thy image. Earth, that nourish'd thee, shall claim
thy growth, to be resolved to earth again :
and, lost each human trace, surrendering up
thine individual being, shalt thou go
to mix for ever with the elements,
to be a brother to the insensible rock
and to the sluggish clod, which the rude swain
turns with his share, and treads upon. The oak
shall send his roots abroad and pierce thy mould.
Yet not to thine eternal resting-place
shalt thou retire alone.-Thou shalt lie down
with patriarchs of the infant world—with kings,
the powerful of the earth—the wise, the good,
fair forms, and hoary seers of ages past,
all in one mighty sepulchre. The hills
rock-ribbed, and ancient as the sun, the vales
stretching in pensive quietness between;
the venerable woods, rivers that move
in majesty, and the complaining brooks
that make the meadows green and poured round all
old Ocean's grave and solitary waste,—
are but the solemn decorations all
of the great tomb of man.
the planets, all the infinite host of heaven,
are shining on the sad abodes of death
through the still lapse of ages; all that tread
the globe, are but a handful to the tribes
that slumber in its bosom,
HENCEFORWARD too, the Powers that tend
to help it from the death that cannot die,
and save it even in extremes, began
to vex and plague her. Many a time for hours,
beside the placid breathings of the King,
in the dead night, grim faces came and went
before her, or a vague spiritual fear-
like to some doubtful noise of creaking doors,
heard by the watcher in a haunted house,
that keeps the rust of murder on the walls-
held her awake; or if she slept, she dreamed
an awful dream: for then she seemed to stand
on some vast plain before a setting sun,
and from the sun there swiftly made at her
a ghastly something, and its shadow flew.
before it, till it touched her, and she turned—
when lo! her own, that broadening from her feet,
and blackening, swallowed all the land, and in it
far cities burnt, and with a cry she woke.
1048 KING ARTHUR'S SPEECH TO QUEEN GUINEVERE
OEAR with me for the last time while I show,
even for thy sake, the sin which thou hast sinned.
For when the Roman left us, and their law
relaxed its hold upon us, and the ways
were filled with rapine, here and there a deed
of prowess done repressed a random wrong.
But I was first of all the kings who drew
the knighthood-errant of this realm and all
the realms together, under me, their Head,
in that fair order of my Table Round,
a glorious company, the flower of men,
to serve as model for the mighty world,
to be the fair beginning of a time.
I made them lay their hands in mine and swear
to reverence the King, as if he were
their conscience, and their conscience as their King,
to break the heathen and uphold the Christ,
to ride abroad redressing human wrongs,
to speak no slander, no, nor listen to it,
to lead sweet lives in purest chastity,
to love one maiden only, cleave to her,
and worship her by years of noble deeds,
until they won her; for indeed I knew
of no more subtle master under heaven
than is the maiden passion for a maid,
not only to keep down the base in man,
but teach high thought, and amiable words
and courtliness and the desire of fame,
and love of truth, and all that makes a man.
H me, my babe, my blossom, ah my child,
my one sweet child, whom I shall see no more!
for now will cruel Ida keep her back;
and either she will die from want of care,
or sicken with ill usage, when they say
the child is hers- for every little fault,
the child is hers; and they will beat my girl
remembering her mother: O my flower!
or they will take her, they will make her hard,
and she will pass me by in after-life,
with some cold reverence worse than she were dead.
Ill mother that I was to leave her there,
to lag behind, scared by the cry they made,
the horror of the shame among them all;
but I will go and sit beside the doors,
and make a wild petition night and day,
until they hate to hear me like a wind
wailing for ever, till they open to me,
and lay my little blossom at my feet,
my babe, my sweet Aglaïa, my one child:
and I will take her up and go my way,
and satisfy my soul with kissing her.
THE CONDITION OF KINGS HUMAN
WHEREFORE
this adoration to a sinful creature?
I am flesh and blood, as you are, sensible
of heat and cold, as much a slave unto
the tyranny of my passions, as the meanest
of my poor subjects. The proud attributes,
by oil-tongued flattery imposed upon us,
as sacred, glorious, high, invincible,
the deputy of heaven, and in that
omnipotent, with all false titles else,
coined to abuse our frailty, though compounded
and by the breath of sycophants applied,
cure not the least fit of an ague in us.
We may give poor men riches, confer honours
on undeservers, raise, or ruin such
as are beneath us, and, with this puffed up,
ambition would persuade us to forget
that we are men: but He that sits above us,
and to whom, at our utmost rate, we are
but pageant properties, derides our weakness.
LL those conspire my death that live by me?
In conquered foes what credit can there be?
Cæs. Besides their lives, I did their goods restore.
Ant. O but their country's good concerns them more.
Cas. What! think they me to be their country's foe?
Ant. No, but that thou usurp'st the right they owe.
Cæs. To Rome have I submitted mighty things.
Ant. Yet Rome endures not the command of kings.
Cæs. Who dares to contradict our empery?
Ant. Those whom thy rule hath robbed of liberty.
Cæs. I fear them not whose death is but deferred.
Ant. I fear my foe until he be interred.
Cæs. A man may make his foe his friend you know,
Ant. A man may easily make his friend his foe.
Cæs. Good deeds the cruel'st heart to kindness bring.
Ant. But revolution is a deadly thing.
Cæs. If citizens my kindness have forgot,
whom shall I then not fear? Ant. Those that are not. Cas. What shall I slay all, then, that I suspect? Ant. Else cannot Cæsar's empery endure. Cæs. Rather I will my life and all neglect.
IS held that sorrow makes us wise;
yet how much wisdom sleeps with thee
which not alone had guided me,
but served the seasons that may rise;
for can I doubt who knew thee keen
in intellect, with force and skill
to strive, to fashion, to fulfil—
I doubt not what thou wouldst have been:
a life in civic action warm,
a soul on highest mission sent,
a potent voice of Parliament,
a pillar steadfast in the storm,
should licensed boldness gather force,
becoming, when the time has birth,
a lever to uplift the earth
and roll it in another course,
with thousand shocks that come and go,
with agonies, with energies,
with overthrowings, and with cries,
and undulations to and fro.
Oth. NEVER, Iago. Like to the Pontic sea,
whose icy current and compulsive course
ne'er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on
to the Propontic and the Hellespont ;
even so my bloody thoughts, with violent pace,
shall ne'er look back, ne'er ebb to humble love,
till that a capable and wide revenge,
swallow them up.-Now, by yond marble heaven,
in the due reverence of a sacred vow
I here engage my words.
Do not rise yet.
Witness, you ever-burning lights above,
you elements that clip us round about!
witness, that here Iago doth give up
the execution of his wit, hands, heart,
to wrong'd Othello's service! Let him command,
and to obey shall be in me remorse,
what bloody business ever.
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