And glowing in all colours, the live grass,
Rose-campion, bluebell, kingcup, poppy, glanced

About the revels, and with mirth so loud
Beyond all use, that, half-amazed, the Queen,

And wroth at Tristram and the lawless jousts,
Brake up their sports, then slowly to her bower

Parted, and in her bosom pain was lord.
And little Dagonet on the morrow morn,

High over all the yellowing Autumn-tide,
Danced like a withered leaf before the hall.

Then Tristram saying, 'Why skip ye so, Sir Fool?'
Wheeled round on either heel, Dagonet replied,

'Belike for lack of wiser company;
Or being fool, and seeing too much wit

Makes the world rotten, why, belike I skip
To know myself the wisest knight of all.'

'Ay, fool,' said Tristram, 'but 'tis eating dry
To dance without a catch, a roundelay

To dance to.' Then he twangled on his harp,
And while he twangled little Dagonet stood

Quiet as any water-sodden log
Stayed in the wandering warble of a brook;

But when the twangling ended, skipt again;
And being asked, 'Why skipt ye not, Sir Fool?'

Made answer, 'I had liefer twenty years
Skip to the broken music of my brains

Than any broken music thou canst make.'
Then Tristram, waiting for the quip to come,

'Good now, what music have I broken, fool?'
And little Dagonet, skipping, 'Arthur, the King's;

For when thou playest that air with Queen Isolt,
Thou makest broken music with thy bride,

Her daintier namesake down in Brittany--
And so thou breakest Arthur's music too.'

'Save for that broken music in thy brains,
Sir Fool,' said Tristram, 'I would break thy head.

Fool, I came too late, the heathen wars were o'er,
The life had flown, we sware but by the shell--

I am but a fool to reason with a fool--
Come, thou art crabbed and sour: but lean me down,

Sir Dagonet, one of thy long asses' ears,
And harken if my music be not true.

'"Free love--free field--we love but while we may:
The woods are hushed, their music is no more:

The leaf is dead, the yearning past away:
New leaf, new life--the days of frost are o'er:

New life, new love, to suit the newer day:
New loves are sweet as those that went before:

Free love--free field--we love but while we may."
'Ye might have moved slow-measure to my tune,

Not stood stockstill. I made it in the woods,
And heard it ring as true as tested gold.'

But Dagonet with one foot poised in his hand,
'Friend, did ye mark that fountain yesterday

Made to run wine?--but this had run itself
All out like a long life to a sour end--

And them that round it sat with golden cups
To hand the wine to whosoever came--

The twelve small damosels white as Innocence,
In honour of poor Innocence the babe,

Who left the gems which Innocence the Queen
Lent to the King, and Innocence the King

Gave for a prize--and one of those white slips
Handed her cup and piped, the pretty one,

"Drink, drink, Sir Fool," and thereupon I drank,
Spat--pish--the cup was gold, the draught was mud.'

And Tristram, 'Was it muddier than thy gibes?
Is all the laughter gone dead out of thee?--

Not marking how the knighthood mock thee, fool--
"Fear God: honour the King--his one true knight--

Sole follower of the vows"--for here be they
Who knew thee swine enow before I came,

Smuttier than blasted grain: but when the King
Had made thee fool, thy vanity so shot up

It frighted all free fool from out thy heart;
Which left thee less than fool, and less than swine,

A naked aught--yet swine I hold thee still,
For I have flung thee pearls and find thee swine.'

And little Dagonet mincing with his feet,
'Knight, an ye fling those rubies round my neck

In lieu of hers, I'll hold thou hast some touch
Of music, since I care not for thy pearls.

Swine? I have wallowed, I have washed--the world
Is flesh and shadow--I have had my day.

The dirty nurse, Experience, in her kind
Hath fouled me--an I wallowed, then I washed--

I have had my day and my philosophies--
And thank the Lord I am King Arthur's fool.

