Full well I willed to slay him,
for Morold's death to pay him.
But from his sick bed
he looked up
not at the sword,
not at my arm-
his eyes on mine were fastened,
and his feebleness
softened my heart:
the sword-dropped from my fingers.
Though Morold's steel had maimed him
to health again I reclaimed him!
when he hath homeward wended
my emotion then might be ended.
BRANGAENA.
O wondrous! Why could I not see this?
The guest I sometime
helped to nurse-?
ISOLDA.
His praise briskly they sing now:-
"Bravo, our brave Tristan!"-
he was that distressful man.
A thousand protestations
of truth and love he prated.
Hear how a knight
fealty knows!-
When as Tantris
unforbidden he'd left me,
as Tristan
boldly back he came,
in stately ship
from which in pride
Ireland's heiress
in marriage he asked
for Mark, the Cornish monarch,
his kinsman worn and old.
In Morold's lifetime
dared any have dreamed
to offer us such an insult?
For the tax-paying
Cornish prince
to presume to court Ireland's princess!
Ah, woe is me!
I it was
who for myself
did shape this shame!
with death-dealing sword
should I have stabbed him;
weakly it escaped me:-
now serfdom I have shaped me.
Curse him, the villain!
Curse on his head!
Vengeance! Death!
Death for me too!
BRANGAENA (throwing herself uponISOLDAwith impetuous
tenderness).
Isolda! lady!
loved one! fairest!
sweet perfection!
mistress rarest!
Hear me! come now,
sit thee here.-
(Gradually drawsISOLDAto the couch.)
What a whim!
what causeless railing!
How came you so wrong-minded
and by mere fancy blinded?
Sir Tristan gives thee
Cornwall's kingdom;
then, were he erst thy debtor,
how could he reward thee better?
His noble uncle
serves he so:
think too what a gift
on thee he'd bestow!
With honor unequalled
all he's heir to
at thy feet he seeks to shower,
to make thee a queenly dower.
(ISOLDAturns away.)
If wife he'd make thee
unto King Mark
why wert thou in this wise complaining?
Is he not worth thy gaining?
Of royal race
and mild of mood,
who passes King Mark
in might and power?
If a noble knight
like Tristan serves him,
who would not but feel elated,
so fairly to be mated.
ISOLDA (gazing vacantly before her).
Glorious knight!
And I must near him
loveless ever languish!
How can I support such anguish?
BRANGAENA.
What's this, my lady?
loveless thou?
(Approaching coaxingly and kissingISOLDA.)
Where lives there a man
would not love thee?
Who could see Isolda
And not sink
at once into bondage blest?
And if e'en it could be
any were cold,
did any magic
draw him from thee,
I'd bring the false one
back to bondage,
And bind him in links of love.-
(Secretly and confidentially, close toISOLDA.)
Mindest thou not
thy mother's arts?
Think you that she
who'd mastered those
would have sent me o'er the sea,
without assistance for thee?
ISOLDA (darkly).
My mother's rede
I mind aright,
and highly her magic
arts I hold:-
Vengeance they wreak for wrongs,
rest give to wounded spirits.-
Yon casket hither bear.
BRANGAENA.
It holds a balm for thee.-
(She brings forward a small golden coffer, opens it, and points to
its contents.)
Thy mother placed inside it
her subtle magic potions.
There's salve for sickness
or for wounds,
and antidotes
for deadly drugs.-
(She takes a bottle.)
The helpfullest draught
I hold in here.
ISOLDA.
Not so, I know a better.
I make a mark
to know it again-
This draught 'tis I would drain.
(Seizes flask and shows it.)
BRANGAENA (recoiling in horror).
The draught of death!
(ISOLDAhas risen from the sofa and now hears with increasing dread
the cries of the sailors.)
VOICES OF THE CREW (without).
"Ho! heave ho! hey!
Reduce the sail!
The mainsail in!
Ho! heave ho! hey!"
ISOLDA.
Our journey has been swift.
Woe is me! Near to the land!
SCENE IV.
(KURVENALboisterously enters through the curtains.)
KURVENAL.
Up, up, ye ladies!
Look alert!
Straight bestir you!
Loiter not,-here is the land!-
To dame Isolda
says the servant
of Tristan,
our hero true:-
Behold our flag is flying!
it waveth landwards aloft:
in Mark's ancestral castle
may our approach be seen.
So, dame Isolda,
he prays to hasten,
for land straight to prepare her,
that thither he may bear her.
ISOLDA (who has at first cowered and shuddered on hearing the
message, now speaks calmly and with dignity). My greeting take
unto your lord
and tell him what I say now:
Should he assist to land me
and to King Mark would he hand me,
unmeet and unseemly
were his act,
the while my pardon
was not won
for trespass black and base:
So bid him seek my grace.
(KURVENALmakes a gesture of defiance.)
Now mark me well,
This message take:-
Nought will I yet prepare me,
that he to land may bear me;
I will not by him be landed,
nor unto King Mark be handed
ere granting forgiveness
and forgetfulness,
which 'tis seemly
he should seek:-
for all his trespass base
I tender him my grace.
KURVENAL.
Be assured,
I'll bear your words:
we'll see what he will say!
(He retires quickly.)
SCENE V.
ISOLDA (hurries toBRANGAENAand embraces her vehemently).
Now farewell, Brangaena!
Greet ev'ry one,
Greet my father and mother!
BRANGAENA.
What now? what mean'st thou?
Wouldst thou flee?
And where must I then follow?
ISOLDA (checking herself suddenly).
Here I remain:
heard you not?
Tristan will I await.-
I trust in thee
to aid in this:
prepare the true
cup of peace:
thou mindest how it is made.
BRANGAENA.
What meanest thou?
ISOLDA (taking a bottle from the coffer).