Chapter XVII: Act II

The High Hall of St. Lubin Castle.--Bay windows. On the right, in the background is a wide double-door. On the left, in the background, and diagonally to it stands a long table surrounded by high-back chairs. The chairs at either end of the table are higher than the others and are decorated with the royal arms. Against the wall on the left stands a throne.

Four Gaelic barons stand, or sit about the table. LORD GANELUN enters.

SCENE I

A BARON.
And canst thou tell us now. Lord Ganelun,
What's taking place that we are summoned here
In council while our legs are scarcely dry
From our long ride?

2D BARON.
A welcome such as this
I like not, Lords!

GANELUN.
I know no more than ye,
My lords, who are but lately come.

3D BARON.
And where
Is Mark, the King?

2D BARON.
Instead of greeting us
He sends a low born knave, and bids us wait
Within these dry and barren walls.

1ST BARON (stands up).
By God,
I feel a wish to mount my horse and ride
Away!

5TH BARON (entering).
Do ye, my Lords, know why King Mark
Lets Tristram's savage hound, old Husdent live?
It needed but a little that it caused
My death!

4TH BARON.
Just now?

5TH BARON.
As I rode by its cage
It leap'd against the bars, and made them shake
With such a noise that my affrighted horse
Uprear'd, and headlong sprang across the court.

GANELUN.
The hound is wolflike; none can go within
His cage. Three keepers has he torn to death.

5TH BARON.
A wild and dang'rous beast! I would not keep
The brute within my castle walls.

3D BARON (walks irritatedly to the window).
How this
Long waiting irks my soul, good friends!

1ST BARON.
So cold
A welcome have I never yet received,
And new the custom is!

GANELUN.
Have patience, sirs,
It seems King Mark and Lord Denovalin
Discuss in secret weighty things--

3RD BARON.
--And wish
To teach us how to wait!

GANELUN.
Nay, here's King Mark!

SCENE II

MARK and DENOVALIN enter; behind them comes a man-at-arms who closes the door and stands against the wall beside it. MARK holds a parchment in his hand, and, without noticing the barons, walks agitatedly to the front of the stage. DENOVALIN goes behind the table and places himself between it and the throne. The barons rise.

1ST BARON.
Does Mark no longer know us that he greets
Us not?

2D BARON.
And dost thou know, my Lord--?

MARK (turning angrily upon the baron).
Am I
A weak old man because my hair is gray,
Because my hands are wrinkled, ay, and hard,
Because at times my armor chafes my back?
Am I an old and sapless log? A man
Used up who shall forever keep his peace?

(Controlling himself.)

I crave your pardon, Lords, pray take your seats.

DINAS.
Thou badst me come to thee.

MARK.
Yes, Dinas, yes,
So take thy place.

(He controls his emotion with great difficulty
and speaks heavily.)

And ye, my noble friends,
Give ear. A great and careful reckoning shall
Take place 'twixt you and me. Your sanctioning word
I wish, for what I am about to do,
For yonder man has, with an evil lance,
Attacked me and he has so lifted me
Out of my saddle that my head doth swim,
And trembles from the shock, and so I pray
You to forgive the churlish greeting ye
Received; 'twas accident, not scorn. I bid
You welcome, one and all, most heartily.

3D BARON.
We greet thee, Mark.

GANELUN.
But tell us now what thing
So overclouds thy mind; thy welfare dwells
Close intertwined with ours.

DENOVALIN (unfolding the parchment).
And now, my Lords,
Are any of the witnesses not here
Who signed the contract and decree which Mark
Drew up with Tristram and with Queen Iseult!

1ST BARON.
'Tis then of this decree that thou wouldst speak?

3D BARON.
I signed.

4TH BARON.
And I.

5TH BARON.
And I.

MARK.
Three witnesses
There were, and ye are three. 'Tis good, my Lords,
That we are all assembled here.

[He speaks brokenly and with all the marks
of mental suffering and suppressed emotion.]

Ye know
How long I lived alone within these walls
With my good nephew Tristram and not once
Did any woman cross my threshold o'er.

5TH BARON.
And 'twas through us that things were changed; we cried
Upon thee for a son and heir.

2D BARON.
Iseult
Then came from Ireland to be thy Queen.

DENOVALIN (coldly, firmly, and in a loud voice).
Nobly escorted, in Lord Tristram's care!

