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Act 1 Scene 3  MIDI FILE [113 KB, 18' 52"]
One end of the lists at Ashby. Second day of the tournament. High seats are prepared for PRINCE JOHN and for ROWENA, who has been chosen Queen of Love and Beauty on the first day. CEDRIC is in his place in a gallery, where are other Norman knights and ladies, and few Saxons of wealth and rank. In the crowd are the FRIAR and LOCKSLEY. SOPRANOS: Will there be no more fighting? TENORS: They are too strong, the challengers. BASSES: All have gone down before them! SOPRANOS: Who comes here? BASSES: The Black Knight! TENORS: The Black Knight! ALL: The Black Knight! BASSES: He won the prize of yesterday! ALL: Hail to the Black Knight!
Hail to the great unknown! Hail to the sable warrior! Hail to the Black Knight! Enter the KING disguised as the BLACK KNIGHT. He is on foot, walking down the lists, as if to go. FRIAR: Whither away, Sir Sluggard? Hola! Get thee to horse and strike the Templar's shield! Don't steal so coward-like away. Hola! Hola! I say, Sir Sluggard. KING: What bull-frog croaks so loud? FRIAR: Bull-frog, quotha! You'd find me a stout ox, if you would throw me. Hast had too much of fighting? KING: Enough to satisfy a peaceful friar. CROWD: (laughing) Ha, ha, ha, ha! FRIAR: Thou knight of courtesy, Thy dam will warrant thee A very peaceful knight, CROWD: Ha, ha, ha, ha! FRIAR: A very peaceful knight. KING: I am a man of peace, tis true; But if thou anger me, I'll come And fright thee in thy woodland home. I know thee, hermit, And if I come to thee, thou need'st not fear But I will baste, will baste thy fat sides well! ALL: Ha, ha, ha, ha! the knight has spoken well: The knight has spoken well, has spoken well Ha, ha, ha, ha! To him, friar, book and bell! FRIAR: And by St. Dunstan, if thou come
I'll send thy long legs limping home. Come thou my way, and heaven give light, And I will fight thee day and night; With any weapon I'll not fail, From Gideon's sword to Jael's tenpenny nail. CROWD: Ha, ha, ha, ha! KING: Well said, old hart of grease, and fare thee well, Till I ask lodging of thee. FRIAR: Aye, lodging shalt thou have, and hermit's fare; I love thee though I'll beat thee. KING: Farewell, most warlike friar! FRIAR: Farewell, most peaceful knight! CROWD: Ha, ha, ha, ha! Exit the KING. A flourish of trumpets. Enter down the lists PRINCE JOHN, DE BRACY, and gay companions; also ROWENA, as Queen of Beauty, with youths and maidens.
CROWD: Plantagenesta! Hail the lords of land and sea, England and fair Normandy! Plantagenesta! WOMEN: Fair and lovely is the may Blushing 'neath the kiss of day; Lovelier, fairer blooms the rose Dreaming in the garden close; Fairest, loveliest is the bloom Of the golden-gloried broom. MEN: Set the rose above the may; Set the broom above the rose; Where the golden beauty glows, Glorious as the pomp of day, High above the rose be set Golden broom, Plantagenet! Plantagenesta! Hail to the golden broom! Hail! ENSEMBLE.
ALL: Lords o' the land, and Kings o' the sounding sea,
Princes of England and of Normandy! Plantagenesta Hail to the golden broom! Hail the golden broom! Hail the golden broom! Hail! ISAAC is pushing forward in the crowd. With him is REBECCA.
JOHN: Isaac, my Jew, my purse of gold, Hail, King of Brokers! (ISAAC bends low.) Ah! what hast thou there? A maid More priceless than thy gold! Shall she be crushed in the crowd? (To CEDRIC and his party in the gallery.) Room there, ye Saxon hinds! Room for my King of Brokers and his child! CEDRIC: (starting to his feet) If he come up, By Sigurd's sword, I'll fling him down again! DE BRACY: (drawing the Prince aside.) My liege! my liege! The man is Thane of Rotherwood, Held high among the Saxons, And guardian of the great heiress, The fair Rowena. I do entreat, my liege, Press not the Jew upon them. JOHN: The Rose of Sharon, she shall choose the place Where she may bloom most fair. The Rose of Sharon! REBECCA: Most gracious Prince, Nearest the earth best fits our hapless race. JOHN: But fits not thee. Such beauty may claim room amid the best. The sweetest rose climbs high. REBECCA: But Judah's rose is of the lowly vale; She groweth best where humble flowers bloom By lonely waters. I entreat our Prince To leave us lowly here. Enter a Messenger, booted and splashed with quick travel. He kneels and presents a letter to PRINCE JOHN. JOHN: 'Tis from our Royal brother, Louis of France.
"Look to thyself! The devil has broken loose!" My brother has escaped! Heaven grant he be not yet on English ground! That sable knight who fought so well i' the melee? My mind misgave me then. It cannot be! I will not think it. On with the sport, I say! You Saxon sluggards here, You're proud when seated at the show, But by the headlong swine of Galilee You're slow to show us sport! Will no one meet our Norman challengers? CEDRIC starts in his place, but his people entreat him, and PRINCE JOHN, with a mocking salutation, passes on and ascends to the seats prepared for him and his suite. HERALDS: (four basses)
Love of ladies!
Death of champions! On, gallant knights! Bright eyes approve your deeds. ENSEMBLE.
JOHN: (from the gallery) Heralds, sound the challenge!
(Trumpets sound a challenge) Again the challenge!
Enter the lists, IVANHOE on horseback, in complete steel, with visard down; on his shield an uprooted oak-sapling, with the motto, "Il Desdichado." He salutes the PRINCE by lowering the point of his spear.
WOMEN: What means his motto? MEN: The disinherited! ALL: The disinherited The disinherited knight! WOMEN: Alas, poor boy! Strike Ralph
de Vipont's shield; He is the weakest of the challengers. De Vipont is the man for thee. FRIAR: By heaven,
He has struck the shield of the Templar! Well done, bold boy! Exit IVANHOE up the lists. LOCKSLEY: And see, the mighty Templar Comes from his tent in armour, A splendid man-at-arms. A man of men! WOMEN: Now, heaven guard thee boy! Exit BRIAN up the lists. A trumpet sounds. CROWD: The combat! The combat! They back their horses: And now, like thunderbolts of war, Maddening they dash together! FRIAR: O great St. Dunstan!
CROWD: Neither is down!
Again! again! The trumpet sounds again. MEN: Il Desdichado!
ENSEMBLE.
Enter down the lists IVANHOE and BRIAN on foot, fighting. PRINCE, who has risen in his place, throws down his baton. JOHN:
Stop the combat!
A trumpet sounds, and Heralds part the combatants. Since, by mishap, the gallant Bois Guilbert Was first unhorsed, I hereby name this nameless knight The victor in our list. CROWD: Il Desdichado! Il Desdichado! JOHN: And now, Sir Conqueror, Do thou thy knightly duty! 'Tis thine to kneel before the fairest fair, Whom yesterday we crowned our pageant's Queen Our Queen of Love and Beauty: And from her pride of place, thy Queen and ours Shall crown thee with this crown. The crown is presented to ROWENA. CROWD: Rowena! Rowena! Our Saxon princess! Hail! JOHN: Off with his helmet, Heralds!
Bareheaded must he take the crown! In spite of protest, the herald lifts the helmet from his head.
IVANHOE falls fainting.
Page created 3 October 2003 |
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