Lanval

Cue-sheet for Triamour

(Bernardo) {To an apprentice, painting.}
 
(Lanval) Returned so soon?
(1, 2) 752 The fire burnt low, my lord.
(Lanval) Dost thou not fear?
 
(Lanval) Dost thou not fear?
(1, 2) 754 I shall not fear here.
(Lanval) Thou needst not, girl. {dreamily} It's true more danger lives
 
(Lanval) Why did thy comrades fear this place so much.
(1, 2) 772 My lord, at times a phantom uses this
(1, 2) 773 As her abode. She has the power to suck
(1, 2) 774 The life and essence from all things she meets,
(1, 2) 775 To creep about the heart of men with words
(1, 2) 776 And dim illusions, till her manner draws
(1, 2) 777 The soul from them, as all blood-feeding beasts,
(1, 2) 778 Once fixed, drain forth their poor drugged victim's life.
(Lanval) What more?
 
(Lanval) What more?
(1, 2) 780 The power that in the darkness lives
(1, 2) 781 Impalpable, is hers to lose or hold.
(1, 2) 782 The mysteries that on all being brood,
(1, 2) 783 Are hers to open. In the mists of night
(1, 2) 784 She sits embowered, and strange thoughts surround
(1, 2) 785 Her habitation. For her service wait
(1, 2) 786 Wild visions ready, and fantastic dreams,
(1, 2) 787 To make the circuit of the sleeping world,
(1, 2) 788 And breathe their formless and suggestive speech
(1, 2) 789 To souls that slumber.
(Lanval) {Seizing a brand from the fire.}
 
(Lanval) That I see phantoms?
(1, 2) 796 Lanval.
(Lanval) Hast my name?
 
(Lanval) And stands to mock me.
(1, 2) 800 Have no fear.
(Lanval) Not I!
 
(Lanval) Thou canst not harm me.
(1, 2) 806 Nay, I shall not harm
(1, 2) 807 Aught of thy being. Come, touch me if thou wilt;
(1, 2) 808 No need of steel, for that will hurt me not.
(Lanval) {Coming near.} So, 'tis the stuff, the substance of this world,
 
(Lanval) I know thee not!
(1, 2) 814 But I do know thee well,
(1, 2) 815 For I am flesh or spirit as I please,
(1, 2) 816 For some incarnate in this woman's shape,
(1, 2) 817 For some the fear and terror of deep glades,
(1, 2) 818 For some the flame invisible that drifts
(1, 2) 819 Out of the night, that fires the soul of men
(1, 2) 820 To seek the strangeness of all wild desire.
(Lanval) They say the devil takes such shapes as this,
 
(Lanval) When he would tempt the constancy of knights!
(1, 2) 823 Nay, fear me not.
(Lanval) Nay, I fear not, but doubt
 
(Lanval) Why thou hast come to trouble me.
(1, 2) 826 Do I
(1, 2) 827 So trouble thee? I come but from my place
(1, 2) 828 To taste the fever of this sickly earth,
(1, 2) 829 And also —
(Lanval) Also?
 
(Lanval) Also?
(1, 2) 831 I have come too close
(1, 2) 832 Unto this world. My being has been snared
(1, 2) 833 Into its uses.
(Lanval) What meanest thou?
 
(Lanval) What meanest thou?
(1, 2) 835 Is there need
(1, 2) 836 To ask of me? Nay, Lanval, I have come
(1, 2) 837 Out of the quiet of the middle world
(1, 2) 838 To plead with thee, I, Triamour,
(1, 2) 839 One of the daughters of the middle world.
(Lanval) Let me hold fast my senses, for they reel; —
 
(Lanval) I know this world!
(1, 2) 842 There is a world as well,
(1, 2) 843 That lies so close unto your being's self,
(1, 2) 844 Is so entwined amid your secret thoughts,
(1, 2) 845 That its existence is not known of you.
(1, 2) 846 This is the vapour that doth shelter man
(1, 2) 847 Lest he be scorched by the fierce heat of truth.
(Lanval) How may this be?
 
