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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=341717" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Pelleas And Ettarre</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">King Arthur made new knights to fill the gap <br>Left by the Holy Quest; and as he sat <br>In hall at old Caerleon, the high doors <br>Were softly sundered, and through these a youth, <br>Pelleas, and the sweet smell of the fields <br>Past, and the sunshine came along with him. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">`Make me thy knight, because I know, Sir King, <br>All that belongs to knighthood, and I love.' <br>Such was his cry: for having heard the King <br>Had let proclaim a tournament--the prize <br>A golden circlet and a knightly sword, <br>Full fain had Pelleas for his lady won <br>The golden circlet, for himself the sword: <br>And there were those who knew him near the King, <br>And promised for him: and Arthur made him knight. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">And this new knight, Sir Pelleas of the isles-- <br>But lately come to his inheritance, <br>And lord of many a barren isle was he-- <br>Riding at noon, a day or twain before, <br>Across the forest called of Dean, to find <br>Caerleon and the King, had felt the sun <br>Beat like a strong knight on his helm, and reeled <br>Almost to falling from his horse; but saw <br>Near him a mound of even-sloping side, <br>Whereon a hundred stately beeches grew, <br>And here and there great hollies under them; <br>But for a mile all round was open space, <br>And fern and heath: and slowly Pelleas drew <br>To that dim day, then binding his good horse <br>To a tree, cast himself down; and as he lay <br>At random looking over the brown earth <br>Through that green-glooming twilight of the grove, <br>It seemed to Pelleas that the fern without <br>Burnt as a living fire of emeralds, <br>So that his eyes were dazzled looking at it. <br>Then o'er it crost the dimness of a cloud <br>Floating, and once the shadow of a bird <br>Flying, and then a fawn; and his eyes closed. <br>And since he loved all maidens, but no maid <br>In special, half-awake he whispered, `Where? <br>O where? I love thee, though I know thee not. <br>For fair thou art and pure as Guinevere, <br>And I will make thee with my spear and sword <br>As famous--O my Queen, my Guinevere, <br>For I will be thine Arthur when we meet.' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Suddenly wakened with a sound of talk <br>And laughter at the limit of the wood, <br>And glancing through the hoary boles, he saw, <br>Strange as to some old prophet might have seemed <br>A vision hovering on a sea of fire, <br>Damsels in divers colours like the cloud <br>Of sunset and sunrise, and all of them <br>On horses, and the horses richly trapt <br>Breast-high in that bright line of bracken stood: <br>And all the damsels talked confusedly, <br>And one was pointing this way, and one that, <br>Because the way was lost. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">  And Pelleas rose, <br>And loosed his horse, and led him to the light. <br>There she that seemed the chief among them said, <br>`In happy time behold our pilot-star! <br>Youth, we are damsels-errant, and we ride, <br>Armed as ye see, to tilt against the knights <br>There at Caerleon, but have lost our way: <br>To right? to left? straight forward? back again? <br>Which? tell us quickly.' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">  Pelleas gazing thought, <br>`Is Guinevere herself so beautiful?' <br>For large her violet eyes looked, and her bloom <br>A rosy dawn kindled in stainless heavens, <br>And round her limbs, mature in womanhood; <br>And slender was her hand and small her shape; <br>And but for those large eyes, the haunts of scorn, <br>She might have seemed a toy to trifle with, <br>And pass and care no more. But while he gazed <br>The beauty of her flesh abashed the boy, <br>As though it were the beauty of her soul: <br>For as the base man, judging of the good, <br>Puts his own baseness in him by default <br>Of will and nature, so did Pelleas lend <br>All the young beauty of his own soul to hers, <br>Believing her; and when she spake to him, <br>Stammered, and could not make her a reply. <br>For out of the waste islands had he come, <br>Where saving his own sisters he had known <br>Scarce any but the women of his isles, <br>Rough wives, that laughed and screamed against the gulls, <br>Makers of nets, and living from the sea. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then with a slow smile turned the lady round <br>And looked upon her people; and as when <br>A stone is flung into some sleeping tarn, <br>The circle widens till it lip the marge, <br>Spread the slow smile through all her company. <br>Three knights were thereamong; and they too smiled, <br>Scorning him; for the lady was Ettarre, <br>And she was a great lady in her land. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Again she said, `O wild and of the woods, <br>Knowest thou not the fashion of our speech? <br>Or have the Heavens but given thee a fair face, <br>Lacking a tongue?' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">  `O damsel,' answered he, <br>`I woke from dreams; and coming out of gloom <br>Was dazzled by the sudden light, and crave <br>Pardon: but will ye to Caerleon? I <br>Go likewise: shall I lead you to the King?' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">`Lead then,' she said; and through the woods they went. <br>And while they rode, the meaning in his eyes, <br>His tenderness of manner, and chaste awe, <br>His broken utterances and bashfulness, <br>Were all a burthen to her, and in her heart <br>She muttered, `I have lighted on a fool, <br>Raw, yet so stale!' But since her mind was bent <br>On hearing, after trumpet blown, her name <br>And title, `Queen of Beauty,' in the lists <br>Cried--and beholding him so strong, she thought <br>That peradventure he will fight for me, <br>And win the circlet: therefore flattered him, <br>Being so gracious, that he wellnigh deemed <br>His wish by hers was echoed; and her knights <br>And all her damsels too were gracious to him, <br>For she was a great lady. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">  And when they reached <br>Caerleon, ere they past to lodging, she, <br>Taking his hand, `O the strong hand,' she said, <br>`See! look at mine! but wilt thou fight for me, <br>And win me this fine circlet, Pelleas, <br>That I may love thee?' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">  Then his helpless heart <br>Leapt, and he cried, `Ay! wilt thou if I win?' <br>`Ay, that will I,' she answered, and she laughed, <br>And straitly nipt the hand, and flung it from her; <br>Then glanced askew at those three knights of hers, <br>Till all her ladies laughed along with her. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">`O happy world,' thought Pelleas, `all, meseems, <br>Are happy; I the happiest of them all.' <br>Nor slept that night for pleasure in his blood, <br>And green wood-ways, and eyes among the leaves; <br>Then being on the morrow knighted, sware <br>To love one only. And as he came away, <br>The men who met him rounded on their heels <br>And wondered after him, because his face <br>Shone like the countenance of a priest of old <br>Against the flame about a sacrifice <br>Kindled by fire from heaven: so glad was he. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then Arthur made vast banquets, and strange knights <br>From the four winds came in: and each one sat, <br>Though served with choice from air, land, stream, and sea, <br>Oft in mid-banquet measuring with his eyes <br>His neighbour's make and might: and Pelleas looked <br>Noble among the noble, for he dreamed <br>His lady loved him, and he knew himself <br>Loved of the King: and him his new-made knight <br>Worshipt, whose lightest whisper moved him more <br>Than all the rangd reasons of the world. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then blushed and brake the morning of the jousts, <br>And this was called `The Tournament of Youth:' <br>For Arthur, loving his young knight, withheld <br>His older and his mightier from the lists, <br>That Pelleas might obtain his lady's love, <br>According to her promise, and remain <br>Lord of the tourney. And Arthur had the jousts <br>Down in the flat field by the shore of Usk <br>Holden: the gilded parapets were crowned <br>With faces, and the great tower filled with eyes <br>Up to the summit, and the trumpets blew. <br>There all day long Sir Pelleas kept the field <br>With honour: so by that strong hand of his <br>The sword and golden circlet were achieved. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then rang the shout his lady loved: the heat <br>Of pride and glory fired her face; her eye <br>Sparkled; she caught the circlet from his lance, <br>And there before the people crowned herself: <br>So for the last time she was gracious to him. