(Portrait of Miranda)
———
Sir Frank Dicksee had an uncanny eye for beauty; his works have been favourites of mine for many years. He doesn’t get much mention in the US, but is well loved in Europe.
The Portrait of Miranda (above) is one that truly moves me. I have left the picture quite large for your enjoyment. I love the capturing of spirit and beauty in this portrait. I think I fell in love with her in college. She is just that kinda women, eternally captivating!
Whilst on the beauty trail; I have included a short story from Ireland talking about our close relatives, the fairies. Also, we have 2 poems by William Morris. As usual, I go looking for the arcane, and find it on the off-chance.
I hope all is well in your life, and that the world soon awakes.
Blessings,
Gwyllm
———
On the Grill:
The Links
The Article: FRANK MARTIN AND THE FAIRIES
Poetry: Two Poems by William Morris
The Artist: Sir Frank Dicksee
Francis Bernard Dicksee was born in London on the 27th November 1853, the son of Thomas Francis Dicksee (1819-1895), painter and illustrator, and his wife Eliza nee Bernard. His uncle was John Robert Dicksee (1817-1905), another painter of some note, as was his sister Margaret (1858-1903), and brother Herbert Thomas (1862-1942). The family lived in the Bloomsbury area of London. Young Frank was initially trained in art by his father, before enrolling at the Royal Academy Schools in 1870. Amongst the more notable of visiting lecturers at the time were Frederic Leighton, and Millais. Dicksee was an excellent student, quickly marked out for a promising future, and won many distinctions, and in 1875, the year he first exhibited at the Academy a Gold Medal.
Like many other artists of the nineteenth century, his early career was spent in book and magazine illustration, including the Cornhill magazine. In 1877 the painter exhibited his famous picture Harmony at the Academy, where it was a great success, and was bought by the Trustees of The Chantrey Bequest for 350 guineas.
Frank Dicksees artistic home remained the Royal Academy throughout his career, and he became ARA in 1881, and was elected a full RA ten years later. Startled was his Diploma work. The painters art, and taste were totally in sympathy with that of the public, and his career at this time was one of unbroken success. Dicksees pictures were often of historical scenes, involving drama, and sentiment. He was a competent portrait painter of men, and a great portrait painter of attractive women – happy was the fashionable lady who was painted by Dicksee!
His wonderful portraits of women had a charm of their own, uniting soft-focus, elegance, charm, warm colours, and excellent drapery painting. In 1927 the artist painted his famous portrait Elsa, Daughter of William Hall Esq. This brilliant portrait captures the charming personality of the young sitter, the sheen of her silk evening dress is marvellously painted. This picture was painted in the last year of the artists life, and shows no deterioration in his ability.His last portrait of a woman was of Mrs Frank S Pershouse in 1928. Dicksee lived in St Johns Wood, and remained a sophisticated, and elegant bachelor.
I have not heard any comment regarding his sexuality. He was noted for his good manners, and kindness. Rather surprisingly the painter was elected President of the Royal Academy in 1924, succeeding Sir Aston Webb who had retired under the recently-introduced maximum age rule. This appointment was the subject of considerable reservation on the part of more modern artists, many of whom were had little real artistic talent, who thought of the craftsmanship and aesthetic beauty of Dicksees work with disdain. In the event it was a brilliant success, with his social graces and integrity more than compensating for what was regarded as the old-fashioned nature of his art.
Dicksee was knighted in 1925, and became KCVO in 1927. He was a Trustee of the British Museum, and the National Portrait Gallery, and was awarded an Honorary Oxford Degree in 1927. He was also the President of the Artists Benevolent Foundation. Sir Frank Dicksee died suddenly on the 17th October 1928. A retrospective exhibition of his works was held at the Royal Academy in 1933. I have, for a considerable time now, been trying to find more information about Dicksee the man, and his career, and happily my latest efforts have met with some success.
