Delphi Complete Poetical Works of Algernon Charles Swinburne (Illustrated) (Delphi Poets Series)
Page 278
A sign for us of comfort.
MADAN.
Dost thou fear
Signs?
GUENDOLEN.
Nay, child, nay — thou art harsh as heaven to me -
I would but have of thee a word of cheer.
MADAN.
I am weak in words: my tongue can match not thine,
Mother.
Voices within] The king!
GUENDOLEN.
Hearst thou?
Voices within.] The king!
MADAN.
I hear.
Enter LOCRINE.
LOCRINE.
How fares my queen?
GUENDOLEN.
Well. And this child of mine -
How he may fare concerns not thee to know?
LOCRINE.
Why, well I see my boy fares well.
GUENDOLEN.
Locrine,
Thou art welcome as the sun to fields of snow.
LOCRINE.
But hardly would they hail the sun whose face
Dissolves them deathward. Was thy meaning so?
GUENDOLEN.
Make answer for me, Madan.
LOCRINE.
In thy place?
The boy’s is not beside thee.
GUENDOLEN.
Speak, I say.
MADAN.
God guard my lord and father with his grace!
LOCRINE.
Well prayed, my child.
GUENDOLEN.
Children — who can but pray -
Pray better, if my sense not err, than we.
The God whom all the gods of heaven obey
Should hear them rather, seeing — as gods may see -
How pure of purpose is their perfect prayer.
LOCRINE.
I think not else — the better then for me.
But ours — what manner of child is this? the hair
Buds flowerwise round his darkening lips and chin,
This hand’s young hardening palm knows how to bear
The sword-hilt’s poise that late I laid therein -
Ha? doth not it?
GUENDOLEN.
Thine enemies know that well.
MADAN.
I make no boast of battles that have been;
But, so God help me, days unborn shall tell
What manner of heart my father gave me.
LOCRINE.
Good.
I doubt thee not.
GUENDOLEN.
In Cornwall they that fell
So found it, that of all their large-limbed brood
No bulk is left to brave thee.
LOCRINE.
Yea, I know
Our son hath given the wolf our foes for food
And won him worthy praise from friend or foe;
And heartier praise and trustier thanks from none,
Boy, than thy father pays thee.
GUENDOLEN.
Wouldst thou show
Thy love, thy thanks, thy fatherhood in one,
Thy perfect honour — yea, thy right to stand
Crowned, and lift up thine eyes against the sun
As one so pure in heart, so clean of hand,
So loyal and so royal, none might cast
A word against thee burning like a brand,
A sound that withers honour, and makes fast
The bondage of a recreant soul to shame -
Thou shouldst, or ever an hour be overpast,
Slay him.
LOCRINE.
Thou art mad.
GUENDOLEN.
What, is not then thy name
Locrine? and hath this boy done ill to thee?
Hath he not won him for thy love’s sake fame?
Hath he not served thee loyally? is he
So much thy son, so little son of mine,
That men might call him traitor? May they see
The brand across his brow that reddens thine?
How shouldst thou dare — how dream — to let him live?
Is he not loyal? art not thou Locrine?
What less than death for guerdon shouldst thou give
My son who hath done thee service? Me thou hast given -
Who hast found me truer than falsehood can forgive -
Shame for my guerdon: yea, my heart is riven
With shame that once I loved thee.
LOCRINE.
Guendolen,
A woman’s wrath should rest not unforgiven
Save of the slightest of the sons of men:
And no such slight and shameful thing am I
As would not yield thee pardon.
GUENDOLEN.
Slay me then.
LOCRINE.
Thee, or thy son? but now thou bad’st him die.
GUENDOLEN.
Thou liest: I bade thee slay him.
LOCRINE.
Art thou mad
Indeed?
GUENDOLEN.
O liar, is all the world a lie?
I bade thee, knowing thee what thou art — I bade
My lord and king and traitor slay my son -
A heartless hand that lacks the power it had
Smite one whose stroke shall leave it strengthless — one
Whose loyal loathing of his shame in thee
Shall cast it out of eyeshot of the sun.
LOCRINE.
Thou bad’st me slay him that he might — he, slay me?
GUENDOLEN.
Thou hast said — and yet thou hast lied not.
LOCRINE.
Hell’s own hate
Brought never forth such fruit as thine.
GUENDOLEN.
But he
Is the issue of thy love and mine, by fate
Made one to no good issue. Didst thou trust
That grief should give to men disconsolate
Comfort, and treason bring forth truth, and dust
Blossom? What love, what reverence, what regard,
Shouldst thou desire, if God or man be just,
Of this thy son, or me more evil-starred,
Whom scorn salutes his mother?
