Birds of Rhiannon: A Grove Play

by: Waldemar Young (Author)

from: Birds of Rhiannon: A Grove Play  1930

Book by Waldemar Young
Music by Edward Harris


The book of this grove play
is affectionately inscribed
to Will Irwin
Author of The Hamadryads
All things fade...all but friendship



     BIRDS OF RHIANNON is the twenty-ninth Grove Play of the Bohemian Club of San Francisco, presented by members of the club in the Bohemian Grove, Sonoma County, California, Saturday night, August 2, 1930.
     The action of the play is laid in legendary Britain of the Sixth Century, A. D. This is the Britain of King Arthur; and, whilst the present play is wholly imaginative, there has been a free use of characters from both the Welsh and the French streams of the Arthurian legend. Taliessin, Adaon, Aneirin and the bardic hierarchy derive altogether from the Welsh; Dagonet, occurring nowhere in the Welsh Arthuriad, is a minor character of the French; Merlin and Kay are importantly of both. Rhiannon's fabulous birds antedate by uncounted centuries the appearance of the Arthurian motif in Welsh mythology.
     Against this enchanted background the present grove play attempts a development of the major theme of the fellowship of man. Certainly, in all literature, there is no more opulent flowering of fellowship than in the Round Table of Romance. "This Round Table was ordained by Arthur that when his fair fellowship sat to meat their chairs should be high alike, their service equal, and none before or after his comrade," to quote the earliest reference to the Table in all existing Arthurian material (Wace, Roman de Brut, A.D. 1155). "This was the same board that Britons boast of, and say many sorts of leasing, respecting Arthur the King" (Layamon's Brut, A. D. 1204).
     The Anglo-Norman poet Wace, the Saxon priest Layamon, and, of course, Geoffrey of Monmouth, who first assembled the scattered traditions of Arthur, were the immediate precursors of an amazing literary inundation. Fellowship, chivalry, became a cult; the Round Table its symbol. When the grail legend sang its way from obscure sources into the mainstream, the Round Table, always a magical object, retained its essential character, but with a new supernatural sanctity. There entered, too, with the grail, another symbol, the grail itself. The Round Table epitomized the fellowship of man; the grail expressed man's vague eternal pilgrimage in quest of something always just beyond.
     The present grove play takes these two symbols, uses them purely as symbols, and on them erects its main thematic structure. In the treatment of the Grail theme, there is a deliberate diffusion of objectives. The Knights have gone to seek the Grail. A shepherd lad follows a shining bird. Three men from Arthur's court— a singer and a harper and a fool— set forth upon a quest of their own fashioning. They come, through many nights down forest ways, to the foot of a hill. And one of them, the fool, blundering into the rich fullness of an enduring fellowship, brings at last the two symbols into perfect union. That is the play.
     An explanation of the title might not be amiss. "Three things are not often heard: the song of the Birds of Rhiannon, a song of wisdom from the mouth of a Saxon, and an invitation to a feast from a miser" (old Welsh triad). There are two slight mentions of the Birds in that exquisite fantasy, "Branwen, the Daughter of Llyr," the second tale in the Mabinogi of the Four Branches. "In Harlech you will be feasting seven years, the Birds of Rhiannon singing to you the while." . . . "And there came three birds, and began singing unto them a certain song, and all the songs they had ever heard were unpleasant compared thereto; and the birds seemed to them to be at a great distance over the sea, yet they appeared as distinct as if they were close by, and at this repast they continued seven years." Lady Charlotte Guest, in a footnote to her translation of the Red Book of Hergest, speaks of them as "marvelous birds, whose notes were so sweet that warriors remained spell-bound for eighty years together listening to them." T.P. Ellis and John Lloyd, in a preface to their recent translation of the same material, to which is added material from the earlier White Book, refer to the Birds of Rhiannon as "perhaps the most beautiful imagining of the old Welsh mind."
     From these fragmentary allusions, the title of this play has been taken. At the same time, the Birds have been given definite place in the Grail theme and in its diffusion of objectives.
     The production of the play has presented problems of peculiar magnitude. Dr. Frank Rodolph, the general stage director, has met the task with zeal, with tact, with the fine fire of devotion. Mr. Vincent Duffey has augmented his labors as Chairman of the Jinks Committee by personal direction of the lighting. Mr. Loren Ryder has devised and installed certain required mechanical sound effects. The costumes and stage setting have been designed by Mr. Ferdinand Burgdorff.      To these—and to the players, the chorus, the orchestra, and the entire production personnel-the author is deeply grateful.

