KING PHARAMOND
I was King Pharamond, and love overcame me.
LOVE
Pharamond, thou say"st it.--I am Love and thy master.
KING PHARAMOND
Sooth didst thou say when thou call"dst thyself Death.
LOVE
Though thou diest, yet thy love and thy deeds shall I quicken.
KING PHARAMOND
Be thou G.o.d, be thou Death, yet I love thee and dread not.
LOVE
Pharamond, while thou livedst what thing wert thou loving?
KING PHARAMOND
A dream and a lie--and my death--and I love it.
LOVE
Pharamond, do my bidding, as thy wont was aforetime.
KING PHARAMOND
What wilt thou have of me, for I wend away swiftly?
LOVE
Open thine eyes, and behold where thou liest!
KING PHARAMOND
It is little--the old dream, the old lie is about me.
LOVE
Why faintest thou, Pharamond? is love then unworthy?
KING PHARAMOND
Then hath G.o.d made no world now, nor shall make hereafter.
LOVE
Wouldst thou live if thou mightst in this fair world, O Pharamond?
KING PHARAMOND
Yea, if she and truth were; nay, if she and truth were not.
LOVE
O long shalt thou live: thou art here in the body, Where nought but thy spirit I brought in days bygone.
Ah, thou hearkenest!--and where then of old hast thou heard it?
[_Music outside, far off_.
KING PHARAMOND
O mock me not, Death; or, Life, hold me no longer!
For that sweet strain I hear that I heard once a-dreaming: Is it death coming nigher, or life come back that brings it?
Or rather my dream come again as aforetime?
LOVE
Look up, O Pharamond! canst thou see aught about thee?
KING PHARAMOND
Yea, surely: all things as aforetime I saw them: The mist fading out with the first of the sunlight, And the mountains a-changing as oft in my dreaming, And the thornbrake anigh blossomed thick with the May-tide.
[_Music again._ O my heart!--I am hearkening thee whereso thou wanderest!