(Lanval) How may this be?
(1, 2) 849 Speak not of it, but say
(1, 2) 850 I came not vainly!
(Lanval) How shall I believe?
 
(Lanval) How shall I believe?
(1, 2) 852 That I do love thee? Look into mine eyes,
(1, 2) 853 And say if malice or deception lie
(1, 2) 854 In ambush there!
(Lanval) I dare not.
 
(Lanval) I dare not.
(1, 2) 856 Am I then
(1, 2) 857 Not fair enough?
(Lanval) So wonderful and strange!
 
(Lanval) Upon thy speech.
(1, 2) 861 Thou wilt not hear me?
(Lanval) No;
 
(Lanval) For mortal feeling.
(1, 2) 865 I am shamed. Unkind
(1, 2) 866 Thou art and cruel. {She moves away. }
(Lanval) Can I endure it so,
 
(Lanval) To stake on it. Stay, Triamour!
(1, 2) 871 Farewell!
(1, 2) 872 My own state waits me.
(Lanval) May I not attain
 
(Lanval) Unto that world?
(1, 2) 875 But by mine aid alone;
(1, 2) 876 And since no pleasure or sweet feeling comes
(1, 2) 877 Of this my presence, let us be apart.
(Lanval) Stay but a moment.
 
(Lanval) Stay but a moment.
(1, 2) 879 We shall meet no more
(1, 2) 880 At any time!
(Lanval) Nay, be thou merciful.
 
(Lanval) Without thy presence.
(1, 2) 891 This is no constancy,
(1, 2) 892 To spurn me first and then implore mine aid.
(1, 2) 893 Have care, Sir Lanval, this is no slight quest;
(1, 2) 894 And slender souls that are not steeled of love,
(1, 2) 895 May fail their entry and be ever lost
(1, 2) 896 In the cold void that lies about these gates.
(1, 2) 897 Art thou my knight, sworn to my services?
(Lanval) Let me be so, though I had never thought
 
(Lanval) Unto thy being.
(1, 2) 901 Bear witness to it, dreams,
(1, 2) 902 All evil hauntings that infest the air!
(1, 2) 903 Now shall remorse and foul disaster watch,
(1, 2) 904 And blasting visions hang upon thy course.
(1, 2) 905 See that thou fail not.
(Lanval) On my soul be it!
 
(Lanval) On my soul be it!
(1, 2) 907 Look on the world, for it may be henceforth
(1, 2) 908 Thou shalt not see it. Bid the earth farewell
(1, 2) 909 And all its usage.
(Lanval) I'll not mourn for it.
 
(Lanval) And I can leave it with no pain at heart.
(1, 2) 914 Ours is a better and a stranger world,
(1, 2) 915 Its gates swing open in the darkling hours
(1, 2) 916 Upon the path of perfumes of the night.
(1, 2) 917 Harken, ye wardens of the middle world,
(1, 2) 918 Spirits of flame that stand at this world's edge —
(1, 2) 919 A soul would enter! Let me touch thine eyes
(1, 2) 920 And put the fabric of this world away,
(1, 2) 921 A time-worn garment to be cast aside
(1, 2) 922 On such a moment. Come, it is the hour!
(Gyfert) Wast here, fellow?
 
(Gyfert) If it were not, this dog would howl to it.
(2, 1) 993 Go! Speed you, shadows! Come not near to us,
(2, 1) 994 For we are ringed with virtues, and your ends
(2, 1) 995 Call not to them. Sweet dusk of dreams be close,
(2, 1) 996 Let no red thinking thread our pleasant hours
(2, 1) 997 With strands of riot.
(Lanval) Triamour.
 
