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Even in the jumbled rubbish of a dream,

Have tript on such conjectural treachery--
May this hard earth cleave to the Nadir hell

Down, down, and close again, and nip me flat,
If I be such a traitress. Yield my boon,

Till which I scarce can yield you all I am;
And grant my re-reiterated wish,

The great proof of your love: because I think,
However wise, ye hardly know me yet.'

And Merlin loosed his hand from hers and said,
'I never was less wise, however wise,

Too curious Vivien, though you talk of trust,
Than when I told you first of such a charm.

Yea, if ye talk of trust I tell you this,
Too much I trusted when I told you that,

And stirred this vice in you which ruined man
Through woman the first hour; for howsoe'er

In children a great curiousness be well,
Who have to learn themselves and all the world,

In you, that are no child, for still I find
Your face is practised when I spell the lines,

I call it,--well, I will not call it vice:
But since you name yourself the summer fly,

I well could wish a cobweb for the gnat,
That settles, beaten back, and beaten back

Settles, till one could yield for weariness:
But since I will not yield to give you power

Upon my life and use and name and fame,
Why will ye never ask some other boon?

Yea, by God's rood, I trusted you too much.'
And Vivien, like the tenderest-hearted maid

That ever bided tryst at village stile,
Made answer, either eyelid wet with tears:

'Nay, Master, be not wrathful with your maid;
Caress her: let her feel herself forgiven

Who feels no heart to ask another boon.
I think ye hardly know the tender rhyme

Of "trust me not at all or all in all."
I heard the great Sir Lancelot sing it once,

And it shall answer for me. Listen to it.
"In Love, if Love be Love, if Love be ours,

Faith and unfaith can ne'er be equal powers:
Unfaith in aught is want of faith in all.

"It is the little rift within the lute,
That by and by will make the music mute,

And ever widening slowly silence all.
"The little rift within the lover's lute

Or little pitted speck in garnered fruit,
That rotting inward slowly moulders all.

"It is not worth the keeping: let it go:
But shall it? answer, darling, answer, no.

And trust me not at all or all in all."
O Master, do ye love my tender rhyme?'

And Merlin looked and half believed her true,
So tender was her voice, so fair her face,

So sweetly gleamed her eyes behind her tears
Like sunlight on the plain behind a shower:

And yet he answered half indignantly:
'Far other was the song that once I heard

By this huge oak, sung nearly where we sit:
For here we met, some ten or twelve of us,

To chase a creature that was current then
In these wild woods, the hart with golden horns.

It was the time when first the question rose
About the founding of a Table Round,

That was to be, for love of God and men
And noble deeds, the flower of all the world.

And each incited each to noble deeds.
And while we waited, one, the youngest of us,

We could not keep him silent, out he flashed,
And into such a song, such fire for fame,

Such trumpet-glowings in it, coming down
To such a stern and iron-clashing close,

That when he stopt we longed to hurl together,
And should have done it; but the beauteous beast

Scared by the noise upstarted at our feet,
And like a silver shadow slipt away

Through the dim land; and all day long we rode
Through the dim land against a rushing wind,

That glorious roundel echoing in our ears,
And chased the flashes of his golden horns

Till they vanished by the fairy well
That laughs at iron--as our warriors did--

Where children cast their pins and nails, and cry,
"Laugh, little well!" but touch it with a sword,

It buzzes fiercely round the point; and there
We lost him: such a noble song was that.

But, Vivien, when you sang me that sweet rhyme,
I felt as though you knew this cursed charm,

Were proving it on me, and that I lay
And felt them slowly ebbing, name and fame.'

And Vivien answered smiling mournfully:
'O mine have ebbed away for evermore,

And all through following you to this wild wood,
Because I saw you sad, to comfort you.

Lo now, what hearts have men! they never mount
As high as woman in her selfless mood.

And touching fame, howe'er ye scorn my song,
Take one verse more--the lady speaks it--this:

'"My name, once mine, now thine, is closelier mine,
For fame, could fame be mine, that fame were thine,

And shame, could shame be thine, that shame were mine.
So trust me not at all or all in all."

