Tristan and Isolda: Opera in Three Acts

(KURVENAL _boisterously enters through the curtains_.)

Kurvenal. Up, up, ye ladies! Look alert! Straight bestir you! Loiter not,--here is the land!-- To dame Isolda says the servant of Tristan, our hero true:-- Behold our flag is flying! it waveth landwards aloft: in Mark's ancestral castle may our approach be seen. So, dame Isolda, he prays to hasten, for land straight to prepare her, that thither he may bear her.

Isolda. (_who has at first cowered and shuddered on hearing the message, now speaks calmly and with dignity_) My greeting take unto your lord and tell him what I say now: Should he assist to land me and to King Mark would he hand me, unmeet and unseemly were his act, the while my pardon was not won for trespass black and base: So bid him seek my grace.

(KURVENAL _makes a gesture of defiance_.)

Now mark me well, This message take:-- Nought will I yet prepare me, that he to land may bear me; I will not by him be landed, nor unto King Mark be handed ere granting forgiveness and forgetfulness, which 'tis seemly he should seek:-- for all his trespass base I tender him my grace.

Kurvenal. Be assured, I'll bear your words: we'll see what he will say!

(_He retires quickly_.)