No More Learning

"If any one within this Jurisdiction
Shall henceforth entertain, or shall conceal
Quakers or other blasphemous Heretics,
Knowing them so to be, every such person
Shall forfeit to the country forty shillings
For each hour's entertainment or concealment,
And shall be sent to prison, as aforesaid,
Until the forfeiture be wholly paid! "

Murmurs in the crowd.

KEMPTHORN.
Now, Goodman Cole, I think your turn has come!

COLE.
Knowing them so to be!

KEMPTHORN.
At forty shillings
The hour, your fine will be some forty pounds!

COLE.
Knowing them so to be! That is the law.

MARSHAL (reads).
"And it is further ordered and enacted,
If any Quaker or Quakers shall presume
To come henceforth into this Jurisdiction,
Every male Quaker for the first offence
Shall have one ear cut off; and shall be kept
At labor in the Workhouse, till such time
As he be sent away at his own charge.
And for the repetition of the offence
Shall have his other ear cut off, and then
Be branded in the palm of his right hand.
And every woman Quaker shall be whipt
Severely in three towns; and every Quaker,
Or he or she, that shall for a third time
Herein again offend, shall have their tongues
Bored through with a hot iron, and shall be
Sentenced to Banishment on pain of Death. "

Loud murmurs. The voice of CHRISTISON in the crowd.

O patience of the Lord! How long, how long,
Ere thou avenge the blood of Thine Elect?

MERRY.
Silence, there, silence! Do not break the peace!

MARSHAL (reads).
"Every inhabitant of this Jurisdiction
Who shall defend the horrible opinions
Of Quakers, by denying due respect
To equals and superiors, and withdrawing
From Church Assemblies, and thereby approving
The abusive and destructive practices
Of this accursed sect, in opposition
To all the orthodox received opinions
Of godly men shall be forthwith commit ted
Unto close prison for one month; and then
Refusing to retract and to reform
The opinions as aforesaid, he shall be
Sentenced to Banishment on pain of Death.
By the Court. Edward Rawson, Secretary. "
Now, hangman, do your duty. Burn those books.

Loud murmurs in the crowd. The pile of books is lighted.

UPSALL.
I testify against these cruel laws!
Forerunners are they of some judgment on us;
And, in the love and tenderness I bear
Unto this town and people, I beseech you,
O Magistrates, take heed, lest ye be found
As fighters against God!

JOHN ENDICOTT (taking UPSALL'S hand).
Upsall, I thank you
For speaking words such as some younger man,
I, or another, should have said before you.
Such laws as these are cruel and oppressive;
A blot on this fair town, and a disgrace
To any Christian people.

MERRY (aside, listening behind them).
Here's sedition!
I never thought that any good would come
Of this young popinjay, with his long hair
And his great boots, fit only for the Russians
Or barbarous Indians, as his father says!

THE VOICE.
Woe to the bloody town! And rightfully
Men call it the Lost Town! The blood of Abel
Cries from the ground, and at the final judgment
The Lord will say, "Cain, Cain! Where is thy brother? "

MERRY.
Silence there in the crowd!

UPSALL (aside).
'T is Christison!

THE VOICE.
O foolish people, ye that think to burn
And to consume the truth of God, I tell you
That every flame is a loud tongue of fire
To publish it abroad to all the world
Louder than tongues of men!

KEMPTHORN (springing to his feet).
Well said, my hearty!
There's a brave fellow! There's a man of pluck!
A man who's not afraid to say his say,
Though a whole town's against him. Rain, rain, rain,
Bones of St. Botolph, and put out this fire!

The drum beats. Exeunt all but MERRY, KEMPTHORN, and COLE.

MERRY.
And now that matter's ended, Goodman Cole,
Fetch me a mug of ale, your strongest ale.

KEMPTHORN (sitting down).
And me another mug of flip; and put
Two gills of brandy in it.
[Exit COLE.

MERRY.
No; no more.
Not a drop more, I say. You've had enough.

KEMPTHORN.
And who are you, sir?

MERRY.
I'm a Tithing-man,
And Merry is my name.

KEMPTHORN.
A merry name!
I like it; and I'll drink your merry health
Till all is blue.

MERRY.
And then you will be clapped
Into the stocks, with the red letter D
Hung round about your neck for drunkenness.
You're a free-drinker,--yes, and a free-thinker!

KEMPTHORN.
And you are Andrew Merry, or Merry Andrew.

MERRY.
My name is Walter Merry, and not Andrew.

KEMPTHORN.
Andrew or Walter, you're a merry fellow;
I'll swear to that.

MERRY.
No swearing, let me tell you.
The other day one Shorthose had his tongue
Put into a cleft stick for profane swearing.

