The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley Part 91

NOTE: _138-40 Rolling...depths 1870; Rolling like painted clouds before the wind Some are Like curved sh.e.l.ls, dyed by the azure depths 1824.

SECOND CITIZEN: Ay, there they are-- _150 n.o.bles, and sons of n.o.bles, patentees, Monopolists, and stewards of this poor farm, On whose lean sheep sit the prophetic crows, Here is the pomp that strips the houseless orphan, Here is the pride that breaks the desolate heart. _155 These are the lilies glorious as Solomon, Who toil not, neither do they spin,--unless It be the webs they catch poor rogues withal.

Here is the surfeit which to them who earn The n.i.g.g.ard wages of the earth, scarce leaves _160 The t.i.the that will support them till they crawl Back to her cold hard bosom. Here is health Followed by grim disease, glory by shame, Waste by lame famine, wealth by squalid want, And England's sin by England's punishment. _165 And, as the effect pursues the cause foregone, Lo, giving substance to my words, behold At once the sign and the thing signified-- A troop of cripples, beggars, and lean outcasts, Horsed upon stumbling jades, carted with dung, _170 Dragged for a day from cellars and low cabins And rotten hiding-holes, to point the moral Of this presentment, and bring up the rear Of painted pomp with misery!

NOTES: _162 her 1870; its 1824.

_170 jades 1870; shapes 1824.

_173 presentment 1870; presentiment 1824.

THE YOUTH: 'Tis but The anti-masque, and serves as discords do _175 In sweetest music. Who would love May flowers If they succeeded not to Winter's flaw; Or day unchanged by night; or joy itself Without the touch of sorrow?

SECOND CITIZEN: I and thou-

A MARSHALSMAN: Place, give place! _180

NOTE: _179, _180 I...place! 1870; omitted 1824.

SCENE 2: A CHAMBER IN WHITEHALL.

ENTER THE KING, QUEEN, LAUD, LORD STRAFTORD, LORD COTTINGTON, AND OTHER LORDS; ARCHY; ALSO ST. JOHN, WITH SOME GENTLEMEN OF THE INNS OF COURT.

KING: Thanks, gentlemen. I heartily accept This token of your service: your gay masque Was performed gallantly. And it shows well When subjects twine such flowers of [observance?]

With the sharp thorns that deck the English crown. _5 A gentle heart enjoys what it confers, Even as it suffers that which it inflicts, Though Justice guides the stroke.

Accept my hearty thanks.

NOTE: _3-9 And...thanks 1870; omitted 1824.

QUEEN: And gentlemen, Call your poor Queen your debtor. Your quaint pageant _10 Rose on me like the figures of past years, Treading their still path back to infancy, More beautiful and mild as they draw nearer The quiet cradle. I could have almost wept To think I was in Paris, where these shows _15 Are well devised--such as I was ere yet My young heart shared a portion of the burthen, The careful weight, of this great monarchy.

There, gentlemen, between the sovereign's pleasure And that which it regards, no clamour lifts _20 Its proud interposition.

In Paris ribald censurers dare not move Their poisonous tongues against these sinless sports; And HIS smile Warms those who bask in it, as ours would do _25 If ... Take my heart's thanks: add them, gentlemen, To those good words which, were he King of France, My royal lord would turn to golden deeds.

ST. JOHN: Madam, the love of Englishmen can make The lightest favour of their lawful king _30 Outweigh a despot's.--We humbly take our leaves, Enriched by smiles which France can never buy.

[EXEUNT ST. JOHN AND THE GENTLEMEN OF THE INNS OF COURT.]

KING: My Lord Archbishop, Mark you what spirit sits in St. John's eyes?

Methinks it is too saucy for this presence. _35

ARCHY: Yes, pray your Grace look: for, like an unsophisticated [eye] sees everything upside down, you who are wise will discern the shadow of an idiot in lawn sleeves and a rochet setting springes to catch woodc.o.c.ks in haymaking time. Poor Archy, whose owl-eyes are tempered to the error of his age, and because he is a fool, and by special ordinance of G.o.d forbidden ever to see himself as he is, sees now in that deep eye a blindfold devil sitting on the ball, and weighing words out between king and subjects. One scale is full of promises, and the other full of protestations: and then another devil creeps behind the first out of the dark windings [of a] pregnant lawyer's brain, and takes the bandage from the other's eyes, and throws a sword into the left-hand scale, for all the world like my Lord Ess.e.x's there. _48

STRAFFORD: A rod in pickle for the Fool's back!

ARCHY: Ay, and some are now smiling whose tears will make the brine; for the Fool sees--

STRAFFORD: Insolent! You shall have your coat turned and be whipped out of the palace for this. _53

ARCHY: When all the fools are whipped, and all the Protestant writers, while the knaves are whipping the fools ever since a thief was set to catch a thief. If all turncoats were whipped out of palaces, poor Archy would be disgraced in good company. Let the knaves whip the fools, and all the fools laugh at it. [Let the] wise and G.o.dly slit each other's noses and ears (having no need of any sense of discernment in their craft); and the knaves, to marshal them, join in a procession to Bedlam, to entreat the madmen to omit their sublime Platonic contemplations, and manage the state of England. Let all the honest men who lie [pinched?] up at the prisons or the pillories, in custody of the pursuivants of the High-Commission Court, marshal them. _65

NOTE: _64 pinched marked as doubtful by Rossetti.

1870; Forman, Dowden; penned Woodberry.

[ENTER SECRETARY LYTTELTON, WITH PAPERS.]