Swine, say ye? swine, goats, asses, rams and geese
Trooped round a Paynim harper once, who thrummed

On such a wire as musically as thou
Some such fine song--but never a king's fool.'

And Tristram, 'Then were swine, goats, asses, geese
The wiser fools, seeing thy Paynim bard

Had such a mastery of his mystery
That he could harp his wife up out of hell.'

Then Dagonet, turning on the ball of his foot,
'And whither harp'st thou thine? down! and thyself

Down! and two more: a helpful harper thou,
That harpest downward! Dost thou know the star

We call the harp of Arthur up in heaven?'
And Tristram, 'Ay, Sir Fool, for when our King

Was victor wellnigh day by day, the knights,
Glorying in each new glory, set his name

High on all hills, and in the signs of heaven.'
And Dagonet answered, 'Ay, and when the land

Was freed, and the Queen false, ye set yourself
To babble about him, all to show your wit--

And whether he were King by courtesy,
Or King by right--and so went harping down

The black king's highway, got so far, and grew
So witty that ye played at ducks and drakes

With Arthur's vows on the great lake of fire.
Tuwhoo! do ye see it? do ye see the star?'

'Nay, fool,' said Tristram, 'not in open day.'
And Dagonet, 'Nay, nor will: I see it and hear.

It makes a silent music up in heaven,
And I, and Arthur and the angels hear,

And then we skip.' 'Lo, fool,' he said, 'ye talk
Fool's treason: is the King thy brother fool?'

Then little Dagonet clapt his hands and shrilled,
'Ay, ay, my brother fool, the king of fools!

Conceits himself as God that he can make
Figs out of thistles, silk from bristles, milk

From burning spurge, honey from hornet-combs,
And men from beasts--Long live the king of fools!'

And down the city Dagonet danced away;
But through the slowly-mellowing avenues

And solitary passes of the wood
Rode Tristram toward Lyonnesse and the west.

Before him fled the face of Queen Isolt
With ruby-circled neck, but evermore

Past, as a rustle or twitter in the wood
Made dull his inner, keen his outer eye

For all that walked, or crept, or perched, or flew.
Anon the face, as, when a gust hath blown,

Unruffling waters re-collect the shape
Of one that in them sees himself, returned;

But at the slot or fewmets of a deer,
Or even a fallen feather, vanished again.

So on for all that day from lawn to lawn
Through many a league-long bower he rode. At length

A lodge of intertwisted beechen-boughs
Furze-crammed, and bracken-rooft, the which himself

Built for a summer day with Queen Isolt
Against a shower, dark in the golden grove

Appearing, sent his fancy back to where
She lived a moon in that low lodge with him:

Till Mark her lord had past, the Cornish King,
With six or seven, when Tristram was away,

And snatched her thence; yet dreading worse than shame
Her warrior Tristram, spake not any word,

But bode his hour, devising wretchedness.
And now that desert lodge to Tristram lookt

So sweet, that halting, in he past, and sank
Down on a drift of foliage random-blown;

But could not rest for musing how to smoothe
And sleek his marriage over to the Queen.

Perchance in lone Tintagil far from all
The tonguesters of the court she had not heard.

But then what folly had sent him overseas
After she left him lonely here? a name?

Was it the name of one in Brittany,
Isolt, the daughter of the King? 'Isolt

Of the white hands' they called her: the sweet name
Allured him first, and then the maid herself,

Who served him well with those white hands of hers,
And loved him well, until himself had thought

He loved her also, wedded easily,
But left her all as easily, and returned.

The black-blue Irish hair and Irish eyes
Had drawn him home--what marvel? then he laid

His brows upon the drifted leaf and dreamed.
He seemed to pace the strand of Brittany

Between Isolt of Britain and his bride,
And showed them both the ruby-chain, and both

Began to struggle for it, till his Queen
Graspt it so hard, that all her hand was red.

