- King Arthur: [singing] Don't let it be forgot / That once there was a spot / For one brief shining moment / That was known as Camelot!
- King Arthur: I love them and they answer me with pain and torment. Be it sin or not sin, they have betrayed me in their hearts and that's far sin enough. I can see it in their eyes, I can feel it when they speak, and they must pay for it and be punished. I shall not be wounded and not return it in kind! I'm through with feeble hoping! I demand a man's vengeance!
- [Calming down]
- King Arthur: Proposition: I'm a king, not a man. And a very civilized king. Could it possibly be civilized to destroy the thing I love? Could it possibly be civilized to love myself above all? What about their pain? And their torment? Did they ask for this calamity? Can passion be selected? Is there any doubt of their devotion to me? To our table?
- King Arthur: All we've been through, for nothing but an idea! Something that you cannot taste, smell, or feel; without substance, life, reality, memory.
- King Arthur: We must arrange for your knighthood.
- Lancelot Du Lac: No, sire! Invest me because of deeds, not words! Give me an order!
- King Arthur: Now?
- Lancelot Du Lac: This moment! Is there some wrong I can right, some peril I can face, some quest I can undertake?
- King Arthur: Well... actually... there's not much going on today. The Queen and some of her court have gone a-maying.
- Lancelot Du Lac: Gone... a-maying?
- King Arthur: Well, it's a sort of... um... picnic? They pick flowers and chase young...
- Lancelot Du Lac: Picnic?
- King Arthur: It's a custom we have here. This is England, you know. And this is the season for gathering flowers.
- Lancelot Du Lac: Knights? Gathering FLOWERS?
- King Arthur: Well, SOMEONE has to do it!
- King Arthur as a Boy: What's the best thing for being sad?
- Merlyn: The best thing for being sad is to learn something.
- King Arthur: [sardonically] Mordred, I must remind you that I am a civilized man. With occasional lapses.
- King Arthur: Proposition. It is far better to be alive than dead.
- Guinevere: Hmm. Far better.
- King Arthur: If that is so, then why do we have wars in which peopIe can get kiIIed?
- Mordred: I a knight? Come, Your Majesty. Look at me! I despise the sword, I Ioathe the spear, and I detest horses. I've been taught to pIace needs ahead of conscience, comfort ahead of principle. I find charity offensive and kindness a trap. I Iike - my ladies married, my wiII power weak, my wine strong, and my saints fallen. Come. What kind of knight couId you make of me?
- King Arthur: I can't quite remember all that Merlyn taught me, but I do remember this. That happiness is a virtue. No one can be happy and wicked. Triumphant, perhaps, but not happy.
- King Arthur: [to Mordred] Far more seasoned rascals than you have polished their souls, I advise you, get out the wax. Better to be rubbed clean than rubbed out.
- Chorus: [singing offscreen] Guinevere, Guinevere / In that dim, mournful year / Saw the men she held so dear / Go to war for Guinevere
- King Arthur: By God, I shall be a king! This is the time of King Arthur, when we shall - reach for the stars! This is the time of King Arthur when violence is not strength and compassion is not weakness. We are civilized!
- [last lines]
- King Pellinore: Arthur, who was that?
- King Arthur: One of what we aII are, PeIIi! Less than a drop in the great bIue motion of the sunIit sea. But it seems that some of the drops sparkIe, Pelli! Some of them *do* sparkIe! Run, boy! Run, boy! Run! Oh, run - my boy!
- King Arthur: Merlyn told me once, "Never be too disturbed if you don't understand what a woman is thinking. They don't do it very often." But what do you do whiIe they're doing it?
- Lancelot Du Lac: Dap, you are older than I. You know this Earth better than I. I only fell upon it a few hours ago.
- Dap: What are you talking about?
- Lancelot Du Lac: Guinevere!
- Lancelot Du Lac: Ginny, I - I love you. God forgive me, but I do.
- Guinevere: Then God forgive us both, Lance.
- King Arthur: [King Arthur runs into the room] Ginny, Ginny! Oh, what a glorious day!
