Tales from Tennyson

  MERLIN AND VIVIEN.

  Vivien was a very clever, wily and wicked woman, who wanted to become agreater magician than even the great Merlin, who was the most famous manof all his times, who understood all the arts, who had built the king'sharbors, ships and halls, who was a fine poet and who could read thefuture in the stars in the skies.

  He had once told Vivien of a charm that he could work to make peopleinvisible. Whenever he worked it upon anyone that person would seem tobe imprisoned within the four walls of a tower and could not get out.The person would seem dead, lost to every one, and could be seen only bythe person who worked the charm. Vivien yearned to know what the charmwas, for she wanted to cast its spell on Merlin so that no one wouldknow where he was and she could become a great enchantress in the realm,as she foolishly thought. And she planned very cleverly so as to findout the wise old man's secret.

  She wanted him to think that she loved him dearly. At first she playedabout him with lively, pretty talk, vivid smiles, and he watched andlaughed at her as if she were a playful kitten. Then as she saw that hehalf disdained her she began to put on very grave and serious fits,turned red and pale when he came near her, or sighed or gazed at him, sosilently and with such sweet devotion that he half believed that shereally loved him truly.

  HE LAUGHED AT HER.]

  But after a while a great melancholy fell over Merlin, he felt soterribly sad that he passed away out of the kings' court and went downto the beach. There he found a little boat and stepped into it. Vivienhad followed him without his knowing it. She sat down in the boat andwhile he took the sail she seized the helm of the boat. They were drivenacross the sea with a strong wind and came to the shores of Brittany.Here Merlin got out and Vivien followed him all the way into the wildwoods of Broceliande. Every step of the way Merlin was perfectly quiet.

  They sat down together, she lay beside him and kissed his feet as if inthe deepest reverence and love. A twist of gold was wound round herhair, a priceless robe of satiny samite clung about her beautiful limbs.As she kissed his feet she cried:

  "Trample me down, dear feet which I have followed all through the worldand I will worship you. Tread me down and I will kiss you for it."

  But Merlin still said not a word.

  MERLIN FELT SO TERRIBLY SAD.]

  "Merlin do you love me?" at last cried Vivien, with her face sadlyappealing to him. And again, "O, Merlin, do you love me?" "Great Master,do you love me?" she cried for the third time.

  And then when he was as quiet as ever she writhed up toward him, slidupon his knee, twined her feet about his ankles, curved her arms abouthis neck and used one of her hands as a white comb to run through hislong ashy beard which she drew all across her neck down to her knees.

  "See! I'm clothing myself with wisdom," she cried. "I'm a golden summerbutterfly that's been caught in a great old tyrant spider's web that'sgoing to eat me up in this big wild wood without a word to me."

  "What do you mean, Vivien, with these pretty tricks of yours?" criedMerlin at last. "What do you want me to give you?"

  "What!" said Vivien, smiling saucily, "have you found your tongue atlast? Now yesterday you didn't open your lips once except to drink. Andthen I, with my own lady hands, made a pretty cup and offered you yourwater kneeling before you and you drank it, but gave me not a word ofthanks. And when we stopped at the other spring when you lay with yourfeet all golden with blossoms from the meadows we passed through youknow that I bathed your feet before I bathed my own. But yet no thanksfrom you. And all through this wild wood, all through this morning whenI fondled you, still not a word of thanks."

  Then Merlin locked her hand in his and said, "Vivien, have you neverseen a wave as it was coming up the beach ready to break? Well, I'vebeen seeing a wave that was ready to break on me. It seemed to me thatsome dark, tremendous wave was going to come and sweep me away from myhold on the world, away from my fame and my usefulness and my greatname. That's why I came away from Arthur's court to make me forget itand feel better. And when I saw you coming after me it seemed to me thatyou were that wave that was going to roll all over me. But pardon me,now, child, your pretty ways have brightened everything again, and nowtell me what you would like to have from me. For I owe you somethingthree times over, once for neglecting you, twice for the thanks for yourgoodness to me, and lastly for those dainty gambols of yours. So tell menow, what will you have?"

