My proud self, and my purpose three years old, And set his foot upon me, and give me life. There was I broken down; there was I saved: Tho' thence I rode all-shamed, hating the life He gave me, meaning to be rid of it. And all the penance the Queen laid upon me Was but to rest awhile within her court: Where first as sullen as a beast new-caged, And waiting to be treated like a wolf, Because I knew my deeds were known, I found, Instead of scornful pity or pure scorn, Such fine reserve and noble reticence, Manners so kind, yet stately, such a grace Of tenderest courtesy, that I began
To glance behind me at my former life, And find that it had been the wolf's indeed: And oft I talk'd with Dubric, the high saint, Who, with mild heat of holy oratory, Subdued me somewhat to that gentleness, Which, when it weds with manhood, makes a man. And you were often there about the Queen, But saw me not, or marked not if you saw; Nor did I care or dare to speak with you. But kept myself aloof till I was changed; And fear not, cousin; I am changed indeed."
He spoke, and Enid easily believed, Like simple noble natures, credulous Of what they long for, good in friend or foe, There most in those who most have done them ill. And when they reach'd the camp the king himself Advanced to greet them, and beholding her Tho' pale, yet happy, ask'd her not a word, But went apart with Edyrn, whom he held In converse for a little, and return'd, And, gravely smiling, lifted her from horse, And kiss'd her with all pureness, brother-like, And show'd an empty tent allotted her, And glancing for a minute, till he saw her Pass into it, turn'd to the Prince, and said:
"Prince, when of late you pray'd me for my leave To move to your own land, and there defend Your marches, I was prick'd with some reproof, As one that let foul wrong stagnate and be, By having look'd too much thro' alien eyes, And wrought too long with delegated hands, Not used mine own: but now behold me come To cleanse this common sewer of all my realm, With Edyrn and with others: have you look'd At Edyrn? have you seen how nobly changed? This work of his is great and wonderful. His very face with change of heart is changed. The world will not believe a man repents: And this wise world of ours is mainly right. Full seldom does a man repent, or use Both grace and will to pick the vicious quitch Of blood and custom wholly out of him, And make all clean, and plant himself afresh. Edyrn has done it, weeding all his heart As I will weed this land before I go. I, therefore, made him of our Table Round, Not rashly, but have proved him every way One of our noblest, our most valorous, Sanest and most obedient: and indeed This work of Edyrn wrought upon himself After a life of violence, seems to me A thousand-fold more great and wonderful Than if some knight of mine, risking his life, My subject with my subjects under him, Should make an onslaught single on a realm Of robbers, tho' he slew them one by one, And were himself nigh wounded to the death."
And Enid tended on him there; and there Her constant motion round him, and the breath Of her sweet tendance hovering over him, Fill'd all the genial courses of his blood With deeper and with ever deeper love, As the south-west that blowing Bala lake Fills all the sacred Dee. So past the days.
But while Geraint lay healing of his hurt, The blameless King went forth and cast his eyes On whom his father Uther left in charge Long since, to guard the justice of the King: He look'd and found them wanting; and as now Men weed the white horse on the Berkshire hills To keep him bright and clean as heretofore, He rooted out the slothful officer
Or guilty, which for bribe had wink'd at wrong, And in their chairs set up a stronger race With hearts and hands, and sent a thousand men To till the wastes, and moving everywhere Clear'd the dark places and let in the law, And broke the bandit holds and cleansed the land
Then, when Geraint was whole again, they past With Arthur to Caerleon upon Usk. There the great Queen once more embraced her friend, And clothed her in apparel like the day. And tho' Geraint could never take again That comfort from their converse which he took Before the Queen's fair name was breathed upon, He rested well content that all was well. Thence after tarrying for a space they rode, And fifty knights rode with them to the shores Of Severn, and they past to their own land. And there he kept the justice of the King So vigorously yet mildly, that all hearts Applauded, and the spiteful whisper died: And being ever foremost in the chase, And victor at the tilt and tournament,
They call'd him the great Prince and man of men. But Enid, whom her ladies loved to call Euid the Fair, a grateful people named Enid the Good; and in their halls arose The cry of children, Enids and Geraints Of times to be; nor did he doubt her more But rested in her fealty, till he crown'd A happy life with a fair death, and fell Against the heathen of the Northern Sea In battle, fighting for the blameless King.