LOCRINE.
How should scorn
Draw near thee, girt about with power for guard,
Power and good fame? unless reproach be born
Of these thy violent vanities of mood
That fight against thine honour.
GUENDOLEN.
Dost thou mourn
For that? Too careful art thou for my good,
Too tender and too true to me and mine,
For shame to make my heart or thine his food
Or scorn lay hold upon my fame or thine.
Art thou not pure as honour’s perfect heart -
Not treason-cankered like my lord Locrine,
Whose likeness shows thee fairer than thou art
And falser than thy loving care of me
Would bid my faith believe thee?
LOCRINE.
What strange part
Is this that changing passion plays in thee?
Know’st thou me not?
GUENDOLEN.
Yea — witness heaven and hell,
And all the lights that lighten earth and sea,
And all that wrings my heart, I know thee well.
How should I love and hate and know thee not?
LOCRINE.
Thy voice is as the sound of dead love’s knell.
GUENDOLEN.
Long since my heart has tolled it — and forgot
All save the cause that bade the death-bell sound
And cease and bring forth silence.
LOCRINE.
Is thy lot
Less fair and royal, girt with power and crowned, -
Than might fulfil the loftiest heart’s desire?
GUENDOLEN.
Not air but fire it is that rings me round -
Thy voice makes all my brain a wheel of fire.
Man, what have I to do with pride
of power?
Such pride perchance it was that moved my sire
To bid me wed — woe worth the woful hour! -
His brother’s son, the brother’s born above
Him as above me thou, the crown and flower
Of Britain, gentler-hearted than the dove
And mightier than the sunward eagle’s wing:
But nought moved me save one thing only — love.
LOCRINE.
I know it.
GUENDOLEN.
Thou knowest? but this thou knowest not, king,
How near of kin are bitter love and hate -
Nor which of these may be the deadlier thing.
LOCRINE.
What wouldst thou?
GUENDOLEN.
Death. Would God my heart were great!
Then would I slay myself.
LOCRINE.
I dare not fear
That heaven hath marked for thee no fairer fate.
GUENDOLEN.
Ay! wilt thou slay me then — and slay me here?
LOCRINE.
Mock not thy wrath and me. No hair of thine
Would I — thou knowest it — hurt; nor vex thine ear
With answering wrath more vain than fumes of wine.
I have wronged and yet not wronged thee. Whence or when
Strange whispers rose that turned thy heart from mine
I would not know for shame’s sake, Guendolen,
And honour’s that I bear thee.
GUENDOLEN.
Didst thou deem
I would outlive with thee the scorn of men,
A slave enthroned beside a traitor? Seem
These eyes and lips and hands of mine a slave’s
Uplift for mercy toward thee? Such a dream
Sets realms on fire, and turns their fields to graves.
LOCRINE.
No dream is mine that does thee less than right:
Albeit thy words be wild as warring waves,
I know thee higher of heart than shame could smite
And queenlier than thy queenship.
GUENDOLEN.
Dost the know
What day records to day and night to night -
How he whose wrath was rained as hail or snow
On Troy’s adulterous towers, when treacherous flame
Devoured them, and our fathers’ roofs lay low,
And all their praise was turned to fire and shame -
All-righteous God, who herds the stars of heaven
As sheep within his sheepfold — God, whose name
Compels the wandering clouds to service, given
As surely as even the sun’s is — loves or hates
Treason? He loved our sires: were they forgiven?
Their walls upreared of gods, their sevenfold gates,
Might these keep out his justice? What art thou
To make thy will more strong and sure than fate’s?
Thy fate am I, that falls upon thee now.
Wilt thou not slay me yet — and slay thy son?
So shall thy fate change, and unbend the brow
That now looks mortal on thee.
LOCRINE.
What is done
Lies now past help or pleading: nor would I
Plead with thee, knowing that love henceforth is none
Nor trust between us till the day we die.
Yet, if thy name be woman, — if thine heart
Be not burnt up with fire of hell, and lie
Not wounded even to death — albeit we part,
Let there not be between us war, but peace,
Though love may be not.
GUENDOLEN.
