this I will make you sure--that I will help you with regard to
this matter, so that you may know of a surety , that by me you
will have your joy." "Nurse, in that case you would have cured
me; but the emperor is giving me in marriage whereat I am
grievously afflicted and sad because he who pleases me is nephew
of him whom I am to wed. And if this man have his joy of me, then
have I lost mine; and there is no more joy to be looked for.
Rather would I be torn limb from limb than that the love of
Iseult and of Tristram should be renewed in the case of us twain;
for of them are such mad actions told that I am ashamed to
recount them. I could not reconcile myself to the life that
Iseult led. Love in her became exceeding base; for her body
belonged to two masters and her heart entirely to one. Thus she
spent her whole life; for she never refused the two. Reason was
there none in this love; but mine is ever constant; and at no
cost will a partition ever be made of my body or of my heart.
Never of a truth shall my body be debased; never shall there be
two partners of it. Let him who owns the heart have the body
also; he excludes all others from it. But this I cannot know--how
he to whom my heart yields itself can have my body since my
father is giving me to another; and I dare not gainsay him. And
when he shall be lord of my body if he do aught with it that I do
not wish, it is not meet that it welcome another. Moreover, this
man cannot wed wife without breaking faith; but if he wrong not
his nephew, Cliges will have the empire after his death. But if
you can contrive by your arts, that this man to whom I am given
and pledged might never have part or lot in me, you would have
done me good service according to my will. Nurse, prithee strive
that this man break not his faith; for he gave his pledge to the
father of Cliges, promising just as Alexander had made him swear,