COLE brings the ale.

KEMPTHORN.
Well, where's my flip? As sure as my name's Kempthorn--

MERRY.
Is your name Kempthorn?

KEMPTHORN.
That's the name I go by.

MERRY.
What, Captain Simon Kempthorn of the Swallow?

KEMPTHORN.
No other.

MERRY (touching him on the shoulder).
Then you're wanted. I arrest you
In the King's name.

KEMPTHORN.
And where's your warrant?

MERRY (unfolding a paper, and reading).
Here.
Listen to me. "Hereby you are required,
In the King's name, to apprehend the body
Of Simon Kempthorn, mariner, and him
Safely to bring before me, there to answer
All such objections as are laid to him,
Touching the Quakers. " Signed, John Endicott.

KEMPTHORN.
Has it the Governor's seal?

MERRY.
Ay, here it is.

KEMPTHORN.
Death's head and cross-bones. That's a pirate's flag!

MERRY.
Beware how you revile the Magistrates;
You may be whipped for that.

KEMPTHORN.
Then mum's the word.

Exeunt MERRY and KEMPTHORN.

COLE.
There's mischief brewing! Sure, there's mischief brewing.
I feel like Master Josselyn when he found
The hornet's nest, and thought it some strange fruit,
Until the seeds came out, and then he dropped it.
[Exit.


Scene III. -- A room in the Governor's house, Enter GOVERNOR
ENDICOTT and MERRY.

ENDICOTT.
My son, you say?

MERRY.
Your Worship's eldest son.

ENDICOTT.
Speaking against the laws?

MERRY.
Ay, worshipful sir.

ENDICOTT.
And in the public market-place?

MERRY.
I saw him
With my own eyes, heard him with my own ears.

ENDICOTT.
Impossible!

MERRY.
He stood there in the crowd
With Nicholas Upsall, when the laws were read
To-day against the Quakers, and I heard him
Denounce and vilipend them as unjust,
And cruel, wicked, and abominable.

ENDICOTT.
Ungrateful son! O God! thou layest upon me
A burden heavier than I can bear!
Surely the power of Satan must be great
Upon the earth, if even the elect
Are thus deceived and fall away from grace!

MERRY.
Worshipful sir! I meant no harm--

ENDICOTT.
'T is well.
You've done your duty, though you've done it roughly,
And every word you've uttered since you came
Has stabbed me to the heart!

MERRY.
I do beseech
Your Worship's pardon!

ENDICOTT.
He whom I have nurtured
And brought up in the reverence of the Lord!
The child of all my hopes and my affections!
He upon whom I leaned as a sure staff
For my old age! It is God's chastisement
For leaning upon any arm but His!

MERRY.
Your Worship! --

ENDICOTT.
And this comes from holding parley
With the delusions and deceits of Satan.
At once, forever, must they be crushed out,
Or all the land will reek with heresy!
Pray, have you any children?

MERRY.
No, not any.

ENDICOTT.
Thank God for that. He has delivered you
From a great care. Enough; my private griefs
Too long have kept me from the public service.

Exit MERRY, ENDICOTT seats himself at the table and arranges his
papers.

The hour has come; and I am eager now
To sit in judgment on these Heretics.

A knock.

Come in. Who is it? (Not looking up).

JOHN ENDICOTT.
It is I.

ENDICOTT (restraining himself).
Sit down!

JOHN ENDICOTT (sitting down).
I come to intercede for these poor people
Who are in prison, and await their trial.

ENDICOTT.
It is of them I wished to speak with you.
I have been angry with you, but 't is passed.
For when I hear your footsteps come or go,
See in your features your dead mother's face,
And in your voice detect some tone of hers,
All anger vanishes, and I remember
The days that are no more, and come no more,
When as a child you sat upon my knee,
And prattled of your playthings, and the games
You played among the pear trees in the orchard!

JOHN ENDICOTT.
Oh, let the memory of my noble mother
Plead with you to be mild and merciful!
For mercy more becomes a Magistrate
Than the vindictive wrath which men call justice!

ENDICOTT.
The sin of heresy is a deadly sin.
'T is like the falling of the snow, whose crystals
The traveller plays with, thoughtless of his danger,
Until he sees the air so full of light
That it is dark; and blindly staggering onward,
Lost and bewildered, he sits down to rest;
There falls a pleasant drowsiness upon him,
And what he thinks is sleep, alas! is death.

JOHN ENDICOTT.
And yet who is there that has never doubted?
And doubting and believing, has not said,
"Lord, I believe; help thou my unbelief"?

