QUEEN My beloved lord, Have you not noted that the Fool of late What can it mean? I should be loath to think KING Oh, no! He is but Occasion's pupil. Partly 'tis The perfect shadows of their teeming thoughts; QUEEN Your brain is overwrought with these deep thoughts. Come, I will sing to you; let us go try These airs from Italy; and, as we pass The gallery, we'll decide where that Correggio Shall hang the Virgin Mother With her child, born the King of heaven and earth, 484 It partly is, Mrs. Shelley, 1824. Stamped on the heart by never-erring love; A pattern to the unborn age of thee, Over whose sweet beauty I have wept for joy A thousand times, and now should weep for sorrow, Did I not think that after we were dead Our fortunes would spring high in him, and that The cares we waste upon our heavy crown Dear Henrietta! KING SCENE III. The Star Chamber. LAUD, JUXON, STRAFFORD, and others, as Judges. PRYNNE, as a Prisoner, and then BASTWICK. LAUD Bring forth the prisoner Bastwick; let the clerk Recite his sentence. CLERK "That he pay five thousand Pounds to the king, lose both his ears, be branded LAUD Prisoner, If you have aught to say wherefore this sentence Should not be put into effect, now speak. JUXON If you have aught to plead in mitigation, Speak. BASTWICK Thus, my lords. If, like the prelates, I Were an invader of the royal power, our God Which, when ye wake from the last sleep, shall turn To cowls and robes of everlasting fire. But, as I am, I bid ye grudge me not Even as my Master did, Until Heaven's kingdom shall descend on earth, Of Heaven absorbed. Some few tumultuous years LAUD Officer, take the prisoner from the bar, BASTWICK While this hand holds a pen LAUD Be his hands JUXON Stop! Forbear, my lord! The tongue, which now can speak No terror, would interpret, being dumb, Heaven's thunder to our harm; And hands, which now write only their own shame With bleeding stumps might sign our blood away. Much more such " be, LAUD mercy" among men would Did all the ministers of Heaven's revenge That, in distraining for ten thousand pounds Upon his books and furniture at Lincoln, I speak it not as touching this poor person; But of the office which should make it holy, Mark too, my lord, that this expression strikes Enter BISHOP WILLIAMS guarded STRAFFORD 'Twere politic and just that Williams taste The schismatics. But you, my Lord Archbishop, LAUD Would therefore beg The office of his judge from this High Court, - WILLIAMS Peace, proud hierarch! |