Sorcerer Merlin

"Gawaine, Gawaine, what look ye for to see,

So far beyond the faint edge of the world?

D'ye look to see the lady Vivian,

Pursued by divers ominous vile demons

That have another king more fierce than ours?

Or think ye that if ye look far enough

And hard enough into the feathery west

Ye'll have a glimmer of the Grail itself?

And if ye look for neither Grail nor lady,

What look ye for to see, Gawaine, Gawaine?"

So Dagonet, whom Arthur made a knight

Because he loved him as he laughed at him,

Intoned his idle presence on a day

To Gawaine, who had thought himself alone,

Had there been in him thought of anything

Save what was murmured now in Camelot

Of Merlin's hushed and all but unconfirmed

Appearance out of Brittany. It was heard

At first there was a ghost in Arthur's palace,

But soon among the scullions and anon

Among the knights a firmer credit held

All tongues from uttering what all glances told-

Though not for long. Gawaine, this afternoon,

Fearing he might say more to Lancelot

Of Merlin's rumor-laden resurrection

Than Lancelot would have an ear to cherish,

Had sauntered off with his imagination

To Merlin's Rock, where now there was no Merlin

To meditate upon a whispering town

Below him in the silence.-Once he said

To Gawaine: "You are young; and that being so,

Behold the shining city of our dreams

And of our King."-"Long live the King," said Gawaine.-

"Long live the King," said Merlin after him;

"Better for me that I shall not be King;

Wherefore I say again, Long live the King,

And add, God save him, also, and all kings-

All kings and queens. I speak in general.

Kings have I known that were but weary men

With no stout appetite for more than peace

That was not made for them."-"Nor were they made

For kings," Gawaine said, laughing.-"You are young

Gawaine, and you may one day hold the world

Between your fingers, knowing not what it is

That you are holding. Better for you and me,

I think, that we shall not be kings."

Gawaine,

Remembering Merlin's words of long ago,

Frowned as he thought, and having frowned again,

He smiled and threw an acorn at a lizard:

"There's more afoot and in the air to-day

Than what is good for Camelot. Merlin

May or may not know all, but he said well

To say to me that he would not be King.

No more would I be King." Far down he gazed

On Camelot, until he made of it

A phantom town of many stillnesses,

Not reared for men to dwell in, or for kings

To reign in, without omens and obscure

Familiars to bring terror to their days;

For though a knight, and one as hard at arms

As any, save the fate-begotten few

That all acknowledged or in envy loathed,

He felt a foreign sort of creeping up

And down him, as of moist things in the dark,-

When Dagonet, coming on him unawares,

Presuming on his title of Sir Fool,

Addressed him and crooned on till he was done:

"What look ye for to see, Gawaine, Gawaine?"

"Sir Dagonet, you best and wariest

Of all dishonest men, I look through Time,

For sight of what it is that is to be.

I look to see it, though I see it not.

I see a town down there that holds a king,

And over it I see a few small clouds-

Like feathers in the west, as you observe;

And I shall see no more this afternoon

Than what there is around us every day,

Unless you have a skill that I have not

To ferret the invisible for rats."

"If you see what's around us every day,

You need no other showing to go mad.

Remember that and take it home with you;

And say tonight, 'I had it of a fool-

With no immediate obliquity

For this one or for that one, or for me.'"

Gawaine, having risen, eyed the fool curiously:

"I'll not forget I had it of a knight,

Whose only folly is to fool himself;

And as for making other men to laugh,

And so forget their sins and selves a little,

There's no great folly there. So keep it up,

As long as you've a legend or a song,

And have whatever sport of us you like

Till havoc is the word and we fall howling.

For I've a guess there may not be so loud

A sound of laughing here in Camelot

When Merlin goes again to his gay grave

In Brittany. To mention lesser terrors,

Men say his beard is gone."

"Do men say that?"

A twitch of an impatient weariness

Played for a moment over the lean face

Of Dagonet, who reasoned inwardly:

"The friendly zeal of this inquiring knight

Will overtake his tact and leave it squealing,

One of these days."-Gawaine looked hard at him: