by Jean Cocteau
The lighting will not change throughout the drama, except for Merlin’s magic departures and, in Act Three, for the return of Life.
* * *
The auditorium must be decorated with a stag’s horns and pennants, and the proscenium frame be surrounded with a genealogical tree that takes root in front of the prompter’s box, with its plaster foliage covering Harlequin’s cloak and the balcony exits to right and left.
My settings are the walls, different for each act. The doors are fashioned like stonework and the wall, when it slides open, exposes the relief and the depth.
INCIDENTAL MUSIC
Galahad’s trumpets and triumphal march (entry in Act One): a) Trumpet Voluntary. Purcell. Columbia [of England] L. 1986.
This composition, formerly thought to be Purcell’s, is now generally believed to be the work of Jeremiah Clarke; it can be found on Kapp long-playing record no. 9017. — Ed.
Launcelot’s chess game (Act Two): Hornpipe by Purcell. His Master’s Voice recording C.1656 (at the end of a Mozart record.)
This is the Hornpipe #2, in C Major, from Purcell’s The Married Beau; no recording of it is available at the present time. — Ed.
Death of the Queen (Act Three): Solemn Melody. Purcell. Columbia L.1986. [Note: This was the reverse side of the Trumpet Voluntary on Columbia L.1986; it is actually by Davies, and can presently be obtained on London Stereo Recording no. CS 6102. - Ed.]
Preface and Notes translated by Albert Bermel
* * *
* When the play was first performed (October 14 at the Théâtre de l’Oeuvre).
*In French Cocteau plays on the idea of three successively higher cards being slammed down on top of one another, the last and highest taking the trick — Translator.
CHARACTERS
ARTHUR, The King
MERLIN, The Magician
THE FALSE GAWAIN (Ginifer, a demon)
BLANDINE, The King’s Daughter
GUINEVERE, The Queen
SEGRAMOR, The King’s Son
LAUNCELOT, A Knight
GALAHAD, A Knight
THE FALSE GUINEVERE (Ginifer again)
VOICES OF ELVES
THE FALSE GALAHAD (Ginifer yet again)
GAWAIN, A Knight
This translation was first performed on the British Broadcasting Corporation’s Third Programme on May 22, 1951.
TRANSLATOR’S NOTE
In his impersonations of Gawain, Guinevere and Launcelot, the young demon Ginifer gives himself away from time to time by slipping back into pronouncing words in an ‘un-courtly’ accent.
This presents the translator with a difficult problem. This translation was made for the British Broadcasting Corporation: under the circumstances, cockney seemed the appropriate uncourtly accent, but in other English-speaking communities, in the United States, for example, something analogous but different should be used in peformance. What particular linguistic error of accent or syntax is appropriate must be left to the director’s choice.
When she gets drunk in Act II, the actress who is playing the False Guinevere should let her accent deteriorate steadily as the scene proceeds until by the end all trace of ‘courtly’ speech has vanished.
W.H.A.
ACT ONE
The Great Hall of the Round Table in the Castle of King Arthur at Camelot. It is Whitsunday, Merlin is on stage.
ARTHUR, offstage. Where can the dear boy have got to? Gawain! Gawain!
Arthur enters.
Gawain! Are you there? Gawain! Ga - wain!
MERLIN. IS Your Majesty looking for his nephew?
ARTHUR. Do you know where he is?
MERLIN. I’ve no idea, I’m afraid.
ARTHUR. He must be outside somewhere. I’m going to look for him. If he should come in without my seeing him, tell him I’ve been hunting for him everywhere.
MERLIN. I will, indeed.
ARTHUR. The little devil is as slippery as an eel. I can never learn how to catch him.
Exit Arthur left. He can be heard calling.
Gawain! Gawain! Gawain!
The moment he leaves, Gawain pokes his head out from the tablecloth which covers the Round Table. He is crouched on all fours. He imitates the King’s voice and makes faces.
FALSE GAWAIN. Gawain! Gawain! Gawain!
MERLIN. This is too much. What are you hiding like that for?
FALSE GAWAIN. Why am I hiding? Because he bores me.
MERLIN. Ginifer!
