L I L I T H A DRAMATIC POEM BY GEORGE STERLING SAN FRANC ISCO THE BOOK CLUB OF CALIFORNIA 1920 COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY GEORGE STERLING TO MY DEAR FRIEND BARBOUR LATHROP 483420 DRAMATIS PERSONS LILITH: TANCRED: URLAN: GAVAIN: LURION: GEOFFREY: AMARA: GERBERT: ARNULPH: FOULQUES: RAOUL: JEHANNE: BERTHE: LEAL: SPIRIT OF TEMPTATION PRINCE OF AETON KING OF AETON A WANDERING KNIGHT DUKE OF ESURON A SHEPHERD DAUGHTER OF GEOFFREY KING OF VAE ARCHBISHOP OF JOEM CHANCELLOR OF VAE A TROUBADOUR A DANCING-GIRL A SERVING-WOMAN AN ARCHER Soldiers and Servitor s> a the Boy Ulf y Knights and Ladies , Odo the Foot, a Cooky Youths & Maidens LI LI TH L I L I T H Adi Scene i : Sunset-time in the courtyard of a mediaeval castle. Men-at-arms wait idly here and there. One of them holds forth a cup to a serving-woman. His name is Leal y her name y Bert he. LEAL: Pour me again, I beg. This wine is good. B E RTH E : That time you gave me truth 't is good as sleep For a poor man. As for this tale you tell Of having fought the Soldan, I am yet To give you credence. LEAL: Then, I close the tale, And much you miss, unwitting how his blade Snapt on my own. Behold you! Draws his sword. See the notch Half-way the sword. B E RT H E : Pardon my unbelief! Now know I that you bring a faithful tale. Tell further! LEAL: Pour again; my thirst is great, 3 : ,Fof Syria's dust yet lingers in my throat. . . . Ad: I Sc. i 'T is well. Saint Bacchus! Wine 's a noble thing! To your sweet face, dear woman, and your heart! Now, when the Soldan saw his broken glaive, And knew the fight was lost, he would have fled, But, closing with him, heavily to earth I cast him, as the shout our army raised Muffled his groans. Thereat BERTHE: Ah, pardon me! Forgiveness, mighty sire! For surely you Are Coeur de Lion! LEAL /;/ chagrin: No more tales to you, Pot-walloper! I waste a soldier's breath On one who serves! BERT HE mockingly: Great Richard, tell me more! Have you the Soldan's ransom at your belt? Why do you wear disguise? The honest light Were fit companion to your honesty. LEAL: Go braid your tongue, O slanderess! BERTHE: Alas! That Richard travels in so humble garb! LEAL: Enough! Enough! A pity one so fair Should sit as hostess to so surly doubts! BERTHE: Ah! think you I am fair? LEAL: No fairer maid Has ever poured for me so sound a wine! And this I swear by what I show you now Behold! A portion of that very tree Up which the blessed Zaccheus clomb to watch Our Lord! BERTHE crossing her self: Saint Willebrod! How LILITH came you by Act I Sc. i A relic of such worth? LEAL: My uncle is Archbishop of Nemours, and gave it me Long since, upon my birthday. BERTHE: Holy twig! Methinks 't is not unlike our northern birch, And 't was a sycamore, a friar said, That Zaccheus clomb: solve me the riddle. LEAL: Maid, In Palestine the sycamore is like Our birch. Aye, much the same, and yet unlike! For be you sure the wood has special pow'rs, By virtue of that One who passed it near. BERTHE: I think it well the king should see this rood. LEAL: Never! For kings are of a skeptic blood. But if your queen would see BERTHE: Our queen! 'T is sure You reach us from afar, who do not know Our gentle queen is dead these eighteen years Aye, more. LEAL: And takes the king no second bride ? 'T is strange! BERTHE: It is not strange at all to me, Remembering the queen. Why, do you think An eagle, once bereaved, would wed a duck? LEAL: You put it flatly. BERTHE: And you never saw The queen. 5 LILITH LEAL: I have seen girls in heathendom Act I Sc. i Could make soft end of such fidelity. BERTHE: You lie! And now I think you never saw The Paynim. LEAL: As to that, you may be sure Their widows are best judges. Well I sense What blood is in your lord. I know the kind Cold as a church-bell in the winter-time! Such faith wins little praise. BERTHE: Again you lie! This constancy of his is like the air, That's ever ready when a soul would breathe. Our king is loyal as the flowers' tryst With Spring, and a reproach to baser lords That wander in adulteries. A curse On all that do not praise his fealty! And may she go alone to childless Hell Who would allure him! LEAL: Maid, I do not say He is not admirable. BERTHE: Well for you! LEAL: But tell me more: the king had sons of her? BERTHE: "One, but a lion," as the fable says. LEAL: A champion, then. BERTHE: He has not seen the wars, But in the tilt-yard has not known his peer As yet. LEAL: They 're late in blooding him. BERTHE: The king Has consolation in his love, and fears 6 To loose him on the battle ere the need LILITH Be pressing. More as brothers do they seem Act I Sc. i Than sire and son. LEAL: I never thought it best The young pine stand too close the parent tree. 