  Vivien smiled mournfully as she answered:

  "I've always been afraid that you were not really mine, that you didn'tlove me truly, that you didn't quite trust me, and now you yourself haveowned it. Don't you see, dear love, how this strange mood of yours mustmake me feel it more than ever? must make me yearn still more to provethat you are mine, must make me wish still more to know that great charmof waving hands and woven footsteps that you told me about, just as aproof that you trust me? If you told that to me I should know that youare mine, and I should have the great proof of your love, because Ithink that however wise you may be you do not know me yet."

  "I never was less wise, you inquisitive Vivien," said Merlin, "than whenI told you about that charm. Why won't you ask me for another boon?"

  Then Vivien, as if she were the tenderest hearted little maid that everlived, burst into tears and said:

  "No, master, don't be angry at your little girl. Caress me, let me feelmyself forgiven, for I have not the heart to ask for another boon. Idon't suppose that you know the old rhyme, 'Trust not at all or all inall?'"

  Then Merlin looked at her and half believed what she said. Her voice wasso tender, her face was so fair, her eyes were so sweetly gleamingbehind her tears.

  He locked her hand in his again and said, "If you should know this charmyou might sometimes in a wild moment of anger or a mood of overstrainedaffection when you wanted me all to yourself or when you were jealousin a sudden fit, you might work it on me."

  "Good!" cried Vivien, as if she were angry, "I am not trusted. Well,hide it away, hide it, and I shall find it out, and when I've found itbeware, look out for Vivien! When you use me so it's a wonder that I canlove you at all, and as for jealousy, it seems to me this wonderfulcharm was invented just to make me jealous. I suppose you have a lot ofpretty girls whom you have caged here and there all over the world withit."

  Then the great master laughed merrily.

  "Long, long years ago," he said, "there lived a King in the farthestEast of the East. A tawny pirate who had plundered twenty islands ormore anchored his boat in the King's port, and in the boat was a woman.For, as he had passed one of the islands the pirates had seen two citiesfull of men in boats fighting for a woman on the sea; he had pushed uphis black boat in among the rest, lightly scattered every one of themand brought her off with half his people killed with arrows. She was amaiden so smooth, so white, so wonderful that a light seemed to comefrom her as she walked. When the pirate came upon the shore of theEastern King's island the King asked him for the woman, but he would notgive her up. So the King imprisoned the pirate and made the woman hisqueen.

  "All the people adored her, the King's councilmen and all his soldiers,the beasts themselves. The camels knelt down before her unbidden, andthe black slaves of the mountains rang her golden ankle bells just tosee her smile. So little wonder that the King grew very jealous. He hadhis horns blown through all the hundred under-kingdoms which he ruled,telling the people that he wanted a wizard who would teach him somecharm to work upon the queen and make her all his own. To the wizard whocould do this he promised a league of mountain land full of goldenmines, a province with a hundred miles of coast, a palace and aprincess. But all the wizards who failed should be killed and theirheads would be hung on the city gates until they mouldered away.

  "So there were many, many wizards all through the hundred kingdoms whotried to work the charm, but failed; many wizard heads bleached on thewalls, and for weeks a troupe of carrion crows hung like a cloud abovethe towers of the city gateways. But at last the king's men found alittle glassy headed, hairless ma
n who lived alone in a great wildernessand ate nothing but grass. He read only one book, and by always readinghad got grated down, filed away and lean, with monstrous eyes and hisskin clinging to his bones. But since he never tasted wine or flesh--thewall that separates people from spirits became crystal to him. He couldsee through it, perceive the spirits as they walked and hear themtalking; so he learned their secrets. Often he drew a cloud of rainacross a sunny sky, or when there was a wild storm and the pine woodsroared he made everything calm again.

