Str. Jester.
I'll not drink with a woman from one cup
The self-same wine again.
Dinas.
What hinders thee?
Str. Jester.
Ask Queen Iseult.
Iseult (angrily and fearfully).
Oh, Mark! He mocks me. Send
The fool away!
Str. Jester (he throws himself on the ground before the
dais and whispers low and tensely to Iseult).
"For they who drink thereof
Together, so shall love with every sense
Alive, yet senseless—with their every thought,
Yet thoughtless, too, in life, in death, for aye—
Yet he, who having known the wond'rous bliss
Of that intoxicating cup of love.
Spits out the draught disloyally, shall be
A homeless and a friendless worm,—a weed
That grows beside the road"—So spake my love,
And handed me a golden cup of wine
And bade me drink,—But evil came thereof—.
[During his speech Iseult sits up in her
chair, and bending backward, stares down
at him in horror.]
Paranis.
The Queen turns pale!
Brangaene.
Iseult! My God! Iseult!
Ganelun.
He conjures!
1st Baron.
'Twas a magic spell!