The Complete Poems and Plays, 1909-1950
Page 21
But in the life of one man, never
The same time returns. Sever
The cord, shed the scale. Only
The fool, fixed in his folly, may think
He can turn the wheel on which he turns.
TEMPTER. My Lord, a nod is as good as a wink.
A man will often love what he spurns.
For the good times past, that are come again
I am your man.
THOMAS. Not in this train
Look to your behaviour. You were safer
Think of penitence and follow your master.
TEMPTER. Not at this gait!
If you go so fast, others may go faster.
Your Lordship is too proud!
The safest beast is not the one that roars most loud,
This was not the way of the King our master!
You were not used to be so hard upon sinners
When they were your friends. Be easy, man!
The easy man lives to eat the best dinners.
Take a friend’s advice. Leave well alone,
Or your goose may be cooked and eaten to the bone.
THOMAS. You come twenty years too late.
TEMPTER. Then I leave you to your fate.
I leave you to the pleasures of your higher vices,
Which will have to be paid for at higher prices.
Farewell, my Lord, I do not wait upon ceremony,
I leave as I came, forgetting all acrimony,
Hoping that your present gravity
Will find excuse for my humble levity.
If you will remember me, my Lord, at your prayers,
I’ll remember you at kissing-time below the stairs.
THOMAS. Leave-well-alone, the springtime fancy,
So one thought goes whistling down the wind.
The impossible is still temptation.
The impossible, the undesirable,
Voices under sleep, waking a dead world,
So that the mind may not be whole in the present.
[Enter SECOND TEMPTER]
SECOND TEMPTER. Your Lordship has forgotten me, perhaps. I will remind you.
We met at Clarendon, at Northampton,
And last at Montmirail, in Maine. Now that I have recalled them,
Let us but set these not too pleasant memories
In balance against other, earlier
And weightier ones: those of the Chancellorship.
See how the late ones rise! You, master of policy
Whom all acknowledged, should guide the state again.
THOMAS. Your meaning?
TEMPTER. The Chancellorship that you resigned
When you were made Archbishop — that was a mistake
On your part — still may be regained. Think, my Lord,
Power obtained grows to glory,
Life lasting, a permanent possession.
A templed tomb, monument of marble.
Rule over men reckon no madness.
THOMAS. To the man of God what gladness?
TEMPTER. Sadness
Only to those giving love to God alone.
Shall he who held the solid substance
Wander waking with deceitful shadows?
Power is present. Holiness hereafter.
THOMAS. Who then?
TEMPTER. The Chancellor, King and Chancellor.
King commands. Chancellor richly rules.
This is a sentence not taught in the schools.
To set down the great, protect the poor,
Beneath the throne of God can man do more?
Disarm the ruffian, strengthen the laws,
Rule for the good of the better cause,
Dispensing justice make all even,
Is thrive on earth, and perhaps in heaven.
THOMAS. What means?
TEMPTER. Real power
Is purchased at price of a certain submission.
Your spiritual power is earthly perdition.
Power is present, for him who will wield.
THOMAS. Who shall have it?
TEMPTER. He who will come.
THOMAS. What shall be the month?
TEMPTER. The last from the first.
THOMAS. What shall we give for it?
TEMPTER. Pretence of priestly power.
THOMAS. Why should we give it?
TEMPTER. For the power and the glory.
THOMAS. No!
TEMPTER. Yes! Or bravery will be broken,
Cabined in Canterbury, realmless ruler,
Self-bound servant of a powerless Pope,
The old stag, circled with hounds.
THOMAS. No!
TEMPTER. Yes! men must manœuvre. Monarchs also,
Waging war abroad, need fast friends at home.
Private policy is public profit;
Dignity still shall be dressed with decorum.
THOMAS. You forget the bishops
Whom I have laid under excommunication.
TEMPTER. Hungry hatred
Will not strive against intelligent self-interest.
THOMAS. You forget the barons. Who will not forget
Constant curbing of petty privilege.
TEMPTER. Against the barons
Is King’s cause, churl’s cause, Chancellor’s cause.
THOMAS. No! shall I, who keep the keys
Of heaven and hell, supreme alone in England,
Who bind and loose, with power from the Pope,
Descend to desire a punier power?
Delegate to deal the doom of damnation,
To condemn kings, not serve among their servants,
Is my open office. No! Go.
TEMPTER. Then I leave you to your fate.
Your sin soars sunward, covering kings’ falcons.
THOMAS. Temporal power, to build a good world,
To keep order, as the world knows order.
Those who put their faith in worldly order
Not controlled by the order of God,
In confident ignorance, but arrest disorder,
Make it fast, breed fatal disease,
Degrade what they exalt. Power with the King —
I was the King, his arm, his better reason.
But what was once exaltation
Would now be only mean descent.
[Enter THIRD TEMPTER]
THIRD TEMPTER. I am an unexpected visitor.
THOMAS. I expected you.
TEMPTER. But not in this guise, or for my present purpose.
THOMAS. No purpose brings surprise.
TEMPTER. Well, my Lord,
I am no trifler, and no politician.
To idle or intrigue at court
I have no skill. I am no courtier.
I know a horse, a dog, a wench;
I know how to hold my estates in order,
A country-keeping lord who minds his own business.
It is we country lords who know the country
And we who know what the country needs.
It is our country. We care for the country.
We are the backbone of the nation.
We, not the plotting parasites
About the King. Excuse my bluntness:
I am a rough straightforward Englishman.
THOMAS. Proceed straight forward.
TEMPTER. Purpose is plain.
Endurance of friendship does not depend
Upon ourselves, but upon circumstance.
But circumstance is not undetermined.
Unreal friendship may turn to real
But real friendship, once ended, cannot be mended.