'Tis ill for each. BERTHE: Now say: have you a son? LEAL: Have you a tender heart? BERTHE: What mean you ? LEAL: Say If you Ve a tender heart. BERTHE: 'T is flint. But what Of that? Suppose I had. LEAL: Ah, then, I thought You 'd help me in the matter of a son. BERTHE: Away, you wretch! See how we women fare Who have a friendly glance for wandering swords! LEAL: I am full sick of wandering as I look On you. BERTHE: Begone! The meat is in the hall! Hurry! LEAL: And you will see me afterward ? BERTHE: It may be. Go you now! They eat. Make haste! A troubadour sings. LOVE SONG Ah! listen, dear! The burning hands of Spring Are on the world's green girdle. Love is here, Long waited. So I sing. 7 LILITH To sing thee soon Act I Sc. 2 A madder song than this! Writ in the waning of an olden moon To win the first-born kiss. Ah! yearning face, Too mystically fair! Sweet, I would find thee in a hidden place, And, trembling, loose thy hair! Darling, the year Sows flowers in thy heart! Love, who am I to tell thee in a tear How beautiful thou art? Scene 2: A garden-close of the castle. Urlan, the king, walks with his son Tancred, a youth of twenty years, in the last of twilight. URLAN: Now at the almond's time of blossoming I sorrow for thy mother such a hue Enfolded her, and slept about her breasts, For which I slew my brothers, who were kings. TANCRED: Father, mine eyes do not remember her. I fashion her in memory as a love, A warmth that little fingers in the night Groped for and found, whereat my timid heart 8 Forgot the darkness and the silence. So LILITH She lives for me as tenderness unseen Act I Sc. 2 A baby's refuge in the peopled night. URLAN: She, like a sunset, gathered to herself All loveliness, and perished. Peace is hers The tomb's black peace; but me all peacelessness Consumes. A flame is set about my heart, And fire as quenchless as the ruby's coal, The mighty gem that was her secret dow'r, And soori her dower to Death which now, unseen, Burns on in quiet on her quiet breast. They come suddenly upon Lilith, who, robed in diaphanous green, stands beneath an almond tree and bends down a branch, whose blossoms she smells. Ah! God! TANCRED: Ah! Christ! LILITH: Behold you me? URLAN: Alas! TANCRED: O loveliness! O torment in the blood! LILITH: Now hath my Master need of me. TANCRED: Thy name? Whence, and for what, and whither? LILITH: Even thus, O Prince, have mortals question of themselves. My name thou knowest not, and yet shalt know, And know too late. But know thou this indeed: Joy is my sister, sister I to Death. URLAN: My son, go hence! The prince withdraws. O marvel of the dusk! 9 LILITH Be thou my queen! All that I have is thine! Ad: I Sc. 2 LILITH: Thou told'st but lately of a ruby: I Were sooner won with jewels. URLAN: Come thou, then! For in my crypts but yesteryear I found Incomputable treasuries of Eld: I have three chests of gems sard, emerald. And rugged rubies dark as Satan's blood. LILITH: I question of a ruby. Is it great? URLAN: And I have moonlike pearls, and sapphire-stones, Blue as the skies of Eden, or the sea Far out, and gems whose hearts, as dew, conceal The seven fantasies of light. Thine arms Shall plunge them deep in those. LILITH: A king of Spain Did once solicit me with pearls. . . . But thou Told'st of a ruby. URLAN: Mine are turquoises That seem as innocent as youngest flow'rs, Yet have had baths of blood. My topaz-stones Are like the eyes of some great cat that stares. With emerald and amethyst and beryl Will I envelop thee. My diamonds' flames Shall light thee as with suns. Thy chamber walls Shall be of opals like a rainbow mazed In pearls incomparable. LILITH: I have worn Twin emeralds that were the eyes of Baal, And orbs for which Semiramis made war. The Soldan hath with amethyst and gold 10 Shapen me thrones. . . . There was a ruby LILITH URLAN: Nay! Act I Sc. 2 Speak nevermore of that! Alas! it burns Full on the brow of Death. The stained tomb Is made its casket, and its guardians Are even the sleepless powers, Pain and Love. I say Death wears that ruby. Wherefore, queen, Take thou all else, and rule. LILITH: He conquers me Who dares to pay my price. My price thou know'st. URLAN: And knowest thou did I but say the word That fire would vanquish thee, or biting thongs? LILITH: Not any manacles may hold this flesh, For which all kings have yearned, nor any flame Subdue me, who am child of fiercer fire, Nor all thy hosts constrain. She moves toward the king, who recoils. Hold forth thy sword! 