That wears them must be tamed. My dearest lord,
I see the new-born courage in thine eye
Armed to strike dead the Spirit of the Time,
Which spurs to rage the many-headed beast.
Do thou persist : for faint but in resolve,
And it were better thou hadst still remained
The slave of thine own slaves, who tear like curs
The fugitive, and flee from the pursuer,

And opportunity, that empty wolf,

Flies at his throat who falls. Subdue thy actions
Even to the disposition of thy purpose,

And be that tempered as the Ebro's steel;
And banish weak-eyed Mercy to the weak,
Whence she will greet thee with a gift of peace,—
And not betray thee with a traitor's kiss,
As when she keeps the company of rebels,
Who think that she is Fear. This do, lest we
Should fall as from a glorious pinnacle

In a bright dream, and wake, as from a dream,
Out of our worshiped state.

Beloved friend,

King.
God is my witness that this weight of power,
Which he sets me my earthly task to wield
Under his law, is my delight and pride
Only because thou lovest that and me.
For a king bears the office of a God
To all the under-world; and to his God
Alone he must deliver-up his trust,
Unshorn of its permitted attributes.
[It seems] now as the baser elements
Had mutinied against the golden sun

That kindles them to harmony, and quells

Their self-destroying rapine. The wild million

Strike at the eye that guides them; like as humours

Of the distempered body that conspire

Against the spirit of life throned in the heart,—

And thus become the prey of one another

And last of death.

Strafford. That which would be ambition in a subject

Is duty in a sovereign; for on him,

As on a keystone, hangs the arch of life,

Whose safety is its strength. Degree and form,
And all that makes the age of reasoning man
More memorable than a beast's, depend

On this-that Right should fence itself inviolably
With power; in which respect the state of England
From usurpation by the insolent commons

Cries for reform.

Get treason, and spare treasure. Fee with coin
The loudest murmurers; feed with jealousies
Opposing factions,-be thyself of none;

And borrow gold of many, for those who lend
Will serve thee till thou payest them; and thus
Keep the fierce spirit of the hour at bay,

Till time, amid its coming generations

Of nights and days unborn, bring some one chance,

Or war or pestilence or Nature's self,
By some distemperature or terrible sign,
Be as an arbiter betwixt themselves.
. Nor let your Majesty

Doubt here the peril of the unseen event.
How did your brother kings, coheritors
In your high interest in the subject earth,
Rise past such troubles to that height of power

Where now they sit, and awfully serene

Smile on the trembling world? Such popular storms Philip the second of Spain, this Lewis of France,

And late the German head of many bodies,

And every petty lord of Italy,

Is England poorer

Quelled or by arts or arms.
Or feebler? or art thou who wield'st her power
Tamer than they? or shall this island be-
[Girdled] by its inviolable waters—

To the world present and the world to come
Sole pattern of extinguished monarchy ?
Not if thou dost as I would have thee do.

King. Your words shall be my deeds:
You speak the image of my thought. My friend
(If kings can have a friend, I call thee so),
Beyond the large commission which belongs (?)
Under the great seal of the realm, take this :
And, for some obvious reasons, let there be

No seal on it, except my kingly word

And honour as I am a gentleman.

Be as thou art within my heart and mind-
Another self, here and in Ireland:

Do what thou judgest well, take amplest license,
And stick not even at questionable means.
Hear me, Wentworth. My word is as a wall
Between thee and this world thine enemy-
That hates thee, for thou lovest me.

I own

Strafford.
No friend but thee, no enemies but thine:
Thy lightest thought is my eternal law.
How weak, how short, is life to pay

King.

Peace, peace!

Thou ow'st me nothing yet.-[To Laud]. My lord, what say Those papers?

Laud. Your Majesty has ever interposed,

In lenity towards your native soil,

Between the heavy vengeance of the Church

And Scotland. Mark the consequence of warming
This brood of northern vipers in your bosom.