Say what ye will. He cannot speak. He's dead.


          ADAON

He cannot speak nor say us counsel now,
When most we need his counsel. If he could—


          DAGONET

Ay, if he could?


          ADAON

                        I vow I do believe,
Or more than half believe, he'd say: "Go back!"


          DAGONET

Go back?


          ADAON

               "Go back to Camelot!"


          DAGONET

                                                   Ah, no!


          ADAON

"Go back and ask forgiveness of your King!"


          DAGONET

No, Adaon! We may not falter now.


          ADAON

'Tis four sennights since we left Camelot,
And left the bards all desolate to lose
Their chieftain, Taliessin; and left, by stealth,
Without a thought of loyalty or love,
King Arthur, noblest king in Christendom;
And left Sir Kay, King Arthur's seneschal—


          DAGONET

Sir Kay! The man's my doom! I have seen murder
In his eyes. He hates me, hates us all!


          ADAON

                                                             But Arthur
Loves us—


          DAGONET

                 Hence Kay's hate!


          ADAON

                                             And we left Arthur!
We left our King, our dwellings, lands, chattels,
Left all of life's stability—for what?


          DAGONET

For what?
            [From the tree-tops, very soft and sweetly sad, is heard the sound of viols.


          ADAON

                For what?


          DAGONET

                                  To seek—mayhap to find—
A lovely garden hid behind a hill
And gay with flight of silver-shining birds
And sweet with music in the scented dusk.


          VOICES OF UNSEEN SPIRITS

Sing]  Dreams . . . Dreams . . . Dreams . . .
                        [The VOICES blur into a murmur, and are silent.


          DAGONET

O Voices! Voices of the summer night!
We are three men from Arthur's Table Round,
A singer and a harper and a fool.
We seek the hill the moon comes over!


          TALIESSIN

Come forth, come forth, O moon!


          DAGONET

                                                    Behind that hill,
So Merlin said, we'll find what we desire,
What each of us, in all a wishful world,
Would most desire.


          TALIESSIN

                               Come forth, come forth, O moon!


          ADAON

And Taliessin, from his singing heart,
And I, the least of music's servitors,
Do most desire to hear Rhiannon's birds,
Before the thrilling wonder of whose song
Armed warriors for battle panoplied
Stand tremulous and still and cannot move
To lift a spear against their friends, the foe.
                        [From the tree-tops comes again a wistful melody, half-gay, half-sad.


          DAGONET

O Voices! Voices! A weary time ago
I stood with Merlin on a somber hill,
And we looked down the dusk on Camelot.
"I am not long for this," he said. And then:
"They are not long for that," and waved a hand
To indicate the far faint sound of laughter
Blown on a breeze from Arthur's banquet hall.
"A Light will come and they will follow it,"
He said. "Gawain will lead them forth, but he
Will fail them, and the fair young Galahad
Shall find the Light. That is the prophecy,"
Said Merlin. "They will desert the Table Round,"
He said, "and Britain's King will be bereft
Of what he prizes most, their fellowship.
The Knights will go to seek the Holy Grail;
The King will lose the very thing to him
The holiest." Merlin then was silent.
At last he turned to me and spoke again.
"Ah, Dagonet," he mused. "Mad Dagonet!
And what will ye do, pray, when they are gone?
A scheme of things so desolate will hold
No place for blazonry of cap and bells.
And what will ye do, Dagonet?" I said
I did not know, and that he might, mayhap,
Advise me on't. I was so grave, he laughed.
Then he was grave. He asked of me: "And what,
Since men are leaning toward a Great Desire,
Would ye most wish for, little Dagonet?"
                        [He pauses—a long pause; then, introspectively—

Within the inner soul of every man
A shadow-voice is crying, softly crying.
It is the voice of something lost from life,
The voice of what the man had hoped to be,
The voice of long-abandoned boyish dreams.
                                              [Again he pauses. He looks up.

