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Read Ebook: Queen Mary; and Harold by Tennyson Alfred Tennyson Baron
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Ebook has 149 lines and 6927 words, and 3 pages
QUEEN MARY: A DRAMA HAROLD: A DRAMA
QUEEN MARY: A DRAMA.
QUEEN MARY.
CROWD. MARSHALMEN.
MARSHALMAN. Stand back, keep a clear lane! When will her Majesty pass, sayst thou? why now, even now; wherefore draw back your heads and your horns before I break them, and make what noise you will with your tongues, so it be not treason. Long live Queen Mary, the lawful and legitimate daughter of Harry the Eighth! Shout, knaves!
CITIZENS. Long live Queen Mary!
FIRST CITIZEN. That's a hard word, legitimate; what does it mean?
SECOND CITIZEN. It means a bastard.
THIRD CITIZEN. Nay, it means true-born.
FIRST CITIZEN. Why, didn't the Parliament make her a bastard?
SECOND CITIZEN. No; it was the Lady Elizabeth.
THIRD CITIZEN. That was after, man; that was after.
FIRST CITIZEN. Then which is the bastard?
SECOND CITIZEN. Troth, they be both bastards by Act of Parliament and Council.
THIRD CITIZEN. Ay, the Parliament can make every true-born man of us a bastard. Old Nokes, can't it make thee a bastard? thou shouldst know, for thou art as white as three Christmasses.
OLD NOKES . Who's a-passing? King Edward or King Richard?
THIRD CITIZEN. No, old Nokes.
OLD NOKES. It's Harry!
THIRD CITIZEN. It's Queen Mary.
HAROLD
FIRST COURTIER. Lo! there once more--this is the seventh night! Yon grimly-glaring, treble-brandish'd scourge Of England!
SECOND COURTIER. Horrible!
FIRST COURTIER. Look you, there's a star That dances in it as mad with agony!
THIRD COURTIER. Ay, like a spirit in Hell who skips and flies To right and left, and cannot scape the flame.
SECOND COURTIER. Steam'd upward from the undescendable Abysm.
FIRST COURTIER. Or floated downward from the throne Of God Almighty.
ALDWYTH. Gamel, son of Orm, What thinkest thou this means?
GAMEL. War, my dear lady!
ALDWYTH. Doth this affright thee?
GAMEL. Mightily, my dear lady!
ALDWYTH. Stand by me then, and look upon my face, Not on the comet.
Brother! why so pale?
MORCAR. It glares in heaven, it flares upon the Thames, The people are as thick as bees below, They hum like bees,--they cannot speak--for awe; Look to the skies, then to the river, strike Their hearts, and hold their babies up to it. I think that they would Molochize them too, To have the heavens clear.
ALDWYTH. They fright not me.
Ask thou Lord Leofwin what he thinks of this!
MORCAR. Lord Leofwin, dost thou believe, that these Three rods of blood-red fire up yonder mean The doom of England and the wrath of Heaven?
BISHOP OF LONDON . Did ye not cast with bestial violence Our holy Norman bishops down from all Their thrones in England? I alone remain. Why should not Heaven be wroth?
LEOFWIN. With us, or thee?
BISHOP OF LONDON. Did ye not outlaw your archbishop Robert, Robert of Jumieges--well-nigh murder him too? Is there no reason for the wrath of Heaven?
LEOFWIN. Why then the wrath of Heaven hath three tails, The devil only one.
EDITH. Are those the blessed angels quiring, father?
STIGAND. No, daughter, but the canons out of Waltham, The king's foundation, that have follow'd him.
EDITH. O God of battles, make their wall of shields Firm as thy cliffs, strengthen their palisades! What is that whirring sound?
STIGAND. The Norman arrow!
EDITH. Look out upon the battle--is he safe?
STIGAND. The king of England stands between his banners. He glitters on the crowning of the hill. God save King Harold!
EDITH. --chosen by his people And fighting for his people!
STIGAND. There is one Come as Goliath came of yore--he flings His brand in air and catches it again, He is chanting some old warsong.
EDITH. And no David To meet him?
STIGAND. Ay, there springs a Saxon on him, Falls--and another falls.
EDITH. Have mercy on us!
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