(2, 1) 1000 The clouds are passing.
(Lanval) Aye, it seems to me
 
(Lanval) The light has changed.
(2, 1) 1003 Is there a difference
(2, 1) 1004 Already?
(Lanval) Surely this harsh colouring
 
(Lanval) Wherein I entered!
(2, 1) 1008 Has it changed my face?
(2, 1) 1009 Or form?
(Lanval) I thought you once a wondrous flower,
 
(Lanval) Has made you strange.
(2, 1) 1014 Think not of it. This state
(2, 1) 1015 Is flamed and tinctured by the mind of man,
(2, 1) 1016 Who sees it not. Gross motion makes us storms,
(2, 1) 1017 Blue, hanging thunder and swart shadowing:
(2, 1) 1018 And gentle peace breeds us a gentler moon.
(2, 1) 1019 We have our nights when reeling man goes down
(2, 1) 1020 To savagery: then from the striving birth
(2, 1) 1021 Comes amber dawn.
(Lanval) But now the skies are filled
 
(Lanval) Of kings in war.
(2, 1) 1025 A sun is setting now.
(2, 1) 1026 Man has his seasons as the natural earth,
(2, 1) 1027 High-hearted springs, calm, open summer times,
(2, 1) 1028 Wherein he weaves his kingdoms and his thoughts,
(2, 1) 1029 And hopeless autumn, when his fabrics fall
(2, 1) 1030 Before the onset of the wolfish winds.
(2, 1) 1031 Then shrinking days die out in such a glare
(2, 1) 1032 As we can see.
(Lanval) We watch an autumn, then?
 
(Lanval) We watch an autumn, then?
(2, 1) 1034 Rome was its summer. These reflected fires
(2, 1) 1035 Foretell a winter.
(Lanval) And we watch?
 
(Lanval) And we watch?
(2, 1) 1037 In peace
(2, 1) 1038 We'll mark the season of man's brute despair,
(2, 1) 1039 And see its beauty. From the tumbled shreds
(2, 1) 1040 And rotting squalor of enfeebled years,
(2, 1) 1041 We'll patiently await the wondrous birth
(2, 1) 1042 Of a new spring.
(Lanval) I cannot understand.
 
(Lanval) What is this place?
(2, 1) 1045 This is the quiet land:
(2, 1) 1046 The ever-restful pleasaunce of sweet ghosts,
(2, 1) 1047 The lawn and arbour of the gentle folk,
(2, 1) 1048 It needs no knowledge.
(Lanval) Wherefore?
 
(Lanval) Wherefore?
(2, 1) 1050 Here all space
(2, 1) 1051 Is but a dream; all life a vision; time,
(2, 1) 1052 A thing unknown.
(Lanval) How can I think of it?
 
(Lanval) How can I think of it?
(2, 1) 1054 Here thought needs not expression for its use,
(2, 1) 1055 And souls rend not their substance in the war
(2, 1) 1056 They wage with silence, but exist in peace.
(2, 1) 1057 Here sleep the old ambitions and lost loves,
(2, 1) 1058 And from the wrack of lives in anguish spent,
(2, 1) 1059 Souls spring like flowers; for here is nothing gross,
(2, 1) 1060 The very essence and material
(2, 1) 1061 Of this existence are in phantasies.
(2, 1) 1062 For there is nothing coarser than a dream
(2, 1) 1063 In all the regions of the middle world.
(Lanval) But I have flesh and garb of man.
 
(Lanval) But I have flesh and garb of man.
(2, 1) 1065 In such a shape I chose thee from the world.
(2, 1) 1066 I would not change it.
(Lanval) Were I worthier
 
(Lanval) I should not be ashamed.
(2, 1) 1069 Am I so much
(2, 1) 1070 That I am feared?
(Lanval) All exaltations here,
 
(Lanval) I am but man.
(2, 1) 1076 O love of mine, be still.
(2, 1) 1077 Man grows from man: in time from man shall grow
(2, 1) 1078 The gods again. Meantime, is there a state
(2, 1) 1079 Of greater pleasure and content contrived
(2, 1) 1080 In the dull broodings of the fettered earth
(2, 1) 1081 Than this we look on?
(Lanval) It is fair indeed.
 