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then at Caerleon for a space--her look <br>Bright for all others, cloudier on her knight-- <br>Lingered Ettarre: and seeing Pelleas droop, <br>Said Guinevere, `We marvel at thee much, <br>O damsel, wearing this unsunny face <br>To him who won thee glory!' And she said, <br>`Had ye not held your Lancelot in your bower, <br>My Queen, he had not won.' Whereat the Queen, <br>As one whose foot is bitten by an ant, <br>Glanced down upon her, turned and went her way. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">But after, when her damsels, and herself, <br>And those three knights all set their faces home, <br>Sir Pelleas followed. She that saw him cried, <br>`Damsels--and yet I should be shamed to say it-- <br>I cannot bide Sir Baby. Keep him back <br>Among yourselves. Would rather that we had <br>Some rough old knight who knew the worldly way, <br>Albeit grizzlier than a bear, to ride <br>And jest with: take him to you, keep him off, <br>And pamper him with papmeat, if ye will, <br>Old milky fables of the wolf and sheep, <br>Such as the wholesome mothers tell their boys. <br>Nay, should ye try him with a merry one <br>To find his mettle, good: and if he fly us, <br>Small matter! let him.' This her damsels heard, <br>And mindful of her small and cruel hand, <br>They, closing round him through the journey home, <br>Acted her hest, and always from her side <br>Restrained him with all manner of device, <br>So that he could not come to speech with her. <br>And when she gained her castle, upsprang the bridge, <br>Down rang the grate of iron through the groove, <br>And he was left alone in open field. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">`These be the ways of ladies,' Pelleas thought, <br>`To those who love them, trials of our faith. <br>Yea, let her prove me to the uttermost, <br>For loyal to the uttermost am I.' <br>So made his moan; and darkness falling, sought <br>A priory not far off, there lodged, but rose <br>With morning every day, and, moist or dry, <br>Full-armed upon his charger all day long <br>Sat by the walls, and no one opened to him. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">And this persistence turned her scorn to wrath. <br>Then calling her three knights, she charged them, `Out! <br>And drive him from the walls.' And out they came <br>But Pelleas overthrew them as they dashed <br>Against him one by one; and these returned, <br>But still he kept his watch beneath the wall. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Thereon her wrath became a hate; and once, <br>A week beyond, while walking on the walls <br>With her three knights, she pointed downward, `Look, <br>He haunts me--I cannot breathe--besieges me; <br>Down! strike him! put my hate into your strokes, <br>And drive him from my walls.' And down they went, <br>And Pelleas overthrew them one by one; <br>And from the tower above him cried Ettarre, <br>`Bind him, and bring him in.' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">  He heard her voice; <br>Then let the strong hand, which had overthrown <br>Her minion-knights, by those he overthrew <br>Be bounden straight, and so they brought him in. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then when he came before Ettarre, the sight <br>Of her rich beauty made him at one glance <br>More bondsman in his heart than in his bonds. <br>Yet with good cheer he spake, `Behold me, Lady, <br>A prisoner, and the vassal of thy will; <br>And if thou keep me in thy donjon here, <br>Content am I so that I see thy face <br>But once a day: for I have sworn my vows, <br>And thou hast given thy promise, and I know <br>That all these pains are trials of my faith, <br>And that thyself, when thou hast seen me strained <br>And sifted to the utmost, wilt at length <br>Yield me thy love and know me for thy knight.' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then she began to rail so bitterly, <br>With all her damsels, he was stricken mute; <br>But when she mocked his vows and the great King, <br>Lighted on words: `For pity of thine own self, <br>Peace, Lady, peace: is he not thine and mine?' <br>`Thou fool,' she said, `I never heard his voice <br>But longed to break away. Unbind him now, <br>And thrust him out of doors; for save he be <br>Fool to the midmost marrow of his bones, <br>He will return no more.' And those, her three, <br>Laughed, and unbound, and thrust him from the gate. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">And after this, a week beyond, again <br>She called them, saying, `There he watches yet, <br>There like a dog before his master's door! <br>Kicked, he returns: do ye not hate him, ye? <br>Ye know yourselves: how can ye bide at peace, <br>Affronted with his fulsome innocence? <br>Are ye but creatures of the board and bed, <br>No men to strike? Fall on him all at once, <br>And if ye slay him I reck not: if ye fail, <br>Give ye the slave mine order to be bound, <br>Bind him as heretofore, and bring him in: <br>It may be ye shall slay him in his bonds.' