Queen, I weep not.Shamed with no ignoble shame Thou seest me: but I weep not.Yea, God knows, Humbled I am, and humble; not to thee.
ALBOVINE.
Chafe not: and thou, queen though thou be, and mine, Tempt not a true man's wrath with words that bear Fangs keener than thou knowest of.
ROSAMUND.
King, henceforth, Being warned, I will not.Dangerous as the sea A true man's wrath is--and a true man's love:
A woman's hath no peril in it: her tears Wash wrath and peril away.
ALBOVINE.
I have never seen thee Weep.
ROSAMUND.
How should I weep--I, thy wife?
ALBOVINE.
I have heard thee Laugh; and thy smiles were always bright as fire.
ROSAMUND.
Well were it with me--ay, and reason found For me to live and do the living world Some service--could my husband warm thereat His heart as winter-stricken hands in frost Are warmed at winter fires.
ALBOVINE.
No need, no need:
The sun thou art warms all our year with love, And leaves no chill on winter.
ROSAMUND.
Albovine, Love now secludes us not from sight of man -From sight of this my maiden and the man Who shines but as the battle's boy for thee But lives for me my maiden's lover--true As truth is--Almachildes.
ALBOVINE.
How thy lips Hang lingering on his name as though 'twere thou That loved him! Thou shouldst love thy maiden well.
ROSAMUND.
As she loves me I love her.Hildegard, Leave us.Thou knowest I love thee.
HILDEGARD.
Queen, I know.[Exit.
ALBOVINE.
What ails the boy? what rapturous agony Torments and glorifies his glance at her As with delight in torture? Cheer thee, man:
Thou art not thus all unworthy.
ROSAMUND.
Spare him, king.
A king may guess not how a man's heart yearns With all unkingly sense of love and shame Not all unmanly.
ALBOVINE.
Shame is none to be Loved, and to deem that love exceeds our due Who may not well deserve it.Sick at heart He seems, and should be gladder than the sea When wind and sun strike life in it.
ALMACHILDES.
I am not So stricken, king.I thank thy care of me.
ALBOVINE.
Heart-stricken or shame-stricken art thou?
ROSAMUND.
King, Spare him.Thou knowest not love like his.It burns And rends and wrings the spirit.
ALBOVINE.
No.And thou, Dost thou then?
ROSAMUND.
Eyes and heart and sense are mine As weak and strong as woman's can but be;As weak in strength and strong in weakness.Men, Being wise, and mightier than their mates on earth, Need no such knowledge born of inborn pain As quickens all the spirit of sense in us.
Worms know what eagles know not.
ALBOVINE.
Like enough.
Rede me no redes and riddles.Never yet I have loved thee more, and yet I have loved thee well, Than now that loving-kindness borne toward love Makes thee so gracious, pleading for it.
ROSAMUND.
Love Sees all things lovely: thine, if praise there be, Not mine the praise is: thee, not me, these twain Must love and worship as their lord of love.
ALBOVINE.
Well, God be good to them and thee and me!
I would this fierce Italian June were dead, So hard it weighs upon me.
ROSAMUND.
Now not long Shall we sustain or sink aswoon from it:
It has but left a day or two to die.
ALBOVINE.
And well were that, if summer died with June.
Two red months more must set on sense and soul The branding-iron stamped of summer: nay, The sea is here no sea to cherish man:
It brings no choral comfort back with tides That surge and sink and swell and chime and change And lighten life with music where the breath Dies and revives of night and day.
ROSAMUND.
Be thou Content: a God hath driven us hither.
ALBOVINE.
Yea:
A God of death and fire and strife, whose hand Is heavy on my spirit.Be not ye Troubled, if peace be with you.
ROSAMUND.
Peace to thee.
[Exit ALBOVINE.
Now follow: smite him now: thou art strong, but yet Thy king is stronger--mightier thewed than thou.
Thou couldst not slay him in fight.
ALMACHILDES.
I cannot slay him Thus.
ROSAMUND.
Canst thou slay thy bride by fire? He dies, Or she dies, bound against the stake.His death Were the easier.Follow him: save her: strike but once.
ALMACHILDES.
I cannot.God requite thee this! I will.[Exit.
ROSAMUND.
And I will see it.And, father, thou shalt see.
[Exit.