(Lanval) It is fair indeed.
(2, 1) 1083 Here, like the gods, shall we immortal watch
(2, 1) 1084 Eternal change: see the free spirits stride
(2, 1) 1085 To vaster issues, and conception breed
(2, 1) 1086 Fairness on fairness; we shall view the souls
(2, 1) 1087 Who rest in patience rising like the mists
(2, 1) 1088 When as God's trumpets cry the call to life.
(2, 1) 1089 Will you not thank me? I have striven much
(2, 1) 1090 To do thy pleasure.
(Lanval) I am sick at heart.
 
(Lanval) I am sick at heart.
(2, 1) 1092 Why so?
(Lanval) Thy sweetness is so much to me
 
(Lanval) As I am not —
(2, 1) 1097 Nay — Lanval —
(Lanval) Hear me out.
 
(Lanval) Affection squandered on a thing unproved —
(2, 1) 1108 And my poor judgment — is it nothing worth?
(2, 1) 1109 I, who have tested, tricked and played with man,
(2, 1) 1110 Have I no wisdom?
(Lanval) Thou art overwise.
 
(Lanval) Thou art overwise.
(2, 1) 1112 And yet I drew thee from a million shapes
(2, 1) 1113 And forms of being. I am satisfied.
(Lanval) But I am not. I have myself to please —
 
(Lanval) That one could wish for.
(2, 1) 1117 Dost thou not serve me
(2, 1) 1118 And my commandments?
(Lanval) In all faith.
 
(Lanval) In all faith.
(2, 1) 1120 Why then
(2, 1) 1121 Misdoubt my judgment?
(Lanval) I have kept my pride.
 
(Lanval) Equal or nothing.
(2, 1) 1132 Here's a flame indeed,
(2, 1) 1133 For one who lately did abjure the world,
(2, 1) 1134 I think, for me!
(Lanval) God help me! I forswear
 
(Lanval) And force my substance to strange attributes.
(2, 1) 1140 Tired so soon? Do I then weary thee?
(2, 1) 1141 It is my presence brings this restlessness.
(2, 1) 1142 Well, I'll be kindly, and for remedy
(2, 1) 1143 Of this distraction leave you to yourself.
(Lanval) Nay, Triamour. You take my words amiss.
 
(Lanval) Nay, Triamour. You take my words amiss.
(2, 1) 1145 Thou dost not love me.
(Lanval) How can I do more
 
(Lanval) But yet believe me.
(2, 1) 1153 So I will. Be frank.
(2, 1) 1154 What troubles thee?
(Lanval) Thought, only thought.
 
(Lanval) Thought, only thought.
(2, 1) 1156 Have the cold phantoms of the foolish world
(2, 1) 1157 Still hold on thee? Come! these are but the pangs
(2, 1) 1158 And fearful wonder of strange happenings.
(2, 1) 1159 Soon thou shalt slough the vesture of thy form
(2, 1) 1160 As doth the snake in spring. Such little things
(2, 1) 1161 Are wrapped like rags about all little souls,
(2, 1) 1162 That the vile texture of their garment makes
(2, 1) 1163 Beggars of men. But we'll be free of this,
(2, 1) 1164 And in affection watch while circling years
(2, 1) 1165 Drift like the vultures. Empires are to us
(2, 1) 1166 But huge flushed clouds, and manners but the change
(2, 1) 1167 From sleet to sunlight. Here is happiness,
(2, 1) 1168 And peace, untinctured of perverted thoughts
(2, 1) 1169 That bring contrition.
(Lanval) Watch, always to watch!
 
(Lanval) And am not of it.
(2, 1) 1174 I will bring to thee
(2, 1) 1175 Spirits of every fashion, and strange souls
(2, 1) 1176 In whose communion discontent shall die,
(2, 1) 1177 Since I am not enough.
(Lanval) Nay, Triamour,
 
(Lanval) I would not others.
(2, 1) 1180 Lanval, tell me, then,
(2, 1) 1181 What is this sickness?
(Lanval) Give me a little time.
 
