No More Learning

Is naked truth actable in true life?
I have heard a saying of thy father Godwin,
That, were a man of state nakedly true,
Men would but take him for the craftier liar.

LEOFWIN. Be men less delicate than the Devil himself?
I thought that naked Truth would shame the Devil,
The Devil is so modest.

GURTH. He never said it!

LEOFWIN. Be thou not stupid-honest, brother Gurth!

HAROLD. Better to be a liar's dog, and hold
My master honest, than believe that lying
And ruling men are fatal twins that cannot
Move one without the other. Edward wakes! --
Dazed--he hath seen a vision.

EDWARD. The green tree!
Then a great Angel past along the highest
Crying 'the doom of England,' and at once
He stood beside me, in his grasp a sword
Of lightnings, wherewithal he cleft the tree
From off the bearing trunk, and hurl'd it from him
Three fields away, and then he dash'd and drench'd,
He dyed, he soak'd the trunk with human blood,
And brought the sunder'd tree again, and set it
Straight on the trunk, that thus baptized in blood
Grew ever high and higher, beyond my seeing,
And shot out sidelong boughs across the deep
That dropt themselves, and rooted in far isles
Beyond my seeing: and the great Angel rose
And past again along the highest crying
'The doom of England! '--Tostig, raise my head!
[_Falls back senseless_.

HAROLD (_raising him_).
Let Harold serve for Tostig!

_QUEEN_. Harold served
Tostig so ill, he cannot serve for Tostig!
Ay, raise his head, for thou hast laid it low!
The sickness of our saintly king, for whom
My prayers go up as fast as my tears fall,
I well believe, hath mainly drawn itself
From lack of Tostig--thou hast banish'd him.

HAROLD. Nay--but the council, and the king himself.

QUEEN. Thou hatest him, hatest him.

HAROLD (_coldly_).
Ay--Stigand, unriddle
This vision, canst thou?

STIGAND. Dotage!

EDWARD (_starting up_).
It is finish'd.
I have built the Lord a house--the Lord hath dwelt
In darkness. I have built the Lord a house--
Palms, flowers, pomegranates, golden cherubim
With twenty-cubit wings from wall to wall--
I have built the Lord a house--sing, Asaph! clash
The cymbal, Heman! blow the trumpet, priest!
Fall, cloud, and fill the house--lo! my two pillars,
Jachin and Boaz! -- [_Seeing_ HAROLD _and_ GURTH.
Harold, Gurth,--where am I?
Where is the charter of our Westminster?

STIGAND. It lies beside thee, king, upon thy bed.

EDWARD. Sign, sign at once--take, sign it, Stigand, Aldred!
Sign it, my good son Harold, Gurth, and Leofwin,
Sign it, my queen!

ALL. We have sign'd it.

EDWARD. It is finish'd!
The kingliest Abbey in all Christian lands,
The lordliest, loftiest minster ever built
To Holy Peter in our English isle!
Let me be buried there, and all our kings,
And all our just and wise and holy men
That shall be born hereafter. It is finish'd!
Hast thou had absolution for thine oath? [_To_ HAROLD.

HAROLD. Stigand hath given me absolution for it.

EDWARD. Stigand is not canonical enough
To save thee from the wrath of Norman Saints.

STIGAND. Norman enough! Be there no Saints of England
To help us from their brethren yonder?

EDWARD. Prelate,
The Saints are one, but those of Normanland
Are mightier than our own. Ask it of Aldred.
[_To_ HAROLD.

ALDRED. It shall be granted him, my king; for he
Who vows a vow to strangle his own mother
Is guiltier keeping this, than breaking it.

EDWARD. O friends, I shall not overlive the day.

STIGAND. Why then the throne is empty. Who inherits?
For tho' we be not bound by the king's voice
In making of a king, yet the king's voice
Is much toward his making. Who inherits?
Edgar the Atheling?

EDWARD. No, no, but Harold.
I love him: he hath served me: none but he
Can rule all England. Yet the curse is on him
For swearing falsely by those blessed bones;
He did not mean to keep his vow.

HAROLD. Not mean
To make our England Norman.

EDWARD. There spake Godwin,
Who hated all the Normans; but their Saints
Have heard thee, Harold.

EDITH. Oh! my lord, my king!
He knew not whom he sware by.

EDWARD. Yea, I know
He knew not, but those heavenly ears have heard,
Their curse is on him; wilt thou bring another,
Edith, upon his head?

EDITH. No, no, not I.

EDWARD. Why then, thou must not wed him.

