Merlin, who knew the range of all their arts, There lay she all her length and kiss'd his feet, The blind wave feeling round his long sea-hall But neither eyes nor tongue,-O stupid child: And Vivien answer'd smiling saucily, "What, O my Master, have you found your voice? 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, If these unwitty wandering wits of mine, The great proof of your love: because I think, 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 I heard the great Sir Lancelot sing it once, 'In Love, if Love be Love, if 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 And like a silver shadow slipt away And Vivien answer'd, smiling mournfully; Lo now, what hearts have men! they never mount '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 all 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 yourself In dexter chief; the scroll 'I follow fame.' Of some vast charm concluded in that star If you-and not so much from wickedness, As some wild turn of anger, or a mood To keep me all to your own self, or else 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, Was this fair charm 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 withTheir 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 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, I yet should strike upon a sudden means And smiling as a Master smiles at one That is not of his school, nor any school But that where blind and naked Ignorance Delivers brawling judgments, unashamed, On all things all day long, he answered her: "You read the book, my pretty Vivien ! O ay, it is but twenty pages long, But every page having an ample marge, An every marge enclosing in the midst A square of text that looks a little blot, The text no larger than the limbs of fleas; And every square of text an awful charm, Writ in a language that has long gone by. So long, that mountains have arisen since With cities on their flanks-you read the book! And every margin scribbled, crost and cramm'd With comment, densest condensation, hard To mind and eye; but the long sleepless nights Of my long life have made it easy to me. And none can read the text, not even I; And none can read the comment but myself; And in the comment did I find the charm. O, the results are simple; a mere child Might use it to the harm of any one, And never could undo it: ask no more: For tho' you should not prove it upon me, But keep that oath you swore, you might, perchance, Assay it on some one of the Table Round, And all because you dream they babble of you." And Vivien, frowning in true anger, said: "What dare the full-fed liars say of me? They ride abroad redressing human wrongs! They sit with knife in meat and wine in horn. They bound to holy vows of chastity! Were I not woman, I could tell a tale. But you are man, you well can understand The shame that cannot be explain'd for shame. Not one of all the drove should touch me: swine!" Then answer'd Merlin careless of her words, "You breathe but accusation vast and vague, Spleen-born, I think, and proofless. If you know, Set up the charge you know, to stand or fall!" And Vivien answer'd, frowning wrathfully: "O ay, what say ye to Sir Valence, him Whose kinsman left him watcher o'er his wife And two fair babes, and went to distant lands; Was one year gone, and on returning found Not two but three: there lay the reckling, one But one hour old! What said the happy sire? A seven months' babe had been a truer gift. Those twelve sweet moons confused his fatherhood!" Then answer'd Merlin: "Nay, I know the tale. Sir Valence wedded with an outland dame: Some cause had kept him sunder'd from his wife: One child they had: it lived with her: she died: His kinsman travelling on his own affair Was charged by Valence to bring home the child. He brought, not found it therefore: take the truth." "O ay," said Vivien, "overtrue a tale. What say ye then to sweet Sir Sagramore, That ardent man? to pluck the flower in season;' So says the song, 'I trow it is no treason.' O Master, shall we call him overquick To crop his own sweet rose before the hour?" And Merlin answer'd: "Overquick are you To catch a lothly plume fall'n from the wing Of that foul bird of rapine whose whole prey Is man's good name: he never wrong'd his bride. Of Arthur's palace: then he found a door "O ay," said Vivien, "that were likely too. What say ye then to fair Sir Percivale And of the horrid foulness that he wrought, The saintly youth, the spotless lamb of Christ, Or some black wether of St. Satan's fold. What, in the precincts of the chapel-yard, Among the knightly brasses of the graves, And by the cold Hic Jacets of the dead!" And Merlin answer'd, careless of her charge: For, look upon his face !-but if he sinn'd, Or else were he, the holy king, whose hymns And Vivien answer'd frowning yet in wrath: "O ay; what say ye to Sir Lancelot, friend? Traitor or true? that commerce with the Queen, I ask you, is it clamor'd by the child, Or whisper'd in the corner? do you know it ?" To which he answer'd sadly: "Yea, I know it. Sir Lancelot went ambassador, at first, To fetch her, and she took him for the King; So fixt her fancy on him: let him be, But have you no one word of loyal praise For Arthur, blameless King and stainless man ?" She answer'd with a low and chuckling laugh: "Him?" is he man at all, who knows and winks? Sees what his fair bride is and does, and winks? By which the good king means to blind himself, And blinds himself and all the Table Round To all the foulness that they work. Myself Could call him (were it not for womanhood) The pretty, popular name such manhood earns, Could call him the main cause of all their crime: Yea, were he not crown'd king, coward, and fool." Then Merlin to his own heart, loathing, said: "O true and tender! O my liege and king! O selfless man and stainless gentleman, Who wouldst against thine own eye-witness fain Have all men true and leal, all women pure: How, in the mouths of base interpreters, From over-fineness not intelligible To things with every sense as false and foul As the poached filth that floods the middle street, Is thy white blamelessness accounted blame !" |