University of Virginia Library

Scene III.

—Palace of the Archbishop in London.
Odo, with Leofwyn, Bishop of Lincoln, and Fridstan Bishop of Lichfield.
Odo.
It stands not with our honour either way
To be so overridden.

Fridstan.
One sole man,
Though he were Saint uprisen, no charter hath
To lead by the nose the fathers of the Church,
The Archbishop and the Bishops. Zeal is good;
But zeal is one thing when it fasts and prays,
And when it ramps and rages 'tis another.

Leofwyn.
When he refused the bishopric from Edred
My mind misgave me. Oh, I said, this man
Is humble upside-down. He that rejects
With publication and profession loud
Of lowliness, an orderly advancement,
Looks, be assured, what's orderly to pass,
And leave degrees behind.

Fridstan.
Yea, brother, yea;
He that denies himself to be a Bishop
Looks further than is fitting; he means not well;
He thinks to say to us, Go here, go there;
Me, Dunstan, standing sole, the gaping world
Shall gaze at, bidding Bishops stand aside.
This is not right.

Leofwyn.
No, nor canonical.

Odo.
Brethren, when I unfolded all the doubts
That compassed round the cause, the enemy's strength,
The fears, the double faces, the false hearts
That walk amongst us,—reasons all that plead
For caution and some temperate composition,—
He checked and chid me like a troublesome child
That prates at random; bade me know that God
Revealed it otherwise, and he must needs
Believe in God; then calling for a scourge
Said 'twas a time for exercise devout,
And he entreated my good company
For mutual castigation.

Enter Sigeric.
Sigeric.
Honoured Lords,
The wench which had an audience some days since,
Has now returned; an aged man is with her.

Odo.
Admit them both.
[Exit Sigeric.
Now we shall find how far
Earl Athulf will be compromised. Come in.
Re-enter Sigeric, followed by Emma and Wulfstan the Wise.
Good wench, we have expected thee, and thou
Art welcome—but who's this?

Emma.
A man, my Lords,
Known to you all by fame though not by favour;
Wulfstan the Wise.

Odo.
Sir, you are welcome too;
Earl Athulf peradventure deems the knot
Of these affairs worthy your skill and care,
Wherein by message he hath dealt till now
Conveyed us through this envoy, weak by sex,
But verily quick-witted. Sir, we know
Your great renown for wisdom and we hail
Your advent hither; for we deem the Earl,
In calling age and wisdom to his aid,
Is wise though young; and if he be, the terms
We offer are what wisdom will commend
And modesty embrace.

Wulfstan.
My good Lords, far
Beyond my merits doth my fame extend;
But moderation alway have I praised
And peace ensued, and therefore have been held
To mediate not unfit, when Mars attired
In triple steel on this side shakes his spear,
Bellona upon that side mounts her car
By Flight and Terror drawn.

Odo.
You doubtless know
The tenor of our terms,—all regulars
Since Edred's death supplanted to return
Save those who did themselves in Edred's reign
Supplant in benefices duly holden
The secular incumbents—the new Queen
To be acknowledged so soon as the Pope
Shall grant his dispensation. Even you,
Though secular yourselves, must see in this
The scales of justice balanced. To these terms
What saith the brave Earl Athulf?

Emma.
Me, my Lords,
Earl Athulf charged with what from him proceeds;
What from my father (for he is my father)
You hear, be pleased to value at its worth
As his, but not the Earl's.

Leofwyn.
The Earl is wise;
The starling shall be true to what she's taught,
Whilst birds of divination—well—the matter—
How is the Earl inclined to us?

Emma.
My Lords,
The Earl inclines; but ere he shall impledge
Or the Lord Heretoch or himself, he looks
To be assured the Synod late convened
For other ends, will wisdom learn from you,
And set its seal to this.

Odo.
The Earl demands
No more than what is just and right. To-morrow
The Synod meets, and if our voice prevail
Will ratify the terms. But Dunstan still
His purpose holds, and it is rumoured now
Hath secret intercourse with Rome, for ends
Unknown to us.

Leofwyn.
Earl Athulf doubtless knows
The motion may not from ourselves proceed,
But let it be propounded on his part,
Or by the seculars before the Synod,
And we shall so foreshape the minds of men
That by the acclaim of most, if not of all,
It shall be hailed acceptable.

Emma.
My Lords,
The Earl forgot not this, and therefore sends
With me my father, that persuasively
He may, according to his gifts, impart
The proffered compact, with the instances
That recommend it to the assembled Church;
Trusting to you to second and support
What he delivers.

Odo.
Sir, be not afraid,
But speak it roundly.

Emma.
Oh, my Lords, for that,
The spirit within him, when it works to speech,
Fears neither Saint nor Devil.

Leofwyn.
That is well.
Yet touch not Dunstan with too rough a hand,
But rather against us be seen to bear.

Wulfstan.
My Lord Archbishop and Lords Suffragans,
I have considered of my speech, and first
The order of the topics have set down
With notes and comments, if it please you, thus:
Exordium, with a forecast of the close:
A forecast of the close; for mark, my Lords,
An argument or abstract setting forth
In the beginning of my discourse the end,
With index to the bearings and the joints,
Shall quicken you to apprehend my drift,
And by a foreknown relevancy clench
The links and consequents, that so my speech
May, like the serpent with his tail in his mouth,
Rejoin itself, whilst in its perfect round
Its lithe articulation stands approved.

Leofwyn.
We doubt not of your skill, but what in chief
Concerns us, is the matter and the drift.

Wulfstan.
The dangers of division to the realm
I feelingly expose: next I commend
The golden mean,—that wisdom's triumph true
Which seeks no conquest save by wisdom's ways
And scorns to trust to fortune or to force:
Earl Athulf's dispositions shall I then
Duly develop; him shall I disclose
As one whose courage high and humour gay
Cover a vein of caution, his true heart,
Brave though it be, not blind to danger, no,
But through imagination's optic glass
Discerning, yea and magnifying it may be,
What still he dares: him in these colours dressed
I shall set forth as prompt for enterprise
By reason of his boldness, and yet apt
For composition, owing to that vein
Of fancy which enhances, prudence which wards
Contingencies of peril: then from a scroll
Subscribed by him I read the proffered terms,
And in my oratorical conclusion
Draw my speech round to dangers of the realm
Seen in divisions, and the joys of peace.

Odo.
'Tis dexterously devised, and with our aid
Shall win the general suffrage of the Synod;
For certain of your friends the seculars,
By secret incitation heartened up,
Will give their voices. Till the Synod meets,
Beseech you be not seen abroad. Farewell!