A STORM was coming, but the winds were still, And in the wild woods of Broceliande, Before an oak, so hollow huge and old It look'd a tower of ruin'd masonwork, At Merlin's feet the wily Vivien lay.
The wily Vivien stole from Arthur's court: She hated all the knights, and heard in thought Their lavish comment when her name was named. For once, when Arthur walking all alone, Vext at a rumor rife about the Queen, Had met her, Vivien, being greeted fair, Would fain have wrought upon his cloudy mood With reverent eyes mock-loyal, shaken voice, And flutter'd adoration, and at last
With dark sweet hints of some who prized him more Than who should prize him most; at which the King Had gazed upon her blankly and gone by: But one had watch'd, and had not held his peace:
So spake the King; low bow'd the Prince, and felt It made the laughter of an afternoon
His work was neither great nor wonderful, And past to Enid's tent; and thither came The King's own leech to look into his hurt:
That Vivien should attempt the blameless King. And after that, she set herself to gain Him, the most famous man of all those times,
Merlin, who knew the range of all their arts, Had built the King his havens, ships, and halls, Was also Bard, and knew the starry heavens; The people called him Wizard; whom at first She play'd about with slight and sprightly talk, And vivid smiles, and faintly-venom'd points Of slander, glancing here and grazing there; And yielding to his kindlier moods, the Seer Would watch her at her petulance, and play, Ev'n when they seem'd unlovable, and laugh As those that watch a kitten; thus he grew Tolerant of what he half disdain'd, and she, Perceiving that she was but half disdain'd, Began to break her sports with graver fits, Turn red or pale, would often when they met Sigh fully, or all-silent gaze upon him With such a fixt devotion, that the old man, Tho' doubtful, felt the flattery, and at times Would flatter his own wish in age for love, And half believe her true: for thus at times He waver'd; but that other clung to him, Fixt in her will, and so the seasons went. Then fell upon him a great melancholy; And leaving Arthur's court he gain'd the beach; There found a little boat, and stept into it; And Vivien follow'd, but he mark'd her not. She took the helm and he the sail; the boat Drave with a sudden wind across the deeps, And touching Breton sands they disembark'd. And then she follow'd Merlin all the way, Ev'n to the wild woods of Broceliande. For Merlin. once had told her of a charm, The which if any wrought on any one With woven paces and with waving arms, The man so wrought on ever seem'd to lie Closed in the four walls of a hollow tower, From which was no escape forevermore; And none could find that man forevermore, Nor could he see but him who wrought the charm Coming and going, and he lay as dead And lost to life and use and name and fame. And Vivien ever sought to work the charm Upon the great Enchanter of the Time, As fancying that her glory would be great According to his greatness whom she quench'd.
