Classic Poem

SCENE II. — The Aisle of Wold Church — lighted by a lamp Rows of coffins are seen standing on trestles . Lord Wold is discovered sitting by a coffin .

Enter the D UCHESS OF Wold and J ANET M OUNTNORRIS .

D UCH . Peace with the dead!
Morning and evening, Janet, all my life
I've trimmed this lamp with my own hands, with sweet
And fragrant oils; and never let it out.
My time draws to an end. I know not, Janet,
Who'll do this duty when I'm gone. No matter;
Dark or light, we'll lie still ( observing Lord Wold dimly )
What thing art thou?
Wold . That's the word! Not a man, no more a man!
D UCH . My Lord?
Wold . Nay, thus: —
D UCH . " T RAITOR ? "
Wold . Am I that, Madam?
D UCH . What means all this, my Lord?
Wold . Did I not go,
Last night, in a right spirit to serve my King?
His countenance, as I passed into the presence,
Was dark against me. On my knee I knelt,
But, as I knelt, I was denounced a traitor.
D UCH . Wherefore? By whom?
Wold . By Dunley. Gloster's blood
Hurt us in France, discrediting our arms:
He was the murderer: Off I drove him from us.
Hence his revenge. Our Liege's heart and ear
Are his. Made bold thereby, he dares to charge me
With slanderous and disloyal imputations
Upon the King himself, weakening his sway in France;
Nay, more, with actual treason in abetting
The exiled Hereford (who was my friend
In earlier days) in plotting rebel mischief
Back on the English throne: Such was his charge
Against me there and then. Ay, and our Sire
Let the bought tongue of some cloak-brushing fellow
Wag vouch against me.
D UCH . Back in Dunley's teeth
You hurled the lie?
Wold . What boots it that I did?
My scorn, my gage, my lie-defying challenge
Were very aggravations: Here am I
A B ANISHED T RAITOR !
Banished from my King's presence, from the presence
Of all my peers, from good men, from the ways
Of social life; pent up in Wold's domain,
On pain of death to pass it!
D UCH . Did King Richard
Pronounce that sentence?
Wold Yes. And out o' their wine
Flushed faces rose against me, frowning against me
As angry as their reeling drunkenness
Would let them frown it: This was our King's Council!
The Council of the Majesty of England!
Convenient pocket tool, the King bears't with him
Where'er he goes I' their winking, lisping wrath,
They ratified the sentence. Think of it!
D UCH . Be calm, my Lord.
Wold . Calm, Madam! am I not?
But yet I think of it. I sought me here
Death's house, to get me patience from our dust;
But O I think of it yet.
D UCH . Rightmindedness
Must be here.
Wold . You say well. Truth to say, farther,
What right have I to bring my own disgrace
Into this honoured place? What right had they
To foist a branded traitor on your house?
Madam, I crave your pardon: I insult you,
Tainting your loyal freedom with my presence.
I'll forth. I die if I do. But what if I resist?
Who'll blame me for't?
D UCH . The King must be obeyed.
Our house — call't even your jail — is at his royal will.
He trusts to me in this. Whate'er your sentence,
Just in itself or not, it stands our law,
Till it be cancelled.
Wold . Great must be his trust
In your Grace, then! Had he packed me o'er the seas,
He would have shown something like a fair sense
Of what I am and can do But here he sends me
Home to my mother's house insultingly,
As if I were a suckling, not a man
That might be dangerous near him.
D UCH . 'Twas a credit
Vouchsafed you rather, that you'd bow submiss
To your Liege, like all your sires.
Wold . I'll not be rash.
The very fact that here I've sat all day
With the thick small dust of our dead, to keep my heart
Down, shows I'll not be rash. The King has had
Space for reflection: I've reclaimed to him:
I've sent Sir Hugh de Valma to attest
My innocence, and pray him to recall
Thus far my sentence, that he'll give me still
A competent trial by the laws of England;
At least to change my place of banishment,
And not make Wold a prison-house for traitors.
I wait de Valma. Let this damsel forth
And bring him here when he comes. I go not hence,
Till I get Richard's answer.
D UCH . You know, Janet,
Sir Hugh de Valma? Go, and fetch him hither,
If he's come back to the Castle.

Enter M ARTIN

M AR . Help!
Wold . What is't?
M AR . They've hanged Sir Hugh de Valma, down i' the forest.
Wold . Who has dared?
M AR . Richard. For yourself, my Lord,
Went the young Knight to plead. The King incensed
At his presumption, sent out after him
Six fellows masked to overtake, and hang him
On the first tree. Two of them fell by his sword;
But the rest beat him down, disarmed, and hanged him
On the great tree called The King's Oak And there
He's hanging still.
Wold . There let him hang.
Let no hand cut him down — let no hand dare
That man's my foe who does't. England's good people
Shall come and look at him there: In troops I'll bring them,
To look at him there — boys, virgins, matrons, men:
Good people all, look at him hanging there!
The King's Oak, said you? A fit gallows, then:
Ominous be it to kings!
D UCH . I won't believe
King Richard did it. I'll to him straight myself,
And learn the truth o't all.
M AR . Madam, he's off
To Ireland in hot haste: He's needed there.
D UCH . ( to M ARTIN ) Give us leave.
He hang a young knight thus? Never!
Wold . And when
This peopled isle have seen the horrible sight,
I'll cut him down myself; ay, and I'll bury him
Beneath the tree — The King's Oak, that's the word —
I'll bury him there; and o'er his dust I'll put
A monumental stone, and I'll inscribe it
To all times with the record
Of this most bloody and most tyrannous act:
Bear witness if I don't, Ghosts of my Fathers!
And bear me witness this, — if I avenge not
His blood, perish my name, and may I never
Lie with you here!
D UCH . We must hence.
Wold . Can it be?
Hanged! he, the youth so gallant and so true!
My friend, and such a friend! Ay, and who fought
For England so, and Richard! And they've hanged him!
Why, he but did my message: Me it was
They should have hanged, me and not him. Cats, curs,
And such like gear they hang, don't they? But him,
Oh him! Shame, shame! But ha, I'll give him vengeance!
Wrong-banished Hereford, I call thee home;
King shalt thou be! Your towers, Duchess of Wold,
See that you keep them well: 'tis in my vow
That I do strike at them too: rest will I not
Till ne'er one strength i' the land call Richard master.

Enter J ANET M OUNTNORRIS with H ASTINGS .

Hastings here?
H AST . News, my Lord (Madam, your leave)
The King's to Ireland. Hereford will land
At Ravenspur immediately: he comes
As Lancaster to claim his family Duchy,
Which Richard reft him of.
Wold . What, if in seeking
A Duchy he find a Kingdom?
H AST . Fiery fast
I've brought these tidings to prepare your Lordship.
Richard away, who guards the Throne but Wold?
Men's hearts are going after Lancaster:
The King's friends look to thee.
Wold . Come with me, Hastings,
Down to the forest; I've a little thing
To show thee there.
D UCH . If you do leave these coffins
With a rebellious purpose, hear me, —
The multiplied curse of each and every one
Of our far loyal line, that sleeps in them,
Be on your going — mine with theirs! Go!
But no: ho there! ring out the alarum bell;
Up with the draw-bridge.