The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley Part 90

WILLIAMS, BISHOP OF LINCOLN.

SECRETARY LYTTELTON.

JUXON.

ST. JOHN.

ARCHY, THE COURT FOOL.

HAMPDEN.

PYM.

CROMWELL.

CROMWELL'S DAUGHTER.

SIR HARRY VANE THE YOUNGER.

LEIGHTON.

BASTWICK.

PRYNNE.

GENTLEMEN OF THE INNS OF COURT, CITIZENS, PURSUIVANTS, MARSHALSMEN, LAW STUDENTS, JUDGES, CLERK.

SCENE 1: THE MASQUE OF THE INNS OF COURT.

A PURSUIVANT: Place, for the Marshal of the Masque!

FIRST CITIZEN: What thinkest thou of this quaint masque which turns, Like morning from the shadow of the night, The night to day, and London to a place Of peace and joy?

SECOND CITIZEN: And h.e.l.l to Heaven. _5 Eight years are gone, And they seem hours, since in this populous street I trod on gra.s.s made green by summer's rain, For the red plague kept state within that palace Where now that vanity reigns. In nine years more _10 The roots will be refreshed with civil blood; And thank the mercy of insulted Heaven That sin and wrongs wound, as an orphan's cry, The patience of the great Avenger's ear.

NOTE: _10 now that vanity reigns 1870; now reigns vanity 1824.

A YOUTH: Yet, father, 'tis a happy sight to see, _15 Beautiful, innocent, and unforbidden By G.o.d or man;--'tis like the bright procession Of skiey visions in a solemn dream From which men wake as from a Paradise, And draw new strength to tread the thorns of life. _20 If G.o.d be good, wherefore should this be evil?

And if this be not evil, dost thou not draw Unseasonable poison from the flowers Which bloom so rarely in this barren world?

Oh, kill these bitter thoughts which make the present _25 Dark as the future!--

When Avarice and Tyranny, vigilant Fear, And open-eyed Conspiracy lie sleeping As on h.e.l.l's threshold; and all gentle thoughts Waken to wors.h.i.+p Him who giveth joys _30 With His own gift.

SECOND CITIZEN: How young art thou in this old age of time!

How green in this gray world? Canst thou discern The signs of seasons, yet perceive no hint Of change in that stage-scene in which thou art _35 Not a spectator but an actor? or Art thou a puppet moved by [enginery]?

The day that dawns in fire will die in storms, Even though the noon be calm. My travel's done,-- Before the whirlwind wakes I shall have found _40 My inn of lasting rest; but thou must still Be journeying on in this inclement air.

Wrap thy old cloak about thy back; Nor leave the broad and plain and beaten road, Although no flowers smile on the trodden dust, _45 For the violet paths of pleasure. This Charles the First Rose like the equinoctial sun,...

By vapours, through whose threatening ominous veil Darting his altered influence he has gained This height of noon--from which he must decline _50 Amid the darkness of conflicting storms, To dank extinction and to latest night...

There goes The apostate Strafford; he whose t.i.tles whispered aphorisms _55 From Machiavel and Bacon: and, if Judas Had been as brazen and as bold as he--

NOTES: _33-_37 Canst...enginery 1870; Canst thou not think Of change in that low scene, in which thou art Not a spectator but an actor?... 1824.

_43-_57 Wrap...bold as he 1870; omitted 1824.

FIRST CITIZEN: That Is the Archbishop.

SECOND CITIZEN: Rather say the Pope: London will be soon his Rome: he walks As if he trod upon the heads of men: _60 He looks elate, drunken with blood and gold;-- Beside him moves the Babylonian woman Invisibly, and with her as with his shadow, Mitred adulterer! he is joined in sin, Which turns Heaven's milk of mercy to revenge. _65

THIRD CITIZEN [LIFTING UP HIS EYES]: Good Lord! rain it down upon him!...

Amid her ladies walks the papist queen, As if her nice feet scorned our English earth.

