Idylls of the King(txt+pdf+epub+mobi电子书下载)


发布时间:2020-07-08 09:32:05

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作者:Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson, Baron

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Idylls of the King

Idylls of the King试读:

Dedication

  These to His Memory—since he held them dear,  Perchance as finding there unconsciously  Some image of himself—I dedicate,  I dedicate, I consecrate with tears—  These Idylls.

               And indeed He seems to me  Scarce other than my king's ideal knight,  'Who reverenced his conscience as his king;  Whose glory was, redressing human wrong;  Who spake no slander, no, nor listened to it;  Who loved one only and who clave to her—'  Her—over all whose realms to their last isle,  Commingled with the gloom of imminent war,  The shadow of His loss drew like eclipse,  Darkening the world. We have lost him: he is gone:  We know him now: all narrow jealousies  Are silent; and we see him as he moved,  How modest, kindly, all-accomplished, wise,  With what sublime repression of himself,  And in what limits, and how tenderly;  Not swaying to this faction or to that;  Not making his high place the lawless perch  Of winged ambitions, nor a vantage-ground  For pleasure; but through all this tract of years  Wearing the white flower of a blameless life,  Before a thousand peering littlenesses,  In that fierce light which beats upon a throne,  And blackens every blot: for where is he,  Who dares foreshadow for an only son  A lovelier life, a more unstained, than his?  Or how should England dreaming of his sons  Hope more for these than some inheritance  Of such a life, a heart, a mind as thine,  Thou noble Father of her Kings to be,  Laborious for her people and her poor—  Voice in the rich dawn of an ampler day—  Far-sighted summoner of War and Waste  To fruitful strifes and rivalries of peace—  Sweet nature gilded by the gracious gleam  Of letters, dear to Science, dear to Art,  Dear to thy land and ours, a Prince indeed,  Beyond all titles, and a household name,  Hereafter, through all times, Albert the Good.

     Break not, O woman's-heart, but still endure;  Break not, for thou art Royal, but endure,  Remembering all the beauty of that star  Which shone so close beside Thee that ye made  One light together, but has past and leaves  The Crown a lonely splendour.

                               May all love,  His love, unseen but felt, o'ershadow Thee,  The love of all Thy sons encompass Thee,  The love of all Thy daughters cherish Thee,  The love of all Thy people comfort Thee,  Till God's love set Thee at his side again!

The Coming of Arthur

  Leodogran, the King of Cameliard,  Had one fair daughter, and none other child;  And she was the fairest of all flesh on earth,  Guinevere, and in her his one delight.

     For many a petty king ere Arthur came  Ruled in this isle, and ever waging war  Each upon other, wasted all the land;  And still from time to time the heathen host  Swarmed overseas, and harried what was left.  And so there grew great tracts of wilderness,  Wherein the beast was ever more and more,  But man was less and less, till Arthur came.  For first Aurelius lived and fought and died,  And after him King Uther fought and died,  But either failed to make the kingdom one.  And after these King Arthur for a space,  And through the puissance of his Table Round,  Drew all their petty princedoms under him.  Their king and head, and made a realm, and reigned.

     And thus the land of Cameliard was waste,  Thick with wet woods, and many a beast therein,  And none or few to scare or chase the beast;  So that wild dog, and wolf and boar and bear  Came night and day, and rooted in the fields,  And wallowed in the gardens of the King.  And ever and anon the wolf would steal  The children and devour, but now and then,  Her own brood lost or dead, lent her fierce teat  To human sucklings; and the children, housed  In her foul den, there at their meat would growl,  And mock their foster mother on four feet,  Till, straightened, they grew up to wolf-like men,  Worse than the wolves. And King Leodogran  Groaned for the Roman legions here again,  And Caesar's eagle: then his brother king,  Urien, assailed him: last a heathen horde,  Reddening the sun with smoke and earth with blood,  And on the spike that split the mother's heart  Spitting the child, brake on him, till, amazed,  He knew not whither he should turn for aid.

     But—for he heard of Arthur newly crowned,  Though not without an uproar made by those  Who cried, 'He is not Uther's son'—the King  Sent to him, saying, 'Arise, and help us thou!  For here between the man and beast we die.'

     And Arthur yet had done no deed of arms,  But heard the call, and came: and Guinevere  Stood by the castle walls to watch him pass;  But since he neither wore on helm or shield  The golden symbol of his kinglihood,  But rode a simple knight among his knights,  And many of these in richer arms than he,  She saw him not, or marked not, if she saw,  One among many, though his face was bare.  But Arthur, looking downward as he past,  Felt the light of her eyes into his life  Smite on the sudden, yet rode on, and pitched  His tents beside the forest. Then he drave  The heathen; after, slew the beast, and felled  The forest, letting in the sun, and made  Broad pathways for the hunter and the knight  And so returned.