'The king holds forth his sword, whose blade, touched by Lilith, falls in fragments. Even so thy strength were broken, and thy knights Made heralds for thee at the keeps of doom. URLAN: Yet go not from me now, O Sorceress! Night comes about thee as about a star! Nay enter now my palace, for the dark Grows full of whispers. Come thou speedily! It may be I shall wrench that ruby-stone From Death, and Night, and its tremendous guards. ii LILITH LILITH: Nay, King. But on the morrow I shall come Act I Sc. 3 To give thee all that Death and Night can give. She turns and disappears in the gloom. Scene 3: Morning of the next day. Tancred & Lilith stand again in the garden-close. TANCRED: Thou art so strangely beautiful! Till dawn Thou stood'st before me in mysterious light, And cried to me in consummating words Temptation uttermost. Comes now the day. And thou art still more fair, and dost surpass What midnight murmured of thy loveliness. LILITH: The strong of earth bow down, adoring me. For me shall men forsake, deny, abjure; For me shall many walk disastrous ways, That one may find and perish of my kiss. TANCRED: Thine be the price, and be it what it may! LILITH: Where is the king ? TANCRED: My father questions God Within his chamber. Since the midnight fell, He hath cried out in tears and agony. Destroy him not! He for a score of years Hath made his heart a fane of memory. LILITH: And now before that shrine I stand and smile. Are all men mad? TANCRED: Alas! for thou wouldst filch His constancy, and thou with pearl-wan hands 12 Wouldst quench that whiter lamp within his breast! L i L i T H LI LIT H: Each flame that so I quench shall be a gem A 61: I Sc. 3 Which I shall wear forever. But hast thou No need of me? Forget thy father's pain! TANCREDIO witch, shall I be faithless to my sire? L i L i T H : And wherefore faith? O Youth! thine elders crave Ease for their minds, and warn thee from the joys That, found by thee, were menace to their peace; Or, found by thee, were lost to them. For self Cries from the aged heart as from the babe's. Poor Youth! their sneers await thy young romance: The Islands that to thee are walled with light, Where unimaginable roses bloom And Beauty stands crowned with the Seven Stars, To age are black, inexorable reefs Whereon the freezing billows mount and mourn. T A N c R E D : My father seeks my good, and mighty men Design me noble toils. L i L i T H : O trusting one! Thou soon shalt see him gather to his breast That which he names to thee as infamy; For ever so does Age make mock of Youth. Thou dost amuse me! TANCRED: How, then, shall I win Thy kiss? L i L i T H : Bring but the gem thy mother wears Low in the darkness. TANCRED: Peace! Shall then my heart Be traitor to the bosom that was life And love to me? where once my hunger found 13 LILITH The food that all have taken, all forgot. Act I Sc. 3 Shall then these debtor hands, that once, so small, Entreated her, and ne'er in vain, return In strength she gave in far, forgotten years, And violate the unrequited breast- The breast at which they moved in helplessness ? Oh, treason of all treasons! LILITH: So had cried Thy father, and his father, yea! and his, And his, and his; wherefore thou too must speak Even as thy line fed on illusion, deckt With all which tinsel honor hath devised To cheat their days. I see beyond the Dark The gods a-grin at thee! TANCRED: O witch! perchance My fathers spoke the truth. LILITH: Wiser than they Have questioned: "What is Truth?" Thou hastupreared On these unstable sands of Time and Place An idol wrought of dust and tears. Him blind Thou worshippest; him deaf thou dost entreat; Him dumb thou dost await with ass's ears, Expectant. Me, a marvel to the sense, (And what hast thou but what the senses tell?) Thou dost deny and question, but mine eyes Gleam on thee, being lit with alien light; My lips proclaim thee mysteries; mine arms Are bond for all thy doubts, not mist nor mud, But all that gods desire and fools