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">She spake; and at her will they couched their spears, <br>Three against one: and Gawain passing by, <br>Bound upon solitary adventure, saw <br>Low down beneath the shadow of those towers <br>A villainy, three to one: and through his heart <br>The fire of honour and all noble deeds <br>Flashed, and he called, `I strike upon thy side-- <br>The caitiffs!' `Nay,' said Pelleas, `but forbear; <br>He needs no aid who doth his lady's will.' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">So Gawain, looking at the villainy done, <br>Forbore, but in his heat and eagerness <br>Trembled and quivered, as the dog, withheld <br>A moment from the vermin that he sees <br>Before him, shivers, ere he springs and kills. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">And Pelleas overthrew them, one to three; <br>And they rose up, and bound, and brought him in. <br>Then first her anger, leaving Pelleas, burned <br>Full on her knights in many an evil name <br>Of craven, weakling, and thrice-beaten hound: <br>`Yet, take him, ye that scarce are fit to touch, <br>Far less to bind, your victor, and thrust him out, <br>And let who will release him from his bonds. <br>And if he comes again'--there she brake short; <br>And Pelleas answered, `Lady, for indeed <br>I loved you and I deemed you beautiful, <br>I cannot brook to see your beauty marred <br>Through evil spite: and if ye love me not, <br>I cannot bear to dream you so forsworn: <br>I had liefer ye were worthy of my love, <br>Than to be loved again of you--farewell; <br>And though ye kill my hope, not yet my love, <br>Vex not yourself: ye will not see me more.' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">While thus he spake, she gazed upon the man <br>Of princely bearing, though in bonds, and thought, <br>`Why have I pushed him from me? this man loves, <br>If love there be: yet him I loved not. Why? <br>I deemed him fool? yea, so? or that in him <br>A something--was it nobler than myself? <br>Seemed my reproach? He is not of my kind. <br>He could not love me, did he know me well. <br>Nay, let him go--and quickly.' And her knights <br>Laughed not, but thrust him bounden out of door. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Forth sprang Gawain, and loosed him from his bonds, <br>And flung them o'er the walls; and afterward, <br>Shaking his hands, as from a lazar's rag, <br>`Faith of my body,' he said, `and art thou not-- <br>Yea thou art he, whom late our Arthur made <br>Knight of his table; yea and he that won <br>The circlet? wherefore hast thou so defamed <br>Thy brotherhood in me and all the rest, <br>As let these caitiffs on thee work their will?' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">And Pelleas answered, `O, their wills are hers <br>For whom I won the circlet; and mine, hers, <br>Thus to be bounden, so to see her face, <br>Marred though it be with spite and mockery now, <br>Other than when I found her in the woods; <br>And though she hath me bounden but in spite, <br>And all to flout me, when they bring me in, <br>Let me be bounden, I shall see her face; <br>Else must I die through mine unhappiness.' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">And Gawain answered kindly though in scorn, <br>`Why, let my lady bind me if she will, <br>And let my lady beat me if she will: <br>But an she send her delegate to thrall <br>These fighting hands of mine--Christ kill me then <br>But I will slice him handless by the wrist, <br>And let my lady sear the stump for him, <br>Howl as he may. But hold me for your friend: <br>Come, ye know nothing: here I pledge my troth, <br>Yea, by the honour of the Table Round, <br>I will be leal to thee and work thy work, <br>And tame thy jailing princess to thine hand. <br>Lend me thine horse and arms, and I will say <br>That I have slain thee. She will let me in <br>To hear the manner of thy fight and fall; <br>Then, when I come within her counsels, then <br>From prime to vespers will I chant thy praise <br>As prowest knight and truest lover, more <br>Than any have sung thee living, till she long <br>To have thee back in lusty life again, <br>Not to be bound, save by white bonds and warm, <br>Dearer than freedom. Wherefore now thy horse <br>And armour: let me go: be comforted: <br>Give me three days to melt her fancy, and hope <br>The third night hence will bring thee news of gold.' