University of Virginia Library

SCENE IV.

The Convent Parlour.
Edgitha. Enter Ellisif.
Edgitha.
Welcome, fair Daughter!

Ellisif.
Like salute to thee,
Fair Mother of our flock!

Edgitha.
Thou art not yet
One of it; nor perchance wilt ever be.

Ellisif.
My year novicial has to run; meantime
The age is awful in strange accidents!

Edgitha.
Nothing so strange for Maiden Ellisif,
So fresh in youth, so flourishing in beauty,
High-fated from her birth, to mount a throne.
The King comes hither presently; no longer
Will he be blush'd off.

Ellisif
(aside).
Blush'd off!—Ah, good lady!
Talks to me as to some rose-modest lass,
Whose heart is in her cheeks!— (Aloud)
Madam, I'm here
Pale but untrembling.

Edgitha.
Well, if marriages
Must be, they're best when cool-consider'd—Hark you
That hasty trump?
[Flourish without.
I leave you:— (Aside)
Wondrous calm!

[Exit.
Ellisif.
He comes, like one condemn'd, with claspèd hands,
But faster to his fate!—How my proud heart
Grows large within me, as the lioness swells
Her ireful bosom to meet him that slew
Her forest lord!—Patience, thy vizard yet!

Enter Ethelstan.
Ethelstan.
Dread Spirit! thou wert a truth then?—She does hate me!
Her father's grave is still a gulf between us
Unpassable; I, a wretched darkler here,
See her, blest angel, on the other side
Glittering in beauty's light!—Fix'd as a statue?
I will beseech her; icicles themselves
Melt at warm sighs, shall not this snowy creature?
O lady! look'st thou at the heavens to call
Some wandering meteor down with singèd hair
To wrap me in its fires?

Ellisif.
My noblest father!
Heaven's errant thunder lighted upon thee,
Albeit babe-innocent of treason foul.

Ethelstan.
Was the fault mine?—My heart was aye the fount
Of mercy more than justice!—Death, swift death
Had been awarded Alfred thane, known partner
With the doom'd Edwin; scaffold palls were hung;
The sharp axe glisten'd in thy father's eye,
But 'tween the block and him Persuasion knelt
In Pity's plight of outspread arms and tears,
Which saved him.

Ellisif.
I wept not!

Ethelstan.
Thy image did,
Thy secret self, closeted in my bosom!
Therefore though my whole Mote of Wisemen oped
One mouth against him, I did send thy father
To clear himself at Peter's Roman chair
By oath; his soul was on it, and ne'er came
Back from Heaven's bar.

Ellisif.
Yea, for good men will die
No less than ill, and oftener at their prayers!

Ethelstan.
Then, gentle Ellisif, he might have died
Had he been state-absolved, and sent to offer
Thanksgiving here at Beverley,—might have died
In any act or hour: 'twas not a judgment,
Haply, fell on him, but that chance which lets
The sinner sink to hell in bed of roses,
The sainted rise to heaven from rack or pyre!—
Where was my guilt?

Ellisif.
I cannot 'stablish it;
Thou dost plead speciously.

Ethelstan.
Truth pleads in me,
And Love, who makes the breath glow, which thou see'st
Burn round my lips, as round the earnest steed's
His soul for victory flaming!—Have long years
Spent in the learned Western Isle religious,
Left thee untaught—Forgetfulness is virtue
When, howso deep, Offence is undesign'd?
Hath Solitude, which, for companionship,
Brings back our former selves, never recall'd
Thy vow, love-sweet, to me—long times ago?
Vow unredeem'd, on natural excuse
Of thy dear father's death; by me unclaim'd
Then, while endured my penance for a deed
Which makes the Valley of the Shadow of Death
Still darker to my view—Edwin's sad fate!

Ellisif.
Well wept, crocodile!—thou wept'st, to lure him
Into thy clutches, weep'st to lure me now!
This water of the brain how flush it is
In your great-headed hypocrites, but fatal
Unto their dupes!—Stay; his soft, drunken eyes
Grow dry again.

Ethelstan.
I am not given to tears.

Ellisif.
Some weaknesses from strong affections spring;
They are too warm, and make too soft the heart.

Ethelstan.
It is a gracious sentence!—I have loved
Too well for mine own peace. Yet I'll love on,
Even those who cause me anguish: 'tis not, lady,
Our enemies wound us inliest, but ever
Our dear, domestic friends! who take us sleeping,
Suspicionless—our pillow on their lap,
And plant it thick with thorns! If not themselves,
Their demons do it, who of their follies, faults,
Misfortunes, sow the pointed crop, which strikes
Into the quick of feeling, while our foes
With their most fiend-like shafts but pierce its shell.

Ellisif.
'Tis a sad lesson!

Ethelstan.
Ay, to be learn'd by heart!
Could Anlaf make me weep? Edwin hath done it!
The Dane, my direst foe; he, my loved brother!—
O maiden! thou couldst never count the tears
Of blood he costs me; but I swallow them!
And now five rueful winters, twelve months each,
Warrant a gentle spring, the annual dawn
Of summer's holiday to life-long sorrow:
Make it so, or I perish at the heart,
Even at my timeliest hour of flourishing;
Ah! let the bright-eyed deity in thy looks
Shine on me, and revive!

Ellisif.
Thou see'st me here,
Firm to perform all deep vows I have sworn
Long since, and daily. I withdrew, self-banish'd,
To mourn my orphan-hood, and save thy soul
Threaten'd, between thy passionate flame and vow
Of penitence, with distraction, or destruction.

Ethelstan.
O kindness in unkindness! faith in faithlessness!—
Well, well, I am content!—My life clears up
Brighter at last, like to a rainbow eve,
In this departing shower!—So, it is gone!—
Henceforth I may be happy! Upon thee,
My comforter, my counseller, is all
Ethelstan's human trust! thou, thou my second
But chiefest self, first in my love and pride,
For thy head wears bright Wisdom's crown, while mine
Scarce fills what many a royal fool hath worn,
The poor crown politic.

Ellisif.
Flatter me not, but let me
Try all my skill of comfort and of counsel,
Study the craft of state, and from thee learn
Its secrets to promote them: I'm no girl
That loves but dress, dance, sempstery, and song!—
Yet, as do Saxons all, doth Maiden Ellisif
Honour the harp, and hath some gift in glee—

Ethelstan.
Then shalt thou the sweet exercise pursue
And bring me happy dreams! My Harper-Girl
Of late is somewhat o'er-inspired—is mad
Even above minstrel measure. Here, my signet!
'Twill make thee free, as my betrothed wife,
Of bower and cabinet: Come oft, stay long!
Till marriage make us individual.
Now dearest queen! tell me, and be my aid
At once, as if thou wert my helpmate sworn,
Didst thou hear aught, or guess, while in Ibernia,
Of Anlaf and his host? That is a care
Which delves a furrow in my brow, each time
I think of it.

Ellisif
(aside).
And soon shall harrow thy heart!—
(To him.)
They are unquiet ever in that Isle,
But though King Anlaf threaten much, methought
His preparations had his kingdom there,
New-found yet scarce well-founded, more in prospect,
Than that one he lost here—

Ethelstan.
Northumbria!
Northumbria is in his eye and heart!

Ellisif.
I'll give my liege good reasons, to relieve him
From that oppressive care—

Ethelstan.
Then, as we walk—

[Exeunt discoursing.