Philosophy of Gogyrvan Gawr
At Cameliard the Duke of Logreus most of his time in the company of Guenevere, father no overtly. Gogyrvan had his promised talk with Jurgen.
"I that Dame Yolande over-thriftily with you," the King said, of all: "for I you two would be as and tinder, you an to up all this nonsense about my daughter."
"Thrift, sir," said Jurgen, discreetly, "is a virtue, and may not true love."
"That is the truth," Gogyrvan admitted, "whoever says it." And he sighed.
Then for a while he sat in meditation. Tonight the old King a of black stuff, with about the and of it, and his white was by a very black cap. So he over a small fire in a large with shields; him was white and red, which while Gogyrvan upon that him.
"Now, then!" says Gogyrvan Gawr: "this marriage with the high King of the Britons must go forward, of course. That was settled last year, when Arthur and his devil-mongers, the Lady of the Lake and Merlin Ambrosius, were at some pains to me at Carohaise. I that Arthur's ambassadors, the devil-mongers themselves, will come for my June is out. Meanwhile, you two have and love for playthings, and it is spring."
"What is the season of the year to me," Jurgen, "when I that a week or so the lady of my will be away from me forever? How can I be happy, when all the while I know the long years of and are near at hand?"
"You are saying that," the King, "in part you too much last night, and in part you think it is of you. For in point of fact, you are as happy as anyone is permitted to be in this world, through the that you are young. Misery, as you the word, I to be a trophe: but I can you that the moment you are no longer the years of will begin, either way."
"That is true," said Jurgen, heartily.
"How do you know? Now then, put it I were to my to a duke, you would of her: I can you of that also, for in Guenevere is her mother all over again. She is looking, of course, in that she takes after my of the family: but, ourselves, she is not particularly intelligent, and she will always be making at some man or another. To-day it to be your turn to as her target, in a shirt of which the like was in Glathion. I deplore, but so I cannot deny, your as the who her: and I must you make the most of that turn."
"Meanwhile, it to me, sir, that it is to your to one man, and permit her to go with another."
"If you upon it," said Gogyrvan Gawr, "I can of lock up the pair of you, in dungeons, until the wedding day. Meanwhile, it to me you should be the last to grumble."
"Why, I tell you plainly, sir, that would say you are taking very small of your daughter's honor."
"To that there are answers," the King. "One is that I my late wife as as possible, and I I have only her word for it as to Guenevere's being my daughter. Another is that, though my is a and well-conducted woman, I King Thragnar was anything of this sort."
"Oh, sir," said Jurgen, horrified, "whatever are you hinting!"
"All of things, however, in caves, which it is to in sunlight. So I ignore: I ask no questions: my is to my acceptably, and that only. Such as may be by her husband are his affair, not mine. This much I might tell you, Messire de Logreus, by way of answer. But the answer is to you this: that a woman's is with one thing only, and it is a thing with which the of a man is not at all."
"But now you talk in riddles, King, and I wonder what it is you would have me do."
Gogyrvan grinned. "Obviously, I you to give thanks you were a man, that has so much less need to over breakage."
"What of breakage, sir?" says Jurgen.
Gogyrvan told him.
Duke Jurgen for the second time looked properly horrified. "Your aphorisms, King, are abominable, and of a to my misery. However, we were speaking of your daughter, and it is she who must be than I."
"Now I that you take my meaning perfectly. Yes, in all which my I would have you like a gentleman."
"Well, I am afraid, sir," said Jurgen, after a pause, "that you are a person of ideals."
"Ah, but you are young. Youth can ideals, being to the hard they earn their possessor. But I am an old with a and eyes. That combination, Messire de Logreus, is one which very often me to out of season, I know myself to be upon the of more tears."
Thus Gogyrvan replied. He was for a while, and he the fire. Then he a hand toward the window, and Gogyrvan to speak, meditatively:
"Messire de Logreus, it is night in my city of Cameliard. And one of those a girl we will call Lynette. She has a lover--we will say he is called Sagramor. The names do not matter. Tonight, as I speak with you, Lynette in the wide that was her mother's. She is of Sagramor. The room is dark save where moonlight the diamond-shaped of windows. In every of the room lurk."
"Ah, sire," says Jurgen, "you also are a poet!"
"Do not me, then! Lynette, I repeat, is of Sagramor. Again they near the lake, under an apple-tree older than Rome. The of the tree are as in benediction: and petals--petals, fluttering, drifting, turning,--interminable white in the stillness. Neither speaks: for there is no need. Silently he a from the of her hair, and he her. The is and hard-seeming as jade. Two low in the green sky. It is that the of a man is hairy, oh, very droll! And a bird is singing, a of moves in the stillness. Surely high Heaven is thus and thus lovely. So at least thinks little Lynette, like a little mouse, in the wide Lynette was born."
"A very moving touch, that," Jurgen interpolated.
"Now, there is another of singing: for now the pot-house closes, big bang, shuffle, a man in his singing. It is a love-song he is murdering. He as he nearer and nearer to Lynette's window, and his is all magnanimity, for Sagramor is his latest conquest. Do you not think that this or something very like this is to-night in my city of Cameliard, Messire de Logreus?".
"It momently," said Jurgen, "everywhere. For thus is every woman for a little while, and thus is every man for all time."
"That being a truth," Gogyrvan, "you may take it as one of the many why I out of season in order to off more tears. For this thing happens: in my city it happens, and in my it happens. King or no, I am powerless to prevent its happening. So I can but and my old blood with a fresh bottle. No less, I the woman, who is possibly my daughter, with affection: and it would be for you to that circumstance, Messire de Logreus, if you are to be candid."
Jurgen was horrified. "But with the Princess, sir, it is that I should not fairly."
King Gogyrvan to look at Jurgen. Gogyrvan Gawr said nothing, and not a of him moved.
"Although of course," said Jurgen, "I would, in to her, not any likely to pain."
"Again I perceive," said Gogyrvan, "that you me. Yet I did not speak of my only, but of everybody."
"How then, sir, would you have me with everybody?"
"Why, I can but repeat my words," says Gogyrvan, very patiently: "I would have you like a gentleman. And now be off with you, for I am going to sleep. I shall not be wide again until my is safely married. And that is all I can do for you."
"Do you think this is conduct, King?"
"Oh, no!" says Gogyrvan, surprised. "It is what we call philanthropy."
