ARTHUR A TRAGEDY ARTHUR A TRAGEDY BY LAURENCE BINYON [Illustration] BOSTON SMALL, MAYNARD AND COMPANY PUBLISHERS COPYRIGHT, 1923 BY SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY (INCORPORATED) Printed in the United States of America THE MURRAY PRINTING COMPANY CAMBRIDGE, MASS. BINDING BY THE BOSTON BOOKBINDING COMPANY CAMBRIDGE, MASS. TO SIR JOHN AND LADY MARTIN HARVEY _With what names should I inscribe this play but with yours? Yet what right have I to dedicate to you what is already so much your own? Memory goes back to that June day, now long ago, when first I undertook to write for you a play out of Malory’s pages on a theme long pondered by you both. And many days come back to me, in London or by the sunny Channel, when time was forgotten in ardent work and interchange of ideas; in thinking out and talking over crucial situations; in rejecting and recasting; in the search for essential structure. How much the play owes to you, both in framework and in detail, none knows so well as I. Give me leave, therefore, to write these words in grateful acknowledgment of that initial trust, of much fruitful suggestion and inspiriting counsel, and of all I have learnt from you of the playwright’s patient craft._ LAURENCE BINYON. CHARACTERS OF THE PLAY KING ARTHUR. SIR LAUNCELOT. SIR GAWAINE} SIR GAHERIS} _brothers_. SIR GARETH} SIR BEDIVERE. SIR LUCAN. SIR BERNARD OF ASTOLAT. LAVAINE} TORRE} _his sons_. SIR MORDRED. SIR AGRAVAINE} SIR COLEGREVANCE} _of Mordred’s party_. SIR MADOR} SIR PATRICE} SIR BORS} SIR KAY} _friends of Launcelot_. DUMB SIMON, _servant of Sir Bernard_. A BISHOP. A MAN-AT-ARMS. A MESSENGER. A GUARD. QUEEN GUENEVERE. ELAINE. LYNNED, _a nun_. QUEEN’S LADY. FIRST NOVICE. SECOND NOVICE. THE DAMSEL OF PEACE. _A banner-bearer, priests, esquires, men-at-arms, soldiers, ladies of the Court, etc._ ARTHUR A TRAGEDY FIRST SCENE SIR BERNARD’S _castle at Astolat. A room with a window at the back._ SIR BERNARD _alone, seated; he is old and grey-bearded_. LAVAINE _enters in a hurry of excitement_. LAVAINE Father, the King’s at London gates! SIR BERNARD Returned? LAVAINE Victorious. He has overthrown and scattered Those rebels in the North. SIR BERNARD Praise God for that! How heard you this, Lavaine? LAVAINE From a King’s herald That rode through Astolat. I spoke with him. But, father, there’s new faction now, he says, Brewing in the West. He is below with Torre. SIR BERNARD A herald of the King! What does he here? LAVAINE