  "He was the man that was wanted. They dragged him to the king's court byforce, he didn't want to go. There he taught the king how to charm thequeen so that no one could see her again, and she could see no oneexcept the king as he passed about the palace. She lay as if quite deadand lost to life. But when the king offered the magician his league ofgolden mines, the province with a hundred miles of sea coast, the palaceand the princess, the old man turned away, went back to his wildernessand lived on grass and vanished away. But his book came down to me."

  "You have the book!" cried Vivian smiling saucily. "The charm is writtenin it. Good, take my advice and let me know the secret at once, for ifyou should hide it away like a puzzle in a chest, if you should putchest upon chest, and lock and padlock each chest thirty times and burythem all away under some vast mound like the heaps of soldiers on thebattle-field, still I should hit upon some way of digging it out, ofpicking it, of opening it and reading the charm. And _then_ if I triedit on you who would blame me?"

  "You read the book, my pretty Vivien?" cried Merlin. "Well, it's onlytwenty pages long, but such pages! Every page has a square of text thatlooks like a blot, the letters no longer than fleas' legs written in alanguage that has long gone by, and all the borders and marginsscribbled, crossed and crammed with notes. You read that book! No one,not even I can read the text, and no one besides me can make out thenotes on the margins. I found the charm in the margin. Oh, it is simpleenough. Any child might work it and then not be able to undo it. Don'task me again for it, because even although you would love me too much totry it on me, still you might try it on some of the knights of the RoundTable."

  "O, you are crueller than any man ever told of in a story, or sung aboutin song!" cried Vivien. She clapped her hands together and wailed out ashriek. "I'm stabbed to the heart! I only wished that prove to you thatwere wholly mine, that you loved me and now I'm killed with a word.There's nothing left for me to do except crawl into some hole or cave,and if the wolves won't tear me to pieces, just to weep my life away,killed with unutterable unkindness!"

  She paused, turned away, hung her head while the hair uncoiled itself.Then she wept afresh.

  The dark wood grew darker with a storm coming over the sky.

  Merlin sat thinking quietly and half believed that she was true.

  "Come out of the storm," he called over to her, "come here into thehollow old oak tree."

  Then since she didn't answer, he tried three times to calm her but quitein vain. At last, however, she let herself be conquered, came back toher old perch, and nestled there, half falling from his knees. GentleMerlin saw the slow tears still standing in her eyes and threw his armskindly about her. But Vivien unlinked herself at once, rose with herarms crossed upon her bosom and fled away.

  "No more love between us two," she cried, "for you do not trust me. Oh,it would have been better if I had died three times over than to haveasked you once! Farewell, think gently of me and I will go. But before Ileave you let me swear once more that if I've been planning against youin all this, may the dark heavens send one great flash from out the skyto burn me to a cinder!"

  Just as she ended a bolt of lightning darted across the sky, and slicedthe giant oak tree into a thousand splinters and spikes.

  "Oh, Merlin, save me! save me!" cried Vivien, terrified lest the heavenshad heard her oath and were going to kill her. And she flew back to hisarms. She called him her dear protector, her lord and liege, her seer,her bard, her silver star of evening, her God, her Merlin, the onepassionate love of her life, and hugged him close.

  All the time overhead the tempest bellowed, the branches snapped abovethem in the rushing rain. Her glittering eyes and neck seemed to comeand go before Merlin's eyes with the lightning. At last the storm hadspent its passion, the woodland was all in peace again, and Merlin,overtalked and overworn had told all of the charm and had fallen asleep.

  IN THE HOLLOW OF THE OLD OAK TREE LEFT HIM LYING DEAD.]

  Then in a moment Vivien worked the charm with woven footsteps and wavingarms, and in the hollow of the old oak tree left him lying dead to alllife, use and fame and name.

  "I have made his glory mine! O fool!" she shrieked, and she sprang downthrough the great forest, the thicket closed about her behind her andall the woods echoed, "Fool!"