I turned to Merlin and I said: "I'd like
To find my boyish dreams again, to see
The man I had so fondly hoped to be
When as a lad I used to sit and plan
A future for myself." "Ho-ho!" laughed Merlin,
And then again "Ho-ho! Ye saw yourself
A knight in armor riding bravely forth
To joust before the King! Ye saw—" He stopped.
His eyes were on this gnarled body, so inept,
Incapable. "Forgive me, Dagonet,"
He said. "Ye asked advice. So be it! So:
Ye see yon rising moon? Well, find the hill
The moon comes over, and behind that hill
Ye'll find your dream."
                                  [The music in the tree-tops dies away.


          TALIESSIN
                                 
                                    O moon!


          ADAON

                                                    O moon!


          DAGONET

                                                                    O moon!
For eight and twenty nights we've sought thy last,
Thy farthest hill! For eight and twenty nights
We've seen thy nightly changing armament
Of eight and twenty different silver shields!
O moon! O moon!


          ADAON

                             Come forth, O summer moon!
                                           [TALIESSIN runs a short distance up the hill. He stops.


          TALIESSIN

     O pale young prince of night,
     My feet are fast for thee!
     My feet are fast
     And my eyes are fast
     To follow thy light,
     And my heart is fast,
     Oh, my heart is fast
     For the long-wished sight
     Of thee!

TALIESSIN continues swiftly up the hill. After he has gone
some twenty paces , there is a crash of music from the top of
the hill, followed by VOICES. TALIESSIN starts to back down
in fear.


          VOICES OF UNSEEN SPIRITS

Sing]     O bard with lute and song,
             The hill is death to thee!
             The hill is death,
             And thy song is death!
             The swords of the strong
             Are the swords of death,
             And thy lute and song
             Will be mute along
             With thee!

DAGONET runs up to TALIESSIN, drawing his sword as he
goes, brandishing it wildly.


          DAGONET

Come forth!
Come forth from out the dark!
Whoever ye may be,
Wherever ye may be,
How many ye may be,
I cry ye forth!
                                                        [A silence.
I cry ye forth in Arthur's name!
I, Sir Dagonet,
Made knight by Arthur's hand,
I cry ye forth!
                                                        [A silence.
Ye do not come.
Ye do not venture out from where ye hide.
Ye are afraid of mighty Dagonet!
        [He laughs, suddenly, wildly. The laughter breaks off, in fear.

Taliessin!
                                                   [He clutches TALIESSIN.
It is I that am afraid.
Fear seizes me,
Seizes me now,
Reaching out like a great hand
From the shadows of these trees,
The shadows that may not be shadows.

After a moment, in which the three men are quite motionless,
the sweet notes of a shepherd's pipe are heard from the hillside.


          DAGONET

What. . .
What now is that?


          ADAON

Someone . . .
Some thing . . .
Approaches
On the hill!

A SHEPHERD LAD comes into view on the upper hillside,
blowing a brave tune on his pipes.


          DAGONET

Who are ye?


          SHEPHERD LAD

Sings]     O sir, I am a shepherd lad,
              But now I have no sheep, sir,
              And I have nothing that I had,
              Nor anything to keep, sir.

              My sheep were grazing down the lea,
              And there was I reclining
              At ease beneath a red yew tree—
              When I saw something shining.

               It was a bird against the sky,
               A bird of silver whiteness!
               It was a shining bird, and I
               Had never seen such brightness!
 
               It was a bird against the sky
               That tore the blue asunder!
               It was a shining bird, and I
               Had never seen such wonder!

               I should have watched my sheep, I know,
               So peaceful in the hollow;
               But when I saw that bright bird go,
               What could I do but follow?


          ADAON

Come ye down, Shepherd Lad.
             [He comes quickly down to ADAON, while DAGONET, with
             drawn sword, starts up the hill, followed by TALIESSIN.

The bird ye followed—


          SHEPHERD LAD

It was so silver-white a bird
I thought it might be flying
From the moon.


          ADAON

Rhiannon's birds are silver-white—


          SHEPHERD LAD

Rhiannon's birds!
                                      [He draws back, with a shudder.


          ADAON

They sing the dead
Into life!


