SCENE III
The lepers enter the courtyard. They are a wild pack dressed in gaudy rags, and rumpled, armless cloaks with hoods; carrying long staves and crutches; with colored cloths bound about their sinister foreheads. Their faces are sunburnt, their hair is snow-white and streams in the wind. Some have their heads shaved. Their arms and feet are bare. Altogether they present a motley appearance, though the hardships of their life, as a band forced to live together, give them the aspect of weather-beaten and dried chaff driven hither and thither by the wind. They stand shyly and rock unsteadily on their dried and shrunken legs—silent and restless. Like ghosts of the noonday, they try to hush their voices throughout the scene.
Iwein (is the first to enter; the others file past him).
Come quick! They've all gone in!
A Leper.
Right here
The cat shall catch the bird!
A Young Leper (wearing a wreath, made of three or four
large red flowers, in his dark hair).
Heisa! Heisa!
Iwein.
Speak softly, there, lest ye disturb the mass.
An Old Leper (feeble, and supporting himself on a crutch, in the tone of the town crier, almost singing).
Today shall Queen Iseult, our good King's spouse
Be given to us, the lepers of Lubin—
So cried the herald!—
Young Leper.
Brother, brother, dance
With me, for I'm the bridegroom—Ah!—
Old Leper (in the same tone).
Today
Shall Queen Iseult—
[Every time that the old leper begins to
speak he is silenced by the others.]