MARK (softly).
I wooed Iseult, and much it pleased me then
To call this sweet and noble lady mine,
And so to honor her. But see, it was
But for a single day, then came this man

(Points to DENOVALIN.)

And spake to me and said: "Thy wife Iseult
And Tristram whisper in the dark!" And since
The speaking of that evil word, this world
Has turned to hell, and through my veins my blood
Has run like seething fire for her sake,
Who was my wife, and cried for her as though
She were not mine!

3D BARON.
But thou didst not believe
These evil words?

MARK.
No, never in my life
Did I fight off a foeman from myself
More fiercely than these words.

DENOVALIN (sternly).
But soon this man
Came back and said: "The hands of Queen Iseult
And Tristram's hands are locked when it is dark."

MARK.
And then I slunk about them like a wretch,
My lords; I spied upon their lips, their hands,
Their eyes! I watched them like a murderer;
I listened underneath their window-sills
At night to catch their dreaming words, until
I scorned myself for this wild wretchedness!
Nothing, nothing I found, and yet Iseult
From that time on was dearer than my God
And his Salvation!

GANELUN.
Yet thou ever held'st
Iseult in honor and esteem!

MARK.
Ay, that I did,
Friend Ganelun, but soon that man there came
And whispered in mine ear: "Art thou stone blind?
Thy nephew Tristram and thy Queen Iseult
Are sleeping in each other's arms by day
And night!" Oh God! Oh God! My Lords, I set
To work--and thought I'd caught the pair!--Poor fool!

(He hides his face.)

DINAS.
'Tis so; and thou badst build a mighty pyre
Of seasoned wood and well dried peat. But God
Almighty blew the fire out. They fled,
The twain together, to the Morois land.

MARK.
And then one night I stole upon them both.
(Lord Dinas knew of this alone, my Lords.)
Iseult was sleeping, and Lord Tristram slept
An arm's length scarce before me in the moss
All pale and wan, and breathed so heavily,
So wearily, like some hard hunted beasts.

(Groaning.)

Oh God, how easy was it then!--See what
Befell! There, 'twixt their bodies lay a sword,
All naked, ay, and sharp--
'Twas Morholl's sword!
--Then silently I took it, and I left
Mine own, and, like a fool, I wept at their
Great purity!

2D BARON.
Was Tristram so much moved
By this exchange of swords that he gave back
Thy wife Iseult?

MARK (violently).
And, God! I took her! See
His cunning counsel circumvented then
The red hot steel and made her innocence
Seem more apparent, and her hands shone white,
Unburned, and all unscarred like ivory
After the test! My nephew Tristram fled,
Exiled, and the decree that ye all know
Was sealed. So harken now, ye witnesses
Of the decree: if Tristram were to break
The bond and secretly, and in disguise
Return to Cornwall--

3d BARON.
God forbid!

4TH BARON.
Yet if
Lord Tristram should do this and break the bond,
And thus endanger both his life and Queen Iseult's--

5TH BARON.
If such the case they lied to thee,
King Mark, and unto God!

MARK.
They lied! They lied!
Ay, man, they lied to me and unto God!
And now I need no longer feel my way
Nor tap about me in the dark, nor bump
My soul against my blindness! Ay, they lied!
My bed was foul; my life a jest for knaves,
For they had lied. But then, behold, that man
There came,--Denovalin I hate thee!--came
And said Lord Tristram broke the bond--

[The Barons spring up.]

1ST BARON.
How so?

2D BARON.
What knows he?

3D BARON.
Speak, Denovalin!

GANELUN.
Thou say'st
Lord Tristram broke the bond that holds his life?

5TH BARON.
I'll not believe it!

4TH BARON.
Tristram wed, ye know,
The daughter of King Kark of Arundland.

3D BARON.
Denovalin must bring us proofs!

MARK.
Gently,
My Lords. Before the high tribunal shall
He speak. Go, call the Queen.

[The man-at-arms goes.]

DINAS.
King Mark,
Why dost thou hasten to believe this tale?
Remember, 'tis Denovalin who speaks.

MARK.
'Tis not a matter of belief, my friend,
I wish to know if for her sake he came;
To see her once again--no more. The rest
I know, and I know, too, the end of this;
This game that's played about my life, my blood.
Mine honor!

SCENE III

The guardsman announces the queen who enters the hall followed by PARANIS. She remains in the background. The barons rise as she appears.

GUARDSMAN.
Place! Iseult the queen comes! Place!