HAROLD. Wherefore, wherefore?

EDWARD. O son, when thou didst tell me of thine oath,
I sorrow'd for my random promise given
To yon fox-lion. I did not dream then
I should be king. --My son, the Saints are virgins;
They love the white rose of virginity,
The cold, white lily blowing in her cell:
I have been myself a virgin; and I sware
To consecrate my virgin here to heaven--
The silent, cloister'd, solitary life,
A life of life-long prayer against the curse
That lies on thee and England.

HAROLD. No, no, no.

EDWARD. Treble denial of the tongue of flesh,
Like Peter's when he fell, and thou wilt have
To wail for it like Peter. O my son!
Are all oaths to be broken then, all promises
Made in our agony for help from heaven?
Son, there is one who loves thee: and a wife,
What matters who, so she be serviceable
In all obedience, as mine own hath been:
God bless thee, wedded daughter.
[_Laying his hand on the_ QUEEN'S _head_.

QUEEN. Bless thou too
That brother whom I love beyond the rest,
My banish'd Tostig.

EDWARD. All the sweet Saints bless him!
Spare and forbear him, Harold, if he comes!
And let him pass unscathed; he loves me, Harold!
Be kindly to the Normans left among us,
Who follow'd me for love! and dear son, swear
When thou art king, to see my solemn vow
Accomplish'd.

HAROLD. Nay, dear lord, for I have sworn
Not to swear falsely twice.

EDWARD. Thou wilt not swear?

HAROLD. I cannot.

EDWARD. Then on thee remains the curse,
Harold, if thou embrace her: and on thee,
Edith, if thou abide it,--

[_The_ KING _swoons;_ EDITH _falls and kneels by the couch_.

STIGAND. He hath swoon'd!
Death? . . . no, as yet a breath.

HAROLD. Look up! look up!
Edith!

ALDRED. Confuse her not; she hath begun
Her life-long prayer for thee.

ALDWYTH. O noble Harold,
I would thou couldst have sworn.

HAROLD. For thine own pleasure?

ALDWYTH. No, but to please our dying king, and those
Who make thy good their own--all England, Earl.

ALDRED. _I_ would thou couldst have sworn. Our holy king
Hath given his virgin lamb to Holy Church
To save thee from the curse.

HAROLD. Alas! poor man,
_His_ promise brought it on me.

ALDRED. O good son!
That knowledge made him all the carefuller
To find a means whereby the curse might glance
From thee and England.

HAROLD. Father, we so loved--

ALDRED. The more the love, the mightier is the prayer;
The more the love, the more acceptable
The sacrifice of both your loves to heaven.
No sacrifice to heaven, no help from heaven;
That runs thro' all the faiths of all the world.
And sacrifice there must be, for the king
Is holy, and hath talk'd with God, and seen
A shadowing horror; there are signs in heaven--

HAROLD. Your comet came and went.

ALDRED. And signs on earth!
Knowest thou Senlac hill?

HAROLD. I know all Sussex;
A good entrenchment for a perilous hour!

ALDRED. Pray God that come not suddenly! There is one
Who passing by that hill three nights ago--
He shook so that he scarce could out with it--
Heard, heard--

HAROLD. The wind in his hair?

ALDRED. A ghostly horn
Blowing continually, and faint battle-hymns,
And cries, and clashes, and the groans of men;
And dreadful shadows strove upon the hill,
And dreadful lights crept up from out the marsh--
Corpse-candles gliding over nameless graves--

HAROLD. At Senlac?

ALDRED. Senlac.

EDWARD (_waking_).
Senlac! Sanguelac,
The Lake of Blood!

STIGAND. This lightning before death
Plays on the word,--and Normanizes too!

HAROLD. Hush, father, hush!

EDWARD. Thou uncanonical fool,
Wilt _thou_ play with the thunder? North and South
Thunder together, showers of blood are blown
Before a never-ending blast, and hiss
Against the blaze they cannot quench--a lake,
A sea of blood--we are drown'd in blood--for God
Has fill'd the quiver, and Death has drawn the bow--
Sanguelac! Sanguelac! the arrow! the arrow! [_Dies_.

STIGAND. It is the arrow of death in his own heart--
And our great Council wait to crown thee King.



SCENE II. --IN THE GARDEN. THE KING'S HOUSE NEAR LONDON.


EDITH. Crown'd, crown'd and lost, crown'd King--and lost to me!

