Tristram an episode of Columbia Workshop -

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Columbia Workshop, under the direction ofWilliam N. Robeson, presents Tristram.

(00:22):
Tonight. The Columbia Workshop is proudto produce the world's first dramatization of the
Polletzer Prize winning poem Tristram by thelate Edwin Arlington Robinson. The legend of
Tristram and the fair result of Ireland, whom he wooed and won for his
kingly uncle, is one of theworld's great love stories. It has killed

(00:43):
the genius of writers and musicians forhundreds of years. Tonight, in presenting
mister Robinson's poem, the Workshop hasadhered faithfully to the text, making only
the alterations demanded by the limitations oftime. A Columbia Workshop presents Tristram.

(01:21):
The moon glimmered cold on Cornwall,where King Mark, only by kingly circumstance,
endowed with friends enough to make afestival on this boon, Knife had
married and made queen the fair Issultof Ireland. Tristram, nephew to the
King, leaned alone upon a parapetbelow the lights of Hides and tabul,

(01:44):
where game music had whipped him asa lash and driven him out into the
misty Knife before long now that musicand that wordless murmuring of distant men and
women would cease, The marking lightsabove him would go off, there would
be silence, and King Mark wouldhold result thesult of the dark eyes,

(02:06):
result of the patrician passionate helplessness,result of the soft waving blue black hair,
asult of violin in his arms.And it was he, Tristram,
who had achieved all this. Nowonder he had left the wedding feast,
no wonder gazing at emptiness. Hescarcely heard the troubling sound of gouvernails set

(02:35):
good God in heaven, were ofa body and soul more sick than mine.
No God will answer you to say, Tristram, where an overnail?
What word is my illustrious, mostamorless and most imperious uncle Mark prepared for
you to say to me that you'vecome scowling so far down here to say
it, Tristram, I left theking of noise and anxious on your count

(03:00):
and for the nuns. Not pleasewhat most annoys my uncle? For the
nuns. God knows that I havedone for him of late, more than
an army made of nephews. Onlyshall ever be fools enough to do again
when tired of feasting and too muchtalk and too much wine and too much
happy music, may not his royalnephew have some air, even though his
annoyed uncle will be a king.Oh, forgive me, Christram, but

(03:22):
I am old for this. Theking knows well what you have done for
him. But the king does notknow and cannot know your purpose in an
act ungenerous, if not unseemly.What shall I say to him? If
I go back to him alone?Say to the King that if the King
commands implacably my presence, I willcome. But say it's an addition that

(03:45):
I am sick, and that's anotherjoyful hour with him this night. Well
it might have eventful influences. Ifhe doubt that, or take it here,
Say to the King, I'm drunkthat in my joy my caution crept
away like an unfaithful hound, andwent to sleep. Ah, Tristram,
will you not come with me tosee the King and Queen together? Or
must I mumble as I made tothem alone, this weary jest of your

(04:11):
complaint? God's love? Have Inot seeing the two together? That's for
my complaints? Mumble? And thatmumble as shriek it unless you see Fitz
call for my hop and sing it. I can see no good coming out
of this, but I will giveyou a message as I can, and
with as light misgiving as I may, God be with you. If from

(04:36):
me I were dead but dreaming now, but I'm neither. I'm living in
a wait. If this be life, what a sole healing difference? Death
must be being something else, Thissoft, this salt of iron, The
sorrow in his name came out,and he was trist from until the woman

(05:01):
whom he loved, but unabound thatwood and won for Mark, his uncle
appeared beside him on the parapet hesold to Ireland with all her dark.
Young Majesty, unshaken, came nearerto him and said nothing till terror born
of passion became passionary, born ofterror, while his lips and hers put

(05:26):
speech out like a flame, putout my smile? What have I done
to you? Just true? Whathave you done to me? What have

(05:47):
we done to fat that she shouldhate us and destroy us? Waiting for
us to speak? I took her, this Mark's ambassador, to make you
his, and did so before Ihad my eyes off heart awake. I
do not blame fate the false moremind, it was our curse that you
were not to see until you sawtoo late, a lone one in the

(06:10):
moonlight on that ship that brought ushere. I believed that you would speak,
for I could hear your silence likea song out of the sea.
I stood by the ship's ray,looking away into the night, with only
you and the ocean and the moonand the stars there with me. Had
it not seen I looked, forI had waited too long for your step

(06:32):
behind me to care then if theship sailed or sank, so long as
one true word of yours went wheresoeverthe ship went with me, Sir,
since I dare say to you,how sure I am of the one thing
that's left me to be sure?I'm knew me and loved me as I
was that night, as I amnow and as I shall be ally.

