Puslapio vaizdai
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Mad monks, mad peasants; Dunstan is not sane,
And madness that doth least declare itself
Endangers most and ever most infects

The unsound many. See where stands that man,
And where this people: then compute the peril
To one and all. When force and cunning meet
Upon the confine of one cloudy mind,

When ignorance and knowledge halve the mass,
When night and day stand at an equinox,

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
Com'st thou to Kingston. Ere the day be spent
We must take counsel with old Clarenbald.

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
The Monks have eyes and ears in every chamber,
And Kingston is beset by bands of theirs.

ATHULF.

Gramercy, Monks! I'll thunder in a whisper,
And say, God save the King! inaudibly,
That only heaven shall hear.-A truce to Kings,
To Monks, to madmen! Leolf, at my heart
There is a matter that sits closer far

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!
God, thou 'st given unto me a troubled being—
So move upon the face thereof, that light
May be, and be divided from the darkness!

Arm thou my soul that I may smite and chase
The spirit of that darkness, whom not I
But Thou thro' me compellest.-Mighty power,
Legions of piercing thoughts illuminate,
Hast Thou committed to my large command,
Weapons of light and radiant shafts of day,

And steeds that trample on the tumbling clouds.
But with them it hath pleased Thee to let mingle
Evil imaginations, corporal stings,

A host of Imps and Ethiops, dark doubts,
Suggestions of revolt.-Who is 't that dares-

Enter GURMO.

Oh! is it thou? What saith my Lord Archbishop?

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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,
By utterance symbolic, when they deem
That met in bodily oppugnancy

I tweak him by the snout. A fair belief
Wherein the fleshly and the palpable type

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