Tristram and Iseult (II)
II. Iseult of Ireland
TRISTRAM
Raise the light, my Page, that I may see her.—
Thou art come at last then, haughty Queen!
Long I’ve waited, long I’ve fought my fever:
Late thou comest, cruel thou hast been.
ISEULT
Blame me not, poor sufferer, that I tarried: 5
I was bound, I could not break the band.
Chide not with the past, but feel the present:
I am here—we meet—I hold thy hand.
TRISTRAM
Thou art come, indeed—thou hast rejoin’d me;
Thou hast dar’d it: but too late to save. 10
Fear not now that men should tax thy honour.
I am dying: build—(thou may’st)—my grave!
ISEULT
Tristram, for the love of Heaven, speak kindly!
What, I hear these bitter words from thee?
Sick with grief I am, and faint with travel— 15
Take my hand—dear Tristram, look on me!
TRISTRAM
I forgot, thou comest from thy voyage.
Yes, the spray is on thy cloak and hair.
But thy dark eyes are not dimm’d, proud Iseult!
And thy beauty never was more fair. 20
ISEULT
Ah, harsh flatterer! let alone my beauty.
I, like thee, have left my youth afar.
Take my hand, and touch these wasted fingers—
See my cheek and lips, how white they are.
TRISTRAM
Thou art paler:—but thy sweet charm, Iseult! 25
Would not fade with the dull years away.
Ah, how fair thou standest in the moonlight!
I forgive thee, Iseult!—thou wilt stay?
ISEULT
Fear me not, I will be always with thee;
I will watch thee, tend thee, soothe thy pain; 30
Sing thee tales of true long-parted lovers
Join’d at evening of their days again.
TRISTRAM
No, thou shalt not speak; I should be finding
Something alter’d in thy courtly tone.
Sit—sit by me: I will think, we’ve liv’d so 35
In the greenwood, all our lives, alone.
ISEULT
Alter’d, Tristram? Not in courts, believe me,
Love like mine is alter’d in the breast.
Courtly life is light and cannot reach it.
Ah, it lives, because so deep suppress’d. 40
Royal state with Marc, my deep-wrong’d husband—
That was bliss to make my sorrows flee!
Silken courtiers whispering honied nothings—
Those were friends to make me false to thee! 1
What, thou think’st, men speak in courtly chambers 45
Words by which the wretched are consol’d?
What, thou think’st, this aching brow was cooler,
Circled, Tristram, by a band of gold?
Ah, on which, if both our lots were balanc’d,
Was indeed the heaviest burden thrown, 50
Thee, a weeping exile in thy forest—
Me, a smiling queen upon my throne?
Vain and strange debate, where both have suffer’d;
Both have pass’d a youth constrain’d and sad;
Both have brought their anxious day to evening, 55
And have now short space for being glad.
Join’d we are henceforth: nor will thy people,
Nor thy younger Iseult take it ill,
That a former 2 rival shares her office,
When she sees her humbled, pale, and still. 60
I, a faded watcher by thy pillow,
I, a statue on thy chapel floor,
Pour’d in grief before the Virgin Mother,
Rouse no anger, make no rivals more.
She will cry—‘Is this the foe 3 I dreaded? 65
This his idol? this that royal bride?
Ah, an hour of health would purge his eyesight:
Stay, pale queen! for ever by my side.’
Hush, no words! that smile, I see, forgives me.
I am now thy nurse, I bid thee sleep. 70
Close thine eyes—this flooding moonlight blinds them—
Nay, all’s well again: thou must not weep.
TRISTRAM
I am happy: yet I feel, there’s something
Swells my heart, and takes my breath away:
Through a mist I see thee: near!—come nearer! 75
Bend—bend down—I yet have much to say
ISEULT
Heaven! his head sinks back upon the pillow!—
Tristram! Tristram! let thy heart not fail.
Call on God and on the holy angels!
What, love, courage!—Christ! he is so pale. 80
TRISTRAM
Hush, ’tis vain, I feel my end approaching.
This is what my mother said should be,
When the fierce pains took her in the forest,
The deep draughts of death, in bearing me.
‘Son,’ she said, ‘thy name shall be of sorrow! 85
Tristram art thou call’d for my death’s sake!’
So she said, and died in the drear forest.
Grief since then his home with me doth make.
I am dying.—Start not, nor look wildly!
Me, thy living friend, thou canst not save. 90
But, since living we were ununited,
Go not far, O Iseult! from my grave.
Rise, go hence, and seek the princess Iseult:
Speak her fair, she is of royal blood.
Say, I charg’d her, that ye live together:— 95
She will grant it—she is kind and good.
Now to sail the seas of Death I leave thee;
One last kiss upon the living shore!
