-72_Eric-Act Five.htm

Eric, Gunthar, Swegn, Aslaug, Hertha.

ERIC

Not by love only, but by force and love. ‘

This man must lower his fierceness to the fierce,

He must be beggared of the thing left, his pride

And know himself for clay. He could not honour¹

This unfamiliar movement of my soul

But would contemn and think my seated strength

Had changed to trembling. Sound² the audience-gong,³

Herald. The master of my stars is he

Who owns no master. Odin, what is this play,

Thou playest with thy world, of fall and rise,,

Of death, birth, greatness, ruin? The time may come

When Eric shall not be remembered! Yes,

But there’s a script, there are archives that endure.

Before a throne in some superior world

Bards with undying lips and eyes still young

After the ages sing of all the past

And the Immortal’s Children hear. Somewhere

In this gigantic world of which one grain of dust

Is all our field, Eternal Memory keeps

Our great things and our trivial equally

To whom the peasant’s moans above his dead

Are tragic as a prince’s fall. Some say

Atomic Chance has put Eric here, Swegn there,

Aslaug between. But I have seen myself,

O you revealing gods, and know though veiled

The immortality that thinks in me,

That plans and reasons.⁴ Masters of Norway, hail!

For all are masters here, not I alone

¹Alternative for two lines:

For he will not honour mildness nor revere

²Strike      ³bell,      ⁴That loves, that labours.

Page – 546

Who am my country’s brain of unity,

Your oneness. Swegn’s at last in Norway’s hands

Who shook our fates. And what shall Norway do with Swegn,

One of her mightiest ?

GUNTHAR

If his might submits,
Then, Eric, let him live. We cannot brook
These disorders always.

ERIC

Norway cannot brook.
Therefore he must submit. Bring him within.
We’ll see if this strong iron can be bent,
This crudeness bear the fire. Swegn Olafson,
Hast thou considered yet this state ? Hast thou
Submitted to thy gods or must we, Swegn,
Consider now thy sentence ?

SWEGN

I have seen

My dire misfortune. I have seen myself
And know that I am greater. Do thy will
Since what the son of Yarislaf commands,
The son of Olaf bears!

ERIC

Thou wilt not yield?

SWEGN

My father taught me not the word.

ERIC

Shall I?
Thou hast forgotten, Swegn, thy desperate words.
Or were they meant only for the free snows,
And here retracted ?

Page – 547

SWEGN

Son of Yarislaf, they stand.
I claim the cross I would have nailed thee on,
I claim the flayer’s knife.

ERIC

These for thyself.

And for thy wife and sister, Swegn ?

SWEGN

Alas!

ERIC

I think thy father taught thee not the word,

But I have taught thee. Since thou lovest yet, —

No man who says that he will stand alone,

Swegn, can afford to love, — thou then art mine

Inevitably. Thou vauntest thy blood,

Thy strength ? Thou art much stronger, so thou say’st,

Than thy misfortunes. Art thou stronger, Swegn,

Than theirs ? Can all thy haughty pride of race

Or thy heart’s mightiness undo my will

In whose strong hands thou liest? Swegn Olafson,

The gods are mightier than thy race and blood,

The gods are mightier than thy arrogant heart.

They will not have one violent man oppose

His egoism, his pride and his desire

Against a country’s fate. Thou hast no strength,

For thou and these are only Eric’s slaves

Who have been his stubborn hinderers. Therefore Fate,

Norway, whose favourite and brother I have grown,

Turned wroth and brought¹ you all into my grasp.

I will that you should live and yield. These yield,

But thou withstandest wisdom. Fate and love,

Allied against thee, I offer, Swegn, yield to me,

Stand by my side and share thy father’s throne.

¹dragged

Page – 548

SWEGN (after a silence)

Yes, thou art fierce and subtle! Let them pronounce
My duty’s preferences, if not my heart’s,
To them or Right.

ERIC

O narrow obstinate heart!
Had this been but thy country or a cause
Men worship, then it would indeed have been¹
A noble blindness, but thou serv’st thy pride.
Wilt thou abide by their pronouncement, Swegn?
Aslaug and Hertha, see your brother and lord,
This mighty captive, royal once, now fallen
And helpless in my hands. I wish to spare
His mightiness, his race, his royal heart;

But he prefers the cross instead, prefers
Your shame — thy brother, Aslaug, — Hertha, he
Thy spouse consents to utmost shame for both,
If from the ages he can buy this word,
"Swegn still was stubborn." That to him is all.
He who forgot to value Norway’s will,
Forgets to value now your pride, your love.
This was not royal nor like Olaf’s son!
Come, will you speak to him, will you persuade ?
Walk there aside with him and aim at his heart.
Hertha, my subject, Aslaug, thou my thrall,
Save, if he will, this life. Remember, Swegn,
If Olaf’s children must be shame-crowned slaves,
‘Tis thou that makest them so.

