The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley Part 94

[ENTER BISHOP WILLIAMS GUARDED.]

STRAFFORD: 'Twere politic and just that Williams taste _55 The bitter fruit of his connection with The schismatics. But you, my Lord Archbishop, Who owed your first promotion to his favour, Who grew beneath his smile--

LAUD: Would therefore beg The office of his judge from this High Court,-- _60 That it shall seem, even as it is, that I, In my a.s.sumption of this sacred robe, Have put aside all worldly preference, All sense of all distinction of all persons, All thoughts but of the service of the Church.-- _65 Bishop of Lincoln!

WILLIAMS: Peace, proud hierarch!

I know my sentence, and I own it just.

Thou wilt repay me less than I deserve, In stretching to the utmost

NOTE: Scene 3. _1-_69 Bring...utmost 1870; omitted 1824.

SCENE 4: HAMPDEN, PYM, CROMWELL, HIS DAUGHTER, AND YOUNG SIR HARRY VANE.

HAMPDEN: England, farewell! thou, who hast been my cradle, Shalt never be my dungeon or my grave!

I held what I inherited in thee As p.a.w.n for that inheritance of freedom Which thou hast sold for thy despoiler's smile: _5 How can I call thee England, or my country?-- Does the wind hold?

VANE: The vanes sit steady Upon the Abbey towers. The silver lightnings Of the evening star, spite of the city's smoke, Tell that the north wind reigns in the upper air. _10 Mark too that flock of fleecy-winged clouds Sailing athwart St. Margaret's.

NOTE: _11 flock 1824; fleet 1870.

HAMPDEN: Hail, fleet herald Of tempest! that rude pilot who shall guide Hearts free as his, to realms as pure as thee, Beyond the shot of tyranny, _15 Beyond the webs of that swoln spider...

Beyond the curses, calumnies, and [lies?]

Of atheist priests! ... And thou Fair star, whose beam lies on the wide Atlantic, Athwart its zones of tempest and of calm, _20 Bright as the path to a beloved home Oh, light us to the isles of the evening land!

Like floating Edens cradled in the glimmer Of sunset, through the distant mist of years Touched by departing hope, they gleam! lone regions, _25 Where Power's poor dupes and victims yet have never Propitiated the savage fear of kings With purest blood of n.o.blest hearts; whose dew Is yet unstained with tears of those who wake To weep each day the wrongs on which it dawns; _30 Whose sacred silent air owns yet no echo Of formal blasphemies; nor impious rites Wrest man's free wors.h.i.+p, from the G.o.d who loves, To the poor worm who envies us His love!

Receive, thou young ... of Paradise. _35 These exiles from the old and sinful world!

This glorious clime, this firmament, whose lights Dart mitigated influence through their veil Of pale blue atmosphere; whose tears keep green The pavement of this moist all-feeding earth; _40 This vaporous horizon, whose dim round Is bastioned by the circ.u.mfluous sea, Repelling invasion from the sacred towers, Presses upon me like a dungeon's grate, A low dark roof, a damp and narrow wall. _45 The boundless universe Becomes a cell too narrow for the soul That owns no master; while the loathliest ward Of this wide prison, England, is a nest Of cradling peace built on the mountain tops,-- _50 To which the eagle spirits of the free, Which range through heaven and earth, and scorn the storm Of time, and gaze upon the light of truth, Return to brood on thoughts that cannot die And cannot be repelled. _55 Like eaglets floating in the heaven of time, They soar above their quarry, and shall stoop Through palaces and temples thunderproof.

NOTES: _13 rude 1870; wild 1824.

_16-_18 Beyond...priests 1870; omitted 1824.

_25 Touched 1870; Tinged 1824.

_34 To the poor 1870; Towards the 1824.

_38 their 1870; the 1824.

_46 boundless 1870; mighty 1824.

_48 owns no 1824; owns a 1870. ward 1870; spot 1824.

_50 cradling 1870; cradled 1824.

_54, _55 Return...repelled 1870; Return to brood over the [ ] thoughts That cannot die, and may not he repelled 1824.

_56-_58 Like...thunderproof 1870; omitted 1824.

SCENE 5:

ARCHY: I'll go live under the ivy that overgrows the terrace, and count the tears shed on its old [roots?] as the [wind?] plays the song of

'A widow bird sate mourning Upon a wintry bough.' _5 [SINGS]

Heigho! the lark and the owl!

One flies the morning, and one lulls the night:-- Only the nightingale, poor fond soul, Sings like the fool through darkness and light.

'A widow bird sate mourning for her love _10 Upon a wintry bough; The frozen wind crept on above, The freezing stream below.

There was no leaf upon the forest bare.

No flower upon the ground, _15 And little motion in the air Except the mill-wheel's sound.'

NOTE: Scene 5. _1-_9 I'll...light 1870; omitted 1824.

THE TRIUMPH OF LIFE.

[Composed at Lerici on the Gulf of Spezzia in the spring and early summer of 1822--the poem on which Sh.e.l.ley was engaged at the time of his death. Published by Mrs. Sh.e.l.ley in the "Posthumous Poems" of 1824, pages 73-95. Several emendations, the result of Dr. Garnett's examination of the Bos...o...b.. ma.n.u.script, were given to the world by Miss Mathilde Blind, "Westminster Review", July, 1870. The poem was, of course, included in the "Poetical Works", 1839, both editions. See Editor's Notes.]

Swift as a spirit hastening to his task Of glory and of good, the Sun sprang forth Rejoicing in his splendour, and the mask

Of darkness fell from the awakened Earth-- The smokeless altars of the mountain snows _5 Flamed above crimson clouds, and at the birth

Of light, the Ocean's orison arose, To which the birds tempered their matin lay.

All flowers in field or forest which unclose

Their trembling eyelids to the kiss of day, _10 Swinging their censers in the element, With orient incense lit by the new ray

Burned slow and inconsumably, and sent Their odorous sighs up to the smiling air; And, in succession due, did continent, _15

Isle, ocean, and all things that in them wear The form and character of mortal mould, Rise as the Sun their father rose, to bear

Their portion of the toil, which he of old Took as his own, and then imposed on them: _20 But I, whom thoughts which must remain untold

Had kept as wakeful as the stars that gem The cone of night, now they were laid asleep Stretched my faint limbs beneath the h.o.a.ry stem

Which an old chestnut flung athwart the steep _25 Of a green Apennine: before me fled The night; behind me rose the day; the deep

Was at my feet, and Heaven above my head,-- When a strange trance over my fancy grew Which was not slumber, for the shade it spread _30

Was so transparent, that the scene came through As clear as when a veil of light is drawn O'er evening hills they glimmer; and I knew

That I had felt the freshness of that dawn Bathe in the same cold dew my brow and hair, _35 And sate as thus upon that slope of lawn

Under the self-same bough, and heard as there The birds, the fountains and the ocean hold Sweet talk in music through the enamoured air, And then a vision on my train was rolled. _40

As in that trance of wondrous thought I lay, This was the tenour of my waking dream:-- Methought I sate beside a public way

Thick strewn with summer dust, and a great stream Of people there was hurrying to and fro, _45 Numerous as gnats upon the evening gleam,