ROUND TABLE:
Biographies
Daniel James Roth (he/him)
Daniel James Roth (playwright) is an actor/writer/director. His writing endeavors have spawned scripts for plays, musicals, and television, as well as lyrics and fiction. His first completed script was a libretto for a brand new musical titled All's Fair: A New Musical, for which he also wrote the lyrics and some of the music. Daniel co-wrote a short play for a 24 Hour Play festival, titled Dawn of the War of the Planet of the Vegans (and yes, it was as ridiculous as it sounds). Most recently, Daniel's television pilot, Children of Avalon, was a finalist in the Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards, and a quarterfinalist in the Stage 32 Sci-Fi/Fantasy Screenwriting Contest. To learn more about Daniel, visit www.daniel-james-roth.com
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Grace Bardsley (she/her)
Grace Bardsley (Guinevere) is an actor and podcaster soon to be based in New York City (come September!). She is a Raleigh, North Caroline native and a recent graduate of Elon University, where she received her BFA in acting. She has a passion for classical theatre and new works alike and is always searching for ways to unconventionally present poignant and important theatre. Recent and favorite credits include Hamlet (Rosencrantz), Moment (Ciara), and Trojan Women (Andromache). She is currently the host of a theatre activist podcast called The Systemic Stage, which can be found on most podcast platforms.
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Benedetto Robinson (he/him)
Benedetto Robinson (Launcelot) is an actor, fight choreographer, and action performer based in Atlanta, Georgia. Recent credits include Coleman Domingo's Dot, directed by Kenny Leon, and the newly revitalized and reimagined production of The Lost Colony in Manteo, NC, directed by Jeff Whiting. Upcoming, his own original adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, entitled Dracula: The Failings of Men will debut at the mountainside Theatre in collaboration with the Cherokee Historical Association in Cherokee, NC. Benedetto is represented by The People Store in Atlanta and by About Artists Agency in New York. He is delighted to be part of this reading.
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Texts
The Tragedy of King Arthur (Act I, Scene 3) by Daniel James Roth (2019)
(LAUNCELOT and QUEEN enter at separate doors.)
LAUNCELOT.
Sweete, gentle Queen--
GUINEVERE.
I would not hear your Tongue.
Thou tell’st me pretty things above thy office,
A sacrilege to Arthur’s love to thee.
LAUNCELOT.
I love him dearly, yet I cannot feign;
I love thee still, against my better Thought.
GUINEVERE.
Think no more then, or think you not on I,
That am not bent to recompense thy love.
LAUNCELOT.
I would thou recompens’d my Kisse again.
GUINEVERE.
I pray you mark yourself.
I cannot love you: take it to your Soul
Beyond this too, I must bid you depart
My company and eyes, unless it be
Some Stately matter that you I may see.
LAUNCELOT.
To banish me from half my heart, say not;
I could not keep my promise to my thought:
And say not that I am not in thine eyes,
For Cupid’s marks rest on thee in disguise.
GUINEVERE.
Break this Theme of yours.
Sir Launcelot, your Oathe you cannot keep
If seek you still to will me to break mine;
What Friendly love I bear to thee will lose,
If this advance you will maintain on me.
LAUNCELOT.
Do not you love me, gentle Guinevere?
GUINEVERE.
As a noble man on Camelot’s green ground,
No more.
LAUNCELOT.
You like to your own Heart and me:
You loved me yesternight and yesteryeare,
And many Sunnes have risen since your Eyes
Did tell me what your Heart has always felt:
But I will swear to thee that I love thee,
Whethering thou confirm thy own desire.
To hush my Lippes, thou must needs use thine,
Else I will tell thee a thousand ways and more;
How I did feel the Heavens when we touch’d,
How Winter turned to May in your fair Eyees,
Melting off the Frost of the frozen months,
And how I tremble in the Biting Cold
When I am not warm’d by thy Beating Fire,
That I love thee.
A Madman have you turned me to, a wretch,
That is not worthy of my Lord’s deare grace;
And force me still to Veil my solemn truth
Or lose thy love as well as Arthur’s praise.
My love cannot keep still and will not rest
Till Guinevere admits me to her breast.
GUINEVERE.
Thou turn’st my very inward Teares to light.
LAUNCELOT.
Then say thou leave’st me still against thy spite.
GUINEVERE.
I love thee.
LAUNCELOT.
Say thou dost not speak a lie.
GUINEVERE.
I love thee truer than any in my eye.
But I am wed to Sovereign rights and Laws;
My Lord and yours is yet an honest man,
I may not shame him, for I love him still,
But as a servant, who respects his Lord.
LAUNCELOT.
I love him as a Brother, trusted love.
We both have broke our Vowes: you to his bed,
I to my vassal and his misplaced trust.
GUINEVERE.