ISEULT
Tristram!—Tristram!—stay—receive me with thee!
Iseult leaves thee, Tristram, never more. 4
. . . . .
100
You see them clear: the moon shines bright.
Slow—slow and softly, where she stood,
She sinks upon the ground: her hood
Had fallen back: her arms outspread
Still hold her lover’s hand: her head 105
Is bow’d, half-buried, on the bed.
O’er the blanch’d sheet her raven hair
Lies in disorder’d streams; and there,
Strung like white stars, the pearls still are,
And the golden bracelets heavy and rare 110
Flash on her white arms still.
The very same which yesternight
Flash’d in the silver sconces’ light,
When the feast was gay and the laughter loud 5
In Tyntagel’s palace proud. 6 115
But then they deck’d a restless ghost
With hot-flush’d cheeks and brilliant eyes,
And quivering lips on which the tide
Of courtly speech abruptly died,
And a glance that over the crowded floor, 120
The dancers, and the festive host,
Flew ever to the door.
That the knights eyed her in surprise,
And the dames whisper’d scoffingly—
‘Her moods, good lack, they pass like showers! 125
But yesternight and she would be
As pale and still as wither’d flowers,
And now to-night she laughs and speaks
And has a colour in her cheeks.
Christ 7 keep us from such fantasy!’— 130
The air of the December night
Steals coldly around the chamber bright,
Where those lifeless lovers be. 8
Swinging with it, in the light
Flaps 9 the ghostlike tapestry. 135
And on the arras wrought 10 you see
A stately Huntsman, clad in green,
And round him a fresh forest scene.
On that clear forest knoll 11 he stays
With his pack round him, and delays. 12 140
He stares and stares, with troubled face,
At this 13 huge gleam-lit fireplace,
At the bright iron-figur’d door,
And those 14 blown rushes on the floor.
He gazes down into the room 145
With heated cheeks and flurried air,
And to himself he seems to say—
‘What place is this, and who are they? 15
Who is that kneeling Lady fair?
And on his pillows that pale Knight 150
Who seems of marble on a tomb?
How comes it here, this chamber bright
Through whose mullion’d windows clear
The castle court all wet with rain,
The drawbridge and the moat appear, 155
And then the beach, and, mark’d with spray,
The sunken reefs, and far away
The unquiet bright Atlantic plain?—
What, has some glamour made me 16 sleep,
And sent me with my 17 dogs to sweep, 160
By night, with boisterous bugle peal,
Through some old, sea-side, knightly hall,
Not in the free greenwood at all?
That Knight’s asleep, and at her prayer
That Lady by the bed doth kneel: 165
Then hush, thou boisterous bugle peal!’—
The wild boar rustles in his lair—
The fierce hounds snuff the tainted air—
But lord and hounds keep rooted there.
Cheer, cheer thy dogs into the brake, 170
O Hunter! and without a fear
Thy golden-tassell’d bugle blow,
And through the glades thy pastime take!
For thou wilt rouse no sleepers here.
For these thou seest are unmov’d; 175
Cold, cold as those who liv’d and lov’d
A thousand years ago.
Note 1. 41–44 first inserted in 1853.
Note 2. a former] an ancient 1852, 1853.
Note 3. cry … foe] say … form 1852.
Note 4. 97–100
Now stand clear before me in the moonlight.
Fare, farewell, thou long, thou deeply lov’d!
ISEULT
Tristram!—Tristram—stay—I come! Ah Sorrow—
Fool! thou missest—we are both unmov’d! 1852.
Note 5. gay … loud] loud … shrill 1852, 1853, 1854.
Note 6. In the banquet-hall of Tyntagil. 1852, 1853, 1854.
Note 7. Christ] Heaven 1852, 1853.
Note 8. 133 first inserted in 1853.
Note 9. Flaps] Shines 1852.
Note 10. on the arras wrought] there upon the wall 1852.
Note 11. on that clear forest knoll] ’Tis noon with him, and yet 1852.
Note 12. After 140 1852 has these seven lines peculiar to itself:—
As rooted to the earth, nor sounds
His lifted horn, nor cheers his hounds
Into the tangled glen below.
Yet in the sedgy bottom there
Where the deep forest stream creeps slow
Fring’d with dead leaves and mosses rare,
The wild boar harbours close, and feeds.
and continues with lines 145, 146, 149–158, 141–144, 159–166 in roman type with differences as noted on below, and 167 to end as in later editions.
Note 13. this] the 1852.
Note 14. those] the 1852.
Note 15. 147–148 first inserted in 1853.
Note 16. What, has … me] Has then … him 1852.
Note 17. me … my] him … his 1852.
