Iseult.
How dar'st
Thou call me by such names! My boiling blood
Turns cold and shudders! Go!
Str. Jester (groaning softly).
Where, lady, can
I find a sea whose endless depths are deep
Enough to drown my bitter misery?
Where? Tell me where, and I will go.
Iseult.
Go where
Thou wilt, so it be far away—so far
That the whole world shall sever thee and me,
And shall divide me from thy woe! My soul
Bleeds like an unheal'd wound when thou art near.
As though thou wert its murderer, and lo,
'Twill bleed to death from thy propinquity,
Thou fool! Hence, go, but give me first the ring
Thou stol'st last night and which in wanton jest
Thou torest from the hand of yon dead Knight.
It is Lord Tristram's ring.
Str. Jester.
Ay, Queen Iseult,
The ring is his—above all other things
He values it!
Iseult.
Give me the ring, else shalt
Thou die! I'll have thee slain, I swear, as sure
As I have suffered all this night such pangs
As suffered Mary at the cross of Christ.
Str. Jester (standing up).
The ring is mine! I gave it yonder man
To cherish like his life.—He's died for thee
And me;—I gave him too my soul to guard
That by this ring he might compel and bring
Thee to me in the wood tonight. Oh, 'twas
An evil hour for us both, Iseult,
That Lord Denovalin rode through the wood
Today. Now, answer me, Iseult, wilt thou
Still keep the oath thou sware to Tristram once?
Iseult (fixedly).
I'll break no oath that I have sworn, for God
Has sanctioned all my vows.
Str. Jester.
Then call I thee,
Iseult the Goldenhaired, in Tristram's name,
And by this ring. [He hands her the ring.]
Iseult.
Knowst thou that oath as well.
Thou ghost!
(Solemnly.)