          SHEPHERD LAD

They sing the living
Into the sleep of death!


          ADAON

The sleep of death!


          SHEPHERD LAD

The old men say it,
And they say
The Hounds of Annwn guard the sky.

From far off down the valley a man's voice is heard,
faintly calling.


          THE VOICE FROM THE VALLEY

Taliessin! Taliessin!


          ADAON

Taliessin!
               [TALIESSIN, now some distance up the hillside, stops and turns.
Some one is hailing ye,
From down the valley.

               [TALIESSIN comes down, quickly. DAGONET, with drawn
                sword, disappears along the hillside.


          SHEPHERD LAD

O sir, if ye are Taliessin,
Chief of Arthur's bards,
Men seek ye,
Singing men,
From Arthur's court at Camelot.
I met them back apace.
They said they bore ye news,
Tremendous news,
Anent the King.


          THE BARDS

           Sing  Taliessin! Taliessin! Taliessin!
   off-stage]  Calling through wold and mead and lea
                    Out of an olden need for thee,
                    Searching by sun and stars thy trail!
                    Chief that thou wast to us,
                    Be not now lost to us.
                    Answer our hail!
                    Taliessin!


          TALIESSIN

           Sings]  Bards! Bards!
                       I am near thee!


          THE BARDS

       Sing  Master! Master!
off-stage] We hear thee, hear thee!
                Fast we come and faster, faster.

Music starts in the orchestra—brisk, spirited.

THE BARDS, including harpers and lute-players, a picturesque
body of between sixty and seventy men, some running in.

        Sing] Taliessin! Taliessin! Taliessin!
                 Thick though the trees and hard the way,
                 Quickly thy seasoned bards obey,
                 Sped by thy fiercely fought-for hail!
                 Chief, we have found thee now,
                 Gather we round thee now,
                 Song will prevail!
                 Taliessin!


          TALIESSIN

      Sings] Gramercy, bards!


          THE BARDS

      Sing]  Taliessin!


          TALIESSIN

      Sings]  And now what news?
                 What news of Camelot?


          THE BARDS

      Sing] What news! What news!


          TALIESSIN

      Sings] By lowly mews and lofty tor?


          ANEIRIN

      Sings]  Much news, God wot!
                  King Arthur, brave King Arthur's gone to war!


          THE BARDS

      Sings] In Cornwall, by fair Camlan's shore,
                King Arthur, brave King Arthur's gone to war!


          ANEIRIN

      Sings] Sir Modred, Arthur's bastard son,
                 The spawn of one false hour,
                 Hath cried that Arthur's race is run,
                 That Arthur's day as king is done,
                 That Camelot must now be won
                 By fierce and bloody stour.

                 In galleys seven hundred all
                 Plow Saxons to his help—
                 Sly Cheldric, Elaf, Egbricht tall,
                 Mad Irish led by Gislafal,
                 Full sixty thousand heed the call
                 Of Arthur's bastard whelp.

                 In Arthur's host ride kings amain,
                 Fierce-fisted sons of Thor:
                 Wild Olbricht, Norway's fighting thane,
                 Borindemar, Aschil the Dane,
                 Full eighty thousand in the train
                 Of Britain's emperor.

                 He rides, he rides, that kingly sire
                 Whose fruit of love was hate.
                 In Cornwall, on a funeral pyre,
                 He'll feed his bastard to the fire,
                 The mongrel remnant of desire,
                 The whoreson whelp of fate!


          THE BARDS

      Sing] To war! To war!
               In Cornwall, by fair Camlan's shore,
               King Arthur, brave King Arthur's gone to war!


          TALIESSIN

      Sings] To war! To war!
                O Arthur! O my King, my King!
                 I should have made a song to sing
                 To fare ye forth, my warrior!


          MADOG

      Sings] We sang, O Chief,
                 A rousing song of pennons flaunted,
                 Men undaunted,
                 Knight and bowman,
                 Wight and yeoman,
                 Lord and peer,
                 With a ringing in our singing
                      of each swinging, slinging, stinging
                      sword and spear!


          THE BARDS

      Sing] O Chief,
               He did not hear!
               King Arthur would not, could not hear
               For grief.


          TALIESSIN

      Sings] My King! My King!


