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THE DEATH
OF ARTHUR.
EXTRACT1
The heroic
Warrior, King Arthur, has been in France, in a half-hearted attempt to punish
his friend Sir Launcelot for being the lover of his wife (Queen Guenevere).
Hearing that his bastard son, Modred, has seized his kingdom in his absence,
Arthur returns but is attacked by Modred’s soldiers on landing in England. Sir Gawain,
Arthur’s nephew, is killed. Before the final battle, King Arthur has a dream.
So upon Trinity Sunday
at night King Arthur dreamed a wonderful dream, and in his dream him seemed
that he saw upon a chaff let a chair, and the chair was fast to a wheel, and
thereupon sat King Arthur in the richest cloth of gold that might be made. And
the King thought there was under him, far from him, a hideous deep black water,
and therein were all manners of serpents, and worms, and wild beasts, font and horrible.
And suddenly the King thought that the wheel turned upside down, and he fell
among the serpents, and every beast took him by a limb. And then the King cried
as he lay in his bed.
‘Help, help!’
And then knights,
squires, and yeomen awaked the King, and then he was so amazed that he wisl not
where he was. And then so he awaked until it was nigh day, and then he fell on
slumbering again, not sleeping nor thoroughly waking. So the King seemed verily
that there came Sir Gawain unto him with a number of fair ladies with him.
Glossary
Trinity Sunday — the eighth Sunday after Easter;
the Sunday after Christ had appeared to his
disciples:
him seemed — it seemed to him;
chafflet — wooden platform (archaic);
fast — firmly fixed;
yeomen — men who owned the land they farm;
awaked — lay awake;
wisl — knew (archaic);
nigh — nearly (poetic);
lie King seemed verily — really seemed to the king
(verily = archaic).
EXTRACT2
Arthur has a
sword called Excalibur. Before he dies he must return it to the Lady in the
Lake, the mysterious half-supernatural creature who had given it to him.
“Therefore”, said
King Arthur unto Sir Bedivere, “take thou here Excalibur my good sword and go
with it to yonder water’s side; and when thou contest there I charge thee throw
my sword in that water and come again and tell me what thou sawest there”.
“My lord”, said
Sir Bedivere, “your commandment shall be done, and I shall lightly bring you
word again”.
So Sir Bedivere departed.
And by the way he beheld that noble sword, that the pommel and the haft was all
precious stones. And then he said to himself, if I throw this rich sword in the
water, thereof shall never come good, but harm and loss. And then Sir Bedivere
hid Excalibur under a tree. And so, as soon as he might, he came again unto the
King and said he had been at the water and had thrown the sword into the water.
“What saw thou
there?” said the King.
“Sir”, he said,
“I saw nothing but waves and winds”.
“That is untruly
said of thee”, said the King. “And therefore go thou lightly again and do my
commandment; as thou art to me lief and dear, spare not, but throw it in”.
Then Sir Bedivere
returned again and took the sword in his hand.
And yet him
thought sin and shame to throw away that noble sword.
And so eft he hid
the sword and returned again and told the King that he had been at the waier
and done his commandment.
“What sawest thou
there”, said the King.
“Sir”, lie said,
“I saw nothing but waters wap and waves wan”.
“Ah, traitor unto
me and untrue”, said King Arthur, “now hast thou betrayed me twice. Who would
have weened that thou that hast been
to me so
lief and dear,
and thou art
named a noble knight
and would betray me for the riches of this sword. But now go again
lightly, for thy long tarrying putteth me in great jeopardy of my life, for I
have taken cold. And but if thou do now as I bid thee, if ever I may see thee І
shall slay thee mine own hands, for thou wouldest for my rich sword see me
dead”.
Then Sir Bedivere
departed and went to the sword and lightly took it up, and so he went to the
water’s side; and there he bound the girdle
about the hilts,
and threw the
sword as far
into the water
as he might. And there came an
arm and a hand above the water and took it and clutched it, and shook it thrice
and brandished; and then vanished away
the hand with
the sword into
the water. So Sir Bedivere
came again to the King and told him what he saw.
“Ala”, said the
King, “help me hence, for I dread me I have tar ried overlong”.
Then Sir Bedivere
took the King upon his back and so went with him to that water’s side. And when
they were at the water’s side, even fast by the bank hoved a little barge with
many fair ladies in it; and among them all was a queen; and all they had black
hoods, and all they wept and shrieked when they saw King Arthur.
“Now put me into
that barg”, said the King; and so he did softly. And there received him three
ladies with great mourning, and so they set them down. And in one of their laps
King Arthur laid his head, and then the queen said, “Ah, my dear brother, why
have ye tarried so long from me? Alas, this wound on your head hath caught
overmuch col”.
And they rowed from
ward the land.
Glossary
yonder — over there;
lightly — quickly;
beheld — looked at;
pommel and the haft — handle and the rounded knob on
top;
That is mitrully said of thee — You are not telling
me the truth;
lief — beloved (archaic);
him thought — it seemed to him;
eft — again (archaic);
waters wap and waves wan — waters wash the shore and
waves
grow dark (archaic)
weened — imagined (archaic);
tarrying — delay;
mine — with my;
girdle — sword belt;
hilts — handles;
brandished — waved;
hence — from here;
fast — close;
hoved — waited;
set them down — sat down.