Sooner shall enmity turn to alliance.
The enmity that never knew friendship
Can sooner know accord.
THOMAS. For a countryman
You wrap your meaning in as dark generality
As any courtier.
TEMPTER. This is the simple fact!
You have no hope of reconciliation
With Henry the King. You look
only
To blind assertion in isolation.
That is a mistake.
THOMAS. O Henry, O my King!
TEMPTER. Other friends
May be found in the present situation.
King in England is not all-powerful;
King is in France, squabbling in Anjou;
Round him waiting hungry sons.
We are for England. We are in England.
You and I, my Lord, are Normans.
England is a land for Norman
Sovereignty. Let the Angevin
Destroy himself, fighting in Anjou.
He does not understand us, the English barons.
We are the people.
THOMAS. To what does this lead?
TEMPTER. To a happy coalition
Of intelligent interests.
THOMAS. But what have you —
If you do speak for barons —
TEMPTER. For a powerful party
Which has turned its eyes in your direction —
To gain from you, your Lordship asks.
For us, Church favour would be an advantage,
Blessing of Pope powerful protection
In the fight for liberty. You, my Lord,
In being with us, would fight a good stroke
At once, for England and for Rome,
Ending the tyrannous jurisdiction
Of king’s court over bishop’s court,
Of king’s court over baron’s court.
THOMAS. Which I helped to found.
TEMPTER. Which you helped to found.
But time past is time forgotten.
We expect the rise of a new constellation.
THOMAS. And if the Archbishop cannot trust the King,
How can he trust those who work for King’s undoing?
TEMPTER. Kings will allow no power but their own;
Church and people have good cause against the throne.
THOMAS. If the Archbishop cannot trust the Throne,
He has good cause to trust none but God alone.
I ruled once as Chancellor
And men like you were glad to wait at my door.
Not only in the court, but in the field
And in the tilt-yard I made many yield.
Shall I who ruled like an eagle over doves
Now take the shape of a wolf among wolves?
Pursue your treacheries as you have done before:
No one shall say that I betrayed a king.
TEMPTER. Then, my Lord, I shall not wait at your door.
And I well hope, before another spring
The King will show his regard for your loyalty.
THOMAS. To make, then break, this thought has come before,
The desperate exercise of failing power.
Samson in Gaza did no more.
But if I break, I must break myself alone.
[Enter FOURTH TEMPTER]
FOURTH TEMPTER. Well done, Thomas, your will is hard to bend.
And with me beside you, you shall not lack a friend.
THOMAS. Who are you? I expected
Three visitors, not four.
TEMPTER. Do not be surprised to receive one more.
Had I been expected, I had been here before.
I always precede expectation.
THOMAS. Who are you?
TEMPTER. As you do not know me, I do not need a name.
And, as you know me, that is why I come.
You know me, but have never seen my face.
To meet before was never time or place.
THOMAS. Say what you come to say.
TEMPTER. It shall be said at last.
Hooks have been baited with morsels of the past.
Wantonness is weakness. As for the King,
His hardened hatred shall have no end.
You know truly, the King will never trust
Twice, the man who has been his friend.
Borrow use cautiously, employ
Your services as long as you have to lend.
You would wait for trap to snap
Having served your turn, broken and crushed.
As for barons, envy of lesser men
Is still more stubborn than king’s anger.
Kings have public policy, barons private profit,
Jealousy raging possession of the fiend.
Barons are employable against each other;
Greater enemies must kings destroy.
THOMAS. What is your counsel?
TEMPTER. Fare forward to the end.
All other ways are closed to you
Except the way already chosen.
But what is pleasure, kingly rule.
Or rule of men beneath a king,
With craft in corners, stealthy stratagem,
To general grasp of spiritual power?
Man oppressed by sin, since Adam fell —
You hold the keys of heaven and hell.
Power to bind and loose: bind, Thomas, bind,
King and bishop under your heel.
King, emperor, bishop, baron, king:
Uncertain mastery of melting armies,
War, plague, and revolution,
New conspiracies, broken pacts;
To be master or servant within an hour,
This is the course of temporal power.
The Old King shall know it, when at last breath,
No sons, no empire, he bites broken teeth.
You hold the skein: wind, Thomas, wind
The thread of eternal life and death.
You hold this power, hold it.
THOMAS. Supreme, in this land?
TEMPTER. Supreme, but for one.
THOMAS. That I do not understand.
TEMPTER. It is not for me to tell you how this may be so;
I am only here, Thomas, to tell you what you know.
THOMAS. How long shall this be?
TEMPTER. Save what you know already, ask nothing of me.
But think, Thomas, think of glory after death.
When king is dead, there’s another king,
And one more king is another reign.
King is forgotten, when another shall come:
Saint and Martyr rule from the tomb.
Think, Thomas, think of enemies dismayed,
Creeping in penance, frightened of a shade;
Think of pilgrims, standing in line
Before the glittering jewelled shrine,
From generation to generation
Bending the knee in supplication,
Think of the miracles, by God’s grace,
And think of your enemies, in another place.
THOMAS. I have thought of these things.
TEMPTER. That is why I tell you.
Your thoughts have more power than kings to compel you.
You have also thought, sometimes at your prayers,
Sometimes hesitating at the angles of stairs,
And between sleep and waking, early in the morning,
When the bird cries, have thought of further scorning.
That nothing lasts, but the wheel turns,
The nest is rifled, and the bird mourns;
That the shrine shall be pillaged, and the gold spent,
The jewels gone for light ladies’ ornament,
The sanctuary broken, and its stores
Swept into the laps of parasites and whores.
When miracles cease, and the faithful desert you.
And men shall only do their best to forget you.
And later is worse, when men will not hate you
Enough to defame or to execrate you,