ISEULT (quietly and gently).
Ye called me, sirs; now speak, for I am here.

MARK (takes an angry step toward her, checks himself, and stares at her a moment. He speaks slowly and Without moving).

Lord Dinas, bid Iseult of Ireland draw near!

[ISEULT, without waiting for DINAS, steps
to the middle of the hall. MARK does not
move and speaks louder.]

Lord Dinas, bid Iseult of Ireland draw near!
And sit there by the board--there at the head
And facing me.

ISEULT.
And may I ask thee now
What this extraordinary custom is,
That twice thou dost repeat it, Mark? In mine
Own land of Ireland I never saw
A man thus treat his wife. So, if it suits
Thy will,--I'll stand!

[Neither MARK nor the barons move.
Anxiously.]

Will no one speak to me?

MARK.
My Lords, sit down.

[He walks in front of the table. PARANIS
kneels beside ISEULT, who lays her hand
upon his head as on the head of a dog.]

ISEULT.
Thou call'dst me, Mark, and bad'st
Me come in terms full stern and harsh--I came,
For 'tis my heartfelt duty to obey.
Since thou art good to me and kind. Thou know'st
This hall, these men, that stand around, awake
Full many a painful memory in my heart,
And so I crave a swift reply. What will
Ye of me here?

MARK (roughly).
Why was Gawain sent forth
In secret to Tintagel from Lubin?

ISEULT.
He went not secretly, but openly.
My Lord, and that because some merchant-men
Came to Tintagel from across the seas
With merchandise. I wished to bid them come
To me that I might choose me from their stock the wares
That pleased me and the many things I need.

MARK (scornfully).
The purchase must be made at once, I trow!
Since here, more than elsewhere, thou need'st such things.
'Tis true that fifteen beasts of burden stayed
Behind, all laden with thy things alone,
Unnoticed by a well beside the road,
Iseult, I recollect me now!

ISEULT.
Nay, Lord,
Yet St. Lubin brings me full many a sad
And weary hour. I, therefore, thought to gain
Some slight diversion and amusement too
To soothe my woe. Thou know'st the joy I have
Of mingled masses of bright colored things
Both strange and rare!

(Anxiously.)

The rustling silks; the gold--;
Th' embroidery of robes; the jewel's flash;--
Furs, chains and golden girdles, needles,
clasps! To see, and in my hands to hold such things
O'erjoys me much!--A childish whim, perhaps,
But thou thyself this pleasure oft procured'st
And sent the merchants to my bower. What
Wonder is it then that I myself should think
Of this same thing?

MARK.
'Tis so, I wronged thy thoughts,
For I myself have often brought such men
To thee. These peddlers and these mountebanks
Are famous friends! I see it now! They come
From far and wide; they travel much; they are
Both wise and cunning--apt, indeed, to serve
As messengers!

ISEULT.
Ay, Mark, thou didst me wrong.
But greater to Brangaene and Gawain!
I pray thee set them free; they but obeyed
My will.

MARK (angrily).
Bring forth the pair, and set them free
These go-betweens Brangaene and Gawain!

[The soldier goes.]

Tell now, my Lord Denovalin, thy tale,
And speak thy words distinctly, ay, and loud!
And ye, my Lords, I pray you, listen well;
A pretty tale!

[He crouches on the steps of the throne,
and stares at ISEULT. DENOVALIN steps
forward from behind the table.]

DENOVALIN.
I rode today at dawn,
And, coming through the Morois, saw, while yet
The mist was hanging in the trees, around
A curving of the road, a man who rode.
Full proud and straight he sat upon his steed,
But yet he seemed to wish that none should see
Him there, for carefully did he avoid
The clearer spots, and peering round about,
He listened and he keenly watched, then turned
Into a thicket when afar he heard
The hoof-beats of my horse. I followed him,
And soon I was as near as a man's voice
Will carry. Loud and haughtily I called
To him, but then he drove the spurs so deep
Into his steed that, like a wounded stag,
It sprang into the air and dashed away.
I followed close behind, and bade the man
In knightly and in manly honor stand.
He heeded not my words and fled away,
And then I cried aloud that he should stand,
And called him by Iseult the Goldenhaired.

ISEULT (passionately and firmly).
And at my name Lord Tristram stood.

(Anxiously.)

Did he
Not stand and wait?

(Imploringly.)

Oh, say that at that call
Lord Tristram stood!

(Passionately.)