KING [LOOKING OVER THE PAPERS]: These stiff Scots His Grace of Canterbury must take order To force under the Church's yoke.--You, Wentworth, Shall be myself in Ireland, and shall add Your wisdom, gentleness, and energy, _70 To what in me were wanting.--My Lord Weston, Look that those merchants draw not without loss Their bullion from the Tower; and, on the payment Of s.h.i.+pmoney, take fullest compensation For violation of our royal forests, _75 Whose limits, from neglect, have been o'ergrown With cottages and cornfields. The uttermost Farthing exact from those who claim exemption From knighthood: that which once was a reward Shall thus be made a punishment, that subjects _80 May know how majesty can wear at will The rugged mood.--My Lord of Coventry, Lay my command upon the Courts below That bail be not accepted for the prisoners Under the warrant of the Star Chamber. _85 The people shall not find the stubbornness Of Parliament a cheap or easy method Of dealing with their rightful sovereign: And doubt not this, my Lord of Coventry, We will find time and place for fit rebuke.-- _90 My Lord of Canterbury.

NOTE: _22-90 In Paris...rebuke 1870; omitted 1824.

ARCHY: The fool is here.

LAUD: I crave permission of your Majesty To order that this insolent fellow be Chastised: he mocks the sacred character, Scoffs at the state, and--

NOTE: _95 state 1870; stake 1824.

KING: What, my Archy? _95 He mocks and mimics all he sees and hears, Yet with a quaint and graceful licence--Prithee For this once do not as Prynne would, were he Primate of England. With your Grace's leave, He lives in his own world; and, like a parrot _100 Hung in his gilded prison from the window Of a queen's bower over the public way, Blasphemes with a bird's mind:--his words, like arrows Which know no aim beyond the archer's wit, Strike sometimes what eludes philosophy.-- _105 [TO ARCHY.]

Go, sirrah, and repent of your offence Ten minutes in the rain; be it your penance To bring news how the world goes there.

[EXIT ARCHY.]

Poor Archy!

He weaves about himself a world of mirth Out of the wreck of ours. _110

NOTES: _99 With your Grace's leave 1870; omitted 1824.

_106-_110 Go...ours spoken by THE QUEEN, 1824.

LAUD: I take with patience, as my Master did, All scoffs permitted from above.

KING: My lord, Pray overlook these papers. Archy's words Had wings, but these have talons.

QUEEN: And the lion That wears them must be tamed. My dearest lord, _115 I see the new-born courage in your eye Armed to strike dead the Spirit of the Time, Which spurs to rage the many-headed beast.

Do thou persist: for, faint but in resolve, And it were better thou hadst still remained _120 The slave of thine own slaves, who tear like curs The fugitive, and flee from the pursuer; And Opportunity, that empty wolf, Flies at his throat who falls. Subdue thy actions Even to the disposition of thy purpose, _125 And be that tempered as the Ebro's steel; And banish weak-eyed Mercy to the weak, Whence she will greet thee with a gift of peace And not betray thee with a traitor's kiss, As when she keeps the company of rebels, _130 Who think that she is Fear. This do, lest we Should fall as from a glorious pinnacle In a bright dream, and wake as from a dream Out of our wors.h.i.+pped state.

NOTES: _116 your 1824; thine 1870.

_118 Which...beast 1870; omitted 1824.

KING: Beloved friend, G.o.d is my witness that this weight of power, _135 Which He sets me my earthly task to wield Under His law, is my delight and pride Only because thou lovest that and me.

For a king bears the office of a G.o.d To all the under world; and to his G.o.d _140 Alone he must deliver up his trust, Unshorn of its permitted attributes.

[It seems] now as the baser elements Had mutinied against the golden sun That kindles them to harmony, and quells _145 Their self-destroying rapine. The wild million Strike at the eye that guides them; like as humours Of the distempered body that conspire Against the spirit of life throned in the heart,-- And thus become the prey of one another, _150 And last of death--

STRAFFORD: That which would be ambition in a subject Is duty in a sovereign; for on him, As on a keystone, hangs the arch of life, Whose safety is its strength. Degree and form, _155 And all that makes the age of reasoning man More memorable than a beast's, depend on this-- That Right should fence itself inviolably With Power; in which respect the state of England From usurpation by the insolent commons _160 Cries for reform.

Get treason, and spare treasure. Fee with coin The loudest murmurers; feed with jealousies Opposing factions,--be thyself of none; And borrow gold of many, for those who lend _165 Will serve thee till thou payest them; and thus Keep the fierce spirit of the hour at bay, Till time, and its coming generations Of nights and days unborn, bring some one chance,

Or war or pestilence or Nature's self,-- _170 By some distemperature or terrible sign, Be as an arbiter betwixt themselves.

Nor let your Majesty Doubt here the peril of the unseen event.

How did your brother Kings, coheritors _175 In your high interest in the subject earth, Rise past such troubles to that height of power Where now they sit, and awfully serene Smile on the trembling world? Such popular storms Philip the Second of Spain, this Lewis of France, _180 And late the German head of many bodies, And every petty lord of Italy, Quelled or by arts or arms. Is England poorer Or feebler? or art thou who wield'st her power Tamer than they? or shall this island be-- _185 [Girdled] by its inviolable waters-- To the world present and the world to come Sole pattern of extinguished monarchy?

Not if thou dost as I would have thee do.

KING: Your words shall be my deeds: _190 You speak the image of my thought. My friend (If Kings can have a friend, I call thee so), Beyond the large commission which [belongs]

Under the great seal of the realm, take this: And, for some obvious reasons, let there be _195 No seal on it, except my kingly word And honour as I am a gentleman.

Be--as thou art within my heart and mind-- Another self, here and in Ireland: Do what thou judgest well, take amplest licence, _200 And stick not even at questionable means.

Hear me, Wentworth. My word is as a wall Between thee and this world thine enemy-- That hates thee, for thou lovest me.