FALSE GAWAIN. Who’s being imprudent now? That is a name which it is wiser never to say out loud in this castle.
MERLIN. Are you daring to give me orders?
FALSE GAWAIN. Just advice, master, just advice.
MERLIN. My weakness for you will be my ruin. I should work alone.
FALSE GAWAIN. But you don’t work alone and you’ve given me a tough job to do.
MERLIN. Have you any complaints?
FALSE GAWAIN. Do you think it’s fun never being oneself, never living inside one’s own skin. I used to be such a nice young demon, so young, so quiet.
MERLIN. Go on.
FALSE GAWAIN. Oh, yes, I know. You rescued me from the claws of an old sorcerer who had me in his power. And then what? From that day to this I have been the servant of another one; your page, your factotum, your accomplice.
MERLIN. If it hadn’t been for me, Klingsor would have left you to rot in his cellars at Roche Sabine.
FALSE GAWAIN. In a bottle in the caves of Roche Sabine. The idea of putting a nice boy like me in a bottle.
MERLIN. Perhaps he was wise. The day you got round me by making funny faces, I made a mistake in judgment for which I am going to have to pay heavily.
FALSE GAWAIN. Have I played my latest role badly? Can you complain about the results?
MERLIN. When the King calls you, you hide.
FALSE GAWAIN. It’s a little game.
He pronounces it “gyme. ”
MERLIN. Game.
FALSE GAWAIN. What?
MERLIN. Game, not gyme. You’re going to sink us one of these days with your ridiculous mistakes.
FALSE GAWAIN. Oh — game. Game. Gyme. Game. Gyme.
MERLIN. Don’t you realize, you little wretch, the danger of our situation? The whole castle is already bewildered by this Gawain of yours who is as like Gawain as the moon is like the sun.
FALSE GAWAIN. As the sun is like the moon, you mean. The real Gawain went about with a long face. Do you think his dear uncle looked at the chaste fiancé of his daughter Blandine in the way that he looks at me since you made me assume his form? You should congratulate me for being so jolly and cheering the King up.
MERLIN. I must admit that you have turned his head.
FALSE GAWAIN. Well, then.
MERLIN. But in my opinion, you’re going too far.
FALSE GAWAIN. First you’re cross with me for hiding and then you scold me for showing myself too much.
MERLIN. I’m cross with you for hiding under the Round Table and I’m cross with you for playing monkey tricks behind the King’s back when he’s looking for you everywhere.
FALSE GAWAIN. I was just going to explain.
He says “explyne. ”
MERLIN. Oh!
FALSE GAWAIN. I was just going to explain to you. It’s a gyme, game. The more I hide, the more he looks for me. I have my fun and you have yours. What did you tell me to do? To bewitch Arthur, to distract him, to become his favorite, his bad angel, to lead him by the nose wherever I like — wherever you want him to be led.
MERLIN. The Queen asked me to distract him.
FALSE GAWAIN. Wasn’t that kind of you? So in order to protect the affair between Queen Guinevere and Sir Launcelot, you made Arthur’s nephew disappear and produced me in his place.
MERLIN. Your behavior is becoming more and more shameless. You revel in idleness and vice. Thanks to you, the whole place is full of disorder, dishonesty, and debauchery. The kennelboys are your only company, poor Blandine is in tears, Segramor avoids
you, and if things go on this way much longer, we shall be lost, I assure you. Arthur is fast asleep under the influence of a charm.
FALSE GAWAIN. My charm.
MERLIN. One day he’s going to wake up and expel you.
FALSE GAWAIN. Fancy you becoming so virtuous and so pessimistic all of a sudden. Do you seriously imagine that these simple people are going to guess, one, that an extremely ugly magician, disguised as an honest steward, has made a country barren merely by his presence because in order to live he needs all the forces which before he came were distributed among the grasses, the trees, the vines; two, that this magician has the power to change his poor servant into Gawain while the real Gawain is miles away, shut up in a ruined tower biting his nails? Are you going to tell me —
MERLIN. Ssh!
He listens.
FALSE GAWAIN. What ìS it?
MERLIN. I thought I heard the King returning.
Merlin leads the False Gawain downstage.
Listen, I need your help.