(Lanval) Heed other motions.
(2, 1) 1194 What is this?
(Lanval) The while
 
(Lanval) Beyond forgiveness?
(2, 1) 1218 Listen, there's no fault
(2, 1) 1219 In anything except in ignorance.
(2, 1) 1220 The fault was mine. Nay, hear me; thou hast heard
(2, 1) 1221 The horns of action, and beheld the souls
(2, 1) 1222 That God has fettered.
(Lanval) What are they?
 
(Lanval) What are they?
(2, 1) 1224 Such souls
(2, 1) 1225 As have been clasped too firm in earthly bonds;
(2, 1) 1226 Strange lives that sprang in unauspicious days,
(2, 1) 1227 And being baulked of their short-lived desire,
(2, 1) 1228 Do restless surge against their impotence.
(2, 1) 1229 They scorn the favour of this subtle world;
(2, 1) 1230 Death quenched their fire and not experience,
(2, 1) 1231 And so encircled of their own dead aims,
(2, 1) 1232 They wander waiting for new times to dawn.
(Lanval) What's this to me?
 
(Lanval) What's this to me?
(2, 1) 1234 The call of life; for none
(2, 1) 1235 Can feel this presence who is not enforced
(2, 1) 1236 To like attainment.
(Lanval) Am I called to them?
 
(Lanval) Am I called to them?
(2, 1) 1238 Aye! mine's the fault! I took a shallow grief,
(2, 1) 1239 A sulking sorrow, for full man's despair;
(2, 1) 1240 Baulked vanity, for clean disheartened pride;
(2, 1) 1241 And a child hindered, for a tortured soul.
(Lanval) If I am slight it's not from lack of will,
 
(Lanval) Blame not my poverty.
(2, 1) 1246 I blame thee not,
(2, 1) 1247 Naught but myself. Now, Lanval, arm and go!
(2, 1) 1248 Go hence! The impulse of thy life is strong;
(2, 1) 1249 Go out from fairness, peace, and gentle love,
(2, 1) 1250 Into the clouded passion of the earth;
(2, 1) 1251 The sombre struggle of fate-ridden hours,
(2, 1) 1252 The grey injustice and the thousand shapes,
(2, 1) 1253 Wherein the brute shows like a beggar wrapped
(2, 1) 1254 In rags of soul.
(Lanval) But, Triamour!
 
(Lanval) But, Triamour!
(2, 1) 1256 Go now,
(2, 1) 1257 And swiftly. {She turns away.}
(Lanval) {Arms himself slowly.} Surely I have much to learn.
 
(Lanval) More than myself.
(2, 1) 1271 Wilt thou not understand?
(2, 1) 1272 Can I, a daughter of the middle world,
(2, 1) 1273 Brook rivalry? Nay, I am not for one
(2, 1) 1274 Who has not found the saltness of desire;
(2, 1) 1275 But for a being who has much endured,
(2, 1) 1276 Has rent the garment of his vanity,
(2, 1) 1277 Made ashes of ambition, and come free
(2, 1) 1278 Of common striving. But I blame thee not.
(2, 1) 1279 Go to the world, and I will watch on thee,
(2, 1) 1280 And bring thee honour and accomplishment,
(2, 1) 1281 With this condition, that thou speak no word
(2, 1) 1282 Of me or of our meeting. Swear to me
(2, 1) 1283 Thou wilt remember.
(Lanval) God give strength to me,
 
(Lanval) Drive me not forth!
(2, 1) 1288 See how they envy thee,
(2, 1) 1289 Whom thou hast envied. Nay, it must be so;
(2, 1) 1290 None live within this strange environment
(2, 1) 1291 But those whose purpose serves some single end,
(2, 1) 1292 Whose souls acknowledge some plain mastery.
(Lanval) The constant dusk is deepening into night;
 
(Lanval) These mysteries are faint.
(2, 1) 1297 Remember this,
(2, 1) 1298 Our meeting is more sacred than belief,
(2, 1) 1299 And evil fortune will attend the day
(2, 1) 1300 Thou speakest of it.
(Lanval) I'll remember. God!
 
(Lanval) What is this gloom?
(2, 1) 1303 The sullen grasp of earth.
 
