Mad monks, mad peasants; Dunstan is not sane, The unsound many. See where stands that man, When ignorance and knowledge halve the mass, Then storms are rife. Yet, once the King were crowned, We could face Dunstan ; which he knows too well, And still by one thin pretext or another Defers the coronation, and his will The Primate follows. ATHULF. Upon Edwin's head Before the crown must come the stout steel cap; Is it not so? LEOLF. I see no other end; And therefore, Athulf, in a happy hour You're strong in Wessex, and can thither send To hold your strength in readiness. Meanwhile Breathe not a word of menace; for at Court ATHULF. Gramercy, Monks! I'll thunder in a whisper, Than state affairs. How thrive you with my LEOLF. Indifferently. In sooth I hardly know. sister? We'll talk of that—but by your leave, hereafter. Seek we the Chancellor now, and let Put off its soldierly habiliments, And on its garb of policy, to meet The wise old man. ATHULF. your mind Off, idle hauberk, off! Off, clattering sword! off, greave and gauntlet !-There! Behold me politic! Old Clarenbald, A serious politician comes to council. [Exeunt. SCENE III. WARLEWOOD CHASE. EVENING. DUNSTAN. (Alone.) Spirit of speculation, rest, oh rest! And push not from her place the spirit of prayer! Arm thou my soul that I may smite and chase And steeds that trample on the tumbling clouds. A host of Imps and Ethiops, dark doubts, Enter GURMO. Oh! is it thou? What saith my Lord Archbishop? No matter―let her choose-To-night then be it. Go, get thee to the hollow of yon tree, And bellow there as is thy wont. GURMO. How long? DUNSTAN. Till thy lungs crack. Get hence. [Exit GURMO. And if thou bellowest otherwise than Satan, It is not for the lack of Satan's sway 'Stablished within thee. [Strange howls are heard from the tree. Well said, Satan! Ay! Thou feel'st the red-hot pincers at thy nose. And call'st thou this a fraud, thou secular lack-brain? Thou loose lay-priest, I tell thee it is none. Do I not battle wage in very deed With Satan? Yea, and conquer! And who's he Saith falsehood is delivered in these howls, Which do but to the vulgar ear translate Truths else to them ineffable? Where's Satan? His presence, life and kingdom? Not the air Nor bowels of the earth, nor central fires His habitat exhibits; it is here, Here in the heart of Man. And if from hence I cast him with discomfiture, that truth Is verily of the vulgar sense conceived, I tweak him by the snout. A fair belief |