There lay she all her length and kiss'd his feet, As if in deepest reverence and in love. A twist of gold was round her hair; a robe Of samite without price, that more exprest Than hid her, clung about her lissome limbs, In color like the satin-shining palm On sallows in the windy gleams of March: And while she kiss'd them, crying, "Trample me, Dear feet, that I have follow'd thro' the world, And I will pay you worship; tread me down And I will kiss you for it;" he was mute: So dark a forethought roll'd about his brain, As on a dull day in an Ocean cave
The blind wave feeling round his long sea-hall In silence: wherefore, when she lifted up A face of sad appeal, and spake and said, "O Merlin, do you love me?" and again, "O Merlin, do you love me ?", and once more, "Great Master, do you love me ?" he was mute. And lissome Vivien, holding by his heel, Writhed toward him, slided up his knee and sat, Behind his ankle twined her hollow feet Together, curved an arm about his neck, Clung like a snake; and letting her left hand Droop from his mighty shoulder as a leaf, Made with her right a comb of pearl to part The lists of such a beard as youth gone out Had left in ashes: then he spoke and said, Not looking at her, "Who are wise in love Love most, say least," and Vivien answer'd quick, "I saw the little elf-god eyeless once In Arthur's arras hall at Camelot:
But neither eyes nor tongue,-O stupid child! Yet you are wise who say it; let me think Silence is wisdom: I am silent then And ask no kiss;" then adding all at once, "And lo, I clothe myself with wisdom," drew The vast and shaggy mantle of his beard Across her neck and bosom to her knee, And call'd herself a gilded summer fly Caught in a great old tyrant spider's web, Who meant to eat her up in that wild wood Without one word. So Vivien call'd herself, But rather seem'd a lovely baleful star Veil'd in gray vapor; till he sadly smiled: "To what request for what strange boon," he said, "Are these your pretty tricks and fooleries, O Vivien, the preamble? yet my thanks, For these have broken up my melancholy."
And Vivien answer'd smiling saucily,
"What, O my Master, have you found your voice? I bid the stranger welcome. Thanks at last! But yesterday you never open'd lip, Except indeed to drink: no cup had we: In mine own lady palms I cull'd the spring That gather'd trickling dropwise from the cleft, And made a pretty cup of both my hands- And offer'd you it kneeling: then you drank And knew no more, nor gave me one poor word; O no more thanks than might a goat have given With no more sign of reverence than a beard. And when we halted at that other well, And I was faint to swooning, and you lay Foot-gilt with all the blossom-dust of those Deep meadows we had traversed, did you know That Vivien bathed your feet before her own? And yet no thanks: and all thro' this wild wood And all this morning when I fondled you: Boon, yes, there was a boon, one not so strange- How had I wrong'd you? surely you are wise, But such a silence is more wise than kind."
And Merlin lock'd his hand in hers and said: "O did you never lie upon the shore, And watch the curl'd white of the coming wave Glass'd in the slippery sand before it breaks? Ev'n such a wave, but not so pleasurable, Dark in the glass of some presageful mood, Had I for three days seen, ready to fall. And then I rose and fled from Arthur's court To break the mood. You follow'd me unask'd; And when I look'd, and saw you following still, My mind involved yourself the nearest thing In that mind-mist; for shall I tell you truth? You seem'd that wave about to break upon me And sweep me from my hold upon the world, My use and name and fame. Your pardon, child. Your pretty sports have brighten'd all again. And ask your boon, for boon I owe you thrice, Once for wrong done you by confusion, next For thanks it seems till now neglected, last For these your dainty gambols: wherefore ask: And take this boon so strange and not so strange."
And Vivien answer'd, smiling mournfully: "O not so strange as my long asking it, Nor yet so strange as you yourself are strange, Nor half so strange as that dark mood of yours. I ever fear'd you were not wholly mine; And see, yourself have own'd you did me wrong. The people call you prophet: let it be: But not of those that can expound themselves. Take Vivien for expounder; she will call That three-days-long presageful gloom of yours No presage, but the same mistrustful mood That makes you seem less noble than yourself, Whenever I have ask'd this very boon, Now ask'd again; for see you not, dear love, That such a mood as that, which lately gloom'd
Your fancy when you saw me following you, Must make me fear still more you are not mine, Must make me yearn still more to prove you mine, And make me wish still more to learn this charm Of woven paces and of waving hands, As proof of trust. O Merlin, teach it me.
The charm so taught will charm us both to rest. For, grant me some slight power upon your fate, I, feeling that you felt me worthy trust, Should rest and let you rest, knowing you mine, And therefore be as great as you are named, Not muffled round with selfish reticence. How hard you look and how denyingly! O, if you think this wickedness in me, That I should prove it on you unawares, To make you lose your use and name and fame, That makes me most indignant; then our bond Had best be loosed forever: but think or not, By Heaven that hears I tell you the clean truth, As clean as blood of babes, as white as milk: O Merlin, may this earth, if ever I, If these unwitty wandering wits of mine, Ev'n in the jumbled rubbish of a dream, Have tript on such conjectural treachery- May this hard earth cleave to the Nadir hell Down, down, and close again, and nip me flat, If I be such a traitress. Yield my boon, Till which I scarce can yield you all I am; And grant my re-reiterated wish,
The great proof of your love: because I think, However wise, you hardly know me yet."