The Canaanitish Jezebel! I would be A dog if I might tear her with my teeth! _70 There's old Sir Henry Vane, the Earl of Pembroke, Lord Ess.e.x, and Lord Keeper Coventry, And others who make base their English breed By vile partic.i.p.ation of their honours With papists, atheists, tyrants, and apostates. _75 When lawyers masque 'tis time for honest men To strip the vizor from their purposes.

A seasonable time for masquers this!

When Englishmen and Protestants should sit dust on their dishonoured heads _80 To avert the wrath of Him whose scourge is felt For the great sins which have drawn down from Heaven and foreign overthrow.

The remnant of the martyred saints in Rochefort Have been abandoned by their faithless allies _85 To that idolatrous and adulterous torturer Lewis of France,--the Palatinate is lost-- [ENTER LEIGHTON (WHO HAS BEEN BRANDED IN THE FACE) AND BASTWICK.]

Canst thou be--art thou?

NOTE: _73 make 1824; made 1839.

LEIGHTON: I WAS Leighton: what I AM thou seest. And yet turn thine eyes, And with thy memory look on thy friend's mind, _90 Which is unchanged, and where is written deep The sentence of my judge.

THIRD CITIZEN: Are these the marks with which Laud thinks to improve the image of his Maker Stamped on the face of man? Curses upon him, The impious tyrant!

SECOND CITIZEN: It is said besides _95 That lewd and papist drunkards may profane The Sabbath with their And has permitted that most heathenish custom Of dancing round a pole dressed up with wreaths On May-day. _100 A man who thus twice crucifies his G.o.d May well ... his brother.--In my mind, friend, The root of all this ill is prelacy.

I would cut up the root.

THIRD CITIZEN: And by what means?

SECOND CITIZEN: Smiting each Bishop under the fifth rib. _105

THIRD CITIZEN: You seem to know the vulnerable place Of these same crocodiles.

SECOND CITIZEN: I learnt it in Egyptian bondage, sir. Your worm of Nile Betrays not with its flattering tears like they; For, when they cannot kill, they whine and weep. _110 Nor is it half so greedy of men's bodies As they of soul and all; nor does it wallow In slime as they in simony and lies And close l.u.s.ts of the flesh.

NOTE: _78-_114 A seasonable...of the flesh 1870; omitted 1824.

_108 bondage cj. Forman; bondages 1870.

A MARSHALSMAN: Give place, give place!

You torch-bearers, advance to the great gate, _115 And then attend the Marshal of the Masque Into the Royal presence.

A LAW STUDENT: What thinkest thou Of this quaint show of ours, my aged friend?

Even now we see the redness of the torches Inflame the night to the eastward, and the clarions _120 [Gasp?] to us on the wind's wave. It comes!

And their sounds, floating hither round the pageant, Rouse up the astonished air.

NOTE: _119-_123 Even now...air 1870; omitted 1824.

FIRST CITIZEN: I will not think but that our country's wounds May yet be healed. The king is just and gracious, _125 Though wicked counsels now pervert his will: These once cast off--

SECOND CITIZEN: As adders cast their skins And keep their venom, so kings often change; Councils and counsellors hang on one another, Hiding the loathsome _130 Like the base patchwork of a leper's rags.

THE YOUTH: Oh, still those dissonant thoughts!--List how the music Grows on the enchanted air! And see, the torches Restlessly flas.h.i.+ng, and the crowd divided Like waves before an admiral's prow!

NOTE: _132 how the 1870; loud 1824.

A MARSHALSMAN: Give place _135 To the Marshal of the Masque!

A PURSUIVANT: Room for the King!

NOTE: _136 A Pursuivant: Room for the King! 1870; omitted 1824.

THE YOUTH: How glorious! See those thronging chariots Rolling, like painted clouds before the wind, Behind their solemn steeds: how some are shaped Like curved sea-sh.e.l.ls dyed by the azure depths _140 Of Indian seas; some like the new-born moon; And some like cars in which the Romans climbed (Canopied by Victory's eagle-wings outspread) The Capitolian--See how gloriously The mettled horses in the torchlight stir _145 Their gallant riders, while they check their pride, Like shapes of some diviner element Than English air, and beings n.o.bler than The envious and admiring mult.i.tude.