___________
The Links:
Russia, Anarchist Mayday in Vladivostok
Rumsfeld’s Latin American Wild West Show
Dolphins know each others names
_____________
(Romeo & Juliet)
_________
FRANK MARTIN AND THE FAIRIES
William Carleton
Martin was a thin, pale man, when I saw him, of a sickly look, and a constitution naturally feeble. His hair was a light auburn, his beard mostly unshaven, and his hands of a singular delicacy and whiteness, owing, I dare say, as much to the soft and easy nature of his employment as to his infirm health. In everything else he was as sensible, sober, and rational as any other man; but on the topic of fairies, the man’s mania was peculiarly strong and immovable. Indeed, I remember that the expression of his eyes was singularly wild and hollow, and his long narrow temples sallow and emaciated.
Now, this man did not lead an unhappy life, nor did the malady he laboured under seem to be productive of either pain or terror to him, although one might be apt to imagine otherwise. On the contrary, he and the fairies maintained the most friendly intimacy, and their dialogues–which I fear were woefully one-sided ones–must have been a source of great pleasure to him, for they were conducted with much mirth and laughter, on his part at least.
“Well, Frank, when did you see the fairies?”
“Whist! there’s two dozen of them in the shop (the weaving shop) this minute. There’s a little ould fellow sittin’ on the top of the sleys, an’ all to be rocked while I’m weavin’. The sorrow’s in them, but they’re the greatest little skamers alive, so they are. See, there’s another of them at my dressin’ noggin. 1 Go out o’ that, you shingawn; or, bad cess to me, if you don’t, but I’ll lave you a mark. Ha! cut, you thief you!”
“Frank, am’t you afeard o’ them?”
“Is it me! Arra, what ud’ I be afeard o’ them for? Sure they have no power over me.”
“And why haven’t they, Frank?”
“Because I was baptised against them.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Why, the priest that christened me was tould by my father, to put in the proper prayer against the fairies–an’ a priest can’t refuse it when he’s asked–an’ he did so. Begorra, it’s well for me that he did–(let the tallow alone, you little glutton–see, theres a weeny thief o’ them aitin’ my tallow)–becaise, you see, it was their intention to make me king o’ the fairies.”
“Is it possible?”
“Devil a lie in it. Sure you may ax them, an’ they’ll tell you.”
“What size are they, Frank?”
“Oh, little wee fellows, with green coats, an’ the purtiest little shoes ever you seen. There’s two of them–both ould acquaintances o’ mine–runnin’ along the yarn-beam. That ould fellow with the bob-wig is called Jim jam, an’ the other chap, with the three-cocked hat, is called Nickey Nick. Nickey plays the pipes. Nickey, give us a tune, or I’ll malivogue you–come now, ‘Lough Erne Shore’. Whist, now–listen!”
The poor fellow, though weaving as fast as he could all the time, yet bestowed every possible mark of attention to the music, and seemed to enjoy it as much as if it had been real.
But who can tell whether that which we look upon as a privation may not after all be a fountain of increased happiness, greater, perhaps, than any which we ourselves enjoy? I forget who the poet is who says–
“Mysterious are thy laws;
The vision’s finer than the view;
Her landscape Nature never drew
So fair as Fancy draws.”
Many a time, when a mere child, not more than six or seven years of age, have I gone as far as Frank’s weaving-shop, in order, with a heart divided between curiosity and fear, to listen to his conversation with the good people. From morning till night his tongue was going almost as incessantly as his shuttle; and it was well known that at night, whenever he awoke out of his sleep, the first thing he did was to put out his hand, and push them, as it were, off his bed.
“Go out o’ this, you thieves, you–go out o’ this now, an’ let me alone. Nickey, is this any time to be playing the pipes, and me wants to sleep? Go off, now–troth if yez do, you’ll see what I’ll give yez tomorrow. Sure I’ll be makin’ new dressin’s; and if yez behave decently, maybe I’ll lave yez the scrapin’ o’ the pot. There now. Och! poor things, they’re dacent crathurs. Sure they’re all gone, barrin’ poor Red-cap, that doesn’t like to lave me.” And then the harmless monomaniac would fall back into what we trust was an innocent slumber.
