University of Virginia Library

SCENE IV

Prince Lucifer.
(alone among the hills).
Peak beyond peak, summit to summit leading,
And mortal hopes aspiring, ended never,
Which, like to storms conceived in mountain womb,
But in annihilation find their rest.
Yet there is living rest, but only when
The heart alights on home, and perches there
In fixed felicity. . . . My love! my kingdom!
Whilom I left her trifling with her babe,
No queen so happy, save the queen a mother,
And then, by queenship vexed. But she! But I!
We two, we one, containing each the other,
Among the spacious undistracting hills,
Attended by the torrents in our progress,
With thunder and by avalanche acclaimed,
Crowned with our own companionship, Royal pair!
Unit with unit blending! More than that
But breeds division. One is solitude,
Two are society, and three a crowd.
Club mortals by the thousand, then, what chaos!
They, if a servile flock, have many shepherds,
This way and that careering. Where is the crook
Can pen them in one fold? I thought mine could,
And made thought suckle hope. My mountain lamb
Hath but one track, divined by following mine.
The harvest of the world is in love's arms,
Which circle all things; arms so white, so warm,
White as the snow yet melting as the sun,
And kisses like the raindrops of the Spring,
A shower of odours! Paragoned with these,
All Principalities and Powers are nothing,
Even if one could rule them. But a King!
A modern King! the subject of his subjects!
The sorriest sea-churl in a keel that rides
Atop of insurrectionary waves,
Is more a Monarch!