          ADAON

      Sings] These mickle moons he hath been sad and wan.


          TALIESSIN

      Sings] He wore no smile when last I knelt before him,
                 Nor bade me sing.


          ADAON

      Sings] Sir Modred had not then, 'twas moons agone,
                 Unloosed his bastard's hate and cried to war him.


          TALIESSIN

      Sings]  My King! My King!


          ADAON

      Sings] 'Twas not the pall    
                 Of Modred's treachery then, my Chief,
                 That held him thrall,
                 That made him sad,
                 That gave him grief.
                 This mood he's had
                 E'er since a certain fateful feast within the kingly banquet hall.


          THE BARDS

The rhythm breaks. They canter . . . walk . . . pull up . . .
They halt now at the roaring stream we crossed.


          MADOG

They dare not trust our footbridge with their horses.


          ADAON

God's life, but this is strange! They do not wear
The helm and mail of war.
                                           [He turns to THE BARDS, angrily.
 
                                          Ye brought us news
That Arthur was at war.


          ANEIRIN

                                       He is at war!


          MADOG

He is at war! He fights his bastard son!


          ANEIRIN

He fights Sir Modred for his life, his throne—


          MADOG

In Cornwall—


          ANEIRIN

                      Ay, 'tis so—


          ADAON

                                         But Cornwall's far!


          ANEIRIN

'Tis many leagues.


          ADAON

                               By Christ! These knights should be
At Arthur's side in Cornwall! Look ye now
Who leads them? Look!


          ANEIRIN

                                       They come afoot.


          ADAON

                                                                      Sir Kay!


          MADOG

They come afoot across the bridge.


          ADAON

                                                           Sir Kay!
None less than Kay! He leads them! Look!


          MADOG

                                                                      Sir Kay!


          ANEIRIN

Sir Kay!


          ADAON

              Sir Kay, King Arthur's seneschal!

To the martial music in the orchestra, enter SIR KAY and
twenty knights. As the music climaxes, KAY draws his sword
dramatically, holding it aloft.


          KAY

       My soul to God,
       My life to my King,
       My honor to myself!




          TALIESSIN

       Sings]   Bright-throated words
                    Wistfully clinging
                    To the trembling wire
                    Of cithern and lute and harp and lyre;
                    Clinging and clinging wistfully
                    Till music releases them, sets them free,
                    And the bright-throated words
                    Are bright-throated birds
                    In the gay air winging
                    Their ecstasy.


          MADOG

       Sings]   A lute is only a lute!


          HEININ

       Sings]   A song is only a song!


          ALL BARDS

       Sing]   Garden of song!
                  Garden of song!
                  We will go singing all
                        life long!

DAGONET now comes into view on the hillside, advancing
cautiously, with drawn sword, from behind some brush. He
sees them below.


          DAGONET

Comrades in Arthur's name, my fellow knights!


          KAY

Dagonet!


          DAGONET

                Sir Kay forgets his courtesy.
I am Sir Dagonet, to knighthood sworn.


          KAY

The King did jest the day he dubbed ye knight.


          DAGONET

Ye lie!                                              
                                                        [He starts down the hill.


          KAY

            Enough!                                            
                                                                       [DAGONET stops.
                          Put up your sword.


          DAGONET

                                                           I say
Ye lie! And ye can run me through for that.


          KAY

I do not fight with cripples or with fools.


          DAGONET

So courteous a knight the seneschal!


          KAY

I come on business of the King. He seeks
To have his fellowship about him now
As once he had.


          DAGONET
 
                          A stirring message, Kay!


          KAY

Sir Kay!


          DAGONET

             The halls will ring as rang they erst!
We'll lift our swords again in knighthood's vow:




          SECOND SECTION

       Sing] Hear Adaon ! Hear Adaon!


          ADAON
      
       Sings] 'Tis the folly of man,
                  The eternal buffoon,
                  To have struggled to span
                  Down the reaches of time
                  The chasms that yawn
                  'Twixt him and the moon.


          FIRST SECTION

       Sing] 'Tis thus that we try—


          SECOND SECTION

       Sing] And thy trying shall fail!


          ADAON

       Sings] With a lute for a sail
                  And for compass a song,
                  Man would venture to fly
                  A course to the moon!