Then cried the Breton, 'Look, her hand is red!
These be no rubies, this is frozen blood,

And melts within her hand--her hand is hot
With ill desires, but this I gave thee, look,

Is all as cool and white as any flower.'
Followed a rush of eagle's wings, and then

A whimpering of the spirit of the child,
Because the twain had spoiled her carcanet.

He dreamed; but Arthur with a hundred spears
Rode far, till o'er the illimitable reed,

And many a glancing plash and sallowy isle,
The wide-winged sunset of the misty marsh

Glared on a huge machicolated tower
That stood with open doors, whereout was rolled

A roar of riot, as from men secure
Amid their marshes, ruffians at their ease

Among their harlot-brides, an evil song.
'Lo there,' said one of Arthur's youth, for there,

High on a grim dead tree before the tower,
A goodly brother of the Table Round

Swung by the neck: and on the boughs a shield
Showing a shower of blood in a field noir,

And therebeside a horn, inflamed the knights

• waiting [´weitiŋ] n.等候；伺候 (初中英语单词)
• fountain [´fauntin] n.泉水；源泉；根源 (初中英语单词)
• thereupon [,ðeərə´pɔn] ad.因此；于是 (初中英语单词)
• laughter [´lɑ:ftə] n.笑，笑声 (初中英语单词)
• follower [´fɔləuə] n.追随者，信徒；执行者 (初中英语单词)
• vanity [´væniti] n.虚荣；自负；空虚 (初中英语单词)
• highway [´haiwei] n.公路，大道 (初中英语单词)
• rustle [´rʌsl] v.&n.(使)沙沙作响 (初中英语单词)
• feather [´feðə] n.羽毛 (初中英语单词)
• shower [´ʃauə] n.展出者；阵雨；淋浴 (初中英语单词)
• thence [ðens] ad.从那里；因此 (初中英语单词)
• warrior [´wɔriə] n.勇士，战士 (初中英语单词)
• lonely [´ləunli] a.孤独的；无人烟的 (初中英语单词)
• marvel [´mɑ:vəl] n.令人惊异的事；奇迹 (初中英语单词)
• frozen [´frəuzn] freeze 的过去分词 (初中英语单词)
• sunset [´sʌnset] n.日落；晚霞 (初中英语单词)
• saying [´seiŋ, ´sei-iŋ] n.言语；言论；格言 (高中英语单词)
• seeing [si:iŋ] see的现在分词 n.视觉 (高中英语单词)
• rotten [´rɔtn] a.腐烂的；腐朽的 (高中英语单词)
• knight [nait] n.骑士；爵士 (高中英语单词)
• heathen [´hi:ðən] n.异教徒 (高中英语单词)
• innocence [´inəsəns] n.无罪；天真 (高中英语单词)
• draught [drɑ:ft] n.通风，通气；吸出 (高中英语单词)
• treason [´tri:zən] n.叛逆；不忠 (高中英语单词)
• solitary [´sɔlitəri] a.独居的；孤独的 (高中英语单词)
• foliage [´fəuli-idʒ] n.叶子，簇叶 (高中英语单词)
• goodly [´gudli] a.适意的；漂亮的 (高中英语单词)
• lawless [´lɔ:ləs] a.无法无天的 (英语四级单词)
• morrow [´mɔrəu] n.翌日 (英语四级单词)
• victor [´viktə] n.&a.胜利者(的) (英语四级单词)
• babble [´bæbəl] v.&n.唠叨；胡言乱语 (英语四级单词)
• wedded [´wedid] a.(已)结婚的；献身的 (英语四级单词)
• warble [´wɔ:bəl] v.&n.(鸟)鸣；颤声 (英语六级单词)
• knighthood [´naithud] n.骑士的地位(资格) (英语六级单词)
• mastery [´mɑ:stəri] n.精通；控制；优势 (英语六级单词)
• twitter [´twitə] vi.(鸟)吱吱叫 n.鸟鸣 (英语六级单词)