SWEGN

‘Tis thus we meet, —
Were not the snows of Norway preferable,
Daughter of Olaf?

ASLAUG

They were high, but cold.

¹Men worship, thine would then indeed have been

Page – 549

HERTHA

Wilt thou not speak to Hertha, Swegn, my lord?

SWEGN

Hertha, alas, thy crooked scheming brain
That brought us here.

HERTHA

The gods use instruments,
Not ask their consent. O Swegn, accept the gods
And their decision.

ASLAUG

Must we live always cold?
O brother, cast the snows out of thy heart.
Let there be summer.

HERTHA

Yield, husband, to the sun.
There is no shame in yielding to the gods.

ASLAUG

Not to a god, although his room be earth
And his body mortal.

SWEGN

There was an Aslaug once
Whose speech had other grandeurs. Can it not find¹
The argument that can excuse thy fall,
O not to me, but to that worshipped self
Thou wast, my sister?

ASLAUG

What argument?

¹Alternative to the words starting with "Can it not find…."

Let me hear

What arguments thou hast to justify

A thing our father’s spirit cries upon.

After this, Aslaug’s speech begins with "I seek no argument…." See next page:

Page – 550

I seek no argument except my heart
Nor need excuse for what I glory in.
Brother, were we not always one ? ‘Tis strange
That I must reason with thee.

SWEGN

O, thou knewest.
Therefore I fell, therefore, my strength is gone
And where a god’s magnificence lived once,
Here, here, ’tis empty. O inconstant heart, .
Thou wast my Fate, my courage, and at last
Thou hast gone over to my enemy,
Taking my Fate, my courage. I will hear
No words from such. Thou wouldst betray what’s left,
Until not even Swegn is left to Swegn,
But only a coward’s shadow.

HERTHA

Hear me, Swegn.

SWEGN

Ah, Hertha, what hast thou to say to me?

HERTHA

Save me, my lord, from my own punishment,
Forgetting my deserts.

SWEGN

Alas! thy love,
O my beloved, has been great to me,
Though great, was never wise! but must it ask
So huge a recompense ?

ASLAUG

Thou hadst myself. Thou askest my honour.
Will this persuade thee ? I have nothing else.

Page – 551

SWEGN

O thou hast overcome my strength at last.

Thou only and so only couldst prevail.

King, thou hast conquered. Not to thee I yield,

But those I loved are thy allies. From these

Recall the wrath, on me instead pronounce

What doom thou wilt — though yielding is doom enough

For Swegn of Norway.

ERIC

Abjure rebellion then,
Receive my mercy.¹

SWEGN

O fortune! It will out.²
The spirit of Olaf will no more sit still
Within me. O though thou slaughter these with pains

I will not yield. Take, take thy mercy back. 

ERIC

I take it back. What wouldst thou in its stead ?

SWEGN

Do what thou wilt with these and me. I have done!

ERIC

Thou cast’st thy die, thou weak and violent man! I will cast mine
And conquer.

SWEGN

I have endured the worst.

ERIC

Not so.
Thou thinkest I will help thee to thy death,
Allowing the blind grave to seal thy eyes

¹Receive my boons.      ² I have said; it is received.

Page – 552

To all that I shall do to thine. Learn, Swegn,
I am more cruel! Thou shalt live and see
On them my vengeance. Aslaug, go and return
Robed as thou wast upon the night thou knowest
Wearing thy dagger, wearing too thy ring.

SWEGN

What wilt thou do with her? God! what wilt thou do?
O wherefore have I seen and taken back love
Into a heart that had shut….¹
But death and greatness ?

ERIC

I will inflict on them
What thou canst not endure to gaze upon
Or if thou canst then with that hardness live.
For die thou shalt not. I have ways for that.
Thou thought’s! to take thy refuge in a grave
And let these bear thy punishment for thee,
Thy heart being spared. It was no valiant thought,
No worthy escape for Swegn. Aslaug and Hertha,
My thralls, remove your outer robes.

SWEGN

What must I see ?

ERIC

As dancing-girls the women came to me,
As dancing-girls I keep them. Thou shalt see
Aslaug of Norway at her trade — to dance
Before me and my courtiers. That begins,
There’s more behind, unless thou change thy mood.

SWEGN

Thou knowest how to torture.

¹Illegible

Page – 553

ERIC

And to break.

Aslaug re-enters.
Thou seest, Swegn. Shall I command the dance ?
Shall this be the result of Olaf’s house ?

SWEGN

Daughter of Olaf, wilt thou then obey ?

ASLAUG

Yes, since thou lov’st me not, my brother Swegn,
Whom else should I obey, save him I love ?
But hadst thou loved me still, I should not need.

ERIC

Dance.

SWEGN  

Stay, Aslaug. Since thou bad’st me love
Thee, not my glory, as indeed I must
To save the house of Olaf from this shame, —
Whose treacherous weakness works for him and thee.

ERIC

Pause not again — for pause is fatal now.