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then Pelleas lent his horse and all his arms, <br>Saving the goodly sword, his prize, and took <br>Gawain's, and said, `Betray me not, but help-- <br>Art thou not he whom men call light-of-love?' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">`Ay,' said Gawain, `for women be so light.' <br>Then bounded forward to the castle walls, <br>And raised a bugle hanging from his neck, <br>And winded it, and that so musically <br>That all the old echoes hidden in the wall <br>Rang out like hollow woods at hunting-tide. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Up ran a score of damsels to the tower; <br>`Avaunt,' they cried, `our lady loves thee not.' <br>But Gawain lifting up his vizor said, <br>`Gawain am I, Gawain of Arthur's court, <br>And I have slain this Pelleas whom ye hate: <br>Behold his horse and armour. Open gates, <br>And I will make you merry.' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">  And down they ran, <br>Her damsels, crying to their lady, `Lo! <br>Pelleas is dead--he told us--he that hath <br>His horse and armour: will ye let him in? <br>He slew him! Gawain, Gawain of the court, <br>Sir Gawain--there he waits below the wall, <br>Blowing his bugle as who should say him nay.' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">And so, leave given, straight on through open door <br>Rode Gawain, whom she greeted courteously. <br>`Dead, is it so?' she asked. `Ay, ay,' said he, <br>`And oft in dying cried upon your name.' <br>`Pity on him,' she answered, `a good knight, <br>But never let me bide one hour at peace.' <br>`Ay,' thought Gawain, `and you be fair enow: <br>But I to your dead man have given my troth, <br>That whom ye loathe, him will I make you love.' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">So those three days, aimless about the land, <br>Lost in a doubt, Pelleas wandering <br>Waited, until the third night brought a moon <br>With promise of large light on woods and ways. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Hot was the night and silent; but a sound <br>Of Gawain ever coming, and this lay-- <br>Which Pelleas had heard sung before the Queen, <br>And seen her sadden listening--vext his heart, <br>And marred his rest--`A worm within the rose.' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">`A rose, but one, none other rose had I, <br>A rose, one rose, and this was wondrous fair, <br>One rose, a rose that gladdened earth and sky, <br>One rose, my rose, that sweetened all mine air-- <br>I cared not for the thorns; the thorns were there. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">`One rose, a rose to gather by and by, <br>One rose, a rose, to gather and to wear, <br>No rose but one--what other rose had I? <br>One rose, my rose; a rose that will not die,-- <br>He dies who loves it,--if the worm be there.' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">This tender rhyme, and evermore the doubt, <br>`Why lingers Gawain with his golden news?' <br>So shook him that he could not rest, but rode <br>Ere midnight to her walls, and bound his horse <br>Hard by the gates. Wide open were the gates, <br>And no watch kept; and in through these he past, <br>And heard but his own steps, and his own heart <br>Beating, for nothing moved but his own self, <br>And his own shadow. Then he crost the court, <br>And spied not any light in hall or bower, <br>But saw the postern portal also wide <br>Yawning; and up a slope of garden, all <br>Of roses white and red, and brambles mixt <br>And overgrowing them, went on, and found, <br>Here too, all hushed below the mellow moon, <br>Save that one rivulet from a tiny cave <br>Came lightening downward, and so spilt itself <br>Among the roses, and was lost again. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then was he ware of three pavilions reared <br>Above the bushes, gilden-peakt: in one, <br>Red after revel, droned her lurdane knights <br>Slumbering, and their three squires across their feet: <br>In one, their malice on the placid lip <br>Frozen by sweet sleep, four of her damsels lay: <br>And in the third, the circlet of the jousts <br>Bound on her brow, were Gawain and Ettarre. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Back, as a hand that pushes through the leaf <br>To find a nest and feels a snake, he drew: <br>Back, as a coward slinks from what he fears <br>To cope with, or a traitor proven, or hound <br>Beaten, did Pelleas in an utter shame <br>Creep with his shadow through the court again, <br>Fingering at his sword-handle until he stood <br>There on the castle-bridge once more, and thought, <br>`I will go back, and slay them where they lie.' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">And so went back, and seeing them yet in sleep <br>Said, `Ye, that so dishallow the holy sleep, <br>Your sleep is death,' and drew the sword, and thought, <br>`What! slay a sleeping knight? the King hath bound <br>And sworn me to this brotherhood;' again, <br>`Alas that ever a knight should be so false.' <br>Then turned, and so returned, and groaning laid <br>The naked sword athwart their naked throats, <br>There left it, and them sleeping; and she lay, <br>The circlet of her tourney round her brows, <br>And the sword of the tourney across her throat. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">And forth he past, and mounting on his horse <br>Stared at her towers that, larger than themselves <br>In their own darkness, thronged into the moon. <br>Then crushed the saddle with his thighs, and clenched <br>His hands, and maddened with himself and moaned: </div><div style="margin:10px 0">`Would they have risen against me in their blood <br>At the last day? I might have answered them <br>Even before high God. O towers so strong, <br>Huge, solid, would that even while I gaze <br>The crack of earthquake shivering to your base <br>Split you, and Hell burst up your harlot roofs <br>Bellowing, and charred you through and through within, <br>Black as the harlot's heart--hollow as a skull! <br>Let the fierce east scream through your eyelet-holes, <br>And whirl the dust of harlots round and round <br>In dung and nettles! hiss, snake--I saw him there-- <br>Let the fox bark, let the wolf yell. Who yells <br>Here in the still sweet summer night, but I-- <br>I, the poor Pelleas whom she called her fool? <br>Fool, beast--he, she, or I? myself most fool; <br>Beast too, as lacking human wit--disgraced, <br>Dishonoured all for trial of true love-- <br>Love?--we be all alike: only the King <br>Hath made us fools and liars. O noble vows! <br>O great and sane and simple race of brutes <br>That own no lust because they have no law! <br>For why should I have loved her to my shame? <br>I loathe her, as I loved her to my shame. <br>I never loved her, I but lusted for her-- <br>Away--' <br> He dashed the rowel into his horse, <br>And bounded forth and vanished through the night. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then she, that felt the cold touch on her throat, <br>Awaking knew the sword, and turned herself <br>To Gawain: `Liar, for thou hast not slain <br>This Pelleas! here he stood, and might have slain <br>Me and thyself.' And he that tells the tale <br>Says that her ever-veering fancy turned <br>To Pelleas, as the one true knight on earth, <br>And only lover; and through her love her life <br>Wasted and pined, desiring him in vain. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">But he by wild and way, for half the night, <br>And over hard and soft, striking the sod <br>From out the soft, the spark from off the hard, <br>Rode till the star above the wakening sun, <br>Beside that tower where Percivale was cowled, <br>Glanced from the rosy forehead of the dawn. <br>For so the words were flashed into his heart <br>He knew not whence or wherefore: `O sweet star, <br>Pure on the virgin forehead of the dawn!' <br>And there he would have wept, but felt his eyes <br>Harder and drier than a fountain bed <br>In summer: thither came the village girls <br>And lingered talking, and they come no more <br>Till the sweet heavens have filled it from the heights <br>Again with living waters in the change <br>Of seasons: hard his eyes; harder his heart <br>Seemed; but so weary were his limbs, that he, <br>Gasping, `Of Arthur's hall am I, but here, <br>Here let me rest and die,' cast himself down, <br>And gulfed his griefs in inmost sleep; so lay, <br>Till shaken by a dream, that Gawain fired <br>The hall of Merlin, and the morning star <br>Reeled in the smoke, brake into flame, and fell. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">He woke, and being ware of some one nigh, <br>Sent hands upon him, as to tear him, crying, <br>`False! and I held thee pure as Guinevere.' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">But Percivale stood near him and replied, <br>`Am I but false as Guinevere is pure? <br>Or art thou mazed with dreams? or being one <br>Of our free-spoken Table hast not heard <br>That Lancelot'--there he checked himself and paused. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then fared it with Sir Pelleas as with one <br>Who gets a wound in battle, and the sword <br>That made it plunges through the wound again, <br>And pricks it deeper: and he shrank and wailed, <br>`Is the Queen false?' and Percivale was mute. <br>`Have any of our Round Table held their vows?' <br>And Percivale made answer not a word. <br>`Is the King true?' `The King!' said Percivale. <br>`Why then let men couple at once with wolves. <br>What! art thou mad?' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">  But Pelleas, leaping up, <br>Ran through the doors and vaulted on his horse <br>And fled: small pity upon his horse had he, <br>Or on himself, or any, and when he met <br>A cripple, one that held a hand for alms-- <br>Hunched as he was, and like an old dwarf-elm <br>That turns its back upon the salt blast, the boy <br>Paused not, but overrode him, shouting, `False, <br>And false with Gawain!' and so left him bruised <br>And battered, and fled on, and hill and wood <br>Went ever streaming by him till the gloom, <br>That follows on the turning of the world, <br>Darkened the common path: he twitched the reins, <br>And made his beast that better knew it, swerve <br>Now off it and now on; but when he saw <br>High up in heaven the hall that Merlin built, <br>Blackening against the dead-green stripes of even, <br>`Black nest of rats,' he groaned, `ye build too high.' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Not long thereafter from the city gates <br>Issued Sir Lancelot riding airily, <br>Warm with a gracious parting from the Queen, <br>Peace at his heart, and gazing at a star <br>And marvelling what it was: on whom the boy, <br>Across the silent seeded meadow-grass <br>Borne, clashed: and Lancelot, saying, `What name hast thou <br>That ridest here so blindly and so hard?' <br>`No name, no name,' he shouted, `a scourge am I <br>To lash the treasons of the Table Round.' <br>`Yea, but thy name?' `I have many names,' he cried: <br>`I am wrath and shame and hate and evil fame, <br>And like a poisonous wind I pass to blast <br>And blaze the crime of Lancelot and the Queen.' <br>`First over me,' said Lancelot, `shalt thou pass.' <br>`Fight therefore,' yelled the youth, and either knight <br>Drew back a space, and when they closed, at once <br>The weary steed of Pelleas floundering flung <br>His rider, who called out from the dark field, <br>`Thou art as false as Hell: slay me: I have no sword.' <br>Then Lancelot, `Yea, between thy lips--and sharp; <br>But here I will disedge it by thy death.' <br>`Slay then,' he shrieked, `my will is to be slain,' <br>And Lancelot, with his heel upon the fallen, <br>Rolling his eyes, a moment stood, then spake: <br>`Rise, weakling; I am Lancelot; say thy say.' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">And Lancelot slowly rode his warhorse back <br>To Camelot, and Sir Pelleas in brief while <br>Caught his unbroken limbs from the dark field, <br>And followed to the city. It chanced that both <br>Brake into hall together, worn and pale. <br>There with her knights and dames was Guinevere. <br>Full wonderingly she gazed on Lancelot <br>So soon returned, and then on Pelleas, him <br>Who had not greeted her, but cast himself <br>Down on a bench, hard-breathing. `Have ye fought?' <br>She asked of Lancelot. `Ay, my Queen,' he said. <br>`And hast thou overthrown him?' `Ay, my Queen.' <br>Then she, turning to Pelleas, `O young knight, <br>Hath the great heart of knighthood in thee failed <br>So far thou canst not bide, unfrowardly, <br>A fall from HIM?' Then, for he answered not, <br>`Or hast thou other griefs? If I, the Queen, <br>May help them, loose thy tongue, and let me know.' <br>But Pelleas lifted up an eye so fierce <br>She quailed; and he, hissing `I have no sword,' <br>Sprang from the door into the dark. The Queen <br>Looked hard upon her lover, he on her; <br>And each foresaw the dolorous day to be: <br>And all talk died, as in a grove all song <br>Beneath the shadow of some bird of prey; <br>Then a long silence came upon the hall, <br>And Modred thought, `The time is hard at hand.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Alfred+Lord+Tennyson">Alfred Lord Tennyson</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=341717" data-title="Pelleas And Ettarre de Alfred Lord Tennyson" data-description="King Arthur made new knights to fill the gap 
Left by the Holy Quest; and as he sat 
In hall at old Caerleon, the high doors 
Were softly sundered, and through these a youth, 
Pelleas, and the sweet smell of the fields 
Past, and the sunshine came..."></div>
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