Dedication
To Amesbury—ride swift and tell the Queen,
How, ere he died, he had sent words of love,
Of old, long love to Launcelot overseas;
With his life’s blood his secret heart gushed out
In love for Launcelot and his Queen. With that Sir Bedivere departed; but so loth
That soon he came again, and lo! the King
Was no more there, but in the place was sound
He knew not whether of water or in the air,
A music new to mortals, and the smell
As of flowers floating through the dark, as if
The passing of that spirit sweetened earth.
And he remembered how it was foretold
That three sad Queens should fetch King Arthur home
Across the water of Avalon to his rest.
(A chant is faintly heard in the distance during this last speech.)
Guenevere
I am the cost. They are fallen, those famous ones
Who made this kingdom glorious, they are fallen
About their King; they have yielded up their strength
And beauty and valour.
(The convent bell begins to toll.)
The grieving bell begins,
As if it were the mouth and voice of Death
Emptying the earth of honour and renown.
I was the cost of all.
Lynned
Lift up your heart!
Out of such pain the immortal part of us
Is tempered. The King passes: even now
He is ferried over that lamenting mere,
And voices from the starred air sing him home.
But for us, tarriers in this wounded world,
Love, only love, that knows no measure, love
That understands all sorrows and all sins,
Love that alone changes the hearts of men,
And gives to the last heart-beat, only love
Suffices. Come we apart and pray awhile
For the noble and great spirits passed from us.
(The chant is heard nearer, and rises louder as the scene closes in darkness. After a pause the gloom melts, gradually revealing a wide distance of moonlit water, over which glides a barge, bearing King Arthur, and the three Queens sorrowing over him, to the island of Avalon.)