reject. Behold me! TAN c RED closing his eyes: Sorceress! I will not see! LILITH Thine eyes contemn me and thy lips arraign. Act I Sc. 4 Thy dreadful beauty storms the sense, and breaks My citadel of reason, duty, love. LILITH embracing him: Thou barrest me from sight: what barrier Hastthou for this? TANCRED: O queen! O wonderful! There cries so mad a music at my heart I envy not the gods! Take what thou wilt! LILITH releasing him: Bring thou to me that ruby of the dead! Scene 4: ^Burial crypt of the castle, a vast vault in which sculptured tombs crowd the darkness. tAmong them Tancred & Lilith wander, the former bearing a torch. TANCRED: Silence is monarch here. Methinks my heart, Even as this crypt, holds but the dead and thee. LILITH: Which is thy mother's tomb ? TANCRED: I ne'er before Have trod these aisles. My father said the tomb Is beaten silver, and a lamp of gold Burns silently above my mother's breast. That lamp my father tends; his hand alone Hath care of it, and he for twenty years Hath been sole mortal here. LILITH: How mute the dead! TANCRED: And yet men say that far among these tombs LILITH Dwell mighty serpents, pallid as the moon. Act I Sc. 4 They batten on the dark, and plague the dead. Listen! I hear the shuffling of their scales! Let us return! LILITH: Courage! Behold! A lamp Above yon tomb! The starven flame hath died. Give me the torch. They mount the five steps of the tomb, Lilith bearing the torch. Tancred lifts the silver cover of the tomb. TANCRED: Thou dead! LILITH: The ruby! Swift! TANCRED: Was this my mother ? LILITH: Swift! My lips await! TANCRED: O thou dear dead, forgive me in my need! Nay! I can touch thee not! LILITH: With wrathful gems, Each' like a sun that sets in sullen haze, Is Satan crowned, and he would give them all For any kiss of mine. Behold my face! TANCRED: Mother, what son is thine! LILITH: Nay, art thou mad ? O think of our swift-coming hour of bliss The crying and the silence! In mine arms Thou shalt know Paradise a sorry tale, And angered angels envious of thee Shall turn their backs on Heaven. TANCRED taking up the ruby: Alas! alas! Forgive me, holy dead! Ah! how it burns, 1,6 Embered as with Antares,star of sin! LILITH A6t I Sc. 4 Footsteps are heard. Who comes? LILITH: What matters it ? u R L A N entering hastily: O traitor spawn! Who with the treasure sacred to the dead Wouldst purchase thee damnation! TANCRED descending: Even as thou I fought, and found the battle was in vain. For who with beauty terrible as hers Shall long contend? u R L A N : Put back the gem ! TANCRED holding forth the ruby: Take thou The stone accurst, and burn for me this witch! For I cannot repent, beholding her. u R L A N taking the ruby: Her will I burn ere evening. LILITH aff reaching the king: Give thou me The ruby. URLAN: Stand thou back! Gaze not at me! What mail shall now defend, what sword uphold, Mine honor, and the faith of twenty years? LILITH: I promise in mine arms thou shalt receive The joy of twenty years in Heaven. Give me The ruby! URLAN: That I may not give. Shall not My dead look forth with great and piteous eyes, And all the love that was reproach my heart? LILITH laughing: Aye! keep it, and I hasten with this boy LILITH To twilight bowers of passion. Act I Sc. 4 u R LA N holding forth the ruby: Take it! TANCRED springing for ward: Si re ! House thou the jewel with the dead! URLAN: That thou Mayst soon again betray me? TANCRED: Nay! I swear Thou shalt not win her thus! LILITH: Who gives the gem Shall take me. TA N c R E D drawing sword: Thou, restore it to the dead! URLAN drawing sword: Cub, I will beat thee hence! TANCRED: Stand back! I too Have seen her smile. Beware! LILITH: Drive me this boy Away! I shall be sooner in thine arms. URLAN attacking ^ancred, and holding the ruby in his left hand: Away! Away! Dost dream to cope with me? I have slain lords and paladins in war! TANCRED defending himself: Go thou and greet them! Lilith takes up the torch and casts its light full in Urlansface. After a short combat he falls. LILITH: Ha! the king is down! TANCRED: Father! Arise! I did but jest! Take thou The witch! Arise! 