The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley Part 92

STRAFFORD: I own No friend but thee, no enemies but thine: _205 Thy lightest thought is my eternal law.

How weak, how short, is life to pay--

KING: Peace, peace.

Thou ow'st me nothing yet.

[TO LAUD.]

My lord, what say Those papers?

LAUD: Your Majesty has ever interposed, _210 In lenity towards your native soil, Between the heavy vengeance of the Church And Scotland. Mark the consequence of warming This brood of northern vipers in your bosom.

The rabble, instructed no doubt _215 By London, Lindsay, Hume, and false Argyll (For the waves never menace heaven until Scourged by the wind's invisible tyranny), Have in the very temple of the Lord Done outrage to His chosen ministers. _220 They scorn the liturgy of the Holy Church, Refuse to obey her canons, and deny The apostolic power with which the Spirit Has filled its elect vessels, even from him Who held the keys with power to loose and bind, _225 To him who now pleads in this royal presence.-- Let ample powers and new instructions be Sent to the High Commissioners in Scotland.

To death, imprisonment, and confiscation, Add torture, add the ruin of the kindred _230 Of the offender, add the brand of infamy, Add mutilation: and if this suffice not, Unleash the sword and fire, that in their thirst They may lick up that sc.u.m of schismatics.

I laugh at those weak rebels who, desiring _235 What we possess, still prate of Christian peace, As if those dreadful arbitrating messengers Which play the part of G.o.d 'twixt right and wrong, Should be let loose against the innocent sleep Of templed cities and the smiling fields, _240 For some poor argument of policy Which touches our own profit or our pride (Where it indeed were Christian charity To turn the cheek even to the smiter's hand): And, when our great Redeemer, when our G.o.d, _245 When He who gave, accepted, and retained Himself in propitiation of our sins, Is scorned in His immediate ministry, With hazard of the inestimable loss Of all the truth and discipline which is _250 Salvation to the extremest generation Of men innumerable, they talk of peace!

Such peace as Canaan found, let Scotland now: For, by that Christ who came to bring a sword, Not peace, upon the earth, and gave command _255 To His disciples at the Pa.s.sover That each should sell his robe and buy a sword,- Once strip that minister of naked wrath, And it shall never sleep in peace again Till Scotland bend or break.

NOTES: _134-_232 Beloved...mutilation 1870; omitted 1824.

_237 arbitrating messengers 1870; messengers of wrath 1824.

_239 the 1870; omitted 1524.

_243-_244 Parentheses inserted 1870.

_246, _247 When He...sins 1870; omitted 1824.

_248 ministry 1870; ministers 1824.

_249-52 With...innumerable 1870; omitted 1824.

KING: My Lord Archbishop, _260 Do what thou wilt and what thou canst in this.

Thy earthly even as thy heavenly King Gives thee large power in his unquiet realm.

But we want money, and my mind misgives me That for so great an enterprise, as yet, _265 We are unfurnished.

STRAFFORD: Yet it may not long Rest on our wills.

COTTINGTON: The expenses Of gathering s.h.i.+pmoney, and of distraining For every petty rate (for we encounter A desperate opposition inch by inch _270 In every warehouse and on every farm), Have swallowed up the gross sum of the imposts; So that, though felt as a most grievous scourge Upon the land, they stand us in small stead As touches the receipt.

STRAFFORD: 'Tis a conclusion _275 Most arithmetical: and thence you infer Perhaps the a.s.sembling of a parliament.

Now, if a man should call his dearest enemies T0 sit in licensed judgement on his life, His Majesty might wisely take that course. _280 [ASIDE TO COTTINGTON.]

It is enough to expect from these lean imposts That they perform the office of a scourge, Without more profit.

[ALOUD.]

Fines and confiscations, And a forced loan from the refractory city, Will fill our coffers: and the golden love _285 Of loyal gentlemen and n.o.ble friends For the wors.h.i.+pped father of our common country, With contributions from the catholics, Will make Rebellion pale in our excess.

Be these the expedients until time and wisdom _290 Shall frame a settled state of government.

LAUD: And weak expedients they! Have we not drained All, till the ... which seemed A mine exhaustless?

