La Belle Dame sans Merci
"Good-by, Lady."
-- Lord Corwin
In Chapter 6 of The Courts of Chaos, Corwin comes across a strange wooded valley. Here, he and his horse Star rest from some wild and strenuous hellrides. Corwin is approached by the mysterious woman "Lady" who feeds him, and tries to seduce him. The scene is inspired by the John Keats (1795-1821) ballad, La Belle Dame sans Merci. In the linked article, I've pasted the full text of the poem, side-by-side with the sequence from TCOC. Explicit references are highlighted in matching colors.
La Belle Dame sans Merci
by John Keats, 1819
O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has withered from the lake,
And no birds sing!
O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
So haggard and so woe-begone?
The squirrel’s granary is full,
And the harvest’s done.
I see a lily on thy brow,
With anguish moist and fever-dew,
And on thy cheeks a fading rose
Fast withereth too.
I met a lady in the meads,
Full beautiful, a fairy's child;
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild.
I made a garland for her head,
And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;
She looked at me as she did love,
And made sweet moan.
I set her on my pacing steed,
And nothing else saw all day long,
For sidelong would she bend, and sing
A faery's song.
She found me roots of relish sweet,
And honey wild, and manna-dew,
And sure in language strange she said—
'I love thee true'.
She took me to her Elfin grot,
And there she wept and sighed full sore,
And there I shut her wild, wild eyes
With kisses four.
And there she lullèd me asleep,
And there I dreamed—Ah! woe betide!—
The latest dream I ever dreamt
On the cold hill side.
I saw pale kings and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
They cried—'La Belle Dame sans Merci
Hath thee in thrall!'
I saw their starved lips in the gloam,
With horrid warning gapèd wide,
And I awoke and found me here,
On the cold hill's side.
And this is why I sojourn here,
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.
Chapter 6
The Courts of Chaos
It was a woman that I faced, small, clad in white. She had long, dark hair and wild, dark eyes, and she was smiling. She carried a wicker basket, which she placed on the ground between us.
"You must be hungry, Knight at arms," she said in strangely accented Thari. ...
"Thank you," I said. "I am. I am called Corwin. Yourself?"
"Lady," she said.
I quirked an eyebrow. "Thank you - Lady. You make your home in this place?"
She nodded and knelt to uncover the basket.
"Yes, my pavilion is farther back, along the lake." ...
"I see," I said.
The food and the wine in the basket looked real, fresh, appetizing, better than my traveler's fare.
...
"Come to my pavilion now," she said, taking my hand, "where we will wile pleasurably the hours that remain."
"Thanks," I said. "Another time and that wiling would have been a fine dessert to a grand meal. Unfortunately, I must be on my way. Duty nags, time rushes. I've a mission."
"All right," she said. "It is not that important. And I know all about your mission. It is not all that important either, now."
"Oh? I must confess that I fully expected you to invite me to a private party which would result in me alone and palely loitering on the cold side of some hill sometime hence if I were to accept."
She laughed.
"And I must confess that it was my intention to so use you, Corwin. No longer, though."
"Why not?"
She gestured toward the advancing line of disruption.
"There is no need to delay you now. I see by this that the Courts have won. There is nothing anyone can do to halt the advance of the Chaos."
I shuddered briefly and she refilled our cups.
"But I would rather you did not leave me at this time," she went on. "It will reach us here in a matter of hours. What better way to spend this final time than in one another's company? There is no need even to go as far as my pavilion."
I bowed my head, and she drew up close against me.
....
I finished my wine. She moved to pour me more and I stayed her hand.
She looked up at me. I smiled.
"You almost persuaded me," I said.
Then I closed her eyes with kisses four, so as not to break the charm, and I went and mounted Star. The sedge was not withered, but he was right about the no birds. Hell of a way to run a railroad, though.
"Good-by, Lady."