18 Urlan lifts himself on one arm, and with the other L i L i T H holds forth the ruby to Lilith, who kneels Act I Sc. 4 beside him, and, taking the gem, kisses him on the mouth. Urlan falls back dead. LI LIT H rising: Fair journeying, O King! TANCRED turning to her: I have slain my sire and soon will cast myself Against the Paynim, and have done with life, Which hath betrayed me. Yet will first I know Thy beauty, nor be cheated utterly In my great sin. Before the sightless dead Will I, for this thy loveliness, take hold And master thee, who have won thee with my dead. L i L i T H : O fool, thou hast not won me! I but said He gained me that did give the ruby. He, Thy father, gave, and had my kiss. Stand back! My Master gives me power over thee. Thy sword shall not obtain me, nor thy love. She throws down the torch and draws back among the tombs. I shall return to thee in seven years: Gather thee strength, for thou shalt need it all! She vanishes among the tombs. TANCRED casting himself beside the king: My father! The torch expires. LlLITH Ad II AftllSc. i Scene i: Seven years later. Tancred& Gavain, his friend, ride on a 'white winding road, ascending among grassy hills. The time is early morning. GAVAIN: Now dawn sends up the sun upon the world. T A N c R E D : There is no wind along the summer grass Day runs upon unshaken dews. How sweet Is life! How marvellous! And but for thee, Sturdy and gentle friend, my life were not. GAVAIN: 'Twas nothing! 'T was a scuffle, twenty thrusts, And five rogues handsomer in death than life. Thank me no more! TANG RED: How shall I cease to thank? Not once, but many times, thy sword hath been The single wand Death shrank from. * GAVAIN: Say no more. Look! Here comes one we '11 question of our way. A knight comes round the nearest hill, descending a glen. He reins in before Gavain & Tancred. T A N c R E D : Friend, tell us of the road: what 's at its end ? KNIGHT: The sea, beyond the mountains. All roads end In water. TANCRED: Or in dust. KNIGHT: I have but been Thus far along the highway; for I came Upon another mission. 20 GAVAIN: What was that? LILITH KUIGHT pointing: There lives a man of magic up Ad II Sc. i the glen One terrible and ancient. He hath supped With Hecate, and sought the truth in glooms Lit by the eyes of dragons. He can use Lethean drugs in sluggish sirups cloaked, Made in an isle of deadly fragrances. His goblet is a skull. He writes his curse In blood that will not dry. T A N c R E D : We '11 question him. Farewell! Gavain and Tancredride into the glen. GAVAIN: Think you he lied? TANCRED: Nay. I have heard Of mighty wizards, dumb with awful news, Told by sick suns and venom-dripping moons. They in the blood o' the Sphinx have dipt their pens, And traced its salt to wisdom. GAVAIN: We shall see They come upon the narrow mouth of a cave. And soon, methinks. They alight, tie their horses to a dead tree near by, and enter the cave, a chamber a score of feet in width, dimly lighted, the end invisible, and its roof lost in the gloom. The wizard, a man of withered frame and huge, hairless head, is bent over a basin of blackened silver, half -full of a scarlet fluid that is in constant motion. 21 LILITH WIZARD: I see two foolish knights: Act II Sc. i One 's clad in white and one in black. TANCRED: Am I In black? WIZARD: Thou sayest! TANCRED: Hearest thou the wizard, O Gavain? I 'm to die! WIZARD: A man may die More deaths than one. G AV A i N : Well, one 's enough for me! TANCRED: Say on, and tell me how I am to die! WIZARD: Deeper into the Darkness can I gaze Than most, yet find the Darkness still beyond. What sword-winged stars deny me? Thou art dear To Satan. Bloated dragons clutch at thee, With bellies like Hell's roof, and eyes of ice. What work is on? Far down I hear the chant Of giant voices solemn as the sea's. And now, all 's blank and dumb. GAVAIN: What, then, of me? Why go I in white armor? WIZARD: I have seen The bat against Antares, and the moth A blot upon the moon. I see a fool. GAVAIN: A fool thyself! WIZARD: Hell's spiders weave thy shroud! GAVAIN: Thou seemest one! WIZARD: Milk o' the Devil's mare! Bubbles on poison! Laughest thou at me? Thou shalt not laugh when at thy ribs the yew 22 Sets many tickling roots! LILITH GAVAIN: I ride in white. Act II Sc. 2 I shall go forth below the day's turquoise, Beholding still the sun in his domain. WIZARD: I say no more, though willing: with a click, Death darts a bony finger to his teeth, Compelling silence. Get thee forth, and know! I see a lake. I see a bleaching skull. I see the spider of the scarlet web, And ivy slanting sunward on the stone. Soon the night-demons nibble at the moon. GAVAIN: He does but maunder. Let us go. TANCRED: On, then! Tancred and Gavain leave the cavern, mount their horses, and ride into the hills. Scene 2: A lake among the mountains. A castle, huge and dark, built on rock rising sheer from the water, dominates the northern shore. It is sunset-time. The Count Lur ion, a man of sixty years, stands on the battlements with Li lit h. She is in the guise of a girl of eighteen. LUR ION: The dark will soon be on us. 