An eastward room in the Palace.
Enter ALBOVINE.
ALBOVINE.
This sun--no sun like ours--burns out my soul.
I would, when June takes hold on us like fire, The wind could waft and whirl us northward: here The splendour and the sweetness of the world Eat out all joy of life or manhood.Earth Is here too hard on heaven--the Italian air Too bright to breathe, as fire, its next of kin, Too keen to handle.God, whoe'er God be, Keep us from withering as the lords of Rome -Slackening and sickening toward the imperious end That wiped them out of empire! Yea, he shall.
Enter HILDEGARD.
HILDEGARD.
The queen would wait upon your majesty.
ALBOVINE.
Bid her come in.And tell her ere she come I wait upon her will.[Exit HILDEGARD.]
What would she now?
Enter ROSAMUND.
By Christ, how fair thou art! I never saw thee So like the sun in heaven: no rose on earth Might think to match thee.
ROSAMUND.
All I am is thine.
ALBOVINE.
Mine? God might come from heaven to worship thee.
Thine eyes outlighten all the stars: thy face Leaves earth no flower to worship.
ROSAMUND.
How should earth Worship her children? Nought it is in me, My lord's dear love it is, that makes me seem Fair.
ALBOVINE.
How thou liest thou knowest not.Rosamund, What hast thou done to be so beautiful?
ROSAMUND.
The sun has left thine eyes half blind.
ALBOVINE.
I dare not Kiss thee, or stare straight-eyed against the sun.
ROSAMUND.
Kiss me.Who knows how long the lord of life May spare us time for kissing? Life and love Are less than change and death.
ALBOVINE.
What ghosts are they?
So sweet thou never wast to me before.
The woman that is God--the God that is Woman--the sovereign of the soul of man, Our fathers' Freia, Venus crowned in Rome, Has lent my love her girdle; but her lips Have robbed the red rose of its heart, and left No glory for the flower beyond all flowers To bid the spring be glad of.
ROSAMUND.
Summer and spring May cleanse and heal the heart of man no more Than winter may, or withering autumn.Sire, Husband and lord, I have a woful word To speak against a man beloved of thee, A man well worth all glory man may give -Against thine Almachildes.
ALBOVINE.
Has the boy Transgressed again in awless heat of speech And kindled wrath in thee against him--thee, Who stood'st between my wrath and him?
ROSAMUND
I would His were no more transgression than of speech.
He hath wronged--I bid thee ask of me no more -A noble maiden.Till her shame be healed, Her name is dead upon my lips and his, Who is yet not all ignoble.
ALBOVINE.
He shall die Except he wed her, and she will to wed.
ROSAMUND.
That surely will she.
ALBOVINE.
Bid him hither.
ROSAMUND.
See, There strides he through the sunshine toward the shade.
How light and high he steps! He sees thee.Bid him -Beckon him in.
ALBOVINE.
He knows mine eye.He comes.
ROSAMUND.
Obedient as a hound is.
ALBOVINE.
As a man That knows the law of loyal manhood.
ROSAMUND.
Ay?
God send it be so.
Enter ALMACHILDES.
ALMACHILDES.
Queen and king, I am here.
What would you?
ALBOVINE.
Truth.Hast thou not borne thyself Toward any soul on earth disloyally Ever?
ALMACHILDES.
Never.
ALBOVINE.
I would not say thou liest.
ALMACHILDES.
Do not: the lie should burn thy lips up, king.
ALBOVINE.
Thou hast wrought no wrong toward man or woman?
ALMACHILDES.
None.
ALBOVINE.
Speak thou: thou hast heard him answer me.
ROSAMUND.
I have heard.
No wrong it may be with the serfs of hell To cast upon a woman for a curse Shame: to defile the spirit and shrine of love, Put out the sunlike eyes of maidenhood And leave the soul dismantled.Has not he So sinned?--Hast thou wrought no such work as this?
The king has heard thy silence.
ALMACHILDES.
Queen and king, I have done no wrong, but right.I have chosen my bride, And made her mine by gentle grace of hers Lest wrong should come between us.Now no man May think to unwed us: king nor queen may cross This wedded love of ours: no thwart or stay May sunder us till heaven and earth turn hell.
ALBOVINE.
I deemed not thee dishonourable: and thy queen Now knows thee true as I did.Rosamund, Forgive and give him back his bride.
