mordred MollyGoLightly pg 450 "Arthur looked at his hands, as he often did when he was in trouble. Then he said: "It is a pity you never had the opportunity of seeing the Orkneys at home. They didn't have a happy family life like yours." T.H. White, "The Once and Future King" 000526 ... MollyGoLightly pg 520 "They sat in silence, looking at the floor. Agravaine was out of condition, with pouches under his eyes. Mordred was as slim as ever, a neat figure in the height of fashion. The exaggeration of his dress made a good camouflage for him, under which you hardly noticed his crooked shoulder. He said: 'I am not proud.'" 000526 ... MollyGoLightly pg 518 "'I don't smell anything,' said Agravaine. He sniffed suspiciously, trying to smell. But his palate was gone, both for smell and taste, and he had a headache. 'It stinks of sport,' said Mordred in inverted commas, 'and the Done Thing and the Best People. Let's go to the garden.'" 000526 ... MollyGoLightly pg 518 "'But they must listen.'" Small flecks in the iris of Mordred's eyes burned with a turquoise light, as bright as the owl's. Instead of being a foppish man with a crooked shoulder, dressed in extravagant clothes, he became a Cause. He became, on this matter, everything that Arthur was not--the irreconcilable opposite of the Englishman. He became the invincible Gael, the scion of desperate races more ancient than Arthur's, and more subtle. Now, when he was on fire with his Cause, Arthur's justice seemed bourgeois and obtuse beside him. It seemed merely to be dull complacency, beside the savagery and feral wit of the Pict. His maternal ancestors crowded into his face when he was spurning Arthur--ancestors whose civilization, like Mordred's, had been matriarchal." 000526 ... MollyGoLightly pg 575 "'So far as I understand the story, Mordred, Agravaine went with thirteen other knights, fully armed, and tried to kill Lancelot when he had nothing but his dressing-gown. The upshot was that Agravaine himself was killed, together with all thirteen of the knights--except one, who ran away." 'I did not run away.' 'Ye survivit, Mordred.' 'Gawaine, I swear I did not run away. I fought him as well as I could. But he broke my arm, and then I could do no more. On my honour Gawaine, I tried to fight.' He was almost weeping. 'I am not a coward.' 000526 ... MollyGoLightly pg 576 "Arthur stroked his forehead with his hand. 'Why is he crying?' he asked. 'He was explaining to us,' said Gawaine, 'how Lancelot killed thirteen knights, but resolvit on his second thoughts that he shouldna kill our Mordred. It was by cause there is fondness between them seemingly.' 'I think I can explain. You see, I asked Sir Lancelot not to kill my son, ten days ago.' Mordred said bitterly: 'Thank you for nothing.' 'You don't have to thank me, Mordred. Lancelot would be the right person to thank for that.' 'I wish he had killed me.' 'I am glad he did not. Try to be a little forgiving, my son, now that we are in this trouble. Remember that I am your father. I shall have no family left, except for you.' 'I wish I had never been born.' 'So do I, my poor boy. But you are born, so now we must do the best we can.' 000526 ... MollyGoLightly "The most natural man in a play is the villain." --Ed Howe 000527 ... MollyGoLightly www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/images/hjfmord.htm 000528 what's it to you? who go blather from