FIRST CITIZEN. What thinkest thou of this quaint mask which turns, Like morning from the shadow of the night, SECOND CITIZEN. And Hell to Heaven. Eight years are gone, And they seem hours, since in this populous street I trod on grass made green by summer's rain, A YOUTH. Yet, father, 'tis a happy sight to see, By God or man ;-'tis like the bright procession From which men wake as from a paradise, life. 20 If God be good, wherefore should this be evil? And open-eyed Conspiracy lie sleeping As on Hell's threshold; and all gentle thoughts SECOND CITIZEN. 30 How young art thou in this old age of time! How green in this grey world! Canst thou discern The signs of seasons, yet perceive no hint Art thou a puppet moved by [enginery]? Before the whirlwind wakes I shall have found Wrap thy old cloke about thy back; Nor leave the broad and plain and beaten road, Although no flowers smile on the trodden dust, For the violet paths of pleasure. This Charles the First Rose like the equinoctial sun, By vapours, through whose threatening omi nous veil Darting his altered influence he has gained This height of noon-from which he must decline 50 Amid the darkness of conflicting storms, whispered aphorisms From Machiavel and Bacon: and, if Judas FIRST CITIZEN. That is the Archbishop. SECOND CITIZEN. Rather say the Pope: 61 London will be soon his Rome: he walks THIRD CITIZEN (lifting up his eyes). Good Lord! rain it down upon him!.. Amid her ladies walks the papist queen, As if her nice feet scorned our English earth. The Canaanitish Jezebel! I would be A dog if I might tear her with my teeth! There's old Sir Henry Vane, the Earl of Pembroke, 70 Lord Essex, and Lord Keeper Coventry, and foreign overthrow. 81 The remnant of the martyred saints in Roche fort Have been abandoned by their faithless allies To that idolatrous and adulterous torturer Enter LEIGHTON (who has been branded in the face) and BASTWICK. Canst thou be-art thou... ? LEIGHTON. I was Leighton: what I am thou seest. And yet turn thine eyes, And with thy memory look on thy friend's mind, 89 Which is unchanged, and where is written deep The sentence of my judge. THIRD CITIZEN. Are these the marks with which Laud thinks to improve the image of his Maker Stamped on the face of man? Curses upon him, The impious tyrant! SECOND CITIZEN. It is said besides That lewd and papist drunkards may profane The Sabbath with their. . . And has permitted that most heathenish custom Of dancing round a pole dressed up with wreaths On May-day. A man who thus twice crucifies his God May well friend, 100 his brother.-In my mind, The root of all this ill is prelacy. I would cut up the root. THIRD CITIZEN. And by what means? SECOND CITIZEN. Smiting each Bishop under the fifth rib. THIRD CITIZEN. You seem to know the vulnerable place SECOND CITIZEN. I learnt it in Egyptian bondages, sir. Your worm of Nile Betrays not with its flattering tears like they; For, when they cannot kill, they whine and weep. Nor is it half so greedy of men's bodies As they of soul and all; nor does it wallow And close lusts of the flesh. A MARSHALSMAN. Give place, give place! You torch-bearers, advance to the great gate, And then attend the Marshal of the Mask Into the Royal presence. A LAW STUDENT. What thinkest thou Of this quaint show of ours, my agèd friend? Even now we see the redness of the torches Inflame the night to the eastward, and the clarions Gasp to us on the wind's wave. It comes! 120 |