FullReads

KING:
Oh, no! 460
He is but Occasion’s pupil. Partly ’tis
That our minds piece the vacant intervals
Of his wild words with their own fashioning,–
As in the imagery of summer clouds,
Or coals of the winter fire, idlers find 465
The perfect shadows of their teeming thoughts:
And partly, that the terrors of the time
Are sown by wandering Rumour in all spirits;
And in the lightest and the least, may best
Be seen the current of the coming wind. 470

[NOTES:
460, 461 Oh…pupil 1870; omitted 1824.
461 Partly ’tis 1870; It partly is 1824.
465 of 1870; in 1824.]

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 475
With her child, born the King of heaven and earth,
Whose reign is men’s salvation. And you shall see
A cradled miniature of yourself asleep,
Stamped on the heart by never-erring love;
Liker than any Vandyke ever made, 480
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 485
The cares we waste upon our heavy crown
Would make it light and glorious as a wreath
Of Heaven’s beams for his dear innocent brow.

[NOTE:
473-477 and, as…salvation 1870; omitted 1824.]

KING:
Dear Henrietta!

SCENE 3

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
With red-hot iron on the cheek and forehead,
And be imprisoned within Lancaster Castle 5
During the pleasure of the Court.’

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 10
Were an invader of the royal power
A public scorner of the word of God,
Profane, idolatrous, popish, superstitious,
Impious in heart and in tyrannic act,
Void of wit, honesty, and temperance; 15
If Satan were my lord, as theirs,–our God
Pattern of all I should avoid to do;
Were I an enemy of my God and King
And of good men, as ye are;–I should merit
Your fearful state and gilt prosperity, 20
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
The only earthly favour ye can yield,
Or I think worth acceptance at your hands,– 25
Scorn, mutilation, and imprisonment.
even as my Master did,
Until Heaven’s kingdom shall descend on earth,
Or earth be like a shadow in the light
Of Heaven absorbed–some few tumultuous years 30
Will pass, and leave no wreck of what opposes
His will whose will is power.