Locrine - A Tragedy [16]
Thou dost not fear me?
SABRINA.
No. But when your eyes
Wax red and dark, with flaughts of fire between,
I fear them--or they fright me.
LOCRINE.
Wert thou wise,
They would not. Never have I looked on thee
So.
SABRINA.
Nay--I fear not what might fall on me.
Here laughs my father--here my mother smiles -
Here smiles and laughs the water--what should I
Fear?
LOCRINE.
Nought more fearful than the water's wiles -
Which whoso fears not ere he fear shall die.
SABRINA.
Die? and is death no less an ill than dread?
I had liefer die than be nor quick nor dead.
I think there is no death but fear of death.
LOCRINE.
Of death or life or anything but love
What knowest thou?
SABRINA.
Less than these, my mother saith -
Less than the flowers that seeing all heaven above
Fade and wax hoar or darken, lose their trust
And leave their joy and let their glories rust
And die for fear ere winter wound them: we
Live no less glad of snowtime than of spring:
It cannot change my father's face for me
Nor turn from mine away my mother's. King
They call thee: hath thy kingship made thee less
In height of heart than we are?
LOCRINE.
No, and yes.
Here sits my heart at height of hers and thine,
Laughing for love: here not the quiring birds
Sing higher than sings my spirit: I am here Locrine,
Whom no sound vexes here of swords or words,
No cloud of thought or thunder: were my life
Crowned but as lord and sire of child and wife,
Throned but as prince of woodland, bank and bower,
My joys were then imperial, and my state
Firm as a star, that now is as a flower.
SABRINA.
Thou shouldst not then--if joy grow here so great -
Part from us.
LOCRINE.
No: for joy grows elsewhere scant.
SABRINA.
I would fain see the towers of Troynovant.
LOCRINE.
God keep thine eyes fulfilled with sweeter sights,
And this one from them ever!
SABRINA.
Why? Men say
Thine halls are full of guests, princes and knights,
And lordly musters of superb array;
Why are we thence alone, and alway?
ESTRILD.
Peace,
Child: let thy babble change its note, or cease
Here; is thy sire not wiser--by God's grace -
Than I or thou?
LOCRINE.
Wouldst thou too see fulfilled
The fear whose shadow fallen on joy's fair face
Strikes it more sad than sorrow's own? Estrild,
Wast thou then happier ere this wildwood shrine
Hid thee from homage, left thee but Locrine
For worshipper less worthy grace of thee
Than those thy sometime suppliants?
ESTRILD.
Nay; my lord
Takes too much thought--if tongues ring true--for me.
LOCRINE.
Such tongues ring falser than a broken chord
Whose jar distunes the music.
ESTRILD.
Wilt thou stay
But three nights here?
LOCRINE.
I had need be hence today.
ESTRILD.
Go.
SABRINA.
But I bid thee tarry; what am I
That thou shouldst heed not what I bid thee?
LOCRINE.
Queen
And empress more imperious and more high
And regent royaller than time hath seen
And mightier mistress of thy sire and thrall:
Yet must I go. But ere the next moon fall
Again will I grow happy.
ESTRILD.
Who can say?
LOCRINE.
So much can I--except the stars combine
Unseasonably to stay me.
ESTRILD.
Let them stay
The tides, the seasons rather. Love! Locrine!
I never parted from thee, nor shall part,
Save with a fire more keen than fire at heart:
But now the pang that wrings me, soul and sense,
And turns fair day to darkness deep as hell,
Warns me, the word that seals thy parting hence -
'Farewell'--shall bid us never more fare well.
SABRINA.
Lo! she too bids thee tarry; dost thou not
Hear?
LOCRINE.
Might I choose, small need were hers, God wot,
Or thine, to bid me tarry. When I come
Again -
SABRINA.
Thou shalt not see me: I will hide
From sight of such a sire--or bow down dumb
Before him--strong and hard as he in pride -
And so thou shalt not hear me.
LOCRINE.
Who can tell?
So now say I.
ESTRILD.
God keep my lord!
LOCRINE.
Farewell.
[Exeunt.
SCENE II.--Troynovant.