred’s laugh. It is he that has done this.
MORDRED
In the King’s name, we come to avenge the King
And the King’s honour.
VOICES
Recreant knight, come out.
LAUNCELOT
God strike them!
Such shameful crying at your very doors!
Better death straight.
GUENEVERE
Let them kill me, so that they let you go.
LAUNCELOT
Heaven defend me from such shame as that.
No, I’ll sell life as dearly as I may,
But I would sooner have my armour on me
And a sword within my hand than all the crowns
Of Christendom. Then, then would I have done
Some deeds that men might tell of.
(MORDRED _and his men have brought a bench and begin to
batter at the door_.)
GUENEVERE
They will break in the door.
COLEGREVANCE
Come out to us,
And let us kill you.
LAUNCELOT
That was the voice
Of Colegrevance. He has the wits of an ox.
Be still. Muffle the light. I have a thought.
If I am slain, my Queen, pray for my soul.
GUENEVERE (_muffles the lamp_)
You will not open to these hounds of blood?
LAUNCELOT
Be still.
(_He opens the door a little._ COLEGREVANCE _comes in, and_
LAUNCELOT _shuts the door and bolts it in an instant_.)
COLEGREVANCE
There is no light.
(LAUNCELOT _with a great buffet stuns_ COLEGREVANCE. _He
draws_ COLEGREVANCE’S _sword and thrusts it into his
throat_.)
LAUNCELOT (_to_ GUENEVERE)
The lamp.
(GUENEVERE _uncovers the lamp_.)
Now help me. Quick! Help me to arm.
(_He tears off_ COLEGREVANCE’S _coat of mail and puts it
on_.)
Why, what a girth is here. Yet it shall serve.
AGRAVAINE
Colegrevance! Colegrevance!
LAUNCELOT
Now I can defy them.
AGRAVAINE
Vengeance! We’ll break the door, and drag you out.
False fighter! You are caught, for all your wiles.
LAUNCELOT
Listen! Cease your slanderous clamour! Listen!
Go from this door, each of you get you home.
To-morrow come you all before the King.
There I will meet you and there answer you.
That’s my last word.
AGRAVAINE
Say your prayers now, and we will cry Amen
Before we kill you.
LAUNCELOT
Is that your answer? Then
Look to yourselves!
(_He sets open the door suddenly, sword in hand._
AGRAVAINE, MADOR, PATRICE, _and_ MORDRED _enter. There is a
rush and furious combat._ AGRAVAINE _falls mortally wounded
within the room_.)
VOICES
Have at him!
LAUNCELOT
Mouths of shame!
GUENEVERE
Ah, Jesu, help!
AGRAVAINE
I am dead. Mordred, Mordred!
PATRICE (_falling_)
It is the fiend.
LAUNCELOT
To the black heart of you!
(MORDRED _falls wounded, but rises and escapes_.)
MADOR
Help, Mordred, help!
The fiend is in him. He has seven swords.
(MADOR _falls_.)
LAUNCELOT
Bring me the lamp.
(GUENEVERE _brings lamp_.)
Ah, never more to insult you now, my Queen.
(_He turns over the body of_ AGRAVAINE.)
It is Agravaine, not Mordred!
(_He holds the lamp over the other bodies._)
Patrice! and Mador! Mordred’s fled, the coward!
Why did I not make sure? Fled!
GUENEVERE
Save yourself!
Launcelot, from this hour all’s war and ruin.
I forsee it, I that made it. It has come,
Doom! Doom!
LAUNCELOT
I’ll to the King.
GUENEVERE
Your enemy!
LAUNCELOT
Arthur, my enemy?
GUENEVERE
From this night forth. Away! Gather your friends.
Mordred is working while you linger. Ride.
Ride without rein to your castle in the North,
To Joyous Gard.
LAUNCELOT
To fight against my King?
I cannot.
GUENEVERE
Will you then be taken? Mordred
Will be before you with the King. Hasten!
Arm; gather every sword that’s on your side.