And Merlin loosed his hand from hers and said: "I never was less wise, however wise, Too curious Vivien, tho' you talk of trust, Than when I told you first of such a charm. Yea, if you talk of trust I tell you this, Too much I trusted, when I told you that, And stirr'd this vice in you which ruin'd man 'Thro' woman the first hour; for howsoe'er In children a great curiousness be well, Who have to learn themselves and all the world, In you, that are no child, for still I find Your face is practised, when I spell the lines, I call it, well, I will not call it vice: But since you name yourself the summer fly, I well could wish a cobweb for the gnat, That settles, beaten back, and beaten back Settles, till one could yield for weariness: But since I will not yield to give you power Upon my life and use and name and fame, Why will you never ask some other boon? Yea, by God's rood, I trusted you too much."
And Vivien, like the tenderest-hearted maid That ever bided tryst at village stile, Made answer, either eyelid wet with tears. "Nay, master, be not wrathful with your maid; Caress her: let her feel herself forgiven Who feels no heart to ask another boon. I think you hardly know the tender rhyme Of trust me not at all or all in all.'
I heard the great Sir Lancelot sing it once, And it shall answer for me. Listen to it.
'In Love, if Love be Love, it Love be ours, Faith and unfaith can ne'er be equal powers: Unfaith in aught is want of faith in all.
'It is the little rift within the lute, That by and by will make the music mute, And ever widening slowly silence all.
'The little rift within the lover's lute, Or little pitted speck in garner'd fruit, That rotting inward slowly moulders all.
It is not worth the keeping: let it go: But shall it? answer, darling, answer, no. And trust me not at all or all in all.'
O master, do you love my tender rhyme ?"
And Merlin look'd and half believed her true, So tender was her voice, so fair her face, So sweetly gleam'd her eyes behind her tears Like sunlight on a plain behind a shower: And yet he answer'd half indignantly:
"Far other was the song that once I heard By this huge oak, sung nearly where we sit: For here we met, some ten or twelve of us, To chase a creature that was current then In these wild woods, the hart with golden horns. It was the time when first the question rose About the founding of a Table Round, That was to be, for love of God and men And noble deeds, the flower of all the world. And each incited each to noble deeds. And while we waited, one, the youngest of us, We could not keep him silent, out he flash'd, And into such a song, such fire for fame, Such trumpet-blowings in it, coming down To such a stern and iron-clashing close, That when he stopt we long'd to hurl together, And should have done it; but the beauteous beast Scared by the noise upstarted at our feet, And like a silver shadow slipt away Thro' the dim land; and all day long we rode Thro' the dim land against the rushing wind, That glorious roundel echoing in our ears, And chased the flashes of his golden horns Until they vanish'd by the fairy well That laughs at iron-as our warriors didWhere children cast their pins and nails, and cry, "Laugh little well," but touch it with a sword, It buzzes wildly round the point; and there We lost him: such a noble song was that. But, Vivien, when you sang me that sweet rhyme, I felt as tho' you knew this cursed charm, Were proving it on me, and that I lay And felt them slowly ebbing, name and fame."
And Vivien answer'd, smiling mournfully; "O mine have ebb'd away forevermore, And all thro' following you to this wild wood, Because I saw you sad, to comfort you.
Lo now, what hearts have men! they never mount As high as woman in her selfless mood. And touching fame, howe'er you scorn my song Take one verse more-the lady speaks it-this:
'My name, once mine, now thine, is closelier mine, For fame, could fame be mine, that fame were thine, And shame, could shame be thine, that shame were mine.