                  For while he lingered there,  A doubt that ever smouldered in the hearts  Of those great Lords and Barons of his realm  Flashed forth and into war: for most of these,  Colleaguing with a score of petty kings,  Made head against him, crying, 'Who is he  That he should rule us? who hath proven him  King Uther's son? for lo! we look at him,  And find nor face nor bearing, limbs nor voice,  Are like to those of Uther whom we knew.  This is the son of Gorlois, not the King;  This is the son of Anton, not the King.'

     And Arthur, passing thence to battle, felt  Travail, and throes and agonies of the life,  Desiring to be joined with Guinevere;  And thinking as he rode, 'Her father said  That there between the man and beast they die.  Shall I not lift her from this land of beasts  Up to my throne, and side by side with me?  What happiness to reign a lonely king,  Vext—O ye stars that shudder over me,  O earth that soundest hollow under me,  Vext with waste dreams? for saving I be joined  To her that is the fairest under heaven,  I seem as nothing in the mighty world,  And cannot will my will, nor work my work  Wholly, nor make myself in mine own realm  Victor and lord. But were I joined with her,  Then might we live together as one life,  And reigning with one will in everything  Have power on this dark land to lighten it,  And power on this dead world to make it live.'

     Thereafter—as he speaks who tells the tale—  When Arthur reached a field-of-battle bright  With pitched pavilions of his foe, the world  Was all so clear about him, that he saw  The smallest rock far on the faintest hill,  And even in high day the morning star.  So when the King had set his banner broad,  At once from either side, with trumpet-blast,  And shouts, and clarions shrilling unto blood,  The long-lanced battle let their horses run.  And now the Barons and the kings prevailed,  And now the King, as here and there that war  Went swaying; but the Powers who walk the world  Made lightnings and great thunders over him,  And dazed all eyes, till Arthur by main might,  And mightier of his hands with every blow,  And leading all his knighthood threw the kings  Carados, Urien, Cradlemont of Wales,  Claudias, and Clariance of Northumberland,  The King Brandagoras of Latangor,  With Anguisant of Erin, Morganore,  And Lot of Orkney. Then, before a voice  As dreadful as the shout of one who sees  To one who sins, and deems himself alone  And all the world asleep, they swerved and brake  Flying, and Arthur called to stay the brands  That hacked among the flyers, 'Ho! they yield!'  So like a painted battle the war stood  Silenced, the living quiet as the dead,  And in the heart of Arthur joy was lord.  He laughed upon his warrior whom he loved  And honoured most. 'Thou dost not doubt me King,  So well thine arm hath wrought for me today.'  'Sir and my liege,' he cried, 'the fire of God  Descends upon thee in the battle-field:  I know thee for my King!' Whereat the two,  For each had warded either in the fight,  Sware on the field of death a deathless love.  And Arthur said, 'Man's word is God in man:  Let chance what will, I trust thee to the death.'

     Then quickly from the foughten field he sent  Ulfius, and Brastias, and Bedivere,  His new-made knights, to King Leodogran,  Saying, 'If I in aught have served thee well,  Give me thy daughter Guinevere to wife.'

     Whom when he heard, Leodogran in heart  Debating—'How should I that am a king,  However much he holp me at my need,  Give my one daughter saving to a king,  And a king's son?'—lifted his voice, and called  A hoary man, his chamberlain, to whom  He trusted all things, and of him required  His counsel: 'Knowest thou aught of Arthur's birth?'

     Then spake the hoary chamberlain and said,  'Sir King, there be but two old men that know:  And each is twice as old as I; and one  Is Merlin, the wise man that ever served  King Uther through his magic art; and one  Is Merlin's master (so they call him) Bleys,  Who taught him magic, but the scholar ran  Before the master, and so far, that Bleys,  Laid magic by, and sat him down, and wrote  All things and whatsoever Merlin did  In one great annal-book, where after-years  Will learn the secret of our Arthur's birth.'

     To whom the King Leodogran replied,  'O friend, had I been holpen half as well  By this King Arthur as by thee today,  Then beast and man had had their share of me:  But summon here before us yet once more  Ulfius, and Brastias, and Bedivere.'

     Then, when they came before him, the King said,  'I have seen the cuckoo chased by lesser fowl,  And reason in the chase: but wherefore now  Do these your lords stir up the heat of war,  Some calling Arthur born of Gorlois,  Others of Anton? Tell me, ye yourselves,  Hold ye this Arthur for King Uther's son?'