STRAFFORD: And the love which IS, If loyal hearts could turn their blood to gold. _295

LAUD: Both now grow barren: and I speak it not As loving parliaments, which, as they have been In the right hand of bold bad mighty kings The scourges of the bleeding Church, I hate.

Methinks they scarcely can deserve our fear. _300

STRAFFORD: Oh! my dear liege, take back the wealth thou gavest: With that, take all I held, but as in trust For thee, of mine inheritance: leave me but This unprovided body for thy service, And a mind dedicated to no care _305 Except thy safety:--but a.s.semble not A parliament. Hundreds will bring, like me, Their fortunes, as they would their blood, before--

KING: No! thou who judgest them art but one. Alas!

We should be too much out of love with Heaven, _310 Did this vile world show many such as thee, Thou perfect, just, and honourable man!

Never shall it be said that Charles of England Stripped those he loved for fear of those he scorns; Nor will he so much misbecome his throne _315 As to impoverish those who most adorn And best defend it. That you urge, dear Strafford, Inclines me rather--

QUEEN: To a parliament?

Is this thy firmness? and thou wilt preside Over a knot of ... censurers, _320 To the unswearing of thy best resolves, And choose the worst, when the worst comes too soon?

Plight not the worst before the worst must come.

Oh, wilt thou smile whilst our ribald foes, Dressed in their own usurped authority, _325 Sharpen their tongues on Henrietta's fame?

It is enough! Thou lovest me no more!

[WEEPS.]

KING: Oh, Henrietta!

[THEY TALK APART.]

COTTINGTON [TO LAUD]: Money we have none: And all the expedients of my Lord of Strafford Will scarcely meet the arrears.

LAUD: Without delay _330 An army must be sent into the north; Followed by a Commission of the Church, With amplest power to quench in fire and blood, And tears and terror, and the pity of h.e.l.l, The intenser wrath of Heresy. G.o.d will give _335 Victory; and victory over Scotland give The lion England tamed into our hands.

That will lend power, and power bring gold.

COTTINGTON: Meanwhile We must begin first where your Grace leaves off.

Gold must give power, or--

LAUD: I am not averse _340 From the a.s.sembling of a parliament.

Strong actions and smooth words might teach them soon The lesson to obey. And are they not A bubble fas.h.i.+oned by the monarch's mouth, The birth of one light breath? If they serve no purpose, _345 A word dissolves them.

STRAFFORD: The engine of parliaments Might be deferred until I can bring over The Irish regiments: they will serve to a.s.sure The issue of the war against the Scots.

And, this game won--which if lost, all is lost-- _350 Gather these chosen leaders of the rebels, And call them, if you will, a parliament.

KING: Oh, be our feet still tardy to shed blood.

Guilty though it may be! I would still spare The stubborn country of my birth, and ward _355 From countenances which I loved in youth The wrathful Church's lacerating hand.

[TO LAUD.]

Have you o'erlooked the other articles?

[ENTER ARCHY.]

LAUD: Hazlerig, Hampden, Pym, young Harry Vane, Cromwell, and other rebels of less note, _360 Intend to sail with the next favouring wind For the Plantations.

ARCHY: Where they think to found A commonwealth like Gonzalo's in the play, Gynaecocoenic and pantisocratic.

NOTE: _363 Gonzalo's 1870; Gonzaga Bos...o...b.. ma.n.u.script.

KING: What's that, sirrah?

ARCHY: New devil's politics. _365 h.e.l.l is the pattern of all commonwealths: Lucifer was the first republican.

Will you hear Merlin's prophecy, how three [posts?]

'In one brainless skull, when the whitethorn is full, Shall sail round the world, and come back again: _370 Shall sail round the world in a brainless skull, And come back again when the moon is at full:'-- When, in spite of the Church, They will hear homilies of whatever length Or form they please. _375

[COTTINGTON?]: So please your Majesty to sign this order For their detention.

ARCHY: If your Majesty were tormented night and day by fever, gout, rheumatism, and stone, and asthma, etc., and you found these diseases had secretly entered into a conspiracy to abandon you, should you think it necessary to lay an embargo on the port by which they meant to dispeople your unquiet kingdom of man? _383

KING: If fear were made for kings, the Fool mocks wisely; But in this case--[WRITING]. Here, my lord, take the warrant, And see it duly executed forthwith.-- That imp of malice and mockery shall be punished. _387