FIFTH SPEAKER (a law student). What thinkest thou Of this quaint show of ours, my aged friend? FIRST SPEAKER. I will not think but that our country's wounds May yet be healed-The king is just and gracious, Though wicked coursels now prevert his will: These once cast off SECOND SPEAKER. As adders cast their skins And keep their venom, so kings often change; Like the base patchwork of a leper's rags. THIRD SPEAKER. O, still those dissonant thoughts-List! loud music Grows on the enchanted air! And see, the torches Restlessly flashing, and the crowd divided Like waves before an Admiral's prow. * Give place * * ANOTHER SPEAKER. To the Marshal of the Masque ! THIRD SPEAKER, How glorious! See those thronging chariots Like curved shells dyed by the azure depths The Capitolian-See how gloriously The mettled horses in the torchlight stir Their gallant riders, while they check their pride, Like shapes of some diviner element ! SECOND SPEAKER. Aye, there they are Nobles, and sons of nobles, patentees, Monopolists, and stewards of this poor farm, On whose lean sheep sit the prophetic crows. Here is the pomp that strips the houseless orphan, Here is the pride that breaks the desolate heart. These are the lilies glorious as Solomon, Who toil not, neither do they spin,-unless It be the webs they catch poor rogues withal. Here is the surfeit which to them who earn The niggard wages of the earth, scarce leaves The tithe that will support them till they crawl Back to its cold hard bosom. Here is health Followed by grim disease, glory by shame, Waste by lame famine, wealth by squalid want, And England's sin by England's punishment. And, as the effect pursues the cause foregone, Lo, giving substance to my words, behold At once the sign and the thing signifiedA troop of cripples, beggars, and lean outcasts, Horsed upon stumbling shapes, carted with dung, Dragged for a day from cellars and low cabins And rotten hiding-holes to point the moral Of this presentiment, and bring up the rear Of painted pomp with misery! SPEAKER. 'Tis but The anti-masque, and serves as discords do If they succeeded not to Winter's flaw; SCENE II. A Chamber in Whitehall. Enter the KING, QUEEN, LAUD, WENTWORTH, and ARCHY. KING. Thanks, gentlemen, I heartily accept This token of your service: your gay masque Was performed gallantly. QUEEN. And, gentlemen, Call your poor Queen your debtor. Your quaint pageant Treading their still path back to infancy, 2 F2 ] the task, The careful weight of this great monarchy. There, gentlemen, between the sovereign's pleasure And that which it regards, no clamour lifts I crave permission of your Majesty To order that this insolent fellow be Chastised, he mocks the sacred character, KING. What, my Archy! He mocks and mimics all he sees and hears, He lives in his own world; and, like a parrot, QUEEN. Go sirrah, and repent of your offence Ten minutes in the rain: be it your penance To bring news how the world goes there. Poor Archy! He weaves about himself a world of mirth Out of this wreck of ours. LAUD. I take with patience, as my master did, KING. My Lord, Pray overlook these papers. Archy's words Had wings, but these have talons. QUEEN. And the lion That wears them must be tamed. My dearest lord, + Do thou persist: for, faint but in resolve, The slave of thine own slaves, who tear like curs And Opportunity, that empty wolf, Flies at his throat who falls. Subdue thy actions In a bright dream, and wake as from a dream |