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Read Ebook: Becket and other plays by Tennyson Alfred Tennyson Baron
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Ebook has 797 lines and 37733 words, and 16 pages
HENRY. So then our good Archbishop Theobald Lies dying.
BECKET. I am grieved to know as much.
HENRY. But we must have a mightier man than he For his successor.
BECKET. Have you thought of one?
HENRY. A cleric lately poison'd his own mother, And being brought before the courts of the Church, They but degraded him. I hope they whipt him. I would have hang'd him.
BECKET. It is your move.
HENRY. Well--there. Tracy, what dost thou here?
DE TRACY. My lord, I follow'd Reginald Fitzurse.
BECKET. Follow him out!
DE TRACY. I shall remember this Discourtesy. . At thy feet!
DE MORVILLE. Will the earth gape and swallow us?
DE BRITO. The deed's done-- Away!
Fair Sir, a happy day to you! You reck but little of the Roman here, While you can take your pastime in the woods.
SlNNATUS. Ay, ay, why not? What would you with me, man?
SlNNATUS. Your name?
SlNNATUS. No Roman name?
SINNATUS . I tell thee, my good fellow, My arrow struck the stag.
CAMMA. Come, come, we will not quarrel about the stag. I have had a weary day in watching you. Yours must have been a wearier. Sit and eat, And take a hunter's vengeance on the meats.
SINNATUS. No, no--we have eaten--we are heated. Wine!
CAMMA. Who is our guest?
SINNATUS. Strato he calls himself.
SINNATUS . What's here?
CAMMA. A strange gift sent to me to-day. A sacred cup saved from a blazing shrine Of our great Goddess, in some city where Antonius past. I had believed that Rome Made war upon the peoples not the Gods.
SINNATUS. Had you then No message with the cup?
SINNATUS . 'To the admired Camma,--beheld you afar off--loved you--sends you this cup--the cup we use in our marriages--cannot at present write himself other than 'A GALATIAN SERVING BY FORCE IN THE ROMAN LEGION.'
Serving by force! Were there no boughs to hang on, Rivers to drown in? Serve by force? No force Could make me serve by force.
SINNATUS. Province!
SINNATUS . Province!
SINNATUS. Not set myself abroach And run my mind out to a random guest Who join'd me in the hunt. You saw my hounds True to the scent; and we have two-legg'd dogs Among us who can smell a true occasion, And when to bark and how.
CAMMA. Sir, I had once A boy who died a babe; but were he living And grown to man and Sinnatus will'd it, I Would set him in the front rank of the fight With scarce a pang. Sir, if a state submit At once, she may be blotted out at once And swallow'd in the conqueror's chronicle. Whereas in wars of freedom and defence The glory and grief of battle won or lost Solders a race together--yea--tho' they fail, The names of those who fought and fell are like A bank'd-up fire that flashes out again From century to century, and at last May lead them on to victory--I hope so-- Like phantoms of the Gods.
SINNATUS. Well spoken, wife.
SINNATUS. I should not wonder If Synorix, who has dwelt three years in Rome And wrought his worst against his native land. Returns with this Antonius.
SINNATUS. Galatian, and not know? This Synorix Was Tetrarch here, and tyrant also--did Dishonour to our wives.
CAMMA. Do not say so. I know of no such wives in all Galatia. There may be courtesans for aught I know Whose life is one dishonour.
ATTENDANT . My lord, the men!
SINNATUS . Our anti-Roman faction?
ATTENDANT . Ay, my lord.
CAMMA. I thank you from my heart.
CAMMA. I am tender enough. Why do you practise on me?
CAMMA. I owe you thanks for ever.
CAMMA. What plot?
CAMMA. Why said you not as much to my brave Sinnatus?
I have made her tremble. I know they mean to torture him to death. I dare not tell him how I came to know it; I durst not trust him with--my serving Rome To serve Galatia: you heard him on the letter. Not say as much? I all but said as much. I am sure I told him that his plot was folly. I say it to you--you are wiser--Rome knows all, But you know not the savagery of Rome.
CAMMA. O--have you power with Rome? use it for him!
He will pass to-morrow In the gray dawn before the Temple doors. You have beauty,--O great beauty,--and Antonius, So gracious toward women, never yet Flung back a woman's prayer. Plead to him, I am sure you will prevail.
CAMMA. Still--I should tell My husband.
CAMMA. I fear not.
Think,--torture,--death,--and come.
CAMMA. I will, I will. And I will not betray you.
SINNATUS. Thou art that Synorix! One whom thou hast wrong'd Without there, knew thee with Antonius. They howl for thee, to rend thee head from limb.
SINNATUS. Serve thyself first, villain! They shall not harm My guest within my house. There! there! this door Opens upon the forest! Out, begone! Henceforth I am thy mortal enemy.
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