- Lancelot Du Lac: The next time you traffic with me, remember... you challenge the right hand of King Arthur!
- King Arthur: I *am* King Arthur!
- Lancelot Du Lac: What? You... are the king?
- King Arthur: Almost the *late* king...
- Chorus: [singing offscreen] Guinevere, Guinevere / Oh, they found Guinevere / In the dying candle's gleam / Came the sundown of a dream
- [first lines]
- A Knight: The rules of battle are not for Lancelot Du Lac, Your Majesty! Let us attack now while they sleep!
- King Arthur: [firmly] We will attack when I give the command - at dawn.
- [the knight leaves, and Arthur begins to talk to himself]
- King Arthur: Oh, Merlyn, Merlyn, why is Ginny in that castle, behind walls I cannot enter? How did I blunder into this agonizing absurdity? Where did I stumble? How did I go wrong? Should I not have loved her?
- [sighs]
- King Arthur: Then I should not have been born! Oh, Merlyn, I haven't got much time. Within an inch of sunlight, the arrows begin to fly. If I am to die in battle, please, please do not let me die bewildered!
- Merlyn: [voice only, far off in the distance] Think back, Arthur! Think back!
- Guinevere: How long before we get to Camelot?
- Lady Clarinda: Soon, Ma'am. But don't look out there. It's a ghastly forest.
- Guinevere: It's the most ferocious, savage, terrifying forest I've ever seen. I simply adore it.
- Lady Clarinda: Does your ladyship not realize that this forest is crawling with outlaws and dragons?
- Guinevere: Oh, Clari, do you think there's any chance of meeting one?
- Lady Clarinda: Don't say it, Ma'am.
- Guinevere: It would be marvelous.
- Guinevere: You could be my protector! You think of it? You could defend me all over the world in France and England, Mongolia. Scotland.
- King Arthur: Proposition. Right or wrong. They have the might. So, right or wrong. They're always right. That's wrong. Right?
- King Pellinore: Excuse a, ah - me. But do you not have any, ah, activities? Any, ah, hobbies? Any, ah, chambering de coucher?
- Lancelot Du Lac: No, Pellinore.
- King Pellinore: [to King Arthur] There, you see. You see. Now, why can't he be like the other chaps instead of like himself? Why can't he come home in the evening and hang up his shield and do something that he can be ashamed of! Hmmm? He sure is French.
- King Arthur: Proposition. If I could choose from every woman who breathes on this earth, the face I would most love, the smile, the touch, the heart, the voice, the laugh, the soul, itself, every detail and feature to the last strand of the hair, they would all be Ginny's.
- King Arthur: Proposition. If I could choose from every man who breathes on this earth, a man for my brother, a man for my son, and a man for my friend, it would all be Lance.
- Guinevere: I want you to go, Lance.
- Lancelot Du Lac: Ginny, Ginny.
- Guinevere: No, I do. I don't worry about the future, we have none. But, if anything happened to the past, any more shame and any more guilt, could make a ruin of it. The past is all I have. The past is all I have.
- Guinevere: Don't stare. It's rude. Who are you?
- King Arthur: ActuaIIy, they caII me Wart, actuaIIy.
- Guinevere: You sure you heard them properIy?
- Guinevere: [singing] Where are aII the simpIe joys of maidenhood? Where are aII those adoring, daring boys? Where's the knight pining so for me? He Ieaps to death in woe for me, Oh, where are a maiden's simpIe joys?
- King Arthur: Wait, please. Don't run, I won't harm you.
- Guinevere: You Iie! You'II Ieap on me and throw me to the ground!
- King Arthur: I won't do any such thing.
- Guinevere: You'II sling me over your shoulder and carry me off!
- King Arthur: No, no, no, no. I swear by the sword ExcaIibur, I won't touch you.
- Guinevere: Why not? How dare you insuIt me in this fashion? Do my Iooks repeI you?
- Lancelot Du Lac: All fanatics are irritating, Pellinore. And I am a fanatic. And I don't enjoy it any more than you do.