LAUNCELOT
I cannot fight against my King.
GUENEVERE
Then fly!
LAUNCELOT
Fly and desert my Queen? Fly in her hour
Of utmost peril?...
Ah, Guenevere, what’s done nothing revokes,
Neither repentance, nor new deeds, nor tears.
See, we had parted: the great joy we had
Was over; all was anguish and farewell.
And now, and now, when we had torn asunder,
We are driven together, and we cannot part.
GUENEVERE
But part we must.
This blood all cries against us. Save yourself,
I have wrought you wrong enough.
LAUNCELOT
I’ll to the King.
He trusted me; and I must tell him all.
I am more to him than many Mordreds.
GUENEVERE
Blind!
But if it must be, go this very night,
Now! Dawn will soon be upon us.
LAUNCELOT
Call your women,
And lock yourselves within some inner room,
That no harm come, till I have seen the King.
I’ll rouse my friends that should have sailed with me
For Brittany to-morrow. With my friends
I’ll go to Arthur.
Guenevere, if a hair upon your head
Be threatened, I’ll not suffer it.
GUENEVERE
Away!
SIXTH SCENE
_The King’s Tower. The same night. Sentinels discovered who move off at
a motion from the King._
ARTHUR _pacing up and down_.
(_Enter_ GAWAINE.)
GAWAINE
Does not the King sleep?
ARTHUR
Gawaine, there are things
Will not be put to sleep: thoughts in the blood....
GAWAINE
You called me. Midnight’s past. It is near dawn.
ARTHUR
There’s something secret round me.
GAWAINE
Not in me,
That with my life would guard you.
ARTHUR
Guard? From what?
What, Gawaine? Why, too, when I came among you--
Bedivere, Mordred, all of you--I heard
Hot cries of quarrel called and answered back--
Why was there silence? When I questioned, none
Found voice.
GAWAINE
They were ashamed.
ARTHUR
Were you ashamed,
Gawaine?
GAWAINE
Not I.
ARTHUR
And yet you answered not.
GAWAINE
My King, you know that Mordred and his friends
Are glib in slander.
ARTHUR
Slander of whom? The truth!
GAWAINE
They hate and envy Launcelot. To-morrow
Let them face Launcelot. You shall hear them then.
ARTHUR
This was no cause they should not speak to-night.
How fell this quarrel out? At my Queen’s feast!
Her guests! and Launcelot absent.
GAWAINE
I forget.
ARTHUR
Remember. It was insult to my Queen.
How could you suffer it?
GAWAINE
I did not, sir.
Nor any of your friends.
ARTHUR
And she, and she?
Said they aught of her, of Guenevere?
GAWAINE
Ah, King,
My blood’s all rage. Pardon my silence now.
ARTHUR
They spoke of her! They have talked of her abroad!
My royal Guenevere! I did not know.
I have been housed in my own roof of cares.
I have been strange to her, that needed me.
Where’s Launcelot?
GAWAINE
He took the young Lavaine,
And they together have buried that fair maid
Who died for Launcelot’s love. He’ll be abed
Ere this.
ARTHUR
Ah!
GAWAINE
Surely.
ARTHUR
Launcelot fled me. Why?
GAWAINE
Think not of Launcelot ill. Who sought your good,
Who fought for you, who toiled, who suffered, who
Gave of his marrow and heart’s faith for you?
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.
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.
It is past comprehension; it exceeds
And feeds upon excess.
Duty, duty can be taught and learned;
But this love, it is out of all our laws
And all our wisdom; none can measure it....
If it be true--ah, Christ, if it be true!
GAWAINE
Doubt not that it is false.
ARTHUR
Heaven knows my heart
Has nothing willing in it: slow and heavy
Moves my thought thither where the fear is, slow
And heavy as sea-tides against the wind.
Yet little things hurt in the memory,
Like a mote pricking in the eyelid: words
That may be fondest innocence, and may not.
A look, a flying colour in the cheek,
Soft hand-takings and silence of farewells;
These may be friendship’s language, but if not,
Friendship is foul.