So trust me not at all or ali in all.'
"Says she not well? and there is more-this rhyme Is like the fair pearl necklace of the Queen, That burst in dancing, and the pearls were spilt; Some lost, some stolen, some as relics kept. But nevermore the same two sister pearls Ran down the silken thread to kiss each other On her white neck-so is it with this rhyme; It lives dispersedly in many hands, And every minstrel sings it differently; Yet is there one true line, the pearl of pearls: Man dreams of Fame while woman wakes to love True: Love, tho' Love were of the grossest, carves A portion from the solid present, eats And uses, careless of the rest; but Fame, The Fame that follows death is nothing to us; And what is Fame in life but half-disfame, And counterchanged with darkness? you yourse
Know well that Envy calls you Devil's son, And since you seem the Master of all Art, They fain would make you Master of all Vice."
And Merlin lock'd his hand in hers and said, "I once was looking for a magic weed, And found a fair young squire who sat alone, Had carved himself a knightly shield of wood, And then was painting on it fancied arms, Azure, an Eagle rising, or, the Sun
In dexter chief; the scroll 'I follow fame.' And speaking not, but leaning over him, I took his brush and blotted out the bird, And made a Gardener putting in a graff, With this for motto, Rather use than fame.' You should have seen him blush; but afterwards He made a stalwart knight. O Vivien, For you, methinks you think you love me well; For me, I love you somewhat: rest: and Love Should have some rest and pleasure in himself, Not ever be too curious for a boon, Too prurient for a proof against the grain Of him you say you love: but Fame with men, Being but ampler means to serve mankind, Should have small rest or pleasure in herself, But work as vassal to the larger love, That dwarfs the petty love of one to one. Use gave me Fame at first, and Fame again Increasing gave me use. Lo, there my boon! What other? for men sought to prove me vile, Because I wish'd to give them greater minds; And then did Envy call me Devil's son; The sick weak beast seeking to help herself By striking at her better, miss'd, and brought Her own claw back, and wounded her own heart. Sweet were the days when I was all unknown, But when my name was lifted up, the storm Broke on the mountain and I cared not for it. Right well know I that Fame is half-disfame, Yet needs must work my work. That other fame, To one at least, who hath not children, vague, The cackle of the unborn about the grave, I cared not for it: a single misty star, Which is the second in a line of stars That seem a sword beneath a belt of three, I never gazed upon it but I dreamt
Of some vast charm concluded in that star To make fame nothing. Wherefore, if I fear, Giving you power upon me thro' this charm, That you might play me falsely, having power, However well you think you love me now (As sons of kings loving in pupilage
Have turn'd to tyrants when they came to power) I rather dread the loss of use than fame;
If you-and not so much from wickedness,
As some wild turn of anger, or a mood
Of overstrain'd affection, it may be,
To keep me all to your own self, or else A sudden spurt of woman's jealousy,
Should try this charm on whom you say you love."
And Vivien answer'd, smiling as in wrath: "Have I not sworn? I am not trusted. Good! Well, hide it, hide it; I shall find it out; And being found take heed of Vivien. A woman and not trusted, doubtless I Might feel some sudden turn of anger born Of your misfaith; and your fine epithet Is accurate too, for this full love of mine Without the full heart back may merit well Your term of overstrain'd. So used as I, My daily wonder is, I love at all. And as to woman's jealousy, O why not? O to what end except a jealous one, And one to make me jealous if I love, Wa this fair clarm invented by yourself? I well believe that all about this world You cage a buxom captive here and there,
Closed in the four walls of a hollow tower From which is no escape forevermore."
Then the great Master merrily answer'd her; "Full many a love in loving youth was mine, I needed then no charm to keep them mine But youth and love; and that full heart of yours Whereof you prattle, may now assure you mine; So live uncharm'd. For those who wrought it first, The wrist is parted from the hand that waved, The feet unmortised from their ankle-bones Who paced it, ages back: but will you hear The legend as in guerdon for your rhyme?
