Percy Bysshe Shelley

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by Percy Bysshe Shelley


  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 worshipped state.

  KING:

  Beloved friend,

  God 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 God

  To all the under world; and to his God 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.

  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 s
cum 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 God ‘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 God, 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 Passover

  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.

  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 shipmoney, 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 assembling 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 noble friends

  For the worshipped 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 assemble 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 hell,

  The intenser wrath of Heresy. God 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 assembling of a parliament.

  Strong actions and smooth words might teach them soon

  The lesson to obey. And are they not

  A bubble fashioned 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 assure

  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.
r />   ARCHY:

  Where they think to found

  A commonwealth like Gonzalo’s in the play,

  Gynaecocoenic and pantisocratic.

  KING:

  What’s that, sirrah?

  ARCHY:

  New devil’s politics. 365

  Hell 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

  [EXEUNT ALL BUT KING, QUEEN, AND ARCHY.]

  ARCHY: Ay, I am the physician of whom Plato prophesied, who was to be accused by the confectioner before a jury of children, who found him guilty without waiting for the summing-up, and hanged him without benefit of clergy. Thus Baby Charles, and the Twelfth-night Queen of Hearts, and the overgrown schoolboy Cottington, and that little urchin Laud — who would reduce a verdict of ‘guilty, death,’ by famine, if it were impregnable by composition — all impannelled against poor Archy for presenting them bitter physic the last day of the holidays. 397

  QUEEN:

  Is the rain over, sirrah?

  KING:

  When it rains

  And the sun shines, ‘twill rain again to-morrow:

  And therefore never smile till you’ve done crying. 400

  ARCHY: But ‘tis all over now: like the April anger of woman, the gentle sky has wept itself serene.

  QUEEN:

  What news abroad? how looks the world this morning?

  ARCHY: Gloriously as a grave covered with virgin flowers. There’s a rainbow in the sky. Let your Majesty look at it, for

  ‘A rainbow in the morning 407

  Is the shepherd’s warning;’

  and the flocks of which you are the pastor are scattered among the mountain-tops, where every drop of water is a flake of snow, and the breath of May pierces like a January blast. 411

  KING: The sheep have mistaken the wolf for their shepherd, my poor boy; and the shepherd, the wolves for their watchdogs.

 

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