About this time there was said to have occurred a very remarkable circumstance, which gave poor Frank a vast deal of importance among the neighbours. A man named Frank Thomas, the same in whose house Mickey M’Rorey held the first dance at which I ever saw him, as detailed in a former sketch; this man, I say, had a child sick, but of what complaint I cannot now remember, nor is it of any importance. One of the gables of Thomas’s house was built against, or rather into, a Forth or Rath, called Towny, or properly Tonagh Forth. It was said to be haunted by the fairies, and what gave it a character peculiarly wild in my eyes was, that there were on the southern side of it two or three little green mounds, which were said to be the graves of unchristened children, over which it was considered dangerous and unlucky to pass. At all events, the season was mid-summer; and one evening about dusk, during the illness of the child, the noise of a hand-saw was heard upon the Forth. This was considered rather strange, and, after a little time, a few of those who were assembled at Frank Thomas’s went to see who it could be that was sawing in such a place, or what they could be sawing at so late an hour, for every one knew that nobody in the whole country about them would dare to cut down the few white-thorns that grew upon the Forth. On going to examine, however, judge of their surprise, when, after surrounding and searching the whole place, they could discover no trace of either saw or sawyer. In fact, with the exception of themselves, there was no one, either natural or supernatural, visible. They then returned to the house, and had scarcely sat down, when it was heard again within ten yards of them. Another examination of the premises took place, but with equal success. Now, however, while standing on the Forth, they heard the sawing in a little hollow, about a hundred and fifty yards below them, which was completely exposed to their view. but they could see nobody. A party of them immediately went down to ascertain, if possible, what this singular noise and invisible labour could mean; but on arriving at the spot, they heard the sawing, to which were now added hammering, and the driving of nails upon the Forth above, whilst those who stood on the Forth continued to hear it in the hollow. On comparing notes, they resolved to send down to Billy Nelson’s for Frank Martin a distance of only about eighty or ninety yards. He was soon on the spot, and without a moment’s hesitation solved the enigma.
“‘Tis the fairies,” said he. ‘I see them, and busy crathurs they are.”
“But what are they sawing, Frank?”
‘They are makin’ a child’s coffin,” he replied; “they have the body already made, an’ they’re now nailin’ the lid together.”
That night the child died, and the story goes that on the second evening afterwards, the carpenter who was called upon to make the coffin brought a table out from Thomas’s house to the Forth, as a temporary bench; and, it is said, that the sawing and hammering necessary for the completion of his task were precisely the same which had been heard the evening but one before–neither more nor less. I remember the death of the child myself, and the making of its coffin, but I think the story of the supernatural carpenter was not heard in the village for some months after its interment.
Frank had every appearance of a hypochondriac about him. At the time I saw him, he might be about thirty-four years of age, but I do not think, from the debility of his frame and infirm health, that he has been alive for several years. He was an object of considerable interest and curiosity, and often have I been present when he was pointed out to strangers as “the man that could see the good people”.
____________
(The Mirror)
NEAR AVALON
by
WILLIAM MORRIS
A ship with shields before the sun,
Six maidens round the mast,
A red-gold crown on every one,
A green gown on the last.
The fluttering green banners there
Are wrought with ladies’ heads most fair,
And a portraiture of Guenevere
The middle of each sail doth bear.
A ship with sails before the wind,
And round the helm six knights,
Their heaumes are on, whereby, half blind,
They pass by many sights.
The tatter’d scarlet banners there
Right soon will leave the spear-heads bare.
Those six knights sorrowfully bear
(2 Crowns)
______________
KING ARTHUR’S TOMB
by
WILLIAM MORRIS
Hot August noon: already on that day
Since sunrise through the Wiltshire downs, most sad
Of mouth and eye, he had gone leagues of way;
Ay and by night, till whether good or bad
He was, he knew not, though he knew perchance
That he was Launcelot, the bravest knight
Of all who since the world was, have borne lance,
Or swung their swords in wrong cause or in right.