(_Singing_. )

Two young lovers in winter weather,
None to guide them,
Walk'd at night on the misty heather;
Night, as black as a raven's feather;
Both were lost and found together,
None beside them.

That is the burthen of it--lost and found
Together in the cruel river Swale
A hundred years ago; and there's another,

Lost, lost, the light of day,

To which the lover answers lovingly

'I am beside thee. '
Lost, lost, we have lost the way.
'Love, I will guide thee.
'
Whither, O whither? into the river,
Where we two may be lost together,
And lost for ever? 'Oh! never, oh! never,
Tho' we be lost and be found together. '

Some think they loved within the pale forbidden
By Holy Church: but who shall say? the truth
Was lost in that fierce North, where _they_ were lost,
Where all good things are lost, where Tostig lost
The good hearts of his people. It is Harold!

_Enter_ HAROLD.

Harold the King!

HAROLD. Call me not King, but Harold.

EDITH. Nay, thou art King!

HAROLD. Thine, thine, or King or churl!
My girl, thou hast been weeping: turn not thou
Thy face away, but rather let me be
King of the moment to thee, and command
That kiss my due when subject, which will make
My kingship kinglier to me than to reign
King of the world without it.

EDITH. Ask me not,
Lest I should yield it, and the second curse
Descend upon thine head, and thou be only
King of the moment over England.

HAROLD. Edith,
Tho' somewhat less a king to my true self
Than ere they crown'd me one, for I have lost
Somewhat of upright stature thro' mine oath,
Yet thee I would not lose, and sell not thou
Our living passion for a dead man's dream;
Stigand believed he knew not what he spake.
Oh God! I cannot help it, but at times
They seem to me too narrow, all the faiths
Of this grown world of ours, whose baby eye
Saw them sufficient. Fool and wise, I fear
This curse, and scorn it. But a little light! --
And on it falls the shadow of the priest;
Heaven yield us more! for better, Woden, all
Our cancell'd warrior-gods, our grim Walhalla,
Eternal war, than that the Saints at peace
The Holiest of our Holiest one should be
This William's fellow-tricksters;--better die
Than credit this, for death is death, or else
Lifts us beyond the lie. Kiss me--thou art not
A holy sister yet, my girl, to fear
There might be more than brother in my kiss,
And more than sister in thine own.

EDITH. I dare not.

HAROLD. Scared by the church--'Love for a whole life long'
When was that sung?

EDITH. Here to the nightingales.

HAROLD. Their anthems of no church, how sweet they are!
Nor kingly priest, nor priestly king to cross
Their billings ere they nest.

EDITH. They are but of spring,
They fly the winter change--not so with us--
No wings to come and go.

HAROLD. But wing'd souls flying
Beyond all change and in the eternal distance
To settle on the Truth.

EDITH. They are not so true,
They change their mates.

HAROLD. Do they? I did not know it.

EDITH. They say thou art to wed the Lady Aldwyth.

HAROLD. They say, they say.

EDITH. If this be politic,
And well for thee and England--and for her--
Care not for me who love thee.

GURTH (_calling_). Harold, Harold!

HAROLD. The voice of Gurth! (_Enter_ GURTH. )
Good even, my good brother!

GURTH. Good even, gentle Edith.

EDITH. Good even, Gurth.

GURTH. Ill news hath come! Our hapless brother, Tostig--
He, and the giant King of Norway, Harold
Hardrada--Scotland, Ireland, Iceland, Orkney,
Are landed North of Humber, and in a field
So packt with carnage that the dykes and brooks
Were bridged and damm'd with dead, have overthrown
Morcar and Edwin.

HAROLD. Well then, we must fight.
How blows the wind?

GURTH. Against St. Valery
And William.

HAROLD. Well then, we will to the North.

GURTH. Ay, but worse news: this William sent to Rome,
Swearing thou swarest falsely by his Saints:
The Pope and that Archdeacon Hildebrand
His master, heard him, and have sent him back
A holy gonfanon, and a blessed hair
Of Peter, and all France, all Burgundy,
Poitou, all Christendom is raised against thee;
He hath cursed thee, and all those who fight for thee,
And given thy realm of England to the bastard.

HAROLD. Ha! ha!

EDITH. Oh! laugh not! . . . Strange and ghastly in the gloom
And shadowing of this double thunder-cloud
That lours on England--laughter!

HAROLD. No, not strange!
This was old human laughter in old Rome
Before a Pope was born, when that which reign'd
Call'd itself God. --A kindly rendering
Of 'Render unto Caesar. ' . . . The Good Shepherd!
Take this, and render that.