The rabble, instructed no doubt

By Loudon, Lindsay, Hume, and false Argyll,
(For the waves never menace heaven until
Scourged by the wind's invisible tyranny)
Have in the very temple of the Lord
Done outrage to his chosen ministers.
They scorn the liturgy of the holy Church,
Refuse to obey her canons, and deny
The apostolic power with which the Spirit
Has filled its elect vessels, even from him
Who held the keys with power to loose and bind,
To him who now pleads in this royal presence.-

Let ampler powers and new instructions be
Sent to the High Commissioners in Scotland.
To death, imprisonment, and confiscation,
Add torture, add the ruin of the kindred
Of the offender, add the brand of infamy,
Add mutilation: and, if this suffice not,
Unleash the sword and fire, that, in their thirst,
They may lick-up that scum of schismatics.

I laugh at those weak rebels who, desiring
What we possess, still prate of christian peace :
As if those dreadful arbitrating messengers

Which play the part of God twixt right and wrong
Should be let loose against the innocent sleep
Of templed cities and the smiling fields
For some poor argument of policy
Which touches our own profit or our pride
(Where it indeed were christian charity

To turn the cheek even to the smiter's hand);
And, when our great Redeemer, when our God,
When he who gave, accepted, and retained,
Himself in propitiation of our sins,
Is scorned in his immediate ministry,
With hazard of the inestimable loss
Of all the truth and discipline which is
Salvation to the extremest generation
Of men innumerable, they talk of peace!
Such peace as Canaan found, let Scotland now:
For, by that Christ who came to bring a sword,
Not peace, upon the earth, and gave command
To his disciples at the passover

That each should sell his robe and buy a sword,--
Once strip that minister of naked wrath,

And it shall never sleep in peace again
Till Scotland bend or break.

King.

My Lord Archbishop, Do what thou wilt and what thou canst in this. Thy earthly even as thy heavenly King Gives thee large power in his unquiet realm. But we want money, and my mind misgives me That for so great an enterprise, as yet,

We are unfurnished.

Strafford.

Rest on our wills.

Cottington.

Yet it may not long

The expenses

Of gathering shipmoney, and of distraining
For every petty rate (for we encounter

A desperate opposition inch by inch

In every warehouse and on every farm),

Have swallowed up the gross sum of the imposts;

So that, though felt as a most grievous scourge

Upon the land, they stand us in small stead

As touches the receipt.

Strafford.

Most arithmetical

'Tis a conclusion

and thence you infer

Perhaps the assembling of a parliament !

Now, if a man should call his dearest enemies

To sit in licensed judgment on his life,

His Majesty might wisely take that course.

[Aside to Cottington.] It is enough to expect from these lean imposts

That they perform the office of a scourge,

Without more profit. [Aloud.] Fines and confiscations,

And a forced loan from the refractory city,

Will fill our coffers: and the golden love

Of loyal gentlemen and noble friends

For the worshiped father of our common country,

With contributions from the catholics,

Will make Rebellion pale in our excess.

Be these the expedients until time and wisdom

Shall frame a settled state of government.

Laud. And weak expedients they! Have we not drained All, till the . . . which seemed

A mine exhaustless?

Strafford.

And the love which is,

If loyal hearts could turn their blood to gold.

Laud. Both now grow barren: and I speak it not

As loving parliaments, which, as they have been

In the right hand of bold bad mighty kings

The scourges of the bleeding Church, I hate.

Methinks they scarcely can deserve our fear.

Strafford. O my dear liege, take back the wealth thou gavest: With that, take all I held, but as in trust

For thee, of mine inheritance: leave me but

This unprovided body for thy service,

And a mind dedicated to no care

Except thy safety:-but assemble not

A parliament. Hundreds will bring, like me,

Their fortunes, as they would their blood, before

King. No! thou who judgest them art but one. Alas!

We should be too much out of love with heaven,

Did this vile world show many such as thee,

Thou perfect just and honourable man!