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.
CONTENTS
| [CHARACTERS OF THE PLAY] |
| [ARTHUR] |
| [FIRST SCENE] |
| [SECOND SCENE] |
| [THIRD SCENE] |
| [FOURTH SCENE] |
| [FIFTH SCENE] |
| [SIXTH SCENE] |
| [SEVENTH SCENE] |
| [EIGHTH SCENE] |
| [NINTH SCENE] |
CHARACTERS OF THE PLAY
| King Arthur. | ||
| Sir Launcelot. | ||
| Sir Gawaine | } | brothers. |
| Sir Gaheris | ||
| Sir Gareth | ||
| Sir Bedivere. | ||
| Sir Lucan. | ||
| Sir Bernard of Astolat. | ||
| Lavaine | } | his sons. |
| Torre | ||
| Sir Mordred. | ||
| Sir Agravaine | } | of Mordred’s party. |
| Sir Colegrevance | ||
| Sir Mador | ||
| Sir Patrice | ||
| Sir Bors | } | friends of Launcelot. |
| Sir Kay | ||
| 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.