Nay, he knew nothing now, except that where
The Glastonbury gilded towers shine,
A lady dwelt, whose name was Guenevere;
This he knew also; that some fingers twine,
Not only in a man’s hair, even his heart,
(Making him good or bad I mean,) but in his life,
Skies, earth, men’s looks and deeds, all that has part,
Not being ourselves, in that half-sleep, half-strife,
(Strange sleep, strange strife,) that men call living; so
Was Launcelot most glad when the moon rose,
Because it brought new memories of her. “Lo,
Between the trees a large moon, the wind lows
“Not loud, but as a cow begins to low,
Wishing for strength to make the herdsman hear:
The ripe corn gathereth dew; yea, long ago,
In the old garden life, my Guenevere
“Loved to sit still among the flowers, till night
Had quite come on, hair loosen’d, for she said,
Smiling like heaven, that its fairness might
Draw up the wind sooner to cool her head.
“Now while I ride how quick the moon gets small,
As it did then: I tell myself a tale
That will not last beyond the whitewashed wall,
Thoughts of some joust must help me through the vale,
“Keep this till after: How Sir Gareth ran
A good course that day under my Queen’s eyes,
And how she sway’d laughing at Dinadan.
No. Back again, the other thoughts will rise,
“And yet I think so fast ’twill end right soon:
Verily then I think, that Guenevere,
Made sad by dew and wind, and tree-barred moon,
Did love me more than ever, was more dear
“To me than ever, she would let me lie
And kiss her feet, or, if I sat behind,
Would drop her hand and arm most tenderly,
And touch my mouth. And she would let me wind
“Her hair around my neck, so that it fell
Upon my red robe, strange in the twilight
With many unnamed colours, till the bell
Of her mouth on my cheek sent a delight
“Through all my ways of being; like the stroke
Wherewith God threw all men upon the face
When he took Enoch, and when Enoch woke
With a changed body in the happy place.
“Once, I remember, as I sat beside,
She turn’d a little, and laid back her head,
And slept upon my breast; I almost died
In those night-watches with my love and dread.
“There lily-like she bow’d her head and slept,
And I breathed low, and did not dare to move,
But sat and quiver’d inwardly, thoughts crept,
And frighten’d me with pulses of my Love.
“The stars shone out above the doubtful green
Of her bodice, in the green sky overhead;
Pale in the green sky were the stars I ween,
Because the moon shone like a star she shed
“When she dwelt up in heaven a while ago,
And ruled all things but God: the night went on,
The wind grew cold, and the white moon grew low,
One hand had fallen down, and now lay on
“My cold stiff palm; there were no colours then
For near an hour, and I fell asleep
In spite of all my striving, even when
I held her whose name-letters make me leap.
“I did not sleep long, feeling that in sleep
I did some loved one wrong, so that the sun
Had only just arisen from the deep
Still land of colours, when before me one
“Stood whom I knew, but scarcely dared to touch,
She seemed to have changed so in the night;
Moreover she held scarlet lilies, such
As Maiden Margaret bears upon the light
“Of the great church walls, natheless did I walk
Through the fresh wet woods, and the wheat that morn,
Touching her hair and hand and mouth, and talk
Of love we held, nigh hid among the corn.
“Back to the palace, ere the sun grew high,
We went, and in a cool green room all day
I gazed upon the arras giddily,
Where the wind set the silken kings a-sway.
“I could not hold her hand, or see her face;
For which may God forgive me! but I think,
Howsoever, that she was not in that place.”
These memories Launcelot was quick to drink;
And when these fell, some paces past the wall,
There rose yet others, but they wearied more,
And tasted not so sweet; they did not fall
So soon, but vaguely wrenched his strained heart sore
In shadowy slipping from his grasp: these gone,
A longing followed; if he might but touch
That Guenevere at once! Still night, the lone
Grey horse’s head before him vex’d him much,
In steady nodding over the grey road:
Still night, and night, and night, and emptied heart
Of any stories; what a dismal load
Time grew at last, yea, when the night did part,
And let the sun flame over all, still there
The horse’s grey ears turn’d this way and that,
And still he watch’d them twitching in the glare
Of the morning sun, behind them still he sat,
Quite wearied out with all the wretched night,
Until about the dustiest of the day,
On the last down’s brow he drew his rein in sight
Of the Glastonbury roofs that choke the way.