(06:59):
Oh, your your words fall onmy ears like rain on thirsty ground,
Tristram. If you had spoken onthat ship, but most within your heart
to say, if you had heldme close like this, if you had
kissed me then like this. Theremust be women who are made for love

(07:24):
and of it, and almost theytried and fire without there. And while
you love me, you will notforget that you are all that is in
my life now that I would livefor longer, Tristram. If I was
sure this was to be the end, I should make it the end.
I can feel the hands of timeon tearing me away. Do not say

(07:47):
that I do not know where Ishall be tonight, but I shall not
be here, and that will makeit easier for both of us, and
for King Mark. I would seeas little of my tonight is may be
well for my forgetfulness. That isthe best for me to say to you.
For now it has been said silenceawaiting. It's dread. He has

(08:13):
been hiding here all the time.Yes, andred cousins, your Tristram and
loyal servant are King Mark. Imight have known the vermin. We should
find Your paleness suits the circumstance,My cousin, you're sleeping crawling less than
half a man. I saw andheard enough to make King Mark my debtor
for eternity. Then you have earneda rest for your two busy eyes.

(08:35):
And he let me quite when Iam done with you. If you dare
the harm, King Marshall nope,I'll tell him everything, you Mungo.
Kickup, So Christram, like onebreast of all attention, saw little and
heard nothing after it heard the spyinghundred hard against the parapos like a man,

(08:58):
boomed to an ungovernable silence. Hestood above the motionless and crumbled shape
until his son spraying with a gasp, and held her lips to his an
instant and looked into his eyes,before she whispered a name and sprang away
from him. But this was notbefore King Mark had come and seemed sufficiently

(09:18):
to find himself a shadow, andTristram the substance of it in his queen's
cold eyes, who is lying thereat your feet? Turn him, Trustram,
and let me see you know him, sir. The name of that
you see down there is Andred,and its king Mark is manifestly at your

(09:39):
surface. That was an unbecoming jest. I fear for you tonight. Andred
is bleeding. I am glad ofthat's, sir. So long as there
is less of that bad blood inhim, there will be so much less
of Andred is out. You haveseen and heard enough but one knight and
one woman. You will go backnow to the castle and send two men
of the guard. Let them takehundred where someone will care for him.

(10:00):
Yes, Christian, this is notime for words or explanations between two who
owe each other and nothing. Youwill go as you see, Christram.
My first right is to ask whatAndred saw that you should so mistreat him.
Do not hide yourself in silence.But I sought enough, well,
sir, if you have seen enough, what matters it? How little or

(10:22):
much this thing here may have seen. His reptile observation must have gathered far
less than you prepared him to report. Andred's act was of a loyalty as
well intentioned as it was unsought andunforeseen by me. I swear to this,
Tristram. Is there as much atruth in you as that I know
these kings beginnings? And I knowthe cractic clutch of the advantages of the
smaller cringe. It appears that theplace waits for my apology to fill your

(10:46):
plea for pardon has the taint ofdoubt upon it. Yet I shall make
a minute of it here by themuch of a sick lamp that smells of
all I thought was honor, honorfrom you. If you found honor walking
here in Cornwall, you would sendmen to name it, and would arrest
it as a trespass. Well,Christome, knight at arms and man of

(11:07):
honor. If you were not theson of my dead sister, I should
be oppressed to say how long thesight of you alive? Would be the
living cross that my forbearents might haveto bear her. But I can at
least expunge the sight of you henceforthfrom Cornwall, if you care to leave,
mar my liege, andred is wakingup. It seems if he were

(11:28):
not my lizard cousin, he mightnot be a weak. I heard that
twystem, I shall remember that.Ah, But I heard more. I
heard the queen say, tristem,I am all yours, all yours,
And then she kissed you. Tellher mouth might have been part of yours.

(11:48):
Let the King say if I'm lizardnow, or if I serve him?
Well you No, I cannot killa worm like you. Yet a
voice tells me I had better doso go away. But all let the
king say that you are no slaveof mine. You had better go,
Andreddy if you can, some onewill meet you on the way. Oh,

(12:11):
oh, my, bye, mybag. But it was worth it,
Tristan cousin, It was worth it, Munster, Tristram, I cannot
trust myself much longer with you beforeme to be more than man. Why
have you come between me and myqueen, stealing her love as you might

(12:33):
steal my gold? Good God,in heaven is this honor where there was
never any love to steal? Nolove was everstown honor. Oh, yes,
of all the rituals and lies andjigs and drinking that make a marriage
of an immolation heaven. If yousay one more bird like that, one
of us will be left here dead. But no, no, I must

(12:56):
be mindful of who you are.Besides, it may be that a reptile
with green eyes arise for a longfeeding on your heart is the sure way
to make a madman of me.If so, before you take my reasons,
take my life. Yes, yes, you have already taken. Let
you have drawn your sword against theking custom now put it back. Your