And I will bless thy lips.

MARK (cries out in a muffled voice).
Iseult!

ISEULT.
I'll kiss thy hand, my Lord, and I--

DENOVALIN.
Who says, proud Queen Iseult, the man I saw
Was Tristram, noble Lord of Lyonesse?

ISEULT (her voice becomes proud and cold).
My Lord Denovalin, I'll kiss thy hands
If thou wilt say my husband's nephew stood
And bided you, for sorely would it vex
My heart if such a knight should flee from such
A man as thou! 'Twould shame me much, for know,
My Lord Denovalin, I scorn and hate
Thee as a cur!

DENOVALIN (suppressing his emotion).
If Tristram stood or fled
From me, I do not say.

ISEULT.
That vexes me
Indeed, for now, my Lords, I turn to you
With deeper and more serious complaints
Against Lord Tristram that so rashly he
Has broken Mark's decree, thus forcing me
To share a guilt of which my soul is clean!

MARK (crouches on the steps of the throne groaning).
Oh see how well her Irish tongue can twist
Her words to suit her will! Her words are smooth;
So smooth that when one grasps them they escape
The hand like shining, slippery, squirming snakes!
And she has subtle words, caressing words,
And words that set the mind on fire; hot words
That burn, and haughty ones that swell and puff
Like stallions' nostrils, and toss high their heads!
Oh she has words, and words, and many words
With which to frame her lies!

(He takes a step toward ISEULT. Angrily.)

And see her eyes!
Those wondrous eyes! Eyes for deceit! She has
Deceived me with those eyes and lips of hers since first
She set her foot upon the Cornish shore!

ISEULT (trembling with shame and anger).
Thy words are like the shame of women, Mark!
Like filthy hands! Irish I am, but there,
In word and deed, polite restraint prevails
And courteous measuredness; there fiery wrath
Becomes ne'er master of the man! And so
I was not taught in early youth to guard
Myself from drunkenness of wrath!

MARK.
O hark!
That was a sample of her haughty words!
Iseult the Goldenhaired of Ireland
Didst thou with thine own hand and blood sign this?

ISEULT.
Ay, Mark, I signed the bond.

(With closed eyes quoting.)

"And if from this
Day on Lord Tristram dares to show himself
Within my realm, he dies, and with him dies
Iseult of Ireland"--I signed my name
And wrote it with my blood.

MARK.
Denovalin
Most solemnly has pledged his head and soul
That he has seen my nephew Tristram, Lord
Of Lyonesse within my realm, and so,
If none stand forth to contradict, Iseult
Of Ireland shall die.

DINAS (stands up).
Denovalin
Has lied!

MARK.
Dinas of Lidan!

GANELUN.
Well said, good
Dinas!

DINAS.
I, too, did meet a man today
At early dawn whom I first held to be
Lord Tristram, nephew of King Mark.
Since from the east I rode and thou, my Lord
Denovalin, came through the Morois land
From thy good castle in the west, and since
Lubin stood as a central point between
Us both, Lord Tristram must have been two-fold
That in the east and in the west he crossed
My path, and at the self-same hour, the road
Of Lord Denovalin. This cannot be
And so one of the men was not the true
Lord Tristram; one of us was therefore wrong.
And if 'twas one, then why not both
My Lord Denovalin and I?

MARK.
Dinas,
Had I not known thee from thy youth I might
Have held thee guilty with Iseult! Has she
Ensnared thee too with perjured oaths and false
And lying countenance, that thou dost seek
To die for her so eagerly? Thy hair
Is gray like mine. Thou dreamest, man,
Denovalin has pledged his word that he
Has seen Lord Tristram! Ponder well ere thou
Take up his downflung glove.

2D BARON.
Yet Dinas may
Be right.

3D BARON.
I think so too.

5TH BARON.
There cannot be
Two Tristrams in the Morois wood.

DENOVALIN (springing up).
My Lords,
I've pledged my word! Take heed unto your tongues!

GANELUN.
It seems but right to me that Queen Iseult
Should not be put to death until the true
Lord Tristram, quick or dead, be found.

2D BARON.
Well said
Lord Ganelun!

3D BARON.
So think we all. King Mark!

ISEULT.
By God! my Lords, it is enough! ye sit
Discussing here in calm indifference
If I shall live or die, as though I were
An animal! My race is nobly sprung;
I will that ye bow down before my blood,
Since ye do not bow down to womanhood!
I will that ye permit me to return
To my apartments and that ye do not
Here keep me standing like a haltered beast!
King Mark may let me know your will when ye
Decide. And now I wish to go.