And he was now quite giddy as before,
When she slept by him, tired out, and her hair
Was mingled with the rushes on the floor,
And he, being tired too, was scarce aware
Of her presence; yet as he sat and gazed,
A shiver ran throughout him, and his breath
Came slower, he seem’d suddenly amazed,
As though he had not heard of Arthur’s death.
This for a moment only, presently
He rode on giddy still, until he reach’d
A place of apple-trees, by the thorn-tree
Wherefrom St. Joseph in the days past preached.
Dazed there he laid his head upon a tomb,
Not knowing it was Arthur’s, at which sight
One of her maidens told her, “He is come,”
And she went forth to meet him; yet a blight
Had settled on her, all her robes were black,
With a long white veil only; she went slow,
As one walks to be slain, her eyes did lack
Half her old glory, yea, alas! the glow
Had left her face and hands; this was because
As she lay last night on her purple bed,
Wishing for morning, grudging every pause
Of the palace clocks, until that Launcelot’s head
Should lie on her breast, with all her golden hair
Each side: when suddenly the thing grew drear,
In morning twilight, when the grey downs bare
Grew into lumps of sin to Guenevere.
At first she said no word, but lay quite still,
Only her mouth was open, and her eyes
Gazed wretchedly about from hill to hill;
As though she asked, not with so much surprise
As tired disgust, what made them stand up there
So cold and grey. After, a spasm took
Her face, and all her frame, she caught her hair,
All her hair, in both hands, terribly she shook,
And rose till she was sitting in the bed,
Set her teeth hard, and shut her eyes and seem’d
As though she would have torn it from her head,
Natheless she dropp’d it, lay down, as she deem’d
It matter’d not whatever she might do:
O Lord Christ! pity on her ghastly face!
Those dismal hours while the cloudless blue
Drew the sun higher: He did give her grace;
Because at last she rose up from her bed,
And put her raiment on, and knelt before
The blessed rood, and with her dry lips said,
Muttering the words against the marble floor:
“Unless you pardon, what shall I do, Lord,
But go to hell? and there see day by day
Foul deed on deed, hear foulest word on word,
For ever and ever, such as on the way
“To Camelot I heard once from a churl,
That curled me up upon my jennet’s neck
With bitter shame; how then, Lord, should I curl
For ages and for ages? dost thou reck
“That I am beautiful, Lord, even as you
And your dear mother? why did I forget
You were so beautiful, and good, and true,
That you loved me so, Guenevere? O yet
“If even I go to hell, I cannot choose
But love you, Christ, yea, though I cannot keep
From loving Launcelot; O Christ! must I lose
My own heart’s love? see, though I cannot weep,
“Yet am I very sorry for my sin;
Moreover, Christ, I cannot bear that hell,
I am most fain to love you, and to win
A place in heaven some time: I cannot tell:
“Speak to me, Christ! I kiss, kiss, kiss your feet;
Ah! now I weep!” The maid said, “By the tomb
He waiteth for you, lady,” coming fleet,
Not knowing what woe filled up all the room.
So Guenevere rose and went to meet him there,
He did not hear her coming, as he lay
On Arthur’s head, till some of her long hair
Brush’d on the new-cut stone: “Well done! to pray
“For Arthur, my dear Lord, the greatest king
That ever lived.” “Guenevere! Guenevere!
Do you not know me, are you gone mad? fling
Your arms and hair about me, lest I fear
“You are not Guenevere, but some other thing.”
“Pray you forgive me, fair lord Launcelot!
I am not mad, but I am sick; they cling,
God’s curses, unto such as I am; not
“Ever again shall we twine arms and lips.”
“Yea, she is mad: thy heavy law, O Lord,
Is very tight about her now, and grips
Her poor heart, so that no right word
“Can reach her mouth; so, Lord, forgive her now,
That she not knowing what she does, being mad,
Kills me in this way: Guenevere, bend low
And kiss me once! for God’s love kiss me! sad
“Though your face is, you look much kinder now;
Yea once, once for the last time kiss me, lest I die.”
“Christ! my hot lips are very near his brow,
Help me to save his soul! Yea, verily,
“Across my husband’s head, fair Launcelot!
Fair serpent mark’d with V upon the head!
