Sir Dagonet, Appearing, made reply to Bedivere's Dry welcome with a famished look of pain, On which he built a smile: "If I were King, You, Bedivere, should be my counsellor; And we should have no more wars over women. I'll sit me down and meditate on that." Gawaine, for all his anger, laughed a little, And clapped the fool's lean shoulder; for he loved him And was with Arthur when he made him knight. Then Dagonet said on to Bedivere, As if his tongue would make a jest of sorrow: "Sometime I'll tell you what I might have done Had I been Lancelot and you King Arthur-- Each having in himself the vicious essence That now lives in the other and makes war. When all men are like you and me, my lord, When all are rational or rickety, There may be no more war. But what's here now? Lancelot loves the Queen, and he makes war Of love; the King, being bitten to the soul By love and hate that work in him together, Makes war of madness; Gawaine hates Lancelot, And he, to be in tune, makes war of hate; Modred hates everything, yet he can see With one damned illegitimate small eye His father's crown, and with another like it He sees the beauty of the Queen herself; He needs the two for his ambitious pleasure, And therefore he makes war of his ambition; And somewhere in the middle of all this There's a squeezed world that elbows for attention. Poor Merlin, buried in Broceliande! He must have had an academic eye For woman when he founded Arthur's kingdom, And in Broceliande he may be sorry. Flutes, hautboys, drums, and viols. God be with him! I'm glad they tell me there's another world, For this one's a disease without a doctor."
"No, not so bad as that," said Bedivere; "The doctor, like ourselves, may now be learning; And Merlin may have gauged his enterprise Whatever the cost he may have paid for knowing. We pass, but many are to follow us, And what they build may stay; though I believe Another age will have another Merlin, Another Camelot, and another King. Sir Dagonet, farewell."
"Farewell, Sir Knight, And you, Sir Knight: Gawaine, you have the world Now in your fingers--an uncommon toy, Albeit a small persuasion in the balance With one man's hate. I'm glad you're not a fool, For then you might be rickety, as I am, And rational as Bedivere. Farewell. I'll sit here and be king. God save the King!"