          ANEIRIN

       Sings] We go to Camelot!
                  To Camelot and to our King!
                  In his castle strong
                  King Arthur waits,
                  And his bards are not
                  At his castle gates!


          SECOND SECTION

       Sing] We go!
                To our King, our King!


          FIRST SECTION

       Sing] No, no!
                To follow beauty—


          SECOND SECTION

       Sing] No, no! No, no! The call o' duty—


          FIRST SECTION

       Sing] We go to follow beauty and bright birds
                       upon the wing!


          ANEIRIN

Sings] We'll make a song,
           Not of birds, not of birds,
           But the words that trip on each lyric lip
           They shall sing of thy strong staunch
                 fellowship—


          SECOND SECTION

Sing] Arthur! O my Arthur!


          ANEIRIN

        Hand in hand
        Through the years to be,
        Thus we stand
        Till eternity!


                                    ALL BARDS

          FIRST SECTION                      SECOND SECTION

Sing] Garden of a song!          Sing] Men that are strong!
         Garden of a song!                   Men that are strong!
         We will go singing                   God and our kingdom
              all life long!                             all life long!

[The music stops. There is a pause; DAGONET breaks it.


    
               Arthur! O my Arthur!


          DAGONET

Merlin!
I know that voice.
I know its tone, inflection, every syllable's caress.
'Twas Merlin!
And Merlin is dead!
                                   [DAGONET tries to rise. Suddenly he
                                    throws up his arms with a cry.
Jesu mercy!
Christ Jesu!
                                   [DAGONET falls back, limp, lifeless.


          SHEPHERD LAD

Sir Dagonet! Sir Dagonet!
       
             [There is a pause. The SHEPHERD LAD lowers the body gently
              to the ground. Ouerhead, in the trees, there is a long-drawn wail,
              as of anguish.

The Hounds of Annwn ride the sky!
                                                         [The SHEPHERD LAD runs out in terror.

The stage is now empty, except for the crumpled figure of
DAGONET, lying very lone and very still. In the orchestra
begins a lovely melody, with a feeling in it of expectancy.
The top of the hill begins to grow lighter. The music is a cry
now of gladness. Great shafts of silver light shoot aslant
the trees. Plunging down the hill pell-mell come figures in
diaphanous robes of silver-white. At the same time, run-
ning out from deep pools of purple shadow, come figures in
flowing black. They dance the Dance of the Moonbeams and
Shadows—a mad, merry dance in which the moonbeams
capture and destroy one by one the shadows. At the exact
moment that the dance finishes, and the music stops, the
first rim of the full moon appears between the tree-trunks
at the top of the hill. The silence is broken by the shrill,
clear, penetrating song of birds.

          [DAGONET, who has been lying quite still, raises his head and
           listens. He gets to his feet.


          DAGONET

The Birds—
The Birds of Rhiannon!
                                         [He starts quickly up the hill.
At last—at last—
                         [As he nears the moon, becoming a silhouetted figure against
                          the rim of the moon, alll lights go out.

The bird-song continues in the darkness, being heard now
in the tree-tops at the foot of the hill, then in a group of
trees some distance up the hill—and the birds are gone.
—There is silence.


                               END OF ACT ONE

 





EINIGAN

I saw descending unto earth
The three diverging rays of light.
I cut three rods of mountain ash
And didst upon them there inscribe
That which the three diverging rays of light
Revealed to me.
And people marveled, and they gave a name
To that which I didst there inscribe.
They named it Poetry.


          MERLIN

What was it that thou didst inscribe,
Einigan Gawr?


          EINIGAN

All knowledge!
All knowledge,
In the warm supernal light of beauty.


          MERLIN

Stand forth,
Teirtu of Arvon!
                                              [TEIRTU stands forth.
Thou art the Spirit of Music,
Teirtu of Arvon!


          TEIRTU

Within the three diverging rays of light
Man lives in three distinct and separate worlds:
The world of sense;
The world of thought;
And a higher world where sense and thought are one,
The world of music.


          MERLIN

What gainest man
In this high world, Teirtu of Arvon?


          TEIRTU

All knowledge!
All knowledge,
In the warm supernal light of beauty.