This thing we did while yet he was alive,
Why not, O twisting knight, now he is dead?
“Yea, shake! shake now and shiver! if you can
Remember anything for agony,
Pray you remember how when the wind ran
One cool spring evening through fair aspen-tree,
“And elm and oak about the palace there
The king came back from battle, and I stood
To meet him, with my ladies, on the stair,
My face made beautiful with my young blood.”
“Will she lie now, Lord God?” “Remember too,
Wrung heart, how first before the knights there came
A royal bier, hung round with green and blue,
About it shone great tapers with sick flame.
“And thereupon Lucius, the Emperor,
Lay royal-robed, but stone-cold now and dead,
Not able to hold sword or sceptre more,
But not quite grim; because his cloven head
“Bore no marks now of Launcelot’s bitter sword,
Being by embalmers deftly solder’d up;
So still it seem’d the face of a great lord,
Being mended as a craftsman mends a cup.
“Also the heralds sung rejoicingly
To their long trumpets; ‘Fallen under shield,
Here lieth Lucius, King of Italy,
Slain by Lord Launcelot in open field.’
“Thereat the people shouted: ‘Launcelot!’
And through the spears I saw you drawing nigh,
You and Lord Arthur: nay, I saw you not,
But rather Arthur, God would not let die,
“I hoped, these many years; he should grow great,
And in his great arms still encircle me,
Kissing my face, half blinded with the heat
Of king’s love for the queen I used to be.
“Launcelot, Launcelot, why did he take your hand,
When he had kissed me in his kingly way?
Saying: ‘This is the knight whom all the land
Calls Arthur’s banner, sword, and shield to-day;
“‘Cherish him, love.’ Why did your long lips cleave
In such strange way unto my fingers then?
So eagerly glad to kiss, so loath to leave
When you rose up? Why among helmed men
“Could I always tell you by your long strong arms,
And sway like an angel’s in your saddle there?
Why sicken’d I so often with alarms
Over the tilt-yard? Why were you more fair
“Than aspens in the autumn at their best?
Why did you fill all lands with your great fame,
So that Breuse even, as he rode, fear’d lest
At turning of the way your shield should flame?
“Was it nought then, my agony and strife?
When as day passed by day, year after year,
I found I could not live a righteous life!
Didst ever think queens held their truth for dear?
“O, but your lips say: ‘Yea, but she was cold
Sometimes, always uncertain as the spring;
When I was sad she would be overbold,
Longing for kisses. When war-bells did ring,
“‘The back-toll’d bells of noisy Camelot.’”
“Now, Lord God, listen! listen, Guenevere,
Though I am weak just now, I think there’s not
A man who dares to say: ‘You hated her,
“‘And left her moaning while you fought your fill
In the daisied meadows!’ lo you her thin hand,
That on the carven stone can not keep still,
Because she loves me against God’s command,
“Has often been quite wet with tear on tear,
Tears Launcelot keeps somewhere, surely not
In his own heart, perhaps in Heaven, where
He will not be these ages.” “Launcelot!
“Loud lips, wrung heart! I say when the bells rang,
The noisy back-toll’d bells of Camelot,
There were two spots on earth, the thrushes sang
In the lonely gardens where my love was not,
“Where I was almost weeping; I dared not
Weep quite in those days, lest one maid should say,
In tittering whispers: ‘Where is Launcelot
To wipe with some kerchief those tears away?’
“Another answer sharply with brows knit,
And warning hand up, scarcely lower though:
‘You speak too loud, see you, she heareth it,
This tigress fair has claws, as I well know,
“‘As Launcelot knows too, the poor knight! well-a-day!
Why met he not with Iseult from the West,
Or better still, Iseult of Brittany?
Perchance indeed quite ladyless were best.’
“Alas, my maids, you loved not overmuch
Queen Guenevere, uncertain as sunshine
In March; forgive me! for my sin being such,
About my whole life, all my deeds did twine,
“Made me quite wicked; as I found out then,
I think; in the lonely palace where each morn
We went, my maids and I, to say prayers when
They sang mass in the chapel on the lawn.