MARK (in swelling anger).
Oh hear her,
My Lords, hear her, does she not make one wish.
Groaning, to cast oneself before her feet;
To kiss her very shoes when she can find
Such noble sentiments and words! Behold
Her there! Is she not fuller than the whole
Wide world of smiles and tears. And when she laughed
With that fair mouth, entrancing and all pale,
Or silvery bright that God's whole world did dance
And sing in God's own hand, 'twas not on me
She smiled. And when upon her lowered lids
There trembled tears like drops of pearly dew
Upon a flower's brim, 'twas not for me
She wept! A phantom hovered over us
In all the sweet dark hours; 'twas for this ghost,
The phantom likeness of Lord Tristram's self,
She wept and smiled, true to her soul, though all
The while her soulless body lay all cold
Within mine arms deceiving me with smiles
And tears! She shall not die till Tristram can
Be found. Bethink you, Lords, the minutes that
Ye grant that mouth to smile! The minutes that
Ye grant those eyes to weep! Whom will it not
Deceive,--her laughter and her tears! Both you,
And me, and God! But I will change her smiles
To tears; her weeping to the bitter laugh
Of hideousness, that we at last may rest,
And be secure from all her woman's wiles!
And since she shall not die, then I will give her
As a gift! This surely is my kingly right,
For I am Mark, her lawful spouse and lord.
Today at noon, when in the sun her hair
Shall shine the brightest in the golden light
Unto the leprous beggars of Lubin
I'll give her as a gift!

DINAS.
Mark, art thou mad?

PARANIS.
The Queen! Oh help!

ISEULT (recovering herself).
'Tis nought; I'm better now.

GANELUN.
Thou speak'st a thing, in sorrow and in wrath,
A thing so terrible one fears to think
Thereon!

1ST BARON.
Bethink thee, Mark!

2D BARON.
Thou ravest, King.

4TH BARON.
Thou dost a most foul thing;--recall thy words!

MARK (crouches on the steps of the throne with
his back to the barons).
At mid-day shall the lepers of Lubin
Collect, and wait within the court.

DINAS.
Farewell,
King Mark, I'll stay with thee no more!

GANELUN.
I go
With thee.

1ST BARON.
And I.

2D BARON.
We leave thee, one and all!

MARK (turns his head, almost smiling).
Will no one stay with me?

DENOVALIN (stepping forward).
I will, King Mark.

MARK (springing up).
Oh, drive this man outside the walls, and bid
Him ride with speed! I feel a great
Desire to dip my hands in his foul blood
After this awful marriage feast! And if
A second time the Lord shall testify
'Gainst thee, Denovalin, then shalt thou die!
I swear it! Thou shalt die!

DENOVALIN (calmly).
My castle walls
Are high and strong, oh Mark!

ISEULT.
What loathsome brutes,
What wretched beasts lust makes of men!
Behold
Thyself, Oh Mark, thou that art wise and kind;
How deep consumed by lust! Thou wilt not let
Me live, but dost thy best to shame. That which
Thou lovest most, thou castest forth to be
A prey to vultures, and thou think'st the while
Thou hatest me! Oh Mark, how thou dost err
In thinking that thou hatest me! Behold,
I pity thee! And shall I now beseech,
And wring my hands, humbling myself to thee?
I do not know how women nobly born
Can live on through the loathsome leper test,
And will not think thereon, for 'tis enough
To make a woman die, yet, once again,
Before you all; before my God I swear,
And will repeat my solemn oath, and then,
When I have sworn it, He will send His help
Or let my flesh be torn between the dogs
And leprous human vultures of Lubin.
I swear that I have never thrilled with love
But for that man who elapsed me in his arms,
A maiden still, as clean and pure as snow
New-fallen on a winter's morn. This man,
And this man only, have I loved with all
The faith and passion of my womanhood.
I gave myself to him with all my soul;
My heart was full of dancing and of song;
My love was wreathed in smiles as some May-morn
Laughs softly on the mountain tops. This man
I loved; no other have I loved, though he
May grieve, and shame me, and deceive!--King Mark!

MARK (almost screaming).
Oh shield me, he that loves me, from her oaths!

DENOVALIN (turns calmly to ISEULT).
Lead back the Queen into her chamber, page!