GAWAINE
These are the fears of the dead night that tempt
Reason against our own heart’s truth. Now, sleep.
ARTHUR
I put them from my mind, and then again
They creep back, like a stain across the floor.
GAWAINE
Launcelot’s true, my life on it. Shake this off
Like a foul nightmare that the witches send.
ARTHUR
What days were those when we were young together,
The morning of the world! Gawaine, you know
How many a time Launcelot took on his shield
A blow that might have emptied me of life;
At Solway, Celidon, at Badon Hill....
Why should his hand have saved me, why, if....
GAWAINE
Ah,
Launcelot is the truest knight on earth.
ARTHUR
And yet he fled from me; fled from himself,
If this my hand should suddenly take will,
Against my own, to strike at one I loved,
It would not more affront my reason. Oh,
Gawaine, I love this man.
GAWAINE
As he loves you.
ARTHUR
But woman, woman! I am mad to have these thoughts.
If it be true, Gawaine, if it be true!
GAWAINE
It’s false; Mordred shall own it.
ARTHUR
Ay, the proof.
Proof, and if no proof, banishment: nay, death.
To-morrow this shall all be cleared. To-morrow!
Get to bed.
(GAWAINE _is going, when a loud knock is heard without,
and_ MORDRED’S _voice, “The King!” The guard opens the
door._)
GUARD
My lord, it is Sir Mordred.
ARTHUR
Let him in.
MORDRED _appears, all bloody_.
GAWAINE
Mordred! And there is blood upon his hands.
MORDRED
Justice, O King, on a murderer and traitor.
GAWAINE
What have you done? What villainy?
ARTHUR
Peace, Gawaine.
Now, speak.
MORDRED
I grieve to tell what I must tell,
But truth is worth its wound, Launcelot, your friend,
The man whom you have trusted, whom you hold
Dear as your life and honour, he it is
I must accuse.
ARTHUR
To the accusation. Speak!
And yet beware! Speak not without the proof!
MORDRED
I have the proof.
GAWAINE
Is that his blood upon you?
ARTHUR
Where is Launcelot?
MORDRED
Launcelot is ... where we found him,
With the Queen, in her own chamber. Pardon me
That loyalty must speak of shame so gross.
ARTHUR
You have slain him, Mordred?
MORDRED
Nay, he has lived to heap
A second guilt upon his head. Murder!
This is my own blood, where he wounded me,
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
In Christendom or heathendom, I swear
To match him. So he lives?
MORDRED
He has escaped:
But now I cry your justice; banishment
For Launcelot, the traitor!
ARTHUR
There shall be justice done. Look to your wound.
To-morrow I will have the proof of all,
Mordred--full proof, or on your own head be it.
MORDRED
You shall have proof, my King. Peace be to you.
[MORDRED _goes out_.
ARTHUR
Arm you now, Gawaine, arm! Arrest the Queen.
Seek Launcelot out, and take him.
GAWAINE
Never, sir.
That will I never do. If I did this,
It would be said Gawaine abetted what
To him is shame and an unreason both.
It may be Mordred lured him to the Queen
With some feigned message.
ARTHUR
He was found with her.
Why came he not to speak in his own cause?
GAWAINE
I am not of your counsel.
ARTHUR
Then call me Gaheris and Gareth here,
Your brothers. They shall do this.
GAWAINE
Ah, my lord,
They will be as loth as I, but they are young
And cannot say you nay. Yet I beseech you----
ARTHUR
Fetch them. They lodge with you.
GAWAINE
If it must be.
ARTHUR
It must.
(GAWAINE _goes out_. ARTHUR _pulls back the curtains at the
window_.)
Dawn. Is it dawn so soon?
The birds sang soft so when I wooed her, soft
And thrilling with low pipe. Smell of the grass,
Dew, and her face, wonderful, coming towards me....
Ah, God, that it were night again, the night,
The dark, where I knew nothing, where I loved
And trusted, where I had a wife, a friend.
(_He falls on his knees._)