          MERLIN

Stand forth,
O Gwyn ab Nudd!
                                                     [GWYN stands forth.
Thou art the Spirit of Philosophy,
Gwyn ab Nudd!


          GWYN

I am Gwyn, the son of Nudd,
And I was king in Annwn
Until thou madest of me thy servant,
Mind of Man!
My castle was atop that hill
Where I could gaze down either side.
I sat upon a golden throne.
My scepter was the wand of Math,
Cut from the wood that grows beside
The spectral waters.
I sat upon a golden throne
And gazed far off
And saw men stumble blindly in the dark.
I saw men struggle, fight and die.
I touched them with the wand of Math,
                To greet his King! Prepare! Prepare!
Be turned aside from your stout purpose, not
By loyalty, by duty, or by death,
And since ye found the hill that no man finds,
So shall ye see the man that no man sees,
The man ye hoped to be.


          DAGONET

Of silver light? I have not seen the moon


          MERLIN

                                                         Speak it!
Speak your dream! It shall be granted unto ye!


          ARTHUR

But no! Strange shadows mock me. Here I sat,
A moment since, within my banquet hall,
And now a forest of amazing trees
Encircles me. They are not real! Nor ye—
Nor ye—ye are not real! I am again
In Cornwall. Modred rides a soft pace toward me.
My son rides toward me, Modred, Modred.
I smile a welcome, crying out: "My son!"
And Modred strikes! . . . Christ!
                                    [He buries his face in his hands, against the memory.
                                     MERLIN puts an arm over ARTHUR'S shoulder.


          MERLIN

                                Now! . . . The shadow fades,
The apparition is behind ye, gone.
Look up! Your eyes are clearer now. They gaze
Untroubled. They are not sad. They must not be.


          ARTHUR

I feel that I am close to earth. I feel
A majesty I have not felt before.
I do not have remembrance now of sorrow.
I am one with earth, the majesty of earth.


          MERLIN

It is written:
"Our soul is escaped as a bird
Out of the snare of the fowlers.
The snare is broken
And we are escaped."


          ARTHUR

Ah, Merlin, it is good to hear your voice,
To have ye by my side in fellowship.
And Dagonet—Sir Dagonet!


          DAGONET

                                             My King!


          ARTHUR

Now peace is mine. The world is far away.
That hill shuts off the world. I am at peace.


          MERLIN

So must ye be.


          ARTHUR

                          Arise, Sir Dagonet.
Give me your hand; and, Merlin, yours; the hand
Of fellowship. I treasured most of all,
In my proud days, the fellowship that stood
About my throne, that sat about my board.
They brought me happiness; I felt a warmth
Around my heart; and I became, through them,
A better and a kinder King. And now—
For I see with a clearer vision now—
I realize the fellowship of man
Is one of Earth's high purposes.


          MERLIN

                                                     'Tis true.


          ARTHUR

They went away. I'll never see them more—
Gawain, Gaheris, Gareth, Lamorak,
Tristram, Ector, Griflet, Perceval—these
And fair young Galahad, the shining Knight—
And Lionel, and Bors—

            [KNIGHTS, led by PERCEVAL, appear at the top of the hill.
                                   
                                    God's life! The hill!

Down the hill in triumphal procession, to a march being
played by the orchestra, come the KNIGHTS. The music
brings them into formation before ARTHUR. PERCEVAL steps
out, draws his sword.


          PERCEVAL

       My soul to God,
       My life to my King,
       My honor to myself!
                     [PERCEVAL holds his sword aloft.


          ARTHUR

Sir Perceval!
                     [PERCEVAL turns to the KNIGHTS.


          PERCEVAL

                      His Majesty the King!


          ALL KNIGHTS

The King!
                  [In unison they draw their swords, hold them high,
                  then lower and sheathe them.


          ARTHUR

                Now have I here my fellowship
As once I had in Camelot.
                                [He glances down the line of KNIGHTS.

                                         Gawain!
Where is Gawain?


          PERCEVAL

                              Gawain turned back.


          ARTHUR

                                                                Turned back?


          PERCEVAL

The practical Sir Kay persuaded him
'Twas all a mighty jest of Merlin's.