     And Ulfius and Brastias answered, 'Ay.'  Then Bedivere, the first of all his knights  Knighted by Arthur at his crowning, spake—  For bold in heart and act and word was he,  Whenever slander breathed against the King—

     'Sir, there be many rumours on this head:  For there be those who hate him in their hearts,  Call him baseborn, and since his ways are sweet,  And theirs are bestial, hold him less than man:  And there be those who deem him more than man,  And dream he dropt from heaven: but my belief  In all this matter—so ye care to learn—  Sir, for ye know that in King Uther's time  The prince and warrior Gorlois, he that held  Tintagil castle by the Cornish sea,  Was wedded with a winsome wife, Ygerne:  And daughters had she borne him,—one whereof,  Lot's wife, the Queen of Orkney, Bellicent,  Hath ever like a loyal sister cleaved  To Arthur,—but a son she had not borne.  And Uther cast upon her eyes of love:  But she, a stainless wife to Gorlois,  So loathed the bright dishonour of his love,  That Gorlois and King Uther went to war:  And overthrown was Gorlois and slain.  Then Uther in his wrath and heat besieged  Ygerne within Tintagil, where her men,  Seeing the mighty swarm about their walls,  Left her and fled, and Uther entered in,  And there was none to call to but himself.  So, compassed by the power of the King,  Enforced was she to wed him in her tears,  And with a shameful swiftness: afterward,  Not many moons, King Uther died himself,  Moaning and wailing for an heir to rule  After him, lest the realm should go to wrack.  And that same night, the night of the new year,  By reason of the bitterness and grief  That vext his mother, all before his time  Was Arthur born, and all as soon as born  Delivered at a secret postern-gate  To Merlin, to be holden far apart  Until his hour should come; because the lords  Of that fierce day were as the lords of this,  Wild beasts, and surely would have torn the child  Piecemeal among them, had they known; for each  But sought to rule for his own self and hand,  And many hated Uther for the sake  Of Gorlois. Wherefore Merlin took the child,  And gave him to Sir Anton, an old knight  And ancient friend of Uther; and his wife  Nursed the young prince, and reared him with her own;  And no man knew. And ever since the lords  Have foughten like wild beasts among themselves,  So that the realm has gone to wrack: but now,  This year, when Merlin (for his hour had come)  Brought Arthur forth, and set him in the hall,  Proclaiming, "Here is Uther's heir, your king,"  A hundred voices cried, "Away with him!  No king of ours! a son of Gorlois he,  Or else the child of Anton, and no king,  Or else baseborn." Yet Merlin through his craft,  And while the people clamoured for a king,  Had Arthur crowned; but after, the great lords  Banded, and so brake out in open war.'

     Then while the King debated with himself  If Arthur were the child of shamefulness,  Or born the son of Gorlois, after death,  Or Uther's son, and born before his time,  Or whether there were truth in anything  Said by these three, there came to Cameliard,  With Gawain and young Modred, her two sons,  Lot's wife, the Queen of Orkney, Bellicent;  Whom as he could, not as he would, the King  Made feast for, saying, as they sat at meat,

     'A doubtful throne is ice on summer seas.  Ye come from Arthur's court. Victor his men  Report him! Yea, but ye—think ye this king—  So many those that hate him, and so strong,  So few his knights, however brave they be—  Hath body enow to hold his foemen down?'

     'O King,' she cried, 'and I will tell thee: few,  Few, but all brave, all of one mind with him;  For I was near him when the savage yells  Of Uther's peerage died, and Arthur sat  Crowned on the dais, and his warriors cried,  "Be thou the king, and we will work thy will  Who love thee." Then the King in low deep tones,  And simple words of great authority,  Bound them by so strait vows to his own self,  That when they rose, knighted from kneeling, some  Were pale as at the passing of a ghost,  Some flushed, and others dazed, as one who wakes  Half-blinded at the coming of a light.

     'But when he spake and cheered his Table Round  With large, divine, and comfortable words,  Beyond my tongue to tell thee—I beheld  From eye to eye through all their Order flash  A momentary likeness of the King:  And ere it left their faces, through the cross  And those around it and the Crucified,  Down from the casement over Arthur, smote  Flame-colour, vert and azure, in three rays,  One falling upon each of three fair queens,  Who stood in silence near his throne, the friends  Of Arthur, gazing on him, tall, with bright  Sweet faces, who will help him at his need.

     'And there I saw mage Merlin, whose vast wit  And hundred winters are but as the hands  Of loyal vassals toiling for their liege.

     'And near him stood the Lady of the Lake,  Who knows a subtler magic than his own—  Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful.  She gave the King his huge cross-hilted sword,  Whereby to drive the heathen out: a mist  Of incense curled about her, and her face  Wellnigh was hidden in the minster gloom;  But there was heard among the holy hymns  A voice as of the waters, for she dwells  Down in a deep; calm, whatsoever storms  May shake the world, and when the surface rolls,  Hath power to walk the waters like our Lord.

     'There likewise I beheld Excalibur  Before him at his crowning borne, the sword  That rose from out the bosom of the lake,  And Arthur rowed across and took it—rich  With jewels, elfin Urim, on the hilt,  Bewildering heart and eye—the blade so bright  That men are blinded by it—on one side,  Graven in the oldest tongue of all this world,  "Take me," but turn the blade and ye shall see,  And written in the speech ye speak yourself,  "Cast me away!" And sad was Arthur's face  Taking it, but old Merlin counselled him,  "Take thou and strike! the time to cast away  Is yet far-off." So this great brand the king  Took, and by this will beat his foemen down.'

     Thereat Leodogran rejoiced, but thought  To sift his doubtings to the last, and asked,  Fixing full eyes of question on her face,  'The swallow and the swift are near akin,  But thou art closer to this noble prince,  Being his own dear sister;' and she said,  'Daughter of Gorlois and Ygerne am I;'  'And therefore Arthur's sister?' asked the King.  She answered, 'These be secret things,' and signed  To those two sons to pass, and let them be.  And Gawain went, and breaking into song  Sprang out, and followed by his flying hair  Ran like a colt, and leapt at all he saw:  But Modred laid his ear beside the doors,  And there half-heard; the same that afterward  Struck for the throne, and striking found his doom.

     And then the Queen made answer, 'What know I?  For dark my mother was in eyes and hair,  And dark in hair and eyes am I; and dark  Was Gorlois, yea and dark was Uther too,  Wellnigh to blackness; but this King is fair  Beyond the race of Britons and of men.  Moreover, always in my mind I hear  A cry from out the dawning of my life,  A mother weeping, and I hear her say,  "O that ye had some brother, pretty one,  To guard thee on the rough ways of the world."'

     'Ay,' said the King, 'and hear ye such a cry?  But when did Arthur chance upon thee first?'

     'O King!' she cried, 'and I will tell thee true:  He found me first when yet a little maid:  Beaten I had been for a little fault  Whereof I was not guilty; and out I ran  And flung myself down on a bank of heath,  And hated this fair world and all therein,  And wept, and wished that I were dead; and he—  I know not whether of himself he came,  Or brought by Merlin, who, they say, can walk  Unseen at pleasure—he was at my side,  And spake sweet words, and comforted my heart,  And dried my tears, being a child with me.  And many a time he came, and evermore  As I grew greater grew with me; and sad  At times he seemed, and sad with him was I,  Stern too at times, and then I loved him not,  But sweet again, and then I loved him well.  And now of late I see him less and less,  But those first days had golden hours for me,  For then I surely thought he would be king.

     'But let me tell thee now another tale:  For Bleys, our Merlin's master, as they say,  Died but of late, and sent his cry to me,  To hear him speak before he left his life.  Shrunk like a fairy changeling lay the mage;  And when I entered told me that himself  And Merlin ever served about the King,  Uther, before he died; and on the night  When Uther in Tintagil past away  Moaning and wailing for an heir, the two  Left the still King, and passing forth to breathe,  Then from the castle gateway by the chasm  Descending through the dismal night—a night  In which the bounds of heaven and earth were lost—  Beheld, so high upon the dreary deeps  It seemed in heaven, a ship, the shape thereof  A dragon winged, and all from stern to stern  Bright with a shining people on the decks,  And gone as soon as seen. And then the two  Dropt to the cove, and watched the great sea fall,  Wave after wave, each mightier than the last,  Till last, a ninth one, gathering half the deep  And full of voices, slowly rose and plunged  Roaring, and all the wave was in a flame:  And down the wave and in the flame was borne  A naked babe, and rode to Merlin's feet,  Who stoopt and caught the babe, and cried "The King!  Here is an heir for Uther!" And the fringe  Of that great breaker, sweeping up the strand,  Lashed at the wizard as he spake the word,  And all at once all round him rose in fire,  So that the child and he were clothed in fire.  And presently thereafter followed calm,  Free sky and stars: "And this the same child," he said,  "Is he who reigns; nor could I part in peace  Till this were told." And saying this the seer  Went through the strait and dreadful pass of death,  Not ever to be questioned any more  Save on the further side; but when I met  Merlin, and asked him if these things were truth—  The shining dragon and the naked child  Descending in the glory of the seas—  He laughed as is his wont, and answered me  In riddling triplets of old time, and said:

     '"Rain, rain, and sun! a rainbow in the sky!  A young man will be wiser by and by;  An old man's wit may wander ere he die.     Rain, rain, and sun! a rainbow on the lea!  And truth is this to me, and that to thee;  And truth or clothed or naked let it be.     Rain, sun, and rain! and the free blossom blows:  Sun, rain, and sun! and where is he who knows?  From the great deep to the great deep he goes."

     'So Merlin riddling angered me; but thou  Fear not to give this King thy only child,  Guinevere: so great bards of him will sing  Hereafter; and dark sayings from of old  Ranging and ringing through the minds of men,

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