Our safety is to keep our Secret hid;
And though our woe may waile like Hounds in heat,
Our lips we keep as clos’d as our oaths bed:
Now when we speak on Courtly matters there,
Around on polar ends his Ovall table
Drawing us far like to pointes of th’eclipse,
I’ll still feel thee as close as now, this Night;
But speaking as a stately duty then,
No words we make of our affections else.
LAUNCELOT.
I will be mute, and deaf and blinde to love.
GUINEVERE.
Love from a distance we, and shun our Pain;
For Royall love must come before our Gain.
(They kiss. Exit.)
LAUNCELOT.
Sweete, gentle Queen--
GUINEVERE.
I would not hear your Tongue.
Thou tell’st me pretty things above thy office,
A sacrilege to Arthur’s love to thee.
LAUNCELOT.
I love him dearly, yet I cannot feign;
I love thee still, against my better Thought.
GUINEVERE.
Think no more then, or think you not on I,
That am not bent to recompense thy love.
LAUNCELOT.
I would thou recompens’d my Kisse again.
GUINEVERE.
I pray you mark yourself.
I cannot love you: take it to your Soul
Beyond this too, I must bid you depart
My company and eyes, unless it be
Some Stately matter that you I may see.
LAUNCELOT.
To banish me from half my heart, say not;
I could not keep my promise to my thought:
And say not that I am not in thine eyes,
For Cupid’s marks rest on thee in disguise.
GUINEVERE.
Break this Theme of yours.
Sir Launcelot, your Oathe you cannot keep
If seek you still to will me to break mine;
What Friendly love I bear to thee will lose,
If this advance you will maintain on me.
LAUNCELOT.
Do not you love me, gentle Guinevere?
GUINEVERE.
As a noble man on Camelot’s green ground,
No more.
LAUNCELOT.
You like to your own Heart and me:
You loved me yesternight and yesteryeare,
And many Sunnes have risen since your Eyes
Did tell me what your Heart has always felt:
But I will swear to thee that I love thee,
Whethering thou confirm thy own desire.
To hush my Lippes, thou must needs use thine,
Else I will tell thee a thousand ways and more;
How I did feel the Heavens when we touch’d,
How Winter turned to May in your fair Eyees,
Melting off the Frost of the frozen months,
And how I tremble in the Biting Cold
When I am not warm’d by thy Beating Fire,
That I love thee.
A Madman have you turned me to, a wretch,
That is not worthy of my Lord’s deare grace;
And force me still to Veil my solemn truth
Or lose thy love as well as Arthur’s praise.
My love cannot keep still and will not rest
Till Guinevere admits me to her breast.
GUINEVERE.
Thou turn’st my very inward Teares to light.
LAUNCELOT.
Then say thou leave’st me still against thy spite.
GUINEVERE.
I love thee.
LAUNCELOT.
Say thou dost not speak a lie.
GUINEVERE.
I love thee truer than any in my eye.
But I am wed to Sovereign rights and Laws;
My Lord and yours is yet an honest man,
I may not shame him, for I love him still,
But as a servant, who respects his Lord.
LAUNCELOT.
I love him as a Brother, trusted love.
We both have broke our Vowes: you to his bed,
I to my vassal and his misplaced trust.
GUINEVERE.
Our safety is to keep our Secret hid;
And though our woe may waile like Hounds in heat,
Our lips we keep as clos’d as our oaths bed:
Now when we speak on Courtly matters there,
Around on polar ends his Ovall table
Drawing us far like to pointes of th’eclipse,
I’ll still feel thee as close as now, this Night;
But speaking as a stately duty then,
No words we make of our affections else.
LAUNCELOT.
I will be mute, and deaf and blinde to love.
GUINEVERE.
Love from a distance we, and shun our Pain;
For Royall love must come before our Gain.
(They kiss. Exit.)
The Tragedy of King Arthur (Act II, Scene 4) by Daniel James Roth (2019)
LAUNCELOT.
King Arthur may know of our great Affaire;
How will I balance both my loves? How? How?
When each instance one surpasseth the other,
And once again retreat to be the second:
In moment I intend to tell my Truth,
The next, a Coward to my Lady’s love:
Yet now, a moment pass’d, I keep my lie,
That I retain my Mistress’ Sapphire eye:
What vainly efforts I may make to swear,
Refute them by a moment’s thought.
Is alteration of my loves a Curse?
I say ‘tis not a virtuous man’s affliction;
For he may be more curs’d to Shallow love,
But all to one and one to he return’d:
I bend me to a double love, though deepe,
And thereupon a Devil I’ve become.
Was no man as untrustworthy as I?
Was no man sworn to love two royalls equal?
O Gods! As Zeus devoted him to Io,
His Hera still his wife, and chang’d her form,
Concealing of their love, so may I do?