FALSE GAWAIN. Go on, I’m listening,
MERLIN. Today is Whitsunday. An unknown knight is expected to arrive and take a seat at the Round Table. He has just been deposited on the coast in a stone trough.
FALSE GAWAIN. Between you and me, that sort of thing smells of sorcery.
MERLIN. Or miracle. At present I’m not sure which. All I know is that this person gives himself out to be The Pure-in-Heart One and that he intends to submit to the ordeal of the Siege Perilous.
FALSE GAWAIN. But nobody in the world can sit in that without receiving a nice little wound in his chest which never heals.
MERLIN. Nobody except one person, and that person could expose us and ruin all our plans.
FALSE GAWAIN. How can you get the wind up over some adventurer or other? Look how many people we’ve seen come to Camelot who all thought they were the Savior of the world.
MERLIN. Perhaps this time you will have the privilege of seeing that sad spectacle. But I haven’t a moment to lose. Listen carefully and don’t forget a single word.
Merlin puts the False Gawain to sleep.
FALSE GAWAIN. You can trust me.
MERLIN. If by any chance this knight should come through the ordeal successfully, I have prepared my attack. The moment the ordeal has been passed, the hall will go dark, a glimmer of light will circulate from this door to this window and you will hear an unearthly voice crying: “The Grail is leaving you. The Grail is forsaking you. If you do not want to lose it, follow the Grail.”
FALSE GAWAIN. The Grail can certainly take it.
MERLIN. Exactly. All the misfortunes that my presence unleashes are put down to it. Our motto: “The deadly spell of the Grail hangs over Britain.” Well then, the moment you hear the False Grail, you jump up.
FALSE GAWAIN. The False Gawain jumps up.
MERLIN. And cries: “Dear Uncle, fellow knights. Are we going to let the Grail leave us? Are we just going to sit here like stuffed owls without following and clearing up this mystery? I for one would like to pursue it and come face to face with it. I propose that we all go after it. I propose the quest of the Grail.”
FALSE GAWAIN. Confusion and then more confusion.
MERLIN. The Table is nearly empty. The best knights are miles away fighting phantoms and mirages. Launcelot remains because of the Queen and Segramor so as not to leave Blandine alone. But they’re already a bit ashamed of themselves. They will jump at your suggestion. If the King tries to hold you back, talk at the top of your voice, and if he tries to prevent the quest, bang on the Table and say, “Really, Uncle. Are you trying to teach us to be disloyal?” Carry on, in short, until the quest has been organized, the knights have put on their armor and the courtyard is echoing with the jangling of harness, the neighing of horses, the barking of hounds. The knights must have set off by this evening.
FALSE GAWAIN, waking up with a start from his hypnotic trance. This evening.
MERLIN. This evening.
FALSE GAWAIN. What about the unknown knight? If he really is the Knight of the Grail he won’t fall into the trap and will warn the others.
MERLIN. Don’t worry. I shall create so much confusion that whatever happens we shall profit from it.
FALSE GAWAIN. So my job, then, is to get the quest started. If they hesitate … ( ’ esityte)
MERLIN. You’re incorrigible. And now, hurry. It’s nearly time for the ceremony. Go and get dressed.
FALSE GAWAIN. Get dressed?
MERLIN. Put your armor on. You can hardly be expecting to appear in a kennelboy’s uniform.
FALSE GAWAIN. As a matter of fact, I am.
MERLIN. The King will insist that you dress.
FALSE GAWAIN. The King will like what I like.
MERLIN. Do you want to create a scandal?
FALSE GAWAIN. Where does the scandal come in? It’s no cushy job, I assure you, never to be living in one’s own skin. For once you’ve made me take a form which I like and it’s only natural that I should take advantage of it. I like being Gawain very much.
MERLIN. What are we coming to? This business is serious, Ginifer. Stop admiring that costume with such revolting frivolity.
FALSE GAWAIN. So now I’m admiring my costume. I thought you were scolding me for not having one.
MERLIN. By costume I mean an appearance which is not your own and which I have the power to take away from you.
FALSE GAWAIN. Please don’t get angry. I’ll be attentive and sensible. I promise I will.
MERLIN. Then remember, if the stranger is successful, the knights are to set off this evening. I rely on you.
FALSE GAWAIN. O. K.
ARTHUR, offstage. Gawain, dear boy. Where the devil is he?
FALSE GAWAIN. Not again.
MERLIN. Shut up.
FALSE GAWAIN. There, you see! If it’s a question whether he loves me or not, he does.
MERLIN. We shall see if he feels the same about admitting you to the Round Table in that get-up.
FALSE GAWAIN. How much will you bet?
MERLIN. Here he is.
Enter Arthur.
Your Majesty, Gawain has been looking for you.
ARTHUR. What on earth is this get-up, Gawain? Time’s getting on and the knight is about to arrive. Go and get dressed.
MERLIN, aside. I told you so.
FALSE GAWAIN. You surprise me, Your Majesty. Why should youth hide its body as if it were old and decrepit? Do young colts cover themselves up with brocade and velvet? Am I deformed? Have I a hump or a clubfoot? Why should I rig myself up in uncomfortable clothes?
ARTHUR. By Jove, I believe you’re right.
FALSE GAWAIN, to Merlin aside. You lose.
Aloud.
Thank you, Uncle dear. I knew you would appreciate the new fashion.
ARTHUR. I’m only wondering what our prudes and our poet are going to say about it. They’re always hanging about to keep an eye on me. Of course they are all devoted to me, Merlin, but they don’t want me to laugh and have a good time. To tell you the honest truth, my son and my daughter are too earnest, and my wife intimidates me.
MERLIN. The Queen is a saint.
ARTHUR. I know, I know. The Queen is a saint and I am not a saint and my innovations displease her.
He calls.
Blandine! Guinevere!
BLANDINE, offstage. Yes, Father.
ARTHUR, to Merlin. What did I tell you?
Aloud.
Ask your mother and your brother to come downstairs and come down yourself, will you?
BLANDINE. Very well, Father.
FALSE GAWAIN. Perhaps I’d better go.
ARTHUR. No, you stay here.
The door backstage opens. Enter the Queen, with her son and daughter. They come downstage right and stand there with eyes lowered. Segramor carries on his tunic in the middle of his chest the red stain caused by his incurable wound. Merlin makes a deep bow. The group remains motionless.
GUINEVERE. You sent for me.
ARTHUR. Gu
inevere, Blandine, Segramor. I want your opinion on a fashion which our dear nephew has started. Come here, Gawain! Now, what do you all think of his court dress?
All look, then look away. Silence.
Just as I thought. Our saints and our poet disapprove.
GUINEVERE. Did Your Majesty bring us downstairs just to see Gawain with bare legs?
ARTHUR. Our Majesty finds your annoyance very funny.
FALSE GAWAIN, furious. Don’t turn away in disgust like that, Blandine. Am I so repulsive to look at?
SEGRAMOR. No doubt you’ve given my father some plausible reasons, but your costume remains incorrect, all the same.
FALSE GAWAIN. Oh, it’s incorrect, is it? Well, let me tell you, Segramor, that you will soon be imitating me and letting your legs move unhampered just when I start covering mine with rich materials. That’s the way fashion changes and the fools who follow it.
ARTHUR. Our little friend is a great hunter, so he adopts the clothes of our kennelboys.
FALSE GAWAIN, aggressively. Who are a damned sight more decent to look at than the gentlemen who flatter you and have guilty secrets to hide.
BLANDINE. I’m not in the habit of looking at servants.
FALSE GAWAIN. No , you’ll look at the animals but in your detestable pride you won’t raise your eyes to look at the boy who serves you and works himself to death for your pleasures.
BLANDINE. Gawain, really.
SEGRAMOR. This is too much.
ARTHUR. Now now now. Control yourself, you little monkey. There’re some things kings shouldn’t hear and you will make us very angry if you say them.
MERLIN, pinching False Gawain. He was joking.
FALSE GAWAIN, in rage. I wasn’t.
ARTHUR. My harmless little joke has degenerated into a quarrel. Gently, gently. Shut up, Gawain. On a day like this I won’t have any arguing.
FALSE GAWAIN. In any case, I was going out.
ARTHUR. No sooner do I catch him than he slips away again.