          MERLIN

                                                        So?


          PERCEVAL

A fool's errand.


          MERLIN

                          So?


          ARTHUR

                                 It matters not.
Who else is missing?
 

          PERCEVAL

                                 Galahad.


          ARTHUR

                                                  But no,
Not Galahad! The shining Galahad,
The fair white knight. Not he!


          PERCEVAL

                                                 I was with Bors
In Sarras, the last we saw of Galahad.
There were the three of us. A mighty voice
Spake from a hill. There was the song of birds.
A light shone from the hill. And Galahad,
Ascending in that light, was seen no more.


          MERLIN

So now must I ascend in my own light.
The servants of my tenancy approach.
I must be seen as they envision me.

MERLIN goes quickly up the hill, to a position in front of
the white-thorn bush.

Enter the SPIRITS OF POETRY, MUSIC, and PHILOSOPHY.
EINIGAN carries a crown of gold, surmounted by a golden
owl; TEIRTU has a robe of blue, decorated with gold figures
of the owl surmounting a harp; GWYN bears a golden scepter,
on the end of which is the head of an owl.


          EINIGAN

O Father of Gods—

    
          TEIRTU

O Mind of Man—


          GWYN

O Father of Gods,
O Mind of Man—
 

          EINIGAN

We bring the crown—


          TEIRTU

We bring the robe—


          GWYN

We bring the scepter
For him who is to rule eternally.


          MERLIN

Upon that golden throne there sits a King
Whose reign has been the glory of the world.
No king, of all the kings since Time began,
Has better right to rule eternally.
There is no higher king; there is none else;
In Arthur's image is all majesty.
But in his heart he nourishes a dream,
A secret dream, that he has never spoken.
'Tis now his curious destiny to choose
Between the throne of all Eternity
And that fond dream!


          GWYN

                                    Direct his choice for him,
O Mind of Man!
                                        [ARTHUR rises and draws his sword.


          ARTHUR
                The path of our singing,
                And bright-throated birds in the gay
                     air winging!


          ALL SPIRITS

Sing] And bright-throated words to our lute-strings clinging!


          ARTHUR

Sings] Bright-throated words
           Wistfully clinging
           To the trembling wire
           Of cithern and lute and harp and lyre;
           Clinging and clinging wistfully
           Till music releases them, sets them free,
           And the bright-throated words
           Are bright-throated birds
           In the gay air winging
           Their ecstasy.


          ALL SPIRITS

       Sing] Friendship and song!
                Friendship and song!
                We will go singing all
                Earth-long!


          ARTHUR

Sings] O Mind of Man,
           No light may fling a quest too far
           For thee to span,
           Unto the farthest star!
           No birds may wing a flight too high
           For thee to span,
           No night so dark but thou'lt bring on
           The dawn!

           O Mind of Man,
           We face the dawn
           With song on lip
           In fellowship!


          ALL SPIRITS

Sing] Hand in hand
         Down the years to be,
         Thus we stand
         Through Eternity,
         Ever and forever!
                      [The music stops. DAGONET rises from his throne.


          DAGONET

By virtue of the power vested in me,
By my crown,
By the robe I wear,
By the scepter that I hold,
I dedicate this grove of trees
To the fellowship of man
Down all the years to be!

Now from the tree-tops throughout the entire grove is heard,
in tremendous outcry, the song of birds. At the same instant
the hill becomes a glory of red and green fire.


                             END OF THE PLAY







Percussion and Tympani: B. A. King, George S. Pome-
roy, G. C. Shervey, Jr.

Celesta and Piano: George F. Keil.

Librarian: Karl Fuhrman.


                              Other Bohemians

       In addition to the principals and the chorus of sixty-nine, there are those other loyal Bohemians who are necessarily gathered together at the last moment, the supernumeraries who complete the stage picture. These, to the number of twenty, appear in the second act as King Arthur's knights. There are also seventeen other Bohemians taking part in the Dance of the Moonbeams and Shadows.
       This makes one hundred and twenty-two Bohemians taking part upon the stage. In addition, there are seventy-three in the orchestra; making a total, exclusive of the production staff, of one hundred and ninety-five participants, in this, the Twenty-ninth Grove Play, Birds of Rhiannon.