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

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.

SINNATUS. Wherefore should you doubt it? One of the men there knew him.

CAMMA. Only one, And he perhaps mistaken in the face.

SINNATUS. Come, come, could he deny it? What did he say?

CAMMA. Not kindly to them?

CAMMA. Yet he seem'd kindly, And said he loathed the cruelties that Rome Wrought on her vassals.

CAMMA. And you, that seldom brook the stranger here, Have let him hunt the stag with you to-day.

CAMMA. Why no, he never touch'd upon the stag.

CAMMA. Nay, close not yet the door upon a night That looks half day.

SINNATUS. True; and my friends may spy him And slay him as he runs.

CAMMA. He is gone already. Oh look,--yon grove upon the mountain,--white In the sweet moon as with a lovelier snow! But what a blotch of blackness underneath! Sinnatus, you remember--yea, you must, That there three years ago--the vast vine-bowers Ran to the summit of the trees, and dropt Their streamers earthward, which a breeze of May Took ever and anon, and open'd out The purple zone of hill and heaven; there You told your love; and like the swaying vines-- Yea,--with our eyes,--our hearts, our prophet hopes Let in the happy distance, and that all But cloudless heaven which we have found together In our three married years! You kiss'd me there For the first time. Sinnatus, kiss me now.

SINNATUS. First kiss. There then. You talk almost as if it Might be the last.

CAMMA. Will you not eat a little?

SINNATUS. No, no, we found a goat-herd's hut and shared His fruits and milk. Liar! You will believe Now that he never struck the stag--a brave one Which you shall see to-morrow.

CAMMA. I rise to-morrow In the gray dawn, and take this holy cup To lodge it in the shrine of Artemis.

SINNATUS. Good!

CAMMA. If I be not back in half an hour, Come after me.

SINNATUS. What! is there danger?

CAMMA. Nay, None that I know: 'tis but a step from here To the Temple.

CAMMA . Your shadow. Synorix-- His face was not malignant, and he said That men malign'd him. Shall I go? Shall I go? Death, torture-- 'He never yet flung back a woman's prayer'-- I go, but I will have my dagger with me.

Music and Singing in the Temple.

PUBLIUS. Here!

PUBLIUS. When you cry 'Rome, Rome,' to seize On whomsoever may be talking with you, Or man, or woman, as traitors unto Rome.

CAMMA. Where is Antonius?

CAMMA. To lodge this cup Within the holy shrine of Artemis, And so return.

CAMMA. Where is Antonius?

CAMMA. Too early to be here alone with thee; For whether men malign thy name, or no, It bears an evil savour among women. Where is Antonius?

CAMMA. No, not one step with thee. Where is Antonius?

CAMMA . Stay!--too near is death.

SINNATUS. Adulterous dog!

CAMMA . Farewell!

Twice I cried Rome. Why came ye not before?

PUBLIUS. Why come we now? Whom shall we seize upon?

ACT II

Artemis, Artemis, hear us, O Mother, hear us, and bless us! Artemis, thou that art life to the wind, to the wave, to the glebe, to the fire! Hear thy people who praise thee! O help us from all that oppress us! Hear thy priestesses hymn thy glory! O yield them all their desire!

PRIESTESS. Phoebe, that man from Synorix, who has been So oft to see the Priestess, waits once more Before the Temple.

PRIESTESS. To marry him who stabb'd her Sinnatus. You will not easily make me credit that.

PHOEBE. Ask her.

PRIESTESS. You will not marry Synorix?

CAMMA. My girl, I am the bride of Death, and only Marry the dead.

PRIESTESS. Not Synorix then?

CAMMA.

My girl, At times this oracle of great Artemis Has no more power than other oracles To speak directly.

PHOEBE. Will you speak to him, The messenger from Synorix who waits Before the Temple?

MESSENGER . Greeting and health from Synorix! More than once You have refused his hand. When last I saw you, You all but yielded. He entreats you now For your last answer. When he struck at Sinnatus-- As I have many a time declared to you-- He knew not at the moment who had fasten'd About his throat--he begs you to forget it. As scarce his act:--a random stroke: all else Was love for you: he prays you to believe him.

CAMMA. I pray him to believe--that I believe him.

MESSENGER. Why that is well. You mean to marry him?

CAMMA. I mean to marry him--if that be well.

MESSENGER. This very day the Romans crown him king For all his faithful services to Rome. He wills you then this day to marry him, And so be throned together in the sight Of all the people, that the world may know You twain are reconciled, and no more feuds Disturb our peaceful vassalage to Rome.

CAMMA. To-day? Too sudden. I will brood upon it. When do they crown him?

MESSENGER. Even now.

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