William Wilfred Campbell - Hildebrand: Act III, Scene 2 lyrics

(Rise outer curtain.) A yard outside the castle at Canossa. Enter two Monks telling their beads. Ist M. By'r Lady, 'twas a rare sight, a rare sight! 'twas never known afore, nor ever be again in Europe. 2nd M. He comes again this morn; 'tis three days since He's stood i' the courtyard suing Gregory's favor. Ist M. The king of Europe! This be the Church's hope. May every season send us such a Pope. I must within ere Brother John doth make A fast which little fits my hunger's constant ache. 2nd M. 'Twixt heady wine an' table well provide', 'Tis a faring world till coming Eastertide. [Exeunt. Enter two Soldiers. Ist S. This Gregory hath given us such a sight [Page 298] As makes all Germany ashamèd for. I'll nevermore hold jealousy of kings. Better to bed upon old soaken straw An' be a targe for pikepoles than a king. 2nd S. He looked as though the whole world shot its darts On his bare forehead, Ist S. Yea, an' his poor Queen, didst see her sue Upon her knees to gain her lord's admission. May such a sight ne'er greet mine eyes again. 2nd S. See, now they come. It shames my soldierhood To see a king ensuffer such dishonor. He is no Pope would hold so black a malice, To pluck from hell. Let's out. [Exeunt both. Enter HENRY, attired in rude clothes, bare-headed and barefooted, with a wisp of straw about his waist, and with him the Queen in black. Queen. This way, my lord; perchance his stony heart, So beat upon by storming of our tears, May soften its adamant. HEN. 'Tis for Germany and thee I do this penance, And for our sweet boy's kingship; I myself Am all so calloused o'er by utter spite Of too much curses showered by popes and fate, It cares me little. Let the world go wrack, The elements mingle in a loud confusion, The maddened seas batten the ruined lands, The forests shed their knotted limbs, the year Be now all mad November. I am but A wasted trunk whereon no brutish fate Can wreck its malice. I am so annulled Were all the devils of hell incarnate popes Thundering anathemas on my stricken head 'Twould not appal me. I am come to this. Queen. Thou wilt meet him fairly, thou wilt think Not on thy woes, but on thy dear son's hopes [Page 299]? HEN. Fear not, Margaret, meeting such a devil, Who thinketh him a God, but I'll dissemble. I'm not the olden Henry that I was. Mine inward pride will make mine outward meeker, Subtilty with subtilty I'll match To wipe out this dishonor. [Knocks at the gate. Enter Warder. Warder. Who be ye? HEN. Henry of Germany, whose November storms Have stript his summer's royalty. Warder. What would you within, Henry of Germany? HEN. Knowest thou not, O man, I am a King, Though crownless in these bleak, inclement times, And this my sorrowful Queen. Wouldst thou not Do her meet reverence? Warder. We know no king but the Holy Pope of Rome. HEN. I seek his presence. These three pitiless days, All unavailing I have battered here, Humbling my royalty to his stern commands. Were these gates less stony they would open. Queen. O warder, mercy! Pray the mighty Pope, A moment's audience. I am a stricken woman, And this my husband, who, once called a King, Now doffs his kingship, garbed in penitence. Hath he no pity? Warder. His Holiness hath harkened to your suit, And, be thou penitent, would pardon thee. These be my orders; pa** you now within. [Opens gate. Queen. Now, blessed be Heaven! Henry, sink thy wrongs In thy son's future. HEN. Sink my wrongs? They have sunk so low That lower I cannot. Heaven but grant me space Till I avenge me [Page 300]. [Exeunt both. (Rise inner curtain.) A chapel in the castle. Enter HILDEBRAND attended by Cardinals. Enter BEATRICE and her train. Enter HENRY and the Queen as before. The Queen kneels. HENRY stands. Queen. (to HENRY) Kneel! kneel! or all is lost. HIL. Kneel, proud man, to Heaven. HEN. Yea, I will kneel to Heaven (kneels), (aside) but not to thee. HIL. Henry of Germany, usurper, know that thus Doth Heaven chasten Holy Church's foes, Not in hate or malice, but in love, That showing earth more perilous, heaven be safe, Because of thy disloyalty to the Church, Usurping those her ancient, holy rights, Not holding thy kingship as given from her hand, Hath angry Heaven stripped thee of thy crown, Thy people and thy sceptre, rendering thee The scornèd of the meanest outcast wretch That hugs his rags in human wretchedness, Abhorr'd and despised of those who once Courted thy favour. Take this cruel lesson Home to the prideful chambers of thy heart, And know kings henceforth but as mortal men, Their power ephemera of a summer day, Be they not fief to Heaven. Be thy penitence