'Says she not well? and there is more--this rhyme
Is like the fair pearl-necklace of the Queen,

That burst in dancing, and the pearls were spilt;
Some lost, some stolen, some as relics kept.

But nevermore the same two sister pearls
Ran down the silken thread to kiss each other

On her white neck--so is it with this rhyme:
It lives dispersedly in many hands,

And every minstrel sings it differently;
Yet is there one true line, the pearl of pearls:

"Man dreams of Fame while woman wakes to love."
Yea! Love, though Love were of the grossest, carves

A portion from the solid present, eats
And uses, careless of the rest; but Fame,

The Fame that follows death is nothing to us;
And what is Fame in life but half-disfame,

And counterchanged with darkness? ye yourself
Know well that Envy calls you Devil's son,

And since ye seem the Master of all Art,
They fain would make you Master of all vice.'

And Merlin locked his hand in hers and said,
'I once was looking for a magic weed,

And found a fair young squire who sat alone,
Had carved himself a knightly" target="_blank" title="a.&ad.骑士般的(地)">knightlyshield of wood,

And then was painting on it fancied arms,
Azure, an Eagle rising or, the Sun

In dexter chief; the scroll "I follow fame."
And speaking not, but leaning over him

I took his brush and blotted out the bird,
And made a Gardener putting in a graff,

With this for motto, "Rather use than fame."
You should have seen him blush; but afterwards

He made a stalwart knight. O Vivien,
For you, methinks you think you love me well;

For me, I love you somewhat; rest: and Love
Should have some rest and pleasure in himself,

Not ever be too curious for a boon,
Too prurient for a proof against the grain

Of him ye say ye love: but Fame with men,
Being but ampler means to serve mankind,

Should have small rest or pleasure in herself,
But work as vassal to the larger love,

That dwarfs the petty love of one to one.
Use gave me Fame at first, and Fame again

Increasing gave me use. Lo, there my boon!
What other? for men sought to prove me vile,

Because I fain had given them greater wits:
And then did Envy call me Devil's son:

The sick weak beast seeking to help herself
By striking at her better, missed, and brought

Her own claw back, and wounded her own heart.
Sweet were the days when I was all unknown,

But when my name was lifted up, the storm
Brake on the mountain and I cared not for it.

Right well know I that Fame is half-disfame,
Yet needs must work my work. That other fame,

To one at least, who hath not children, vague,
The cackle of the unborn about the grave,

I cared not for it: a single misty star,
Which is the second in a line of stars

That seem a sword beneath a belt of three,
I never gazed upon it but I dreamt

Of some vast charm concluded in that star
To make fame nothing. Wherefore, if I fear,

Giving you power upon me through this charm,
That you might play me falsely, having power,

However well ye think ye love me now
(As sons of kings loving in pupilage

Have turned to tyrants when they came to power)
I rather dread the loss of use than fame;

If you--and not so much from wickedness,
As some wild turn of anger, or a mood

Of overstrained affection, it may be,
To keep me all to your own self,--or else

A sudden spurt of woman's jealousy" target="_blank" title="n.妒忌;猜忌">jealousy,--
Should try this charm on whom ye say ye love.'

And Vivien answered smiling as in wrath:
'Have I not sworn? I am not trusted. Good!

Well, hide it, hide it; I shall find it out;
And being found take heed of Vivien.

A woman and not trusted, doubtless I
Might feel some sudden turn of anger born

Of your misfaith; and your fine epithet
Is accurate too, for this full love of mine

Without the full heart back may merit well
Your term of overstrained. So used as I,

My daily wonder is, I love at all.
And as to woman's jealousy" target="_blank" title="n.妒忌;猜忌">jealousy, O why not?

O to what end, except a jealous one,
And one to make me jealous if I love,

Was this fair charm invented by yourself?
I well believe that all about this world

Ye cage a buxom captive here and there,
Closed in the four walls of a hollow tower

From which is no escape for evermore.'
Then the great Master merrily answered her:

'Full many a love in loving youth was mine;
I needed then no charm to keep them mine



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