Volume II Part 45 (1/2)
Only on pain of what we fairies call Death!
SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF
Death?
OBERON
Never to join our happy revels, Never to pa.s.s the gates of fairyland Again, but die like mortals. What that means We do not know--who knows?
SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF
If I could save them!-- I am only Shadow-of-a-Leaf!
OBERON
There is a King Beyond the seas. If he came home in time, All might be well. We fairies only catch Stray gleams, wandering shadows of things to come.
t.i.tANIA
Oh, if the King came home from the Crusade!
SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF
Why will he fight for graves beyond the sea?
OBERON
Our elfin couriers brought the news at dusk That Lion-Heart, while wandering home thro' Europe, In jet-black armour, like an errant knight, Despite the great red cross upon his s.h.i.+eld, Was captured by some wicked prince and thrust Into a dungeon. Only a song, they say, Can break those prison-bars. There is a minstrel That loves his King. If he should roam the world Singing until from that dark tower he hears The King reply, the King would be set free.
t.i.tANIA
Only a song, only a minstrel?
OBERON
Ay; And Blondel is his name.
[_A long, low sound of wailing is heard in the distance. The fairies shudder and creep together._]
t.i.tANIA
Hark, what is that?
OBERON
The cry of the poor, the cry of the oppressed, The sound of women weeping for their children, The victims of the forest laws. The moan Of that dark world where mortals live and die Sweeps like an icy wind thro' fairyland.
And oh, it may grow bitterer yet, that sound!
'Twas Merlin's darkest prophecy that earth Should all be wrapped in smoke and fire, the woods Hewn down, the flowers discoloured and the sun Begrimed, until the rows of lifeless trees Against the greasy sunset seemed no more Than sooty smudges of an ogre's thumbs Upon the sweating forehead of a slave.
While, all night long, fed with the souls of men, And bodies, too, great forges blast and burn Till the great ogre's cauldrons brim with gold.
[_The wailing sound is heard again in the distance._]