SWEGN

King, I have yielded, I accept thy boons.
Heir of a starveling Earl, I bow my head
Even to thy mercies. I am Olaf’s son,
I shall be faithful to my own disgrace.¹

ERIC

O fear not. King. I can be great again.
Without conditions hast thou yielded.

¹Yet yield — that name I remember, speak this word.

Page – 554

SWEGN

No.
Let these be spared all shame — for that I yield
My honour has a price — and it is small.

ERIC

That’s given without terms binding.

SWEGN

One prayer:

Give me a dungeon deep enough, O King,
To hide my face from all these eyes.

ERIC

Swear then,
Whatever prison I assign thee, be it wide
Or narrow, to observe its state, its bounds
And do even there my will.

SWEGN (with a gesture)

That too is sworn!
Let Thor and Odin witness to my oath.

ERIC

Four prisons I assign to Olaf’s son.
Thy palace first in Trondhjem, Olaf’s roof,
Thy house in Nara, Eric’s court — thy country,
To whom thou yieldest, Norway — and at last
My army’s head when I invade the world.

SWEGN (amazed and doubtful)

Thou hast surprised me, Eric, with an oath
And circumvented.

ERIC

Hertha, to thy lord
Return unharassed — thou seest thou wast safe.

Page – 555

Trondhjem’s and Olaf’s treasures with thee take
The second in the land beneath our throne.

SWEGN

Eric, enough! Have I not yielded ? Here
Let thy boons rest.’

ERIC

‘Tis truth. For my next boon

Is to myself. Look not upon this hand
I clasp in mine, although the fairest hand
That God has made. Observe instead
This ring and recognise it.

SWEGN

It’s Freya’s ring, worn
On Aslaug’s hand. And she who once wears it
Thenceforth sits on Norway’s throne.

ERIC

Possess thy father’s chair
Intended for thee always from the first.
Nor be amazed that in these dancing-robes
I seat her here — for they increase its beauty
More than imperial purple. Nor think, Swegn,
Thy sister shamed or false who came to me
,…¹ spilling my blood and hers,
A violent and mighty purpose — such
As only noble hearts conceive; and only
She yielded to that noble heart at last
Because ’twas Odin’s purpose.

SWEGN

So they came.
Aslaug, thou sought’st my throne, but findst thine own.
I grudge it not to thee — for thy great heart

¹Illegible

Page – 556

Deserves it. Eric, thou hast won at last
Norway.

ERIC

I could not shame thy sister, Swegn,
Save by my wife’s disgrace and this was none
But only a deceit to prove thy heart
And thou seest that thou couldst not have rebelled
Except by treason against Olaf’s seed
That must again rule Norway.

SWEGN

Eric, for thy boons
They hurt not now — take what return thou wilt;

For I am thine, thou hast found out the way
To save from me thy future. It has….¹
With my heart’s strings.

ERIC

Swegn, excuse and love
Thy comrade Hardicnut, for he intended
A kind betrayal.

SWEGN

This is nothing, King.
His act my heart had come to understand
And yet has pardoned.

ERIC

Forgive, Swegn,
Sigurd, thy foe, as I have pardoned first
My father’s slaughterer. This is thy….²

SWEGN

‘Tis pardoned, not forgiven. Let him not come
Too often in my sight.

¹Illegible      ²Illegible

Page – 557

ERIC

Swegn, I too have boons

To ask of thee.

SWEGN

Let them be difficult then,
If thou wouldst have me grant them.

ERIC

The gods have won.
Let this embrace engulf our ended strife,
Brother of Aslaug.

SWEGN

Husband of my sister,
Thou assum’st our blood and it ennobles thee
To the height of thy great victories — this thy last
And greatest. Thou hast dealt with me as a King,
Then as a brother. Thou adorn’st thy throne.

ERIC

Rest, brother, from thy hardships and thy wars
Until I need thy sword that matched with mine
To smite my foemen.

Aslaug, what thinkest thou?
If thou art satisfied, then all well, nobly done.

ASLAUG

Thou hast the tyrant in thy nature still

And so I love thee best. What canst thou do but well ?

For in thy every act and word I see

The gods compel thee.

ERIC

Or thou hast changed me with thy starry eyes,
Daughter of Olaf, and….¹ a man

¹Illegible

Page – 558

Where was but height and iron, all my roots

Of action, mercy, greatness, enterprise

Sit now transplanted in thy breast, O charm,

O noble marvel! From thy bosom my strength

Comes out to me.

Thou sangst, Aslaug, once of the golden hoop,

Mightier and swifter than the warrior’s sword.

Dost thou remember what thou cam’st to do,

Aslaug, from Gothberg?

The gods have spoken since and shown their hand.

They shut our eyes and drive us, but at last

Our souls remember when the act is done.

ASLAUG

That it was fated. Now for us, O beloved,

The world begins again, who since the stars were formed

Playing the game of games by Odin’s will

Have met and parted, parted, met again

For ever.

Curtain

Page – 559