Sincere in this dread, humble hour of thine Thou wilt become the va**al of high Heaven, Mending thy future from thy sinful past. HEN. (aside) Great God! am I a king? What is a king? Is he a dog to dare be spoken thus? Queen. (aside) Henry, for the love of Germany, Me, and thy child, keep but thy patience now. (to HILDEBRAND) O, Holy Father, curb thine awful anger, Remove this curse that weighteth Henry down, Makes him a fearful leper to his kind [Page 301]. Restore his people's favor, thou hast the power, And thou wilt do it. HIL. Madam, thou true daughter of the Church, Hath this man used thee well that thou shouldst sue For him our favor? Hath he not been false To thee, to Germany and Holy Church? Thou art a woman, use a woman's art, Break his presumption, soften his rude heart, And we will soften ours. Meantime, to thee, (to HENRY) I would despatch my duty as high Pope O'er my poor people, in this woeful world. Know you, Henry of Germany, once a king, But now a suppliant outcast at my feet, Abandoned, abhorred of all true Christian men, The scorn alike of lowly and of high, Know you I would be merciful a little. For this cause I will now come down, come down, As you through yours once blasphemously demanded, From out my holy chair of sainted Peter, And be like you, a single, naked man, Leaving my cause with yours to mighty Heaven. Cardinals. O noble soul! O noble, princely heart! An Abbot. Base prince, base prince, 'tis more than thou deservest. HIL. Know, therefore, now, in presence of these men, Members immaculate of Holy Church, That thou, through thy base agents and by mouth, Didst charge me, Gregory, Prince of God on earth, And Vicar of the mighty risen Christ, With crimes unworthy of my holy state, Heinous and awful, so hideous in their sound That they were better nameless, the tongue would fail To use its office, giving them to the air. Know, furthermore, that I in my high office, Have placed thee under ban of Holy Church, Shut out, abhorred and excommunicate, Because of sins committed at thy hand [Page 302], Abhorrent and accursed in their nature, Of which, God knows, I have the truest witness. [Goes to an altar and, taking a consecrated wafer, returns with it in his hand. Now, Henry of Germany, men may lie, And even Popes be sinful, flesh is frail; But Heaven at last will judge betwixt us two. [Raising the wafer. The Cardinals all draw back in fear. If I be liar in the smallest part, Deceitful or malicious in that judgement Wherewith I have judged thee, heaping crimes Unspeakable, abhorrent on thy head, May listening Heaven, which is only just, Strike me, impious, with its awful thunders While I eat this. [Breaks the wafer in two and eats half. A cry of wonder comes from the Cardinals. There ensues a pause of a few seconds, then he holds out the broken wafer to HENRY. Henry of Germany, wilt thou do the same? HEN. (starts back in confusion and horror) Nay, nay, 'tis impious! 'tis impious! Cardinals. Guilty, guilty! HEN. (aside) What influence be this I fight against? This devil doth ever place me in the wrong. HIL. Henry of Germany, wilt thou perform the same And leave thine innocence to the power of Heaven? HEN. (stands boldly up and confronts HILDEBRAND) Most mighty Gregory, Prelate of Holy Rome, Though to refuse thy gage be to acknowledge His consciousness of human frailty, Henry of Germany, whate'er his sins, Hath too much sense of Heaven's mighty justice To desecrate the eternal bending Ear By such blasphemings. I am no priest of God, I am no Pope, august, infallible [Page 303], But only a weak and fallible, sinning man, As Heaven knoweth. But in this grave matter, If thou be right and I be wholly wrong, Heaven knoweth already without such dread presumption. 'Tis not for Church but men you judge this issue, Hence, I demand a larger audience, Tribunal more public than these witnesses, Impartial, unprejudiced toward my wrongs, So be I judged, it be not in a corner. Meanwhile, if I have erred, in my new kingship In word or deed against thy holy office, Here as a faithful son of Holy Church, By that great love I bear for Germany, By that dread duty I owe my wife and child, I crave thy pardon and beseech thy blessing. [Kneels. HIL. Henry of Germany, thou standest now Rebuked of Heaven before the eyes of men. As I had power to place thee under ban, Alienate from Holy Church and men, So I withdraw that ban from off thee now. Arise, my son, in thy new penitence, The Church commands thee, rise and go in peace. [HENRY stands. The Pope and the Cardinals pa** out. HEN. 'Tis off! 'tis off! I am a man once more. Out! out! let us without! I cannot breathe In these dread walls! CURTAIN.