'T was a day Full of keen light, and shadows that were balm. . . . How very still it is! The sunset seems An opal altar strange with light. LILITH: And see! 23 Li LITH Out of the glory falls the water-fowl Act II Sc. 2 And sets a silver V upon the lake. LURION: How sad can beauty make us! But thy face Makes me not sad. Why is it that my sleep Is marvellous with thee? For thou dost come And visit me in tyrannies of dream And many guises. Now art thou a queen, And now a lovely beggar-maid, and now A coral-crowned enchantress of the sea, Or witch abominable and exquisite, Smiling, a cruel-eyed, flame-handed thing. What is thy mystery? L i L i T H : Why, none at all, Save thy desire. LURION: I would that I were young, And forth again to some red tournament, With comrades at my side. It is not well That age should turn desirous eyes on youth. LI LITH: Thou turnest them. LURION: A spell is on my blood. Against the frozen emerald of thine eyes My reason hath no refuge. LILITH: Ask thou none! Thou dost content me. LURION: Child, what knowest thou ? I know, and deeper therefore is my sin, Who mix my grayness with thy gold. LILITH: Forget Thy scruples: have I any? Look! The sea Of twilight deepens, fed from many rills 24 Ofshadow. LILITH LURION: Fell a shadow on my heart, Ad: II Sc. 2 Come like a little wind, and gone as soon. Give me the dew-cool lilies of thy hands! I cannot wait! LILITH: The moon, a silver bowl, Pours witch-wine on the world. LURION: Turn thou on me The glad great eyes of loveliness and sin, Thou mystery, thou splendor, thou delight! Hasten! LILITH: The moon is out above the lake, Walking with golden serpents in her path The moon, white sorceress! LURION: Thine are the breasts Where Time sets not his kiss! Come where the harps Are sorrowful! I would find Heaven before I die, Knowing its hidden rose is not more sweet Than is thy splendid body bared for love. LILITH : Look southward o'er the waters! LURION: I see naught. LILITH: And I see two, and those two shall be one. LURION: What meanest thou? Come swiftly! Still I feel The god's breath on the ashes of the heart. LILITH: And wouldst caress me with thy parchment palm? There 's madder work tonight, and thou hast seen The vesper purples of a tragic day. She steps to the edge of the battlement. LURION: Gaze not upon the moon, and make me not LILITH A god one moment and the next a moth! Ad: II Sc. 3 Thou seemest now no waif of Paradise, But rather as a flower ordained to doom And fragrant of disaster. LILITH: Seest thou naught, There to the south? LURION: I see the mountains rise Cold in their desolation. LILITH: So shalt thou Sit desolate, and see me nevermore! She leafs from the battlement. LURION: She falls! Far down she strikes! The foam ascend The waters close upon her loveliness! The ripples widen widen. . . . Now the lake Is calm again. . . . God! will she never rise? O dire delay! O soundless feet of Time, Slow as the wounded hours of pain! I think There is no hope. . . . Lost! lost! and O my heart! Death! Death! thou shadow whose entreated hands Close the tomb's door on Beauty and her grief! Scene 3: Tancred and Gavain ride on a road skirt- ing the southern shore of a lake among the mountains. On the northern cliffs of the lake rises a castle, huge and dark. Midmost of the lake is an islet, on 'which are the white marble ruins of a small temple or shrine. TANCRED: What winds are on the sunset! Rank by rank 26 Its angels close their flaming wings, and die. LILITH GAVAIN: Bread and lake water for our fare tonight! A6t II Sc. 3 We '11 rest beside the shore. It will be good To get this weight of armor off the back. The day was hot. TANCRED: I would I knew what lord Lives in that sullen keep. GAVAIN: It matters not, For we 'd be overlong in reaching it Tonight. TANCRED: Tomorrow's larks shall find us there. How sweet to wander on and on! O World, Thou window of a single bar, and that The hard horizon! G AVAI N : Come dismount and eat.