(13:20):
speech to me before was nearer yourlast than you are near to me.
Yet I'll not have your blood.I'll have your life instead. Since you're
sure your life means only one woman, and I will keep it far from
you. So far that you shallhunger for it always. When you go

(13:41):
down those stairs for the last time, and that time will be now,
you'll leave Cornwall farther behind you thanHell's away from Heaven is told in leagues.
And if the sight of you offendsagain my kingdom and infects it,
I swear by God you will bechained and burned. And while you burn,
arise Isaults will be held open towhat your passion cooling in the flames

(14:07):
go. And they all infernal firesattend you see you when you are nights
and days, and all your dreamsof her that you have not and shall
have never. After one long lookupward at those lights that soon would all
be asked ever even seeing them,he saw Isault, Tristram swayed and trembled,
and then slowly disappeared down the longstairs. For two years after that

(14:45):
there was no peace for Tristram,neither when he saw the giant scourge Griffin
whom he flew in Brittany dismembered hisseat Christian, nor when he sorrow's witchcrafts
out of pity, made the palewine of love that is not love,
the lavish on another woman's heart,the comfort of kind lies. Nor in
the army he shaped and trained,the ships and boards he built Tristan,

(15:07):
the old houses he raised. Never, nor in anything was there peace for
Tristram. For always in the airabove him was desault of violin, thesault
of the wild pison, violet eyes, desault and her last look and her
last words jump until one day ajoyous god, the guest of Launcelot and

(15:30):
Grinevire, Tristram, waiting to becalled a knighthood by King Arthur, said
singly, dreamy, softly behind him. The coming of light steps made him
return, and there, with tearfilled eyes, in a slow twilight,
shining upward in the Tristram, Oh, Tristram, issaultful of it, speak

(15:54):
my name again, Tistom. Ifeared a moment which you were another dream,
dream, my love. But youand I together, and no came
to make for me a prison outof cornwall. Tell me how many lives
ago it was I left you inthe moonlight on those stairs and went up
to that music in those voices,and for God's reason then did not go

(16:17):
mad. Tell me how old theworld was when it died? Forget the
world at we are the last thatare alive. Where the world was you
a? The world? Is notyou a the world? Whatever I am,
you are the last alive. Tomake me listen while you say that
you're the world, Tristram, Myword is only what it is to your

(16:37):
What brought you here? And howMarcus, prison out of ward by some
command in heaven of some imperial's himof mercy Ginnevera, came to Cornwall and
brought me here to joyous God,Oh Tristram, Tristram, make me believe
again that you are here, Yes, you are here. Some time I'll

(17:00):
ask how far you wandered, andwhat rainy end there ever was to that
unending night when knocks sent you away. But now now there is but one
fantastic apprehension in my mind, andthat one surely cannot come to night.
Only an army of infernal men willfind a way over these walls or through
them to find you. On meto night, dear love, My cage

(17:22):
is empty, and I am outof it, and you and I are
in another cage, a golden cage. Together. You are more nearly perfect
even than I thought, Tristram.After those years in Cornwall there, my
sire of life burned lower than youhave ever known. I must say this
to you. Mine is a lightthat will go out sometimes. I am

(17:45):
not going to be old. Thereis a little watchman in my host who
is always telling me what time itis. And therefore harm for my poor
sake does not be your harm.That is your world outside all stame and
dammer, and it was never mineto take away from you. You must

(18:08):
not let me take your world away. Love is not like that the sal
We forget how fall a king's arereaches, and what proprisals he may buy
with gold and golden promises. Butnow I have said it. Forget what
I have said, and kiss meas if we were to live forever.

(18:34):
See how the stars are throbbing inthe sky. I like the stars in
Cornwall so much alone their wisdom,as I was one sees into their language
and their story. They must bemore than fire. And if the stars
are more than fire, what elseis there for them to be than love?

(18:56):
And of life that comes of loveis more than Yes, love must
be more than death and night Together? Why do those two vainglorious and abysmal
little words pursue you and torment yoursoul? Life and death do not believe
your stars. If they are sayingthat any such words are in their language.
Now, whenever they tell you theyare made of love, believe it.