(2, 1) 1305 Pass now and swiftly, for my heart is wrung.
(2, 1) 1306 If Powers may hear me, let thy ways be fair!
(2, 1) 1307 Swart phantoms, clad in habit of cold pride,
(2, 1) 1308 Who drive men's souls relentless to dark ends,
(2, 1) 1309 How strange are ye! Out of accomplishment
(2, 1) 1310 Can come but grief, out of endeavour pain.
(2, 1) 1311 Closed be these gates. Earth comes to earth again.
(Geraint) {to himself} A foul quest this. The world moves on apace.
 
(Lanval) And worth the seeking!
(4, 2) 3909 Lanval!
(Lanval) I have done
 
(Lanval) Unhindered hence.
(4, 2) 3913 Why? Art thou not content
(4, 2) 3914 With all the honours, merits and rewards
(4, 2) 3915 The world doth give thee?
(Lanval) There's no need to mock,
 
(Lanval) And now the shadow is come down on me.
(4, 2) 3933 Is it not pleasant — man's acknowledgment?
(4, 2) 3934 Surely all love thee for thine excellence!
(Lanval) Be not so hard. I learnt my impotence,
 
(Lanval) And God has gently cleansed my vanity.
(4, 2) 3937 So the same shame that drove thee from mine arms,
(4, 2) 3938 Still dogs thy courses?
(Lanval) No, I've learnt enough,
 
(Lanval) Man must lust high.
(4, 2) 3950 There is no more to learn;
(4, 2) 3951 The world has done with all thy services.
 
(4, 2) 3953 This time is dying. Listen to the call!
(4, 2) 3954 Insurgent peoples waken from their sleep —
(4, 2) 3955 Race, tribe and nation. In the flux of war
(4, 2) 3956 All old ordainments spin to their decease.
(4, 2) 3957 I did not blame thee or reproach thy choice,
(4, 2) 3958 When thy disdain preferred the world to me,
(4, 2) 3959 And I change not. I know no fickleness,
(4, 2) 3960 But have in patience hungered for this hour,
(4, 2) 3961 All the old offrance of a state of peace
(4, 2) 3962 Awaits thee still. Ah, Lanval, I have loved,
(4, 2) 3963 And been so patient.
(Lanval) I was never worth
 
(Lanval) And get some credit in the end of it.
(4, 2) 3971 Wilt leave me?
(Lanval) I am pledged
 
(Lanval) Unto Geraint.
(4, 2) 3974 If thou canst leave me now,
(4, 2) 3975 We shall not meet at any time again,
(4, 2) 3976 But part for ever. Each shall sink at last
(4, 2) 3977 Into the gulf of uncreated things,
(4, 2) 3978 And have no knowledge of the other's end.
(4, 2) 3979 Thou hast forgotten —
(Lanval) Come — the end! the end!
 
(Lanval) Unto Geraint.
(4, 2) 3984 Geraint is dead.
(Lanval) He's dead?
 
(Lanval) To any one!
(4, 2) 3991 Choose, then, the time is short.
(4, 2) 3992 Geraint is dead, slain by thy foolishness;
(4, 2) 3993 This battle lost.
(Lanval) Arthur must come.
 
(Lanval) Arthur must come.
(4, 2) 3995 He's far,
(4, 2) 3996 He will not come. Choose! Be with me or die,
(4, 2) 3997 And let our love immediate be dissolved.
(4, 2) 3998 The gates are closing. Wilt thou hold the world?
(Lanval) The King comes not. Can I do nothing right?
 
(Lanval) Take me away.
(4, 2) 4006 Now, Lanval, in this kiss
(4, 2) 4007 Lies the best boon the spirit gives to man.
(4, 2) 4008 Come swift, the gates swing in upon thy soul;
(4, 2) 4009 Give me thy being.
(Lanval) It is done.
 
(Lanval) It is done.
(4, 2) 4011 Then I
(4, 2) 4012 Give thee the last! the kindest gift of all —
(4, 2) 4013 Release!