thrown to Husdent. He
Will tear thee limb from limb, thou conjurer!
Who art thou?

UGRIN (in a friendly tone).
Answer, friend, our Cousin Mark
Speaks not in jest!

MARK.
Call in the guards!

[A Knight tries to lay hold of the Strange
Jester.]

STR. JESTER.
Let go!
I'm but a wretched fool!--I have no name!
What matters it to you? I've smirched my good
And noble name--so now I have no name.
I had one once that rang full true and high!
I've twisted it about, and broken it!

(In rising agitation.)

I broke my name, and throwing up the bits
I caught them as they fell, and threw them up
Again; and so I played with my fair name
Until the fragments rang again and fell
At last back to my hand, deformed and changed,
To stick, and make a name that is no name--
So call me Tramtris.

ISEULT.
--Tramtris--!

[UGRIN claps his hands and rolls laughing
on the ground.]

MARK.
Fool, what ails
Thee now?

UGRIN.
The jester jesteth. Seest thou not?
Why, turn it 'round! Tramtris--Tristram!
He says
He was Lord Tristram! Ho!

[Laughter.]

GANELUN.
That was the jest
That he so cunningly devised!

1ST BARON.
This shaft
Of irony has struck the mark and hits
This day and thee, King Mark!

2D KNIGHT.
A clever fool!

MARK (laughing softly).
I wish Lord Tristram saw the knave!

2D BARON.
He'd laugh!

ISEULT (trembling with anger).
Let not thy nephew Tristram's knightly fame
And noble name serve as a mockery
To such a ghoul!

MARK (gaily).
Forgive me, fair Iseult;
And yet it makes me laugh to think that this
Poor fool went mad from thinking that he was
My noble nephew Tristram. Speak, thou toy of fate,
Wast thou Lord Tristram once!

STR. JESTER (almost timidly).
Ay, Mark, I was;
And often was I with Iseult, thy wife!
Forgive it me!

[Laughter.]

ISEULT.
Dost thou permit that he
Should heap such insult