Peace? The man thou art
Craves — and shame bids not breath within him cease -
Craves of the woman that thou knowest I am
Peace? Ay, take hands at parting, and release
Each heart, each hand, each other: shall the lamb,
The lamb-like woman, born to cower and bleed,
Withstand his will whose choice may save or damn
Her days and nights, her word and thought and deed -
Take heart to outdare her lord the lion? How
Should this be — if the lion’s imperial seed
Life not against his sire as brave a brow
As frowns upon his mother? — Peace be then
Between us: none may stand before thee now:
No son of thine keep faith with Guendolen.
MADAN.
I have held my peace perforce, it seems, too long,
Being slower of speech than sons of meaner men.
But seeing my sire hath done my mother wrong,
My hand is hers to serve against my sire.
GUENDOLEN.
And God shall make thine hand against him strong.
LOCRINE.
Ay: when the hearthstead flames, the roof takes fire.
GUENDOLEN.
Woe worth his hand who set the hearth on flame!
LOCRINE.
Curse not our fathers; though thy fierce desire
Drive thine own son against his father, shame
Should rein thy tongue from speech too shameless.
GUENDOLEN.
Ay!
And thou, my holy-hearted lord, — the same
Whose hand was laid in mine and bound to lie
There fast for ever if faith be found on earth -
If truth be true, and shame not wholly die -
Hast thou not made thy mockery and thy mirth,
Thy laughter and thy scorn, of shame? But we,
Thy wife by wedlock, and thy son by birth,
Who have no part in spirit and soul with thee,
Will bear no part in kingdom nor in life
With one who hath put to shame his child and me.
Thy true-born son, and I that was thy wife,
Will see thee dead or perish. Call thy men
About thee; bid them gird their loins for strife
More dire than theirs who storm the wild wolf’s den;
For if thou dare not slay us here today
Thou art dead.
LOCRINE.
Thou knowest I dare not, Guendolen,
Dare what the ravenous beasts whose life is prey
Dream not of doing, though drunk with bloodshed.
GUENDOLEN.
No:
Thou art gentle, and beasts are honest: no such way
Lies open toward thy fearful foot: not so
Shalt thou find surety from these foes of thine.
Woe worth thee therefore! yea, a sevenfold woe
Shall God through us rain down on thee, Locrine.
Hadst thou the heart God hath not given thee — then
Our blood might run before thy feet like wine
And wash thy way toward sin in sight of men
Smooth, soft, and safe. But if thou shed it not -
If Madan live to look on Guendolen
Living — I wot not what shall be — I wot
What shall not — thou shalt have no joy to live
More than have they for whom God’s wrath grows hot.
LOCRINE.
God’s grace is no such gift as thou canst give,
Queen, or withhold. Farewell.
GUENDOLEN.
I dare not say
Farewell.
LOCRINE.
And why?
GUENDOLEN.
Thou hast not said — Forgive.
LOCRINE.
I say it — I have said. Thou wilt not hear me?
GUENDOLEN.
Nay.
[Exeunt.
ACT V.
SCENE I. — Fields near the Severn.
Enter on one side LOCRINE and his army: on the other side
GUENDOLEN, MADAN, and their army.
LOCRINE.
Stand fast, and sound a parley.
MADAN.
Halt: it seems
They would have rather speech
than strokes of us.
LOCRINE.
This light of dawn is like an evil dream’s
That comes and goes and is not. Yea, and thus
Our hope on both sides wavering dares allow
No light but fire to bid us die or live.
- Son, and my wife that was, my rebels now,
That here we stand with death to take or give
I call the sun of heaven, God’s likeness wrought
On darkness, whence all spirits breathe and shine,
To witness, is no work of will or thought
Conceived or bred in brain or heart of mine.
Ye have levied wars against me, and compelled
My will unwilling and my power withheld
To strike the stroke I would not, when I might.
Will ye not yet take thought, and spare these men
Whom else the blind and burning fire of fight
Must feed upon for pasture? Guendolen,
Had I not left thee queen in Troynovant,
Though wife no more of mine, in all this land
No hand had risen, no eye had glared askant,
Against me: thine is each man’s heart and hand
That burns and strikes in all this battle raised
To serve and slake thy vengeance. With my son
I plead not, seeing his praise in arms dispraised
For ever, and his deeds of truth undone
By patricidal treason. But with thee
Peace would I have, if peace again may be
Between us. Blood by wrath unnatural shed
Or spent in civic battle burns the land
Whereon it falls like fire, and brands as red
The conqueror’s forehead as the warrior’s hand.
I pray thee, spare this people: reign in peace
With separate honours in a several state:
As love that was hath ceased, let hatred cease:
Let not our personal cause be made the fate
That damns to death men innocent, and turns
The joy of life to darkness. Thine alone