“And every morn I scarce could pray at all,
For Launcelot’s red-golden hair would play,
Instead of sunlight, on the painted wall,
Mingled with dreams of what the priest did say;
“Grim curses out of Peter and of Paul;
Judging of strange sins in Leviticus;
Another sort of writing on the wall,
Scored deep across the painted heads of us.
“Christ sitting with the woman at the well,
And Mary Magdalen repenting there,
Her dimmed eyes scorch’d and red at sight of hell
So hardly ‘scaped, no gold light on her hair.
“And if the priest said anything that seemed
To touch upon the sin they said we did,
(This in their teeth) they looked as if they deem’d
That I was spying what thoughts might be hid
“Under green-cover’d bosoms, heaving quick
Beneath quick thoughts; while they grew red with shame,
And gazed down at their feet: while I felt sick,
And almost shriek’d if one should call my name.
“The thrushes sang in the lone garden there:
But where you were the birds were scared I trow:
Clanging of arms about pavilions fair,
Mixed with the knights’ laughs; there, as I well know,
“Rode Launcelot, the king of all the band,
And scowling Gauwaine, like the night in day,
And handsome Gareth, with his great white hand
Curl’d round the helm-crest, ere he join’d the fray;
“And merry Dinadan with sharp dark face,
All true knights loved to see; and in the fight
Great Tristram, and though helmed you could trace
In all his bearing the frank noble knight;
“And by him Palomydes, helmet off,
He fought, his face brush’d by his hair,
Red heavy swinging hair; he fear’d a scoff
So overmuch, though what true knight would dare
“To mock that face, fretted with useless care,
And bitter useless striving after love?
O Palomydes, with much honour bear
Beast Glatysaunt upon your shield, above
“Your helm that hides the swinging of your hair,
And think of Iseult, as your sword drives through
Much mail and plate: O God, let me be there
A little time, as I was long ago!
“Because stout Gareth lets his spear fall low,
Gauwaine and Launcelot, and Dinadan
Are helm’d and waiting; let the trumpets go!
Bend over, ladies, to see all you can!
“Clench teeth, dames, yea, clasp hands, for Gareth’s spear
Throws Kay from out his saddle, like a stone
From a castle-window when the foe draws near:
‘Iseult!’ Sir Dinadan rolleth overthrown.
“‘Iseult!’ again: the pieces of each spear
Fly fathoms up, and both the great steeds reel;
‘Tristram for Iseult!’ ‘Iseult!’ and ‘Guenevere!’
The ladies’ names bite verily like steel.
“They bite: bite me, Lord God! I shall go mad,
Or else die kissing him, he is so pale,
He thinks me mad already, O bad! bad!
Let me lie down a little while and wail.”
“No longer so, rise up, I pray you, love,
And slay me really, then we shall be heal’d,
Perchance, in the aftertime by God above.”
“Banner of Arthur, with black-bended shield
“Sinister-wise across the fair gold ground!
Here let me tell you what a knight you are,
O sword and shield of Arthur! you are found
A crooked sword, I think, that leaves a scar
“On the bearer’s arm, so be he thinks it straight,
Twisted Malay’s crease beautiful blue-grey,
Poison’d with sweet fruit; as he found too late,
My husband Arthur, on some bitter day!
“O sickle cutting hemlock the day long!
That the husbandman across his shoulder hangs,
And, going homeward about evensong,
Dies the next morning, struck through by the fangs!
“Banner, and sword, and shield, you dare not die,
Lest you meet Arthur in the other world,
And, knowing who you are, he pass you by,
Taking short turns that he may watch you curl’d,
“Body and face and limbs in agony,
Lest he weep presently and go away,
Saying: ‘I loved him once,’ with a sad sigh,
Now I have slain him, Lord, let me go too, I pray.
[Launcelot falls.
“Alas! alas! I know not what to do,
If I run fast it is perchance that I
May fall and stun myself, much better so,
Never, never again! not even when I die.”
LAUNCELOT, on awaking.
“I stretch’d my hands towards her and fell down,
How long I lay in swoon I cannot tell:
My head and hands were bleeding from the stone,
When I rose up, also I heard a bell.”
(The Magic Crystal)
