Locrine, Locrine!

LOCRINE.

Thou wouldst not: do not mock me then, Saying out of evil heart, in evil jest, Thy trust is dead to meward.

ESTRILD.

King of men, Wouldst thou, being only of all men lordliest, Be lord of women's thoughts and loving fears?

Nay, wert thou less than lord of worlds and years, Of stars and suns and seasons, couldst thou dream To take such empire on thee?

LOCRINE.

Nay, not I - No more than she there playing beside the stream To slip within a stormier stream and die.

ESTRILD.

She runs too near the brink. Sabrina!

LOCRINE.

See, Her hands are lily-laden: let them be A flower-sweet symbol for us.

Enter SABRINA.

SABRINA.

Sire! O sire, See what fresh flowers--you knew not these before - The spring has brought, to serve my heart's desire, Forth of the river's barren bed! no more Will I rebuke these banks for sterile sloth When spring restores the woodlands. By my troth, I hoped not, when you came again, to bring So large a tribute worth so full a smile.

LOCRINE.

Child! how should I to thee pay tribute?

ESTRILD.

King, Thou hast not kissed her.

LOCRINE.

Dare my lips defile Heaven? O my love, in sight of her and thee I marvel how the sun should look on me And spare to turn his beams to fire.

ESTRILD.

The child Hears, and is troubled.

SABRINA.

Did I wrong, to say 'Sire?' but you bade me say so. He is mild, And will not chide me. Father!

ESTRILD.

Hear'st thou?

LOCRINE.

Yea - I hear. I would the world beyond our sight Were dead as worlds forgotten.

ESTRILD.

Wouldst thou fright Her?

LOCRINE.

Hath all sense forsaken me? Sabrina, Thou dost not fear me?

SABRINA.

No. But when your eyes Wax red and dark, with flaughts of fire between, I fear them--or they fright me.

LOCRINE.

Wert thou wise, They would not. Never have I looked on thee So.

SABRINA.

Nay--I fear not what might fall on me.

Here laughs my father--here my mother smiles - Here smiles and laughs the water--what should I Fear?

LOCRINE.

Nought more fearful than the water's wiles - Which whoso fears not ere he fear shall die.

SABRINA.

Die? and is death no less an ill than dread?

I had liefer die than be nor quick nor dead.

I think there is no death but fear of death.

LOCRINE.

Of death or life or anything but love What knowest thou?

SABRINA.

Less than these, my mother saith - Less than the flowers that seeing all heaven above Fade and wax h.o.a.r or darken, lose their trust And leave their joy and let their glories rust And die for fear ere winter wound them: we Live no less glad of snowtime than of spring: It cannot change my father's face for me Nor turn from mine away my mother's. King They call thee: hath thy kingship made thee less In height of heart than we are?

LOCRINE.

No, and yes.

Here sits my heart at height of hers and thine, Laughing for love: here not the quiring birds Sing higher than sings my spirit: I am here Locrine, Whom no sound vexes here of swords or words, No cloud of thought or thunder: were my life Crowned but as lord and sire of child and wife, Throned but as prince of woodland, bank and bower, My joys were then imperial, and my state Firm as a star, that now is as a flower.