The Tragedy of Arthur_ A Novel - Arthur Phillips [164]
Than change his crown for safe exile with you.
’Tis his command and he who chooseth now.—
These two are proofed unvalued currency.2
They serve no further use that I can see.
Though sure I will require this day a queen
She’ll not be this unstaid3 and misproud4 stale.5
[To Soldier] I would thou trad’st6 upon them now. I go.
FIRST SOLDIER
The child beside its mother dies the same?
MORDRED
’Tis sure the poison’s thickest in the young.7
Exit Mordred
PHILIP
This cannot be. Call back these fearful words.
GUENHERA
What is your name, O gentle knight?
FIRST SOLDIER
But choose.
GUENHERA
I would choose one who’s spoken of in verse,
Whom poets praise for courtesy and grace,
A name befitting one who nobly fights
And never would do harm to innocents.
FIRST SOLDIER
Then choose such name for me. That is no matter.
Prepare yourself howe’er you will: time’s brief.
GUENHERA
I am prepared. Art thou? Thine act’s thine own.
FIRST SOLDIER
I would not have it any other wise.
PHILIP
In killing me you disobey your king.
Your king would have you cut off Arthur’s line,
But I am not of Arthur’s blood or seed
Nor am no heir nor can endanger you.
GUENHERA
The boy speaks plainsong,8 sooth, and ought be freed.
FIRST SOLDIER
And you are not the queen, nor that the sky,
For queens reside in London not in mud,
The sky, being often blue, cannot be black,
And all these things being other than they are,
It’s best we think no more, or never act.
GUENHERA
To slay anointed queen gives thee no pause,
Then contemplate before this foolish boy:
His face and mad outrageous circumstance
Must pluck forth pity e’en from blackest heart.
FIRST SOLDIER
How often do I hear of pity spake,
Yet glean no sense of what the word must be.
It seems a kind of shriek or bootless prayer.
GUENHERA
Then God have mercy on thee.
FIRST SOLDIER
And on you.
PHILIP
But, Queen, cannot you make this vision end?
I would awake from this and see my home.
GUENHERA
Be brave, and thereby something of a prince.
FIRST SOLDIER
You will awake right soon, they say, now come.
Stabs Philip
PHILIP
But no, but no, this cannot be my end!
Dies
GUENHERA
O, God be merciful and take me in!
[First Soldier] stabs Guenhera, she dies
FIRST SOLDIER
[To Second Soldier] You stand as well as any man I know.
But be now better used and give your hands.
SECOND SOLD.
The king gave you the baseness, I the watch.
FIRST SOLDIER
Well-watched, bold guard, now lift and to the bog.
Exeunt [with bodies]
[ACT V, SCENE V]
[Location: Humberside battlefield]
Alarum. Excursions. Enter Pictish and English soldiers fighting. Enter Mordred
MORDRED
King Arthur’s dead! Fly, English! Arthur’s slain!
ENG. SOLDIER
The king is dead! The day is lost! Give back!
Exit Mordred
No king, no heir, no queen, but fly and live!
Alarums. Enter Arthur
ARTHUR
But see! From my uncovered face take heart
And we will push them to the drowning wash!
ENG. SOLDIER
King Arthur lives! He lives! Fight on! Fight on!
Exeunt
Alarum. Enter Gloucester and Mordred. They fight
GLOUCESTER
I would spend all my breath in slaying thee,
Thou hag-born demon of the darkest pit.
Thou never wilt be Britain’s king a day.
MORDRED
Old Gloucester, God doth wield my sword for me
To lead me to that throne and do His will,
And first of His designs must be your doom.
GLOUCESTER
No king art thou, bereft of Arthur’s strain.1
MORDRED
Thou diest, poltroon!2 Now out upon it, die!
Gloucester is slain
The lord protector leads the way to hell.
The brat he taught will follow him apace,
Though I dare not dispatch him without aid.
To me! To me!
Enter Pictish soldiers
FIRST SOLDIER
My lord?
MORDRED
Thy work is done?
FIRST SOLDIER
My king, to its perfection.
MORDRED
Honored friend!
Then to my side until th’usurper falls.
The coward vowed to strike me from behind.
Exeunt
Alarums. Excursions. Enter Arthur
ARTHUR
Nay, Gloucester, nay! Still offer wisdom’s words;
Thou wert my father, too, and I thy son.
Your worthless boy must lean on you today.