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.
(ISOLDA turns 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?
BRANGÆNA.
What's this, my lady?
loveless thou?
(Approaching coaxingly and kissing ISOLDA.)
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 to ISOLDA.)
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.
BRANGÆNA.
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.)
BRANGÆNA (recoiling in horror).
The draught of death!
(ISOLDA has 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
(KURVENAL boisterously 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.
(KURVENAL makes 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