"There lived a King in the most Eastern East, Less old than I, yet older, for my blood Hath earnest in it of far springs to be. A tawny pirate anchor'd in his port,
Whose bark had plunder'd twenty nameless isles; And passing one, at the high peep of dawn, He saw two cities in a thousand boats All fighting for a woman on the sea. And pushing his black craft among them all, He lightly scatter'd theirs and brought her off, With loss of half his people arrow-slain; A maid so smooth, so white, so wonderful, They said a light came from her when she moved And since the pirate would not yield her up, The King impaled him for his piracy; Then made her Queen: but those isle-nurtur'd eyes Waged such unwilling tho' successful war On all the youth, they sicken'd; councils thinn'd, And armies waned, for magnet-like she drew The rustiest iron of old fighters' hearts, And beasts themselves would worship; camels knelt Unbidden, and the brutes of mountain back That carried kings in castles, bow'd black knees Of homage, ringing with their serpent hands, To make her smile, her golden ankle-bells. What wonder, being jealous, that he sent His horns of proclamation out thro' all The hundred under-kingdoms that he sway'd To find a wizard who might teach the King Some charm, which being wrought upon the Queen Might keep her all his own: to such a one He promised more than ever king has given, A league of mountain full of golden mines, A province with a hundred miles of coast, A palace and a princess, all for him: But on all those who tried and fail'd, the King Pronounced a dismal sentence, meaning by it To keep the list low and pretenders back, Or like a king, not to be trifled with- Their heads should moulder on the city gates. And many tried and fail'd, because the charm Of nature in her overbore their own: And many a wizard brow bleach'd on the walls: And many weeks a troop of carrion crows Hung like a cloud above the gateway towers."
And Vivien, breaking in upon him, said: "I sit and gather honey; yet, methinks, Your tongue has tript a little: ask yourself. The lady never made unwilling war With those fine eyes: she had her pleasure in it, And made her good man jealous with good cause. And lived there neither dame nor damsel then Wroth at a lover's loss? were all as tame, I mean, as noble, as their Queen was fair? Not one to flirt a venom at her eyes, Or pinch a murderous dust into her drink, Or make her paler with a poison'd rose? Well, those were not our days; but did they find A wizard? Tell me, was he like to thee?"
She ceased, and made her lithe arm round his neck Tighten, and then drew back, and let her eyes Speak for her, glowing on him, like a bride's On her new lord, her own, the first of men.
He answer'd laughing, "Nay, not like to me. At last they found-his foragers for charmsA little glassy-headed hairless man, Who lived alone in a great wild on grass; Read but one book, and ever reading grew So grated down and filed away with thought, So lean his eyes were monstrous; while the skin Clung but to crate and basket, ribs and spine. And since he kept his mind on one sole aim, Nor ever touch'd fierce wine, nor tasted flesh, Nor own'd a sensual wish, to him the wall That sunders ghosts and shadow-casting men Became a crystal, and he saw them thro' it, And heard their voices talk behind the wall, And learnt their elemental secrets, powers And forces; often o'er the sun's bright eye Drew the vast eyelid of an inky cloud, And lash'd it at the base with slanting storm; Or in the noon of mist and driving rain, When the lake whiten'd and the pine-wood roar'd, And the cairn'd mountain was a shadow, sunn'd
The world to peace again: here was the man. And so by force they dragg'd him to the King. And then he taught the King to charm the Queen In such wise, that no man could see her more, Nor saw she save the King, who wronght the charm, Coming and going, and she lay as dead, And lost all use of life: but when the King Made proffer of the league of golden mines, The province with a hundred miles of coast, The palace and the princess, that old man Went back to his old wild, and lived on grass, And vanish'd, and his book came down to me."
And Vivien answer'd, smiling saucily: "You have the book: the charm is written in it. Good: take my counsel: let me know it at once: For keep it like a puzzle chest in chest, With each chest lock'd and padlock'd thirty-fold, And whelm all this beneath as vast a mound As after furious battle turfs the slain On some wild down above the windy deep,
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