Yet Hera found her out and had her wrath,
As there, Deception was a faulted path;
I then disguise myself to end our harms,
Conceale my love, concealing not my Sweete:
My self and my intentions I must hide.
Then may I keep my loves with remedy,
Preventing thrice our hearts from tragedy. (Exits.)
King Arthur may know of our great Affaire;
How will I balance both my loves? How? How?
When each instance one surpasseth the other,
And once again retreat to be the second:
In moment I intend to tell my Truth,
The next, a Coward to my Lady’s love:
Yet now, a moment pass’d, I keep my lie,
That I retain my Mistress’ Sapphire eye:
What vainly efforts I may make to swear,
Refute them by a moment’s thought.
Is alteration of my loves a Curse?
I say ‘tis not a virtuous man’s affliction;
For he may be more curs’d to Shallow love,
But all to one and one to he return’d:
I bend me to a double love, though deepe,
And thereupon a Devil I’ve become.
Was no man as untrustworthy as I?
Was no man sworn to love two royalls equal?
O Gods! As Zeus devoted him to Io,
His Hera still his wife, and chang’d her form,
Concealing of their love, so may I do?
Yet Hera found her out and had her wrath,
As there, Deception was a faulted path;
I then disguise myself to end our harms,
Conceale my love, concealing not my Sweete:
My self and my intentions I must hide.
Then may I keep my loves with remedy,
Preventing thrice our hearts from tragedy. (Exits.)
The Tragedy of King Arthur (Act III, Scene 5) by Daniel James Roth (2019)
GUINEVERE.
What should the matter be: ‘twill be reveal’d;
But pray ‘tis matter insignificant,
For I can bear no more of stuff of love;
It makes me Ill with Aphrodite’s Wine
To fast thus long, and feast when food’s in reach.
O Cupid’s Bolt hath punctured all too deeply,
For now I fear some bloody bile be spilt,
And all for traitorous love. O damned Love;
This love must soon be curb’d ‘fore time unveils
The motives of disloyalty to Arthur:
And Launcelot, too honestly in love,
Could not put reigns on his own coltish steed,
So I must tell him how it must be stabled:
For no more now shall him and I be cross’d,
And like an unwed Virgin I must play,
Denying all desire to love due Loc.
Let Venus haunt the Moone no more tonight,
So may Diana reign in beauteous light.
What should the matter be: ‘twill be reveal’d;
But pray ‘tis matter insignificant,
For I can bear no more of stuff of love;
It makes me Ill with Aphrodite’s Wine
To fast thus long, and feast when food’s in reach.
O Cupid’s Bolt hath punctured all too deeply,
For now I fear some bloody bile be spilt,
And all for traitorous love. O damned Love;
This love must soon be curb’d ‘fore time unveils
The motives of disloyalty to Arthur:
And Launcelot, too honestly in love,
Could not put reigns on his own coltish steed,
So I must tell him how it must be stabled:
For no more now shall him and I be cross’d,
And like an unwed Virgin I must play,
Denying all desire to love due Loc.
Let Venus haunt the Moone no more tonight,
So may Diana reign in beauteous light.
The Tragedy of King Arthur (Act III, Scene 7) by Daniel James Roth (2019)
(Enter LAUNCELOT and GUINEVERE.)
GUINEVERE.
My noble Knight, is that thy burning candle?
LAUNCELOT.
It is, my Mistress, and the man ‘tis held by.
GUINEVERE.
pray, good man, but keep you still my Ring?
LAUNCELOT.
‘Tis ever on my finger circled there,
A chain or any confine I could break,
That would encloseth on my finger’s curls,
But never would I shatter this your ring.
GUINEVERE.
love it well.
LAUNCELOT.
My vow, or your own ring?
GUINEVERE.
I cherish mine own ring now bound to you,
But I love thee, and thine Epistles more.
LAUNCELOT.
Then take them as for Gospel, Gwen, my Love.
GUINEVERE.
And take of me what I may tell you now:
We must encounter not and risk ourselves
A moment longer now or e’er again.
LAUNCELOT.
So means my Lady to deny her Love
The very foode that doth sustain his life?
GUINEVERE.
So mean I to deny all love to thee,
For as I dam it in King Arthur’s Court
When it may be unleash’d it cannot hide,
For it o’erruns the banks of any River:
And by this public flooding ‘twill be known
To every Kingdom’s fields and Arthur’s ears.
LAUNCELOT.
Pray, if ‘twould be the final time we meet,
I prithee kiss me as it was the first.
GUINEVERE.
If it doth seal the tearing of our contract,
Then I shall sign it with unwilling Lippes.
(Enter ARTHUR, MORDRED, AGRAVAINE and TORCH BEARERS.)
ARTHUR.
I see you now, revealed of your Sin,
Most trusted Knight and noble Queen…
(Scene continues)
GUINEVERE.
