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THIRD CITIZEN:
And by what means?

SECOND CITIZEN:
Smiting each Bishop under the fifth rib. 105

THIRD CITIZEN:
You seem to know the vulnerable place
Of these same crocodiles.

SECOND CITIZEN:
I learnt it in
Egyptian bondage, sir. Your worm of Nile
Betrays not with its flattering tears like they;
For, when they cannot kill, they whine and weep. 110
Nor is it half so greedy of men’s bodies
As they of soul and all; nor does it wallow
In slime as they in simony and lies
And close lusts of the flesh.

[NOTE:
78-114 A seasonable…of the flesh 1870; omitted 1824.
108 bondage cj. Forman; bondages 1870.]

A MARSHALSMAN:
Give place, give place!
You torch-bearers, advance to the great gate, 115
And then attend the Marshal of the Masque
Into the Royal presence.

A LAW STUDENT:
What thinkest thou
Of this quaint show of ours, my aged friend?
Even now we see the redness of the torches
Inflame the night to the eastward, and the clarions 120
[Gasp?] to us on the wind’s wave. It comes!
And their sounds, floating hither round the pageant,
Rouse up the astonished air.

[NOTE:
119-123 Even now…air 1870; omitted 1824.]

FIRST CITIZEN:
I will not think but that our country’s wounds
May yet be healed. The king is just and gracious, 125
Though wicked counsels now pervert his will:
These once cast off–

SECOND CITIZEN:
As adders cast their skins
And keep their venom, so kings often change;
Councils and counsellors hang on one another,
Hiding the loathsome 130
Like the base patchwork of a leper’s rags.

THE YOUTH:
Oh, still those dissonant thoughts!–List how the music
Grows on the enchanted air! And see, the torches
Restlessly flashing, and the crowd divided
Like waves before an admiral’s prow!

[NOTE:
132 how the 1870; loud 1824.]

A MARSHALSMAN:
Give place 135
To the Marshal of the Masque!

A PURSUIVANT:
Room for the King!

[NOTE:
136 A Pursuivant: Room for the King! 1870; omitted 1824.]

THE YOUTH:
How glorious! See those thronging chariots
Rolling, like painted clouds before the wind,
Behind their solemn steeds: how some are shaped
Like curved sea-shells dyed by the azure depths 140
Of Indian seas; some like the new-born moon;
And some like cars in which the Romans climbed
(Canopied by Victory’s eagle-wings outspread)
The Capitolian–See how gloriously
The mettled horses in the torchlight stir 145
Their gallant riders, while they check their pride,
Like shapes of some diviner element
Than English air, and beings nobler than
The envious and admiring multitude.