ENDICOTT.
In the same way we trifle with our doubts,
Whose shining shapes are like the stars descending;
Until at last, bewildered and dismayed,
Blinded by that which seemed to give us light,
We sink to sleep, and find that it is death,

Rising.
Death to the soul through all eternity!
Alas that I should see you growing up
To man's estate, and in the admonition
And nurture of the law, to find you now
Pleading for Heretics!

JOHN ENDICOTT (rising).
In the sight of God,
Perhaps all men are Heretics. Who dares
To say that he alone has found the truth?
We cannot always feel and think and act
As those who go before us. Had you done so,
You would not now be here.

ENDICOTT.
Have you forgotten
The doom of Heretics, and the fate of those
Who aid and comfort them? Have you forgotten
That in the market-place this very day
You trampled on the laws? What right have you,
An inexperienced and untravelled youth,
To sit in judgment here upon the acts
Of older men and wiser than yourself,
Thus stirring up sedition in the streets,
And making me a byword and a jest?

JOHN ENDICOTT.
Words of an inexperienced youth like me
Were powerless if the acts of older men
Were not before them. 'T is these laws themselves
Stir up sedition, not my judgment of them.

ENDICOTT.
Take heed, lest I be called, as Brutus was,
To be the judge of my own son. Begone!
When you are tired of feeding upon husks,
Return again to duty and submission,
But not till then.

JOHN ENDICOTT.
I hear and I obey!
[Exit.
ENDICOTT.
Oh happy, happy they who have no children!
He's gone! I hear the hall door shut behind him.
It sends a dismal echo through my heart,
As if forever it had closed between us,
And I should look upon his face no more!
Oh, this will drag me down into my grave,--
To that eternal resting-place wherein
Man lieth down, and riseth not again!
Till the heavens be no more, he shall not wake,
Nor be roused from his sleep; for Thou dost change
His countenance and sendest him away!
[Exit.



ACT III.

SCENE I. -- The Court of Assistants, ENDICOTT, BELLINGHAM,
ATHERTON, and other magistrates. KEMPTHORN, MERRY, and
constables. Afterwards WHARTON, EDITH, and CHRISTISON.

ENDICOTT.
Call Captain Simon Kempthorn.

MERRY.
Simon Kempthorn,
Come to the bar!

KEMPTHORN comes forward.

ENDICOTT.
You are accused of bringing
Into this Jurisdiction, from Barbadoes,
Some persons of that sort and sect of people
Known by the name of Quakers, and maintaining
Most dangerous and heretical opinions,
Purposely coming here to propagate
Their heresies and errors; bringing with them
And spreading sundry books here, which contain
Their doctrines most corrupt and blasphemous,
And contrary to the truth professed among us.
What say you to this charge?

KEMPTHORN.

I do acknowledge,
Among the passengers on board the Swallow
Were certain persons saying Thee and Thou.
They seemed a harmless people, mostways silent,
Particularly when they said their prayers.

ENDICOTT.
Harmless and silent as the pestilence!
You'd better have brought the fever or the plague
Among us in your ship! Therefore, this Court,
For preservation of the Peace and Truth,
Hereby commands you speedily to transport,
Or cause to be transported speedily,
The aforesaid persons hence unto Barbadoes,
From whence they came; you paying all the charges
Of their imprisonment.

KEMPTHORN.
Worshipful sir,
No ship e'er prospered that has carried Quakers
Against their will! I knew a vessel once--

ENDICOTT.
And for the more effectual performance
Hereof you are to give security
In bonds amounting to one hundred pounds.
On your refusal, you will be committed
To prison till you do it.

KEMPTHORN.
But you see
I cannot do it. The law, sir, of Barbadoes
Forbids the landing Quakers on the island.

ENDICOTT.
Then you will be committed. Who comes next?

MERRY.
There is another charge against the Captain.

ENDICOTT.
What is it?

MERRY.
Profane swearing, please your Worship.
He cursed and swore from Dock Square to the Court-house,

ENDICOTT.
Then let him stand in the pillory for one hour.

[Exit KEMPTHORN with constable.

Who's next?

MERRY.
The Quakers.

ENDICOTT.
Call them.

MERRY.
Edward Wharton,
Come to the bar!

WHARTON.
Yea, even to the bench.

ENDICOTT.
Take off your hat.

WHARTON.
My hat offendeth not.
If it offendeth any, let him take it;
For I shall not resist.

ENDICOTT.
Take off his hat.
Let him be fined ten shillings for contempt.

MERRY takes off WHARTON'S hat.

WHARTON.
What evil have I done?