(19:18):
But whether your stars are made oflove a fire, there is a
love. This will outshine the stars. There will be love when there are
no more stars. Assault And thatshould please you, does it? Yes,
chest, Yes, it pleases me. Summer was going, and while

(19:53):
often came, Tristram could see nocloud between them and the sun, until
one day, returning from a journeynot far off with leaves and flowers and
wild roses for his son, singinghis happy way back to the gate of
joyous God. Open the gates,Open the gate, I say, that's

(20:22):
great impatience always in the young goodMorrow, Tristram, you move like lead,
good gubernair, and you like mercury, mercury, you mix the God.
Mine are the wings of love.But where is this hot not here
to meet me? She always ishe? Sho? Why is the house

(20:44):
so full of silent schouvenair? Whatis the shadow on your face? How
shall I answer you? Disoo?What are these drops of fear upon my
brow? Woman? Need be alwaysin one place? It hang It's ham

(21:06):
speak to Mecauvernhill. Where is thest Mark is abroad again? Mark the
devil is at work, and hecame here? But how how tell me?
The thought was sitting by the shore. She loved watching the ocean while
she dreamed of you. They foundher there and carried her off a prisoner,
to conwall. Could you do nothingforgive us, Tristram? We did

(21:26):
all we could, but we werelate, and I was late. Oh
God, the joy should so dismemberreason. I should have never left her
side. I should have guarded herin every moment that a miser gods his
gold. I should have raised nohelp for you or her in chiding your
own heart. This way a brokenheart is broken. So I too have

(21:51):
done with weeping? Tristram? Whatshould I do? Gupen here? Tell
me? If you are my friend, what shall I do? You can
do nothing now. The day maycome when you should beat your way through
fire and steel to see her faceagain. But now, if I were
you, I fancy I should tearone more leaf out of my book and

(22:11):
let the next new page be itsown. Story. Was never so still

(22:36):
as this before King Law. Itis like something off to life. It
is not like death. Perhaps thesea is like ourselves, and has as
much to say of storms and calmsthat shake or make it still, as
we have power to shake or tobe still. I do not know.

(22:56):
I should have lost my nature notto take you away from when I could,
But now having you here, Iam not so sure of nature as
once I was. A month ago. Your Tristram might have stepped from folly
to sure death. At his blindfeet found cornwall, but not now.
Your gates and doors are open.All I ask is that I shall not

(23:21):
see him. You have been goodto mere love. I shall not be
afraid of you again. No,Lord of hundred. When he knows this,
he will bow down to your authoritylike a small hungry dog and make
your fingers. You will forget all. He isn't seen, he said,
said Tristram hundred is mad. Ifear he was always mad. We're all

(23:45):
of us mad. That night Ivanished Tristram our wedding night. I should
have seen that. Then you thoughthat I us speak to you, to
you alone, you strangling, Youmay speak whatever you have to say.
Him Mark will listen. He iswaiting, you mean, Tristram, and
has the manner if I may dareto say so with one who should not

(24:07):
wait? Why should he wait?Go bring him here blankly and say,
your mistress waits for him, andI I shall leave you both alone together
now at last, as if ourenmity, trustums and mine had never been
farewell, He said, poor Mark, so much of kindness, that is

(24:33):
so much torment. And now poorTristram, so much of anguish that does
so much love? This hot Tristram, love, what have you done to

(24:57):
mock? What is what done?I should find his doors all open for
me and see her swords a fire, because it's changed now I am he
wishes to be kind my love.No, no, I'm not afraid to
die, Tristram, I think ofit. My cup was running over and

(25:18):
having had all but one life holdof joy, and in one summer,
why should I be a miser cryingto God for more? This hot?
No, no, do not saythings now? Let me? Can you
remember that all there was in mewas always yours? Was it enough?

(25:41):
Kill me? Was it? Itwas enough? And more women have years
it were whole? Love is desertswill horing that you have told us solts
it was enough? And she knowsall there is all that is staggering your
back. If it was hundred,give him thanks for me. It was

(26:07):
not Mark, this sult, thissultruque. I come, let the king
say, now, who is alizard and who serves him? Well,
it's old, it's old. I'mreread what cries for those I had speak

(26:29):
or by hea? They are dead, my lord and master, dead,
our cousin system and your queen hishols dead, dead as you see them
lying there now. Say if Iam a lizard, or if I serve
you well andread you you, Ido not know what you have done Andred.

(26:51):
I am not sure God knows whatyou have done. Nor do I
think I should have praise or thanksof them if power were mine and I
should waken them. There are someills and evils awaiting us that God could
not invent. There are mistakes toomonstrous for immorse to bundle or to dally

(27:11):
with, and failure that only hatewheres tumbling the darks would have arranged.
So well. I do not knowwhere the these two lying here, This
Christom and himself, who have tornlife from time like a death laden flower
out of the air, has failedall one. I do not know God

(28:03):
We've just heard the Columbia Workshop productionof Tristram by Edwin Arlington. Robinson Stella
Reynolds adapted this pullet surprize winning callingfor the Workshop. The part of his
ault was played by this stemic curseTristram by Dick Kolmar. Bernard Herman conducted
the orchestra, and the entire productionwas under the direction of William M.
Rosen. There's physic Columbia broadcasting system.