GURTH. They have taken York.

HAROLD. The Lord was God and came as man--the Pope
Is man and comes as God. --York taken?

GURTH. Yea,
Tostig hath taken York!

HAROLD. To York then. Edith,
Hadst thou been braver, I had better braved
All--but I love thee and thou me--and that
Remains beyond all chances and all churches,
And that thou knowest.

EDITH. Ay, but take back thy ring.
It burns my hand--a curse to thee and me.
I dare not wear it.
[_Proffers_ HAROLD _the ring, which he takes_.

HAROLD. But I dare. God with thee!

[_Exeunt_ HAROLD _and_ GURTH.

EDITH. The King hath cursed him, if he marry me;
The Pope hath cursed him, marry me or no!
God help me! I know nothing--can but pray
For Harold--pray, pray, pray--no help but prayer,
A breath that fleets beyond this iron world,
And touches Him that made it.




ACT IV.


SCENE I. --IN NORTHUMBRIA.

ARCHBISHOP ALDRED, MORCAR, EDWIN, _and_ FORCES. _Enter_ HAROLD.
_The standard of the golden Dragon of Wessex preceding him_.


HAROLD. What! are thy people sullen from defeat?
Our Wessex dragon flies beyond the Humber,
No voice to greet it.

EDWIN. Let not our great king
Believe us sullen--only shamed to the quick
Before the king--as having been so bruised
By Harold, king of Norway; but our help
Is Harold, king of England. Pardon us, thou!
Our silence is our reverence for the king!

HAROLD. Earl of the Mercians! if the truth be gall,
Cram me not thou with honey, when our good hive
Needs every sting to save it.

VOICES. Aldwyth! Aldwyth!

HAROLD. Why cry thy people on thy sister's name?

MORCAR. She hath won upon our people thro' her beauty,
And pleasantness among them.

VOICES. Aldwyth, Aldwyth!

HAROLD. They shout as they would have her for a queen.

MORCAR. She hath followed with our host, and suffer'd all.

HAROLD. What would ye, men?

VOICE. Our old Northumbrian crown,
And kings of our own choosing.

HAROLD. Your old crown
Were little help without our Saxon carles
Against Hardrada.

VOICE. Little! we are Danes,
Who conquer'd what we walk on, our own field.

HAROLD. They have been plotting here! [_Aside_.

VOICE. He calls us little!

HAROLD. The kingdoms of this world began with little,
A hill, a fort, a city--that reach'd a hand
Down to the field beneath it, 'Be thou mine,
Then to the next, 'Thou also! ' If the field
Cried out 'I am mine own;' another hill
Or fort, or city, took it, and the first
Fell, and the next became an Empire.

VOICE. Yet
Thou art but a West Saxon: _we_ are Danes!

HAROLD. My mother is a Dane, and I am English;
There is a pleasant fable in old books,
Ye take a stick, and break it; bind a score
All in one faggot, snap it over knee,
Ye cannot.

VOICE. Hear King Harold! he says true!

HAROLD. Would ye be Norsemen?

VOICES. No!

HAROLD. Or Norman?

VOICES. No!

HAROLD. Snap not the faggot-band then.

VOICE. That is true!

VOICE. Ay, but thou art not kingly, only grandson
To Wulfnoth, a poor cow-herd.

HAROLD. This old Wulfnoth
Would take me on his knees and tell me tales
Of Alfred and of Athelstan the Great
Who drove you Danes; and yet he held that Dane,
Jute, Angle, Saxon, were or should be all
One England, for this cow-herd, like my father,
Who shook the Norman scoundrels off the throne,
Had in him kingly thoughts--a king of men,
Not made but born, like the great king of all,
A light among the oxen.

VOICE. That is true!

VOICE. Ay, and I love him now, for mine own father
Was great, and cobbled.

VOICE. Thou art Tostig's brother,
Who wastes the land.

HAROLD. This brother comes to save
Your land from waste; I saved it once before,
For when your people banish'd Tostig hence,
And Edward would have sent a host against you,
Then I, who loved my brother, bad the king
Who doted on him, sanction your decree
Of Tostig's banishment, and choice of Morcar,
To help the realm from scattering.

VOICE. King! thy brother,
If one may dare to speak the truth, was wrong'd.
Wild was he, born so: but the plots against him
Had madden'd tamer men.

MORCAR. Thou art one of those
Who brake into Lord Tostig's treasure-house
And slew two hundred of his following,
And now, when Tostig hath come back with power,
Are frighted back to Tostig.