第40章 Merlin and Vivien(5)

A tawny pirate anchored in his port,Whose bark had plundered 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 scattered 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-nurtured eyes Waged such unwilling though successful war On all the youth,they sickened;councils thinned,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 carry kings in castles,bowed 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 through all The hundred under-kingdoms that he swayed 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 failed,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 failed,because the charm Of nature in her overbore their own:

And many a wizard brow bleached 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,Thy tongue has tript a little:ask thyself.

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 the 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 poisoned 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 answered laughing,'Nay,not like to me.

At last they found--his foragers for charms--A 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 touched fierce wine,nor tasted flesh,Nor owned a sensual wish,to him the wall That sunders ghosts and shadow-casting men Became a crystal,and he saw them through 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 lashed it at the base with slanting storm;Or in the noon of mist and driving rain,When the lake whitened and the pinewood roared,And the cairned mountain was a shadow,sunned The world to peace again:here was the man.

And so by force they dragged 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 wrought 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 vanished,and his book came down to me.'

And Vivien answered smiling saucily:

'Ye 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 locked and padlocked 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 To dig,pick,open,find and read the charm:

Then,if I tried it,who should blame me then?'

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:

'Thou read the book,my pretty Vivien!

O ay,it is but twenty pages long,But every page having an ample marge,And 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--thou read the book!

And ever margin scribbled,crost,and crammed 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 anyone,And never could undo it:ask no more:

For though you should not prove it upon me,But keep that oath ye sware,ye might,perchance,Assay it on some one of the Table Round,And all because ye 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 explained for shame.

Not one of all the drove should touch me:swine!'