ENDICOTT.
Your hair's too long;
And in not putting off your hat to us
You've disobeyed and broken that commandment
Which sayeth "Honor thy father and thy mother. "

WHARTON.
John Endicott, thou art become too proud;
And loved him who putteth off the hat,
And honoreth thee by bowing of the body,
And sayeth "Worshipful sir! " 'T is time for thee
To give such follies over, for thou mayest
Be drawing very near unto thy grave.

ENDICOTT.
Now, sirrah, leave your canting. Take the oath.

WHARTON.
Nay, sirrah me no sirrahs!

ENDICOTT.
Will you swear?

WHARTON.
Nay, I will not.

ENDICOTT.
You made a great disturbance
And uproar yesterday in the Meeting-house,
Having your hat on.

WHARTON.
I made no disturbance;
For peacefully I stood, like other people.
I spake no words; moved against none my hand;
But by the hair they haled me out, and dashed
Their hooks into my face.

ENDICOTT.
You, Edward Wharton,
On pain of death, depart this Jurisdiction
Within ten days. Such is your sentence. Go.

WHARTON.
John Endicott, it had been well for thee
If this day's doings thou hadst left undone
But, banish me as far as thou hast power,
Beyond the guard and presence of my God
Thou canst not banish me.

ENDICOTT.
Depart the Court;
We have no time to listen to your babble.
Who's next? [Exit WHARTON.

MERRY.
This woman, for the same offence.

EDITH comes forward.

ENDICOTT.
What is your name?

EDITH.
'T is to the world unknown,
But written in the Book of Life.

ENDICOTT.
Take heed
It be not written in the Book of Death!
What is it?

EDITH.
Edith Christison.

ENDICOTT (with eagerness).
The daughter
Of Wenlock Christison?

EDITH.
I am his daughter.

ENDICOTT.
Your father hath given us trouble many times.
A bold man and a violent, who sets
At naught the authority of our Church and State,
And is in banishment on pain of death.
Where are you living?

EDITH.
In the Lord.

ENDICOTT.
Make answer
Without evasion. Where?

EDITH.
My outward being
Is in Barbadoes.

ENDICOTT.
Then why come you here?

EDITH.
I come upon an errand of the Lord.

ENDICOTT.
'Tis not the business of the Lord you're doing;
It is the Devil's. Will you take the oath?
Give her the Book.

MERRY offers the Book.

EDITH.
You offer me this Book
To swear on; and it saith, "Swear not at all,
Neither by heaven, because it is God's Throne,
Nor by the earth, because it is his footstool! "
I dare not swear.

ENDICOTT.
You dare not? Yet you Quakers
Deny this book of Holy Writ, the Bible,
To be the Word of God.

EDITH (reverentially).
Christ is the Word,
The everlasting oath of God. I dare not.

ENDICOTT.
You own yourself a Quaker,--do you not?

EDITH.
I own that in derision and reproach
I am so called.

ENDICOTT.
Then you deny the Scripture
To be the rule of life.

EDITH.
Yea, I believe
The Inner Light, and not the Written Word,
To be the rule of life.

ENDICOTT.
And you deny
That the Lord's Day is holy.

EDITH.
Every day
Is the Lords Day. It runs through all our lives,
As through the pages of the Holy Bible,
"Thus saith the Lord. "

ENDICOTT.
You are accused of making
An horrible disturbance, and affrighting
The people in the Meeting-house on Sunday.
What answer make you?

EDITH.
I do not deny
That I was present in your Steeple-house
On the First Day; but I made no disturbance.

ENDICOTT.
Why came you there?

EDITH.
Because the Lord commanded.
His word was in my heart, a burning fire
Shut up within me and consuming me,
And I was very weary with forbearing;
I could not stay.

ENDICOTT.
'T was not the Lord that sent you;
As an incarnate devil did you come!

EDITH.
On the First Day, when, seated in my chamber,
I heard the bells toll, calling you together,
The sound struck at my life, as once at his,
The holy man, our Founder, when he heard
The far-off bells toll in the Vale of Beavor.
It sounded like a market bell to call
The folk together, that the Priest might set
His wares to sale. And the Lord said within me,
"Thou must go cry aloud against that Idol,
And all the worshippers thereof. " I went
Barefooted, clad in sackcloth, and I stood
And listened at the threshold; and I heard
The praying and the singing and the preaching,
Which were but outward forms, and without power.
Then rose a cry within me, and my heart
Was filled with admonitions and reproofs.
Remembering how the Prophets and Apostles
Denounced the covetous hirelings and diviners,
I entered in, and spake the words the Lord
Commanded me to speak. I could no less.

ENDICOTT.
Are you a Prophetess?

EDITH.
Is it not written,
"Upon my handmaidens will I pour out
My spirit, and they shall prophesy"?

ENDICOTT.