My noble Knight, is that thy burning candle?
LAUNCELOT.
It is, my Mistress, and the man ‘tis held by.
GUINEVERE.
pray, good man, but keep you still my Ring?
LAUNCELOT.
‘Tis ever on my finger circled there,
A chain or any confine I could break,
That would encloseth on my finger’s curls,
But never would I shatter this your ring.
GUINEVERE.
love it well.
LAUNCELOT.
My vow, or your own ring?
GUINEVERE.
I cherish mine own ring now bound to you,
But I love thee, and thine Epistles more.
LAUNCELOT.
Then take them as for Gospel, Gwen, my Love.
GUINEVERE.
And take of me what I may tell you now:
We must encounter not and risk ourselves
A moment longer now or e’er again.
LAUNCELOT.
So means my Lady to deny her Love
The very foode that doth sustain his life?
GUINEVERE.
So mean I to deny all love to thee,
For as I dam it in King Arthur’s Court
When it may be unleash’d it cannot hide,
For it o’erruns the banks of any River:
And by this public flooding ‘twill be known
To every Kingdom’s fields and Arthur’s ears.
LAUNCELOT.
Pray, if ‘twould be the final time we meet,
I prithee kiss me as it was the first.
GUINEVERE.
If it doth seal the tearing of our contract,
Then I shall sign it with unwilling Lippes.
(Enter ARTHUR, MORDRED, AGRAVAINE and TORCH BEARERS.)
ARTHUR.
I see you now, revealed of your Sin,
Most trusted Knight and noble Queen…
(Scene continues)
The Tragedy of King Arthur (Act V, Scene 3) by Daniel James Roth (2019)
LAUNCELOT.
I would not, Guinevere, you travel more,
For if by some Dark Miracle we lose,
You must be safe from any who’d assail you.
GUINEVERE.
My lord;
My every nights are plagued with my Guilt,
And every Bone in me is trembled by’t;
So when defeat is made to false king Mordred,
I shall be there that Arthur may reclaim
What you revoked from his just sentencing.
I prithee, hold, my Launcelot:
I must return me to our Justice Arthur.
LAUNCELOT.
prithee, Guinevere--
GUINEVERE.
Nay, bar me not.
If ever thou hast been avow’d to me,
And ever I have been to him and thee,
Now let me go and give myself to’s laws;
The righter may my future be.
LAUNCELOT.
For Sir Gareth who died that I may save you,
Shall it be all in disappointed waste?
GUINEVERE.
You saved me not from any sentencing,
Nay only you delayed my coming to Godde;
For I was ready to be judged and damn’d,
And by your saviour I still live in Foulness,
Not having been reborn or baptized new.
You took me safely as you took my choice
That I had ready been to die alone,
And now I choose anew to go once more,
For everything in Nature and in Heaven
Still tells me I must fly to Pluto’s Kingdom.
LAUNCELOT.
My Love;
I’m Plagued as well as thee, alas the night,
My Bones are rattled heavy, as thou’st said;
So come I now to save his royal throne,
That I might scour my face with noble blood.
We’ve turned our vows against him both alike;
So turn we both our lives to him.
If God will grant the day we should prevail
Our King will have us both entomb’d in jail.
Come, go we, Guinevere.
I would not, Guinevere, you travel more,
For if by some Dark Miracle we lose,
You must be safe from any who’d assail you.
GUINEVERE.
My lord;
My every nights are plagued with my Guilt,
And every Bone in me is trembled by’t;
So when defeat is made to false king Mordred,
I shall be there that Arthur may reclaim
What you revoked from his just sentencing.
I prithee, hold, my Launcelot:
I must return me to our Justice Arthur.
LAUNCELOT.
prithee, Guinevere--
GUINEVERE.
Nay, bar me not.
If ever thou hast been avow’d to me,
And ever I have been to him and thee,
Now let me go and give myself to’s laws;
The righter may my future be.
LAUNCELOT.
For Sir Gareth who died that I may save you,
Shall it be all in disappointed waste?
GUINEVERE.
You saved me not from any sentencing,
Nay only you delayed my coming to Godde;
For I was ready to be judged and damn’d,
And by your saviour I still live in Foulness,
Not having been reborn or baptized new.
You took me safely as you took my choice
That I had ready been to die alone,
And now I choose anew to go once more,
For everything in Nature and in Heaven
Still tells me I must fly to Pluto’s Kingdom.
LAUNCELOT.
My Love;
I’m Plagued as well as thee, alas the night,
My Bones are rattled heavy, as thou’st said;
So come I now to save his royal throne,
That I might scour my face with noble blood.
We’ve turned our vows against him both alike;
So turn we both our lives to him.
If God will grant the day we should prevail
Our King will have us both entomb’d in jail.
Come, go we, Guinevere.