- Lancelot Du Lac: How can I go, Ginny? Look at you. When would I?
- [singing]
- Lancelot Du Lac: If ever I would leave you, It wouldn't be in Summer, Seeing you in Summer, I never would go, Your hair streaked with sunIight, Your lips red as flame...
- King Arthur: How - is your mother?
- Mordred: As ravishing as ever. Which is hardIy surprising. Vigilant selfishness is wonderful for the skin.
- King Arthur: And Prince Claudius?
- Mordred: Oh, I haven't seen him in a while. He locked himself in a tower four years ago to get away from Mother.
- Mordred: Your Majesty, why not ignore the verdict and pardon her? But you can't do that, can you? Let her die, your Iife is over. Let her Iive, your Iife's a fraud. KiII the Queen or the law.
- Mordred: [after Lancelot and his forces save Guinevere and kill eighty knights in the courtyard] Your tabIe has cracked, Arthur. Shall I save the timbers for her next stake?
- King Arthur: [after telling Guinevere how he pulled Excalibur from the stone] That's how I became king. I never knew I would be. I never *wanted* to be! And since I am, I have been ill at ease in my crown... until I dropped from the tree, and my eyes beheld you. And then, for the first time, I *felt* like a king. I was *glad* to be king. and most astonishing of all, I wanted to be the most heroic, the wisest, the most splendid king ever to sit on any throne.
- King Arthur: [singing] In short, there's simply not / a more congenial spot / for happily ever aftering than here in Camelot.
- Guinevere: Must we talk about Mordred? This is the first time in a month that he's not coming to dinner and not having him makes it seem like a party!
- Lancelot Du Lac: If the king grants you clemency, you shall be banished. If not, you hang.
- King Arthur: Clemency is granted.
- Guinevere: Was there ever a more inconvenient marriage of convenience? Here am I, at the golden age of seductibility and is my fate sealed with a kiss? Is it? No. Sealed with a seal.
- King Arthur: Ginny, Ginny, suppose we create a new order of chivalry? A new order where might is only used for right! To improve instead of to destroy. Look, we'll invite all the knights, all the kings of all the kingdoms, to lay down there arms to come and join us. Oh yes, Ginny. I will take one of the large rooms in the castle, put a table in it, and all the knights will gather at it.
- Guinevere: And do what?
- King Arthur: Talk across it. Debate. Make laws. Plan improvements!
- Guinevere: But, Arthur, do you think all the knights will ever want to? To do such a ridiculously peaceful thing?
- King Arthur: We'll make it a great honor. Very fashionable! Everyone will want to join! Only now, the knights will whack only for good. Might for right. Might for right. Might - for - right. That's it, Ginny. Might. No, not might is right. Might - For - Right!
- Guinevere: It's very original.
- King Arthur: Yes. Yes-Yes. And civilized, Ginny.
- Guinevere: Arthur, it will have to be an awfully large table. Won't there be jealousy? All the knights will be claiming superiority and want to sit at the head.
- King Arthur: We'll make it - a round table. So, there is no head.
- Lancelot Du Lac: My strength, from purity.
- King Arthur: Well, that's a unique recipe.
- Dap: He is a unique man, your majesty.
- King Arthur: I have stumbled on my future. I-I-I've done - the right thing!
- Lancelot Du Lac: Did you ever doubt it, your majesty?
- King Arthur: Oh, of course. Of course. Only fools never doubt.
- King Pellinore: It's all his fault, you know. Emperor Charlemagne, there. He has no activities. That's his trouble. No secular pleasures.
- King Arthur: Well, this is appalling Ginny! It will seem to the court that you are championing his defeat!
- Guinevere: We don't know if he'll be defeated. He knocked you unconscious. You woke up his bosom friend. Perhaps he'll knock them out too and they'll all take a house by the sea together.
- King Arthur: Ginny, I realize he's having a difficult time adjusting. He's a stranger! He's not even English. He's French!
- Guinevere: Well, he suffers in translation.