Ay! ay! She pleases me.

[Laughter.]

Iseult the Goldenhaired!--I'm cold, King Mark!

ISEULT.
The fool is mad!--I like him not.

UGRIN (to the Strange Jester).
Thou hast
Thine answer now!

GIMELLA.
Is this the first time thou
Beheldst the Queen?

MARK.
Art thou a stranger, friend?

STR. JESTER.
Mayhap I've seen the Queen before; mayhap
I never have.--I know not, Mark.

[Laughter.]

GIMELLA (laughing).
A strange
And curious jest, i' faith!

(To those laughing at the other table.)

Come here, my Lords,
For this new jester is most wondrous strange.

STR. JESTER (in rising grief).
I had a sweetheart once, and she was fair!

MARK (laughing).
Ay! I believe thee, friend!

STR. JESTER.
Yea, she was fair,
Almost as fair as Queen Iseult, thy wife.

[Laughter.]

I'm cold!

ISEULT (angrily).
Thou fool, why starest thou at me?
Avaunt!

STR. JESTER.
Laugh once again at me, Iseult!
Thy laugh was fair, and yet, methinks, those eyes
Must be still fairer when they overflow
With tears.--I wish that I could make thee weep,
Iseult!

[A silence.]

UGRIN (going over to him).
Ho, ho! Are those thy jokes! I'll fall
A weeping straight, thou croaking raven!

STR. JESTER (springing up).
Take
This fool away, or else I'll smite him dead!

[UGRIN jumps backward.]

MARK.
Thou art a gloomy jester, boy!

GIMELLA.
His jests
Are all of some new fangled sort.

MARK.
Speak, fool,
Whom hast thou served till now?

STR. JESTER.
I've served King Mark
In far off Cornwall--.

[Laughter.]

And he had a wife,
And she was fair, with long and golden hair!

[Laughter.]

Why laughst thou Dinas, friend?

[The laughter dies suddenly; the Barons
and Knights, who, with the exception of
those